History of Macoupin County, Illinois, Part 3

Author: Brink, McDonough & Co.
Publication date: 1879
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 440

USA > Illinois > Macoupin County > History of Macoupin County, Illinois > Part 3

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Hennepin started on his voyage on the last day of February, 1680, and La Salle soon after, with a few attendants, started on his perilous journey of twelve hundred miles by the way of the Illinois River, the Miami, and Lakes Erie and Ontario, to Frontenac, which he finally reached in safety. He found his worst fears realized. The "Griffin" was lost, his agents had taken advantage of his absence, and his creditors had seized his goods. But he knew no such word as fail, and by the middle of summer he was again on his way with men and supplies for his band in Illinois. A sad disappoint- ment awaited him. He found his fort deserted, and no tidings of Tonti and his men. During La Salle's absence the Indians had become jealous of the French, and they had been attacked and harassed even by the Iroquois, who came the long distance between the shores of Lake Ontario and the Illinois River to make war upon the more peaccable tribes dwelling on the prairies. Uncertain of any assistance from La Salle, and apprehensive of a general war with the savages, Tonti, in September, 1680, abandoned his position and returned to the shores of the lakes. La Salle reached the post on the Illinois in December, 1680, or January, 1681. Again and bitterly disappointed, La Salle did not succumb, but resolved to return to Canada and start anew. This he did, and in- June met his lieutenant, Tonti, at Mackinaw.

Hennepin in the meanwhile had met with strange adventures. After leaving Creve-Cœur, he reached the Mississippi in seven days; but his way was so obstructed by ice that he was until the 11th of April reaching the Wisconsin line. Here he was taken prisoner by some northern Indians, who, however, treated him kindly and took him and his companions to the falls of St. Anthony, which they reached on the 1st of May. These falls Hennepin named in honor of his patron saint. Hennepin and his com- panions remained here for three months, treated very kindly by their cap- tors. At the end of this time they met with a band of French, led by one Sieur de Luth,t who, in pursuit of game and trade, had penetrated to this country by way of Lake Superior. With his band Hennepin and his com- panions returned to the borders of civilized life in November, 1680, just after La Salle had gone back to the wilderness. Hennepin returned to France, where, in 1684, he published a narrative of his wonderful adventurers.

Robert De La Salle, whose name is more closely connected with the ex- plorations of the Mississippi than that of any other, was the next to descend the river in the year 1682. Formal possession was taken of the great river and all the countries bordering upon it or its tributaries in the name of the King.

La Salle and his party now retraced their steps towards the north. They met with no serious trouble until they reached the Chickasaw Bluffs, where they had erected a fort on their downward voyage, and named it Prudhom-

* The site of the work is at present unknown.

+ From this man undoubtedly comes the name of Duluth.

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HISTORY OF MACOUPIN COUNTY, ILLINOIS.

me. Here La Salle was taken violently sick. Unable to proceed, he sent forward Tonti to communicate with Count Frontenac. La Salle himself reached the mouth of the St. Joseph the latter part of September. From that point he sent Father Zenobe with his dispatches to represent him at court, while he turned his attention to the fur trade and to the project of completing a fort, which he named St. Louis, upon the Illinois River. The precise location of this work is not known. It was said to be upon a rocky bluff two hundred and fifty feet high, and only accessible upon one side. There are no bluffs of such a height on the Illinois River answering the de- scription. It may have been on the rocky bluff above La Salle, where the rocks are perhaps one hundred feet in height.

Upon the completion of this work La Salle again sailed for France, which he reached on the 13th of December, 1683. A new man, La Barre, had now succeeded Frontenac as Governor of Canada. This man was unfriend- ly towards La Salle, and this, with other untoward circumstances, no doubt led him to attempt the colonization of the Mississippi country by way of the mouth of the river. Notwithstanding many obstacles were in his path, he succeeded in obtaining the grant of a fleet from the King, and on the 24th of July, 1684, a fleet of twenty-four vessels sailed from Rochelle to America, four of which were destined for Louisiana, and carried a body of two hun- dred and eighty people, including the crews. There were soldiers, artificers, and volunteers, and also "some young women." Discord soon broke out between M. de Beaujeu and La Salle, and grew from bad to worse. On the 20th of December they reached the island of St. Domingo.

Joutel * was sent out with this party, which left on the 4th of February, and traveled eastward three days, when they came to a great stream which they could not cross Here they made signals by building great fires, and on the 13th two of the vessels came in sight The stream was sounded and the vessels were anchored under shelter. But again misfortune overtook La Salle, and the vessel was wrecked, and the bulk of the supplies was lost. At this juncture M. de Beaujeu, his second in command, set sail and returned to France. La Salle now constructed a rude shelter from the timbers of his wrecked vessel, placed his people inside of it, and set out to explore the sur- rounding country in hope of finding the Mississippi. He was, of course, dis- appointed ; but found on a stream, which he named the Vaches, a good site for a fort. He at once removed his camp, and, after incredible exertions, constructed a fortification sufficient to protect them from the Indians. This fort was situated on Matagorda Bay, within the present limits of Texas, and was called by La Salle Fort St. Louis.

Leaving Joutel to complete the work with one hundred men, La Salle took the remainder of the company and embarked on the river, with the inten- tion of proceeding as far up as he could. The savages soon became trouble- some, and on the 14th of July La Salle ordered Joutel to join him with his whole force. They had already lost several of their best men, and dangers threatened them on every side. It would seem from the historian's account of the expedition that La Salle began to erect another fort, and also that he became morose and severe in his discipline, so much so as to get the ill will of many of his people. He finally resolved to advance into the country, but whether with the view of returning to Canada by way of Illinois, or only for the purpose of making further discoveries, Joutel leaves in doubt. Giving his last instructions, he left the fort on the 12th day of January, 1687, with a company of about a dozen men, including his brother, two nephews, Father Anastasius, a Franciscan friar, Joutel, and others, and moved northeastward, as is supposed, until the 17th of March, when some of his men, who had been cherishing revengeful feelings for some time, waylaid the Chevalier and shot him dead. They also slew one of his nephews and two of his servants.

This deed occurred on the 20th of March, on a stream called the Cenis. In 1687, France was involved in a long and bloody war. The League of Augsburg was formed by the Princes of the Empire against Louis XIV., and England, Spain, Holland, Denmark, Sweden, and Savoy took up arms, and Louis found himself battling with nearly the whole of Europe, and only Turkey for an ally. This war ended with the peace of Ryswick in 1697.

No material change took place in America, but the colonists were harassed and many of their people killed or carried captives to the Canadas. In 1688, the French possessions in North America included nearly the whole of the continent north of the St. Lawrence, and the entire valley of the Mississippi; and they had begun to establish a line of fortifications extend- ing from Quebec to the mouth of the Mississippi, between which points they had three great lines of communication, to wit : by way of Mackinaw, Green

*Joutel, historian of the voyage, accompanied La Salle, and subsequently wrote his "Journal His- torique," which was published in Paris, 1713.

Bay, and the Wisconsin River; by way of Lake Michigan, the Kankakee and Illinois Rivers; and by way of Lake Erie, the Maumee and Wabash Rivers, and were preparing to explore the Ohio as a fourth route.

In 1699, D'Iberville, under the authority of the crown, discovered, on the second of March, by way of the sea, the mouth of the "Hidden River." This majestic stream was called by the natives " Malbouchia," and by the Spaniards, " La Palissade," from the great number of trees about its mouth. After traversing the several outlets, and satisfying himself as to its certainty, he erected a fort near its western outlet, and returned to France. An ave- nue of trade was now opened out which was fully improved.

At this time a census of New France showed a total population of eleven thousand two hundred and forty-nine Europeans. War again broke out in 1701, and extended over a period of twelve years, ending with the treaty of Utrecht in 1713. This also extended to the American Colonies, and its close left everything as before, with the exception that Nova Scotia was captured in 1710.

In 1718, New Orleans was laid out and settled by some European colo- nists. In 1762, the colony was made over to Spain, to be regained by France under the consulate of Napoleon.

In 1803, it was purchased by the United States for the sum of fifteen million dollars, and the territory of Louisiana and the commerce of the Mississippi river came under the charge of the United States. Although La Salle's labors ended in defeat and death, he had not worked and suffered in vain. He had thrown open to France and the world an immense and most valuable country. Had established several ports, aud laid the founda- tion of more than one settlement there. " Peoria, Kaskaskia and Cahokia are to this day monuments of La Salle's labors; for, though he had founded neither of them (unless Peoria, which was built nearly upon the site of Fort Crevecœur), it was by those he led into the west that these places were peopled and civilized. He was, if not the discoverer, the first settler of the Mississippi Valley, and as such deserves to be known and honored .*

The French early improved the opening made for them, and before 1693, the Reverend Father Gravier began a mission among the Illinois, and be- came the founder of Kaskaskia. For some time it was merely a missionary station, and the inhabitants of the village consisted entirely of natives ; it being one of three such villages, the other two being Cahokia and Peoria. This we learn from a letter written by Father Gabriel Marest, dated " Aux Cascaskias, Autrement dit de l'Immaculee conception de la Sainte Vierge, le 9 Novembre, 1712." In this letter, the writer, tells us that Gravier must be regarded as the founder of the Illinois missions. Soon after the founding of Kaskaskia, the missionary Pinet gathered a flock at Cahokia,t while Peoria arose near the remains of Fort Crevecoeur .;

An unsuccessful attempt was also made to found a colony on the Ohio. It failed in consequence of sickness.§

In the north, De La Motte Cadillac, in June, 1701, laid the foundation of Fort Pontchartrain on the strait, (le Detroit), || while in the south-west efforts were making to realize the dreams of La Salle. The leader in the last named enterprise was Lemoine D'Iberville, a Canadian officer, who from 1694 to 1697 distinguished himself not a little by battles and conquests among the icebergs of the " Baye D'Udson or Hudson's Bay."

The post at Vincennes, on the Oubache river, (pronounced Wa-ba, mean- ing summer cloud moving swiftly), was established in 1702. It is quite pro- bable that on La Salle's last trip he established the stations at Kaskaskia and Cahokia. Until the year 1750 but little is known of the settlements in the north-west, as it was not until this time that the attention of the English was called to the occupation of this portion of the new world, which they then supposed they owned. Vivier, a missionary among the Illinois, wri- ting " Aux Illinois," six leagues from Fort Chartres, June 8th, 1750, says: " We have here, whites, negroes, and Indians, to say nothing of the cross-breeds. There are five French villages, and three villages of the na- tives within a space of twenty-one leagues, situated between the Mississippi and another river, called the Karkadiad (Kaskaskia). In the five French

* The authorities in relation to La Salle are Hennepin; a narrative published in the name of Fonti in 1697, but disclaimed by him. (Charlevoix iii. 365-Lettres Edifiantes.)

t Bancroft, iii. 196.

# There was an .old Peoria on the Northwest shore of the lake of that name, a mile and a half above the outlet. From 1778 to 1796 the inhabitants left this for New Peoria, (Fort Clark) at the outlet. American State Papers, xviii. 476.

§ Western Annals.

| Charlevoix, ii. 284. Le Detroit was the whole strait from Erie to Huron. The first grants of land at Detroit, i. e., Fort Pontchartrain, were made in 1707.

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HISTORY OF MACOUPIN COUNTY, ILLINOIS.

villages are, perhaps, eleven hundred whites, three hundred blacks, and some sixty red slaves or savages. The three Illinois towns do not contain more than eight hundred souls all told .* Most of the French till the soil. They raise wheat, cattle, pigs and horses, and live like princes. Three times as much is produced as can be consumed, and great quantities of grain and flour are sent to New Orleans."

Again, in an epistle dated November 17th, 1750, Vivier says : " For fif- teen leagues above the mouth of the Mississippi, one sees no dwellings * * ** New Orleans contains black, white and red, not more, I think, than twelve hundred persons. To this point come all kinds of lumber, bricks, salt-beef, tallow, tar, skins, and bear's grease; and above all pork and flour from the Illinois. These things create some commerce, as forty vessels and more have come hither this year. Above New Orleans plantations are again met with ; the most considerable is a colony of Germans, some ten leagues up the river. At Point Coupee, thirty-five leagues above the German settlement, is a fort. Along here, within five or six leagues, are not less than sixty habitations. Fifty leagues farther up is the Natchez post, where we have a garrison."

Father Marest, writing from the post at Vincennes, makes the same ob- servation. Vivier also says, "Some individuals dig lead near the surface, and supply the Indians and Canada. Two Spaniards, now here, who claim to be adepts, say that our mines are like those of Mexico, and that if we would dig deeper we would find silver under the lead; at any rate the lead is excellent. There are also in this country, beyond doubt, copper mines, as from time to time, large pieces have been found in the streams."t

At the close of the year 1750, the French occupied in addition to the lower Mississippi posts and those in Illinois, one at Du Quesne, one at the Maumee, in the country of the Miamis, and one at Sandusky, in what may be termed the Ohio Valley. In the northern part of the northwest, they had stations at St. Joseph's, on the St. Joseph's of Lake Michigan, at Fort Pontchartrain (Detroit), at Michillimackinac or Massillimacinac, Fox River of Green Bay, and at Sault Ste. Marie. The fondest dreams of La Salle were now fully realized. The French alone were possessors of this vast realm, basing their claim on discovery and settlement. Another na- tion, however, was now turning its attention to this extensive country, and learning of its wealth, began to lay plans for occupying it and for securing the great profits arising therefrom,

The French, however, had another claim to this country, namely, the

DISCOVERY OF THE OHIO.

The largest branch of the Mississippi river from the east, known to the early French settlers as la belle riviere, called " beautiful " river, was disco- · vered by Robert, Cavalier de La Salle, in 1869. While La Salle was at his trading post on the St. Lawrence, he found leisure to study nine Indian dialects, the chief of which was the Iroquois. While conversing with some Senecas, he learned of a river called the Ohio, which rose in their country and flowed to the sea.

In this statement the Mississippi and its tributaries were considered as one stream. La Salle, believing as most of the French at that period did, that the great rivers flowing west emptied into the Sea of California, was anxious to embark in the enterprise of discovering a route across the continent. He repaired at once to Quebec to obtain the approval of the Governor and the Intendent, Talon. They issued letters patent, authorizing the enterprise, but made no provisions to defray the expenses.

At this juncture the seminary St. Sulpice decided to send out missionaries in connection with the expedition, and La Salle offering to sell his improve- ments at La Chive to raise the money, the offer was accepted by the Supe- rior, and two thousand eight hundred dollars were raised, with which La Salle purchased four canoes and the necessary supplies for the outfit.

On the 6th of July, 1669, the party, numbering twenty-four persons, em- barked in seven canoes on the St. Lawrence. Two additional canoes carried · the Indian guides.

In three days they were gliding over the bosom of Lake Ontario. Their guides conducted them directly to the Seneca village on the bank of the Genesee, in the vicinity of the present city of Rochester, New York. Here they expected to procure guides to conduct them to the Ohio, but in this they were disappointed. After waiting a month in the hope of gaining their object, they met an Indian from the Iroquois colony, at the head of Lake Ontario, who assured them they could find guides, and offered to conduct them thence. On their way they passed the mouth of the Niagara river, when

* Lettres Edifiantes (Paris, 1781), vii. 79-106.

+ Western Annals.

they heard for the first time the distant thunder of the cataract. Arriving among the Iroquois they met with a friendly reception, and learned from a Shawnee prisoner that they could reach the Ohio in six weeks. Delighted with the unexpected good fortune, they made ready to resume their journey, and as they were about to start they heard of the arrival of two Frenchmen in a neighboring village. One of them proved to be Louis Joliet, after- wards famous as an explorer in the west. He had been sent by the Cana- dian government to explore the copper mines on Lake Superior, but had failed and was on his way back to Quebec.

On arriving at Lake Superior, they found, as La Salle had predicted, the Jesuit fathers, Marquette and Dablon, occupying the field. After parting with the priests, La Salle went to the chief Iroquois village at Onondago, where he obtained guides, and passing thence to a tributary of the Ohio south of Lake Erie, he descended the latter as far as the falls of Louisville. Thus was the Ohio discovered by La Salle, the persevering and successful French explorer of the west in 1669.

When Washington was sent out by the colony of Virginia in 1753, to de- mand of Gordeur de St. Pierre why the French had built a fort on the Monongahela, the haughty commandant at Quebec replied : " We claim the country on the Ohio by virtue of the discoveries of La Salle, and will not give it up to the English. Our orders are to make prisoners of every Eng- lishman found trading in the Ohio valley."

ENGLISH EXPLORATIONS AND SETTLEMENTS.

We have sketched the progress of French discovery in the valley of the Mississippi. The first travelers reached that river in 1673, and when the year 1750 broke in upon the father of waters and the great north-west, all was still except those little spots upon the prairies of Illinois and among the marshes of Louisiana.

Volney, by conjecture, fixes the settlement of Vincennes about 1735. * Bishop Brute, of Indiana, speaks of a missionary station there in 1700, and adds : "The friendly tribes and traders called to Canada for protection, and then M. De Vincennes came with a detachment, I think, of Carignau, and was killed in 1735." t Bancroft says a military establishment was formed there in 1716, and in 1742 a settlement of herdsmen took place. Į In a petition of the old inhabitants at Vincennes, dated in November, 1793, we find the settlement spoken of as having been made before 1742. § And such is the general voice of tradition. On the other hand, Charlevoix, who records the death of Vincennes, which took place among the Chickasaws, in 1736, makes no mention of any post on the Wabash, or any missionary sta- tion there. Neither does he mark any upon his map, although he gives even the British forts upon the Tennessee and elsewhere. Such is the character of the proof relative to the settlement of Vincennes.

Hennepin, in 1663-4, had heard of the "Hohio." The route from the lakes to the Mississippi, by the Wabash, was explored in 1676,|| and in Hen- nepin's volume of 1698, is a journal, said to be that sent by La Salle to Count Frontenac, in 1682 or '83, which mentions the route by the Maumee and Wabash as the most direct to the great western river.

In 1749, when the English first began to think seriously of sending men into the west, the greater portions of the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illi- nois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota were yet under the dominion of the red men. The English knew, however, of the nature of the vast wealth of these wilds.

In the year 1710, Governor Spotswood, of Virginia, had matured a plan and commenced movements, the object of which was to secure the country beyond the Alleghenies to the English crown. In Pennsylvania, also, Governor Keith and James Logan, Secretary of the Province from 1719 to 1731, represented to the powers of England the necessity of taking steps to secure the western lands. Nothing, however, was done by the mother coun- try, except to take certain diplomatic steps to secure the claim of Britain to this unexplored wilderness. England had from the outset claimed from the Atlantic to the Pacific, on the ground that the discovery and possession of the sea coast was a discovery and possession of the country; and as is well known, her grants to Virginia, Connecticut, and other colonies, were through from " sea to sea." This was not all her claims; she had purchased from the Indian tribes large tracts of land. This was also a strong argument.

In the year 1684, Lord Howard, Governor of Virginia, held a treaty with the five nations at Albany. These were the great Northern Confederacy,

* Volney's View, p. 336. + Butler's Kentucky. # History U. S., ill., 346.

¿ American State Papers, xvi., 32. | Histoire General Des Voyages, xiv., 758. " Now called Miami.

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HISTORY OF MACOUPIN COUNTY, ILLINOIS.

and comprised . at first the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas. Afterward the Tuscaroras were taken into the confederacy, and it became known as the six nations. . They came under the protection of the . mother country, and again in 1701 they repeated the agreement. Another formal deed was drawn up and signed by the chiefs of the National Con- federacy in 1726, by which their lands were conveyed in trust to England, "to be protected and defended by his majesty, to and for the use of the grantors and their heirs." The validity of this claim has often been dis- puted, but never successfully. In 1774, a purchase was made at Lancaster of certain lands within the " colony of Virginia," for which the Indians re- ceived £200 in gold and a like sum in goods, with a promise that as settle- ments increased, more should be paid. The commissioners from Virginia at the treaty were Col. Thomas Lee and Col. William Beverly.

As settlements extended, and the Indians began to complain, the promise of further pay was called to mind, and Mr. Conrad Weiser was sent across the Alleghenies to Logstown. In 1748, * Col. Lee and some Virginians accompanied him, with the intention of ascertaining the feelings of the In- dians with regard to further settlements in the west, which Col. Lee and others were contemplating. The object of these proposed settlements was not the cultivation of the soil, but the monopoly of the Indian trade. Ac- cordingly, after Weiser's conference with the Indians at Logstown, which was favorable to their views, Thomas Lee, with twelve other Virginians, among whom were Lawrence and Augustine, brothers of George Washing- ton, and also Mr. Hanbury, of London, formed an association which they called the "Ohio Company," and in 1748 petitioned the king for a grant beyond the mountains. This petition was approved by the English govern- ment, and the government of Virginia was ordered to grant to the petitioners half a million of acres within the bounds of that colony beyond the Alle- ghenies, two hundred thousand of which were to be located at once. This portion was to be held for ten years free of quit-rent, provided the company would put there one hundred families within seven years, and build a fort sufficient to protect the settlement. The company accepted the proposition, and sent to London for a cargo suited to the Indian trade, which should arrive in November, 1749. Other companies were also formed about this time in Virginia to colonize the west. On the 12th of June, 1749, a grant of 800,000 acres from the line of Canada, on the north and west, was made to the Loyal Company, and on the 29th of October, 1751, another of 100,000 acres to the Greenbriar Company. t

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History of Macoupin County, Illinois, Part 3

Author: Brink, McDonough & Co. Publication date: 1879 Publisher: Number of Pages: 440

Author: Brink, McDonough & Co.
Publication date: 1879
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 440