USA > Illinois > Macoupin County > History of Macoupin County, Illinois : biographical and pictorial, Volume I > Part 3
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The first cabin built by a white man within the borders of the state, as it now is, was that built by Father Marquette, early in the winter of 1674, on the site of the present city of Chicago. It was located near the Chicago creek, now known as the south branch of the Chicago river, and was occupied by him until the following spring. That was the first home of any white man in the state.
The first fort built in the state was that built by La Salle in the winter of 1679, and which he named Creve Coeur. Father Hennepin in his records at the time says it was built "on the east side of the river on a little mound." And from the best information that can be obtained at the present day, it was located at what is known at the present time as Wesley City, in Tazewell county, some
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five miles down the river from Peoria lake. A monument has been erected on the spot where it stood by the Peoria Chapter of the Daughters of the Amer- ican Revolution.
The first railroad in the state was one built by ex-Governor Reynolds in 1837, from the site of the present city of East St. Louis, eastward across the American bottoms to the bluffs, some six miles distant. These bluffs contained large quantities of coal, and the object of the building of the railroad was to get the coal to the market in St. Louis. It was for a while a horse power road, horses being used to draw the cars, but later iron rails were shipped there from Pittsburg and on their arrival holes were drilled in them. The blacksmiths made the spikes to fasten them down, small engines drew the cars back and forth, and thus the first Illinois railroad became a reality.
The first white persons to behold the fair beauties of the state or tread upon its soil were Father Marquette and Louis Joliet, who, on their memorable voyage down the Mississippi river in 1673, landed at the Indian village near the mouth of the Illinois river. There have been statements and surmises of white men having visited the Illinois country previous to that time but there is little or no certainty of their having done so.
The first legal execution in the state was in 1821. It was the result of what was intended as a sham duel between Alonzo C. Stuart and Timothy Bennett. It was known to all that it was meant for a hoax on Bennett, and when they met they were placed forty yards apart, with rifles, as supposed, loaded only with powder. But when Bennett fired his rifle, he lodged a ball in the breast of Stuart, killing him instantly. The grand jury of St. Clair county indicted Bennett, but when the sheriff went to arrest him, he could not be found. He had left the state. He remained away two years, when he returned and was arrested. He was tried by the circuit court of the county, found guilty by the jury and sentenced to be hung. On Monday, September 3, 1821, the execution took place. It was shown at the trial that Bennett had secretly placed a ball in his rifle, and he therefore paid the penalty of his crime on the gallows.
The first "American schoolmaster" in the state was one John Seeley, who taught a school in 1683 at a place called New Design, near where Cahokia was afterward founded, but it was continued only for a few months.
The first newspaper ever published in the state was that begun by Mathew Duncan, at Kaskaskia, September 6, 1814, named the "Illinois Herald." It was not very long lived but it was the beginning of the great newspaper fraternity in Illinois that has since been such a dominant factor in molding and shaping public opinion upon all important events in the history of the state. There are now more than seventeen hundred newspapers and periodicals published in the state, and these have an incalculable effect upon the, public and private life of the five million inhabitants of the state.
THE ABORIGINES OF ILLINOIS.
At the time of the discovery and exploration of Illinois, it was in possession of the natives who had held it from time immemorable. They were savages in every sense of the word, with hardly a good redeeming trait of character.
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They were cruel, selfish, brutal in the extreme, and never made friends unless it was to their advantage to do so. Their government was tribal and each chief a petty tyrant. Their religion a mere superstition, a blind worship of some, to them, undefined Great Spirit or Manitou, they were without learning or knowl- edge of the great world around them. They had no definite knowledge of property or human rights, nor did they care for any. They lived in tepees or rude cabins, and were clothed only with the skins of beasts they had killed in the chase. Their arms and implements were of the rudest sort, made from stone, wood and the bones of the buffalo. They were ruthless and re- vengeful in the extreme, as well as lazy and horribly dirty. Their only object in life was to procure food, which they devoured like gluttons, and to subdue and scalp their enemies.
The tribes inhabiting the Illinois country and who were generally the "Illinois Indians," were the Illinois or "Illini," Miamis and Kickapoos. These all belonged to the Algonquin family, while the Kickapoos, including the Cahokias, Tamaroas, Peorias, and Mitchigamies, from whom lake Michigan was named, were gener- ally classed as Illinois Indians.
The Illinois at the time of Father Marquette's and Louis Joliet's entry into the state in 1673, had as their possessions, from Lake Michigan and Des Plaines and Kankakee rivers, down the Illinois to the Mississippi and thence to the con- fluence of that stream with the Ohio. Their principal localities were, how- ever, in the central and northern portions of what afterward became the state, where they had in all, seventeen villages. The largest of these and which was to them their metropolis, was on the Illinois river, at the place heretofore de- scribed as "Illinois Lake." This village was called by the French La Vantum, but by the Indians, Kaskaskia, as that tribe was the chief inhabitants of it. It had in 1680, from the best information that could be obtained, some 8,000 in- habitants. The chief village of the Peorias was located at Peoria lake, while the Tamaroas and Cahokias had their villages below the mouth of the Illinois river, nearly opposite St. Louis.
The Illinois Indians claimed that their name meant as implied, "Superior Men." Yet the French missionaries asserted that they were not in any way or manner different from the other tribes; that while they were generally tall and robust, swift runners, good archers, proud, and at times affable, yet they were "idle, revengeful, jealous, cunning, dissolute and thievish." They lived on beans, Indian corn, many kinds of roots, fruits and nuts, fish and game.
The Illinois country to its fullest extent was beautiful and productive, abounding in the finest game, and it was not at all surprising that such a country should be coveted by the surrounding tribes. The Sioux from the west, the Pottawatomies from the north, and the warlike Iroquois from the far east, each made hostile excursions and raids into the country and were determined to possess it.
Prior to 1673 frequent raids had been made into it and they were generally successful. In one of these raids, however, through the heroism of an Indian woman, they were compelled to acknowledge a most signal defeat. The narra-
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tive, as told soon after the event; is an interesting chapter on female prowess and bravery worthy of any people, and in any age.
A BRAVE SQUAW.
The Iroquois had attacked a village upon the banks of a river, and had suc- ceeded in driving out the inhabitants with great slaughter. A young, courageous and patriotic squaw of the tribe, named Watch-e-kee (the orthography of which has been changed to Watseka), learning that their enemies were then exulting over their victory and rioting upon the spoils secured in the village, urged her tribe to take advantage of the situation and attack them in return. But the warriors, smarting under the sense of their recent defeat, refused to respond to her urgent call. She pointed out to them the darkness of the night and the almost certain chances of a successful surprise. The "Braves" still refusing, she called for volunteers from among the squaws, urging upon them that death in battle was preferable to torture and captivity, which might be their fate on the morrow. The squaws came forward in great numbers and offered to follow their brave leader. Seeing the determination of their wives and daughters, the braves became ashamed of their cowardice, and inspired with a valor they had not lately exhibited, rushed to arms. A plan of attack was speedily ar- ranged and the Iroquois being taken unawares in turn, suffered a most over- whelming defeat. The stream near which this sanguinary defeat took place was called the "Iroquois," as has been the county through which it flows, while to the county seat has been given the name of the heroic Indian maiden, who so bravely compassed the overthrow of her enemies.
THE INDIANS AND THE FRENCH.
When the French came into the country they were received not only with- out opposition but with much friendliness. Their arms and equipments for war they saw with a great advantage and they were not slow in accepting them. The priests were made welcome for the reason that they came in the name of peace, and that was what they desired.
The two nations, though so entirely unlike in habits of life, civilization, . training and disposition, readily united on a common ground, hunted and traded together and eventually many of them married and lived together.
THE IROQUOIS AGAIN RAID THE ILLINOIS.
In 1680 the Iroquois and their allies to the number of some six hundred braves, attacked the Indian village at La Vantum, and, it is said, killed twelve hundred of them and then drove the rest beyond the Mississippi river. But ill 1684, the French having fortified the rock, since known as "Starved Rock," and placed a strong garrison there, many of the Indians returned and placed them- selves under the protection of the French. The Iroquois attacked them there and with the aid of the French, they were repulsed by the Illinois with great slaughter. That was the last raid the Iroquois ever made into the Illinois coun-
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try. The fort at the Rock was abandoned in 1700 and from that time until the total annihilation of the Illinois Indians at the Rock, in 1769, no mention is made of it in history.
THE FRENCH AT KASKASKIA.
The French established a military post at Kaskaskia, near the river, about the year 1700, and the Kaskaskia Indians learning of the fact removed thither, that being their village and home for many years. They were useful to as well as dependent upon the whites, and therefore they got along very well together. In 1736 a numbering of the scattered tribes of the Illinois was made, and they were found to be about six hundred in all and these were but the remnants of the many thousands that once roamed the prairies and hunted the buffalo and deer, as lords of the soil.
THE LAST OF THE ILLINOIS.
The Illinois were charged with being concerned in the death of Pontiac at Cahokia, and the friends of that chieftain then rallied to their destruction. They were hunted from place to place about the country until they made their final stand upon the Rock, and then their sun set in eternal darkness. After gaining the Rock, they held out for twelve days, defying hunger and thirst, beset upon all sides by their cruel enemies, until at last rendered desperate by their condition, they made a desperate sortie, resolved to sell their lives as dearly as possible, but only one of the number, a half breed, escaped to tell the tale. And thus perished the large tribe of the Illinois Indians, which, with the exception of the solitary warrior, became extinct. Judge Caton, in his work "Last of the Illinois," fixes the number at eleven that escaped. The Rock has been known since that date as "Starved Rock."
ILLINOIS CEDED TO THE UNITED STATES.
In 1803 a treaty was made with the few remaining Indians upon the Illinois territory by which they surrendered to the general government all their lands in the territory and they were soon afterward removed to the Indian Territory. where they took the name of "Peorias," and in 1885 numbered one hundred and . forty-nine. They are reported by the commissioner of Indian affairs to be "for the most part an active; well-to-do race of farmers, who live in comfortable frame houses."
THE NORTHERN INDIANS.
In the extreme northern part of the Illinois territory were a few remnants of tribes, once numerous and powerful but their frequent wars with the neigh- boring tribes had reduced their numbers until there remained but a handful of warriors to rally at the call of their chief. The Miamis, a warlike tribe, were located on the southern shore of Lake Michigan and on the St. Joseph river. They were originally allied to the Illinois but separated prior to 1673, and thereafter they were most bitter enemies.
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The Pottawatomies were scattered. A portion of the tribe were in northern Michigan. Still another portion were in northern Ohio, while still another were located in the Illinois territory, north of the Kankakee and Des Plaines rivers, and west of the territory of the Miami and Sacs and Foxes. The name signifies, "we are making a fire," hence the other natives called them "Firemak- ers." They are described as being tall, fierce and haughty, fond of hunting and war and were, previous to their meeting with the French, the most numerous and powerful of all the, northwestern tribes. They were ever friendly with the whites but in the war of 1812 united their fortunes with Tecumseh. After the death of that warrior they ceded their lands to the government and removed beyond the Mississippi.
The Kickapoos were first found near the source of the Fox river, in Wis- consin, by Father Allouez in 1670. They afterward fought their way south to the Vermilion and Sangamon rivers, where they remained for more than one hundred years. Their villages were on the Vermilion and other streams in that portion of the territory. They were fierce and warlike, unwilling to mix with other tribes, and ever hostile to the whites, never would have aught to do with them. They would rove over the country in small bands and swoop down upon the unprotected settlements of the whites, murdering or taking captive all who were to be found, kill their cattle and make off with their horses before any alarm could be given. They finally ceded their lands and removed from the country to Texas and Mexico.
The Sacs and Foxes, called by the French Outagamies, were first found in 1666 near Green Bay, and numbered some four hundred warriors. They were a restless and discontented tribe, always at war with their neighbors, never ally- ing or holding any trade or barter with them. In truth it was said of them that "they were the Ishmaelites of the lakes, their hands against every man, and every man's hand against them." They often made raids down into the country of the Illinois for the purpose of plunder. They some time afterward established themselves on the Rock river and there they remained until the Black Hawk war, when they removed from the territory with the rest of the Indians that allied themselves with that chieftain in his war upon the white settlers.
OTHER TRIBES.
There were other small tribes scattered through the northwest but located outside the Illinois territory and hence not of interest in this history. What few are now left of these tribes of natives are now the "Nation's Wards," and so re- moved are they from our doors that but few of the people of the present day ever see one. They have passed from our view. Their ancient hunting grounds are now occupied by the agriculturist, who, with his well tilled farm, can but wonder at the great progress that has been made in the country since these lords of the soil trod these prairies, or paddled their light canoes upon the bosoms of our rivers.
A noted orator, in speaking of the fast disappearance of the Indian tribes of the country, said: "Here and there a stricken few remain but how unlike their untamed, untamable progenitors. The Indian of the falcon glance, the
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lion bearing, the theme of a touching ballad, the hero of the pathetic tale is gone, and his degraded offspring crawl upon the soil, where he once walked in majesty to remind them how miserable is man when the foot of the conqueror is on his neck. As a race, they have withered from the land. Their arrows are broken, their springs are dried up, and their cabins are in the dust. Their council fires have long since gone out on the shores and their war cry is fast dying in the outtrodden west and they will soon hear the roar of the last wave that will settle over them forever."
THE FRENCH MISSIONARIES.
To the French is due the first permanent settlement in the Illinois country. The French missionary, with the explorer and the trader, entered the field hand in hand, the latter protecting the former, while the former in return aided the latter in making peace with the natives. The Jesuits were all powerful with the government of Canada, and therefore controlled the sale of the "firewater" dealt out so liberally to the natives, fixed the price of peltries, and, in fact, ruled the settlement with a despotic sway.
The early history of Illinois is derived wholly from the letters, records and narratives of the missionaries, who first entered this wilderness in search of converts to their faith. The explorers and traders as a rule were wholly in- capable of writing any intelligent account whatever of their discoveries, while the priests were educated, ready with the pen and always used it to their own advantage. To them, therefore, we are indebted for almost everything we know of the early history of Illinois.
After the decease of Father Marquette upon the banks of a small stream on the east shore of Lake Michigan, in 1675, Father Claude Jean Allouez was the most distinguished of the early missionaries. He was a native of France and came first to Canada in 1658, where he labored for twelve years establishing missions in that province and various points on the northern lakes, among which was that of St. Ignace, at the Straits of Mackinac.
After the demise of Father Marquette, he was selected to complete the mission at Kaskaskia village at "Illinois lake." He arrived there April 27, 1677, and erected a cross of wood, twenty-five feet in height, and preached to the tribes there assembled. He remained there and in that vicinity until 1684, when he returned to Green Bay. He died at Fort Joseph on the southeast shore of Lake Michigan, in 1690.
Father Jacques Gravier was the next priest to care for that mission. He labored there and among the Peorias until 1699, when he was recalled to Mack- inac. In 1700 he started on a voyage down the Mississippi. The year follow- ing he returned and for a while labored with the Peorias. Here he was severely injured by an assault made upon him at the instance of the medicine men, and died of his injuries in 1706. Since Marquette, he was one of the most zealous and faithful of the fathers. Not long after this, the mission among the Peorias was discontinued. At least there is no reliable record of its existence. The natives had scattered, many of them going to and joining the mission at Cahokia, then called "Tamaroa." That was about the year 1700, for Father Gravier in the journal of his voyage down the Mississippi in that year, mentions the fact
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of his stopping there and visiting them. From that time until 1741 many priests were sent into the country and labored long and earnestly, with varied success. Their great obstacle in the work was "firewater," brought into the country by the traders and dealt out by them to the natives with a liberal hand. They would exchange their peltries for that when nothing else would be an inducement to part with them.
It was in the year 1741 that the feeling of hostility to the Jesuits was started in Europe, which was carried out with extreme bitterness for many years, so that in 1764 the order was issued banishing them from the country. Illinois had then been ceded to Great Britain but that availed nothing, the vestments and vessels of the Jesuit chapels being seized by the "King's attorney," and the chapels leveled to the earth. The priests were soon sent down the river to New Orleans and from there to France. The order of banishment to the priests was a gross injustice to the priests, as well as a gross violation of the pre- cepts of Christian charity. It was a profanation of the Christian worship and a ruthless and cruel revenge inflicted upon the men who had labored so long and arduously for the improvement of the native races of America.
The priests with one exception, were all expelled from the whole northwest territory and he was allowed to remain only on condition that he must not inter- fere in any way in the religious matters of the country. The settlements throughout the entire Illinois country were abandoned, except at Cahokia and at Kaskaskia, and they were only tolerated as trading posts for the few inhabi- tants who had settled in that vicinity.
FIRST SETTLEMENTS.
The first permanent settlement made in Illinois was at Kaskaskia, about the year 1700. The village was located on the west bank of the river of that name, and between that and the Mississippi, and about two miles from the latter. The present city of Chester, where the southern penitentiary is located, is seven miles below the old site. It flourished with varied fortunes for nearly two hun- dred years until the Father of Waters cut a channel above it across the country into the Kaskaskia, making the site an island. The river then gradually washed away the island, taking the farms and gardens, until but little of it now remains. The village was removed several years ago to a site on higher ground. The vil- lage was for more than a century the capital of the territory and was the first capital of the state, when it was admitted into the Union in 1818. The old ceme- tery, located near the village, in which the pioneer dead had for two centuries been buried, being in danger of being washed away, the legislature in 1891 ap- propriated $10,000 for the removal of the dead buried there. Twenty acres of land on a hill on the east side of the river, was purchased and the bones and re- mains of thirty-eight hundred were gathered into as many boxes, taken to the new cemetery and there reinterred. The most of them were marked "un- known." The present village of Kaskaskia is located on the east side of that river, about two miles from its former site.
CAHOKIA FOUNDED.
Cahokia claims to have been founded at about the same time as Kaskaskia and some writers have asserted that it was settled in 1695 but there is no au-
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thority for the assertion. No doubt there were priests and traders there and at times large numbers of the natives bút no permanent settlement was made there until about the year 1700. It was located on the Mississippi, some ten miles below the present city of East St. Louis. The place was never else but a small village of some two hundred inhabitants. It was the village visited by Father Gravier when he went on his voyage down the Mississippi in 1700.
FORT CHARTRES.
In the year 1718 Fort Chartres was built by a French company upon the east bank of the Mississippi, in what is now the county of Randolph. It was located four miles west of the village of Prairie du Rocher and twenty-two miles northwest of Kaskaskia. When first built, it was enclosed with a stockade but later a substantial stone wall, sixteen feet high was built, the wall enclosing about four acres of ground. Within the enclosure were barracks, stables, store houses, etc. It was well supplied with guns and ammunition and was considered at the time as the most impregnable fortress in the whole country. The erection of the fort greatly favored the settlements and particularly Cahokia and Kaskaskia. so that the latter became a very important post and was the headquarters for the whole Illinois country. In 1725 it became an incorporated town and the king of France granted its inhabitants a commons, or pasture grounds for their stock.
Fort Chartres was abandoned in 1772, through the encroachment of the river upon its walls and the garrison and property were removed to Kaskaskia.
AN INDIAN MASSACRE.
The settlements of southern Illinois flourished and large numbers of French immigrants, both from France and Canada, came into the country and estab- lished fine homes, cultivated the rich lands, and peace and prosperity were every- where visible. But a terrible calamity befell the inhabitants upon the 28th of November, 1729. The Natchez and Choctaw tribes at the south became jealous of the whites and the progress they had made, and therefore resolved to wipe out the last vestige of French encroachment in the west. Upon that date they fell upon the peaceful inhabitants with fearful slaughter, murdering some seven hundred males, and taking all the females and children captives.
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