History of Madison County, Illinois With biographical sketches, Part 2

Author: Brink, W.R. & Co
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Edwardsville, Ill. : W. R. Brink & co.
Number of Pages: 698

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HISTORY

MADISON COUNTY, ILLINOIS.

CHAPTER I.

A BRIEF SKETCII OF THE NORTHI- WEST TERRITORY.

GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION.

N 1784 the North Western Territory was ceded to the United States by Virginia. It embraced only the territory lying be- tween the Ohio and Mississippi rivers; and north, to the northern limits of the United States. It coincided with the area now embraced in the states of Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, and that portion of Minnesota lying on the east side of the Mississippi river. On the first day of March, 1784, Thomas Jefferson, Samuel Hardy, Arthur Lee, and James Monroe, delegates in Congress on the part of Vir- ginia, executed a deed of cession, by which they transferred to the United States, on certain conditions, all right, title and claim of Virginia to the country known as the North- western Territory. But by the purchase of Louisiana in 1803, the western boundary of the United States was ex- tended to the Rocky Mountains and the Northern Pacific Ocean. It includes an area of 1,887,850 square miles, being greater than the united areas of the Middle and Southern states, including Texas. Out of this magnificent territory have been erected eleven sovereign states and eight territories, with an aggregate population at the present time of 13,000,000 inhabitants, or nearly one-third of the entire population of the United States.

Its rivers are the largest on the continent, flowing thous- ands of miles through its rich alluvial valleys and broad, fertile prairies.

Its lakes are fresh-water seas, upon whose bosom floats the commerce of many states. Its far-stretehing prairies have more aeres that are arable and productive than any other area of like extent on the globe.

For the last quarter of a century the increase of popula-

tion and wealth in the north-west, has been about as three to one in any other portion of the United States.

EARLY EXPLORATIONS.

In the year 1512, on Easter Sunday, the Spanish name for which is Pascua Florida,* Juan Ponce de Leon, an old comrade of Columbus, discovered the coast of the American continent, near St. Augustine, and in honor of the day and of the blossoms which covered the trees along the shore, named the new-found country Florida. Juan had been led to undertake the discovery of strange lands partly by the hope of finding endless stores of gold, and partly by the wish to reach a fountain that was said to exist deep within the forests of North America, which possessed the power of renovating the life of those who drank of or bathed in its waters. He was made governor of the region he had visited but circumstances prevented his return thither until 1521; and then he went only to meet death at the hands of the Indians.

In the meantime, in 1516, a Spanish sea-captain, Diego Miruelo, had visited the coast first reached by Ponce de Leon, and in his barters with the natives had received con- siderable quantities of gold, with which he returned home and spread abroad new stories of the wealth hidden in the interior.

Ten years, however, passed before Pamphilo de Narvaez undertook to proseoute the examination of the lands north of the Gulf of Mexico. Narvaez was excited to action by the late astonishing success of the conqueror of Montezuma, but he found the gold for which he sought constantly flying before him; each tribe of Indians referred him to those living farther in the interior. And from tribe to tribe he and his companions wandered. They suffered untold priva- tions in the swamps and forests ; and out of three hundred followers only four or five at length reached Mexico. And still these disappointed wanderers persisted in their original fancy, that Florida was as wealthy as Mexico or Peru.

* Paseum, the old English " Pash " or Passover; "Pascua Florida " is the " Holyday of Flowers." 9

HISTORY OF MADISON COUNTY, ILLINOIS.

Among those who had faith in that report was Ferdinand de Soto, who had been with Pizarro in the conquests of Peru. He asked and obtained leave of the King of Spain to con- quer Florida at his own cost. It was given in the year 1538. With a brilliant and noble band of followers he left Europe and in May, 1538, after a stay in Cuba, anchored his vessels near the coast of the Peninsula of Florida, in the bay of Spiritu Santa, or Tampa bay.

De Soto entered upon his march into the interior with a determination to succeed. From June till November of 1539, the Spaniards toiled along until they reached the neighborhood of Appalachee bay. During the next season, 1540, they followed the course suggested by the Florida Indians, who wished them out of their country, and going to the north-east, crossed the rivers and climbed the moun- tains of Georgia. De Soto was a stern, severe man, and none dared to murmur. De Soto passed the winter with his little band near the Yazoo. In April, 1541, the resolute Spaniard set forward, and upon' the first of May reached the banks of the great river of the West, not far from the 35th parallel of latitude .*

A month was spent in preparing barges to convey the horses, many of which still lived, across the rapid stream. Having successfully passed it, the explorers pursued their way northward, into the neighborhood of New Madrid ; then turuing westward again, marched more than two hun- dred miles from the Mississippi to the highlands of White river; and still no gold, no gems, no cities-only bare prai- ries, and tangled forests, and deep morasses To the south again they toiled on, and passed their third winter of wander- ing upon the Washita. In the following spring (1542), De Soto, weary with hope long deferred, descended the Washita to its junction with the Mississippi. He heard, when he reached the mighty stream of the west, that its lower portion flowed through endless and uninhabitable swamps.

The news sank deep into the stout heart of the disap- pointed warrior. His health yielded to the contests of his mind and the influence of the climate. He appointed a successor, and on the 21st of May died. His body was sunk in the stream of the Mississippi. Deprived of their ener- getic leader, the Spaniards determined to try to reach Mexico by land. After some time spent in wandering through the forests, despairing of success in the attempt to rescue them- selves by land, they proceeded to prepare such vessels as they could to take them to sea. From January to July 1543, the weak, sickly band of gold-seekers labored at the doleful task, and in July reached, in the vessels thus built, the Gulf of Mexico, and by September entered the river Paunco. Que-half of the six hundred ; who had disem- barked with De Soto, so gay in steel and silk, left their bones among the mountains and in the morasses of the South, from Georgia to Arkansas.

De Soto founded no settlements, produced no results, and left no traces, unless it were that he awakened the hostility of the red man against the white man, and disheartened

# De Soto probably was at the lower Chickasaw bluffs. The Spaniards called the Mississippi Rio Grande, Great River, which is the literal meaning of the aboriginal name.

t De Biedna says there landed 620 mien.

such as might desire to follow up the career of discovery for better purposes. The French nation were eager and ready to seize upon any news from this extensive domain, and were the first to profit by De Soto's defeat. As it was, for more than a century after the expedition, the west remained utterly unknown to the whites.

The French were the first Europeans to make settlements on the St. Lawrence river and along the great lakes. Quebec was founded by Sir Samuel Champlain in 1608,* and in 1609 when Sir Henry Hudson was exploring the noble river which bears his name, Champlain ascended the Sorrelle river, and discovered, embosomed between the Green moun- tains, or " Verdmont," as the chivalrous and poetic French- man called them, and the Adirondacks, the beautiful sheet of water to which his name is indissolubly attached. In 1613 he founded Montreal.

During the period elapsing between the years 1607 and 1664, the English, Dutch, and Swedes alternately held pos- session of portions of the Atlantic coast, jealously watching one another, and often involved in bitter controversy, and not seldom in open battle, until, in the latter year, the English hecame the sole rulers, and maintained their rights until the era of the Revolution, when they in turn were compelled to yield to the growing power of their colonies, aud retire from the field.

The French movements, from the first settlement at Quebee, and thence westward, were led by the Catholic missionaries. Le Caron, a Franciscan friar, who had been the companion and friend of Champlain, was the first to penetrate the western wilds, which he did in 1616* in a birch canoe, exploring lake Huron and its tributaries. This was four years before the Pilgrims

" Moored their bark on the wild New England shore."

Under the patronage of Louis XIII, the Jesuits took the advance, and began vigorously the work of Christianizing the savages in 1632.

In 1634, three Jesuit missionaries, Brébeuf, Daniel, and Lallemand, planted a mission on the shores of the lake of the Iroquois, (probably the modern Lake Simcoe), and also established others along the eastern border of Lake Huron.

From a map published in 1660, it would appear that the French had at that date, become quite familiar with the region from Niagara to the head of Lake Superior, includ- ing considerable portions of Lake Michigan.

In 1641, Fathers Jogues and Raymbault embarked on the Penetanguishine Bay for the Sault St. Marie, where they arrived after a passage of seventeen days. A crowd of two thousand natives met them, and a great council was held. At this meeting the French first heard of many nations dwelling beyond the great lakes.

Father Raymbault died in the wilderness in 1642, while enthusiastically pursuing his discoveries. The same year, Jogues and Bressani were captured by the Indians and tortured, and in 1618 the mission which had been founded at St. Joseph was taken and destroyed, and Father Daniel slain. In 1649, the missions St Louis and St. Ignatius

* Western Aunals.

HISTORY OF MADISON COUNTY, ILLINOIS.

were also destroyed, and Fathers Brebeuf and Lallemand barbarously tortured by the same terrible and unrelenting enemy. Literally did those zealous missionaries of the Romish Church "take their lives in their hands," and lay them a willing sacrifice on the altar of their faith.

It is stated by some writer that, in 1654, two fur traders accompanied a band of Ottawas on a journey of five hun- dred leagues to the west. They were absent two years, and on their return brought with them fifty canoes and two hundred and fifty Indians to the French trading posts.

They related wonderful tales of the countries they had seen, and the various red nations they had visited, aud described the lofty mountains and mighty rivers in glowing terms. A new impulse was given to the spirit of adventure, and seouts and traders swarmed the frontiers aud explored the great lakes and adjacent country, and a party wintered in 1659-60 on the south shore of Lake Superior.

In 1660 Father Mesnard was sent out by the Bishop of Quebec, and visited Lake Superior in October of that year. While crossing the Kecweenaw Point he was lost in the wilder- ness and never afterwards heard from, though his cassock and breviary were found long afterwards among the Sioux.

A change was made in the government of New France in 1665. The Company of the Hundred Associates, who had ruled it since 1632, resigned its charter. Traey was made Viceroy, Courcelles Governor, and Talon Intendent .* This was called the Government of the West Indies.

The Jesuit missions were taken under the care of the new govenment, and theneeforward became the leaders in the movement to Christianize the savages.

In the same year (1665) Pierre Claude Allouez was sent out by way of the Ottawa river to the far west, via the Sault St. Marie and the south shore of Lake Superior, where he landed at the bay of Chegoimegon. IIere he found the chief village of the Chippcwas, and established a mission. He also made an alliance with them and the Sacs, Foxes and Illinois, t against the formidable Iroquois. Allouez, the next year (1666) visited the western end of the great lake, where he met the Sioux, and from them first learned of the Missis- sippi river which they called "M ssipi." From thence he returned to Quebec.

In 1668 Claude Dablon aud Jacques Marquette cstab- lished the mission at the Sault called St. Marie, and during the next five years Alloucz, Dablon and Marquette explorcd the region of Lake Superior on the south shore, and ex- tending to Lake Michigan. They also established the mis- sions of Chegoimegon, St. Marie, Mackinaw and Green Bay.

The plan of exploring the Mississippi probably originated with Marquette. It was at once sanctioned by the Inten- dent, Talon, who was ambitious to extend the dominion of France over the whole West.

In 1670 Nicholas Perot was sent to the West to propose a congress of all the nations and tribes living in the vicinity of the lakes ; and, in 1671, a great couneil was held at Sault St. Marie, at which the Cross was set up, and the nations of

# The duties of Intendent included a supervision of the policy, justice, and finance of the province.

t The in aning of this word is said to be " Men."

the great North-west were taken into an alliance, with much pomp and ceremony.

On the 13th of May, 1673, Marquette, Joliet, and five voyageurs, embarked in two birch canoes at Mackinaw and entered Lake Michigan. The first nation they visited was the " Folles-Alvoines," or natiou of Wild Cats, since known as the Menomonics, living around the " Baie des Puans," or Green Bay. These people, with whom Marquette was some- what acquainted, endeavored to persuade the adventurers from visiting the Mississippi. They represented the Indians on the great river as being blood thirsty and savage in the extreme, and the river itself as being inhabited by monsters which would devour them and their canocs together .*

Marquette thanked them for their advice, but declined to be guided by it. Passing through Green Bay, they ascended the Fox River, dragging their canocs over the strong rapids and visited the village, where they found living in harmony together tribes of the Miamis, Mascoutenst and Kikabeaux or Kickapoos. Leaving this point on the 10th of June, they made the portage to the " Owisconsin," and descended that stream to the Mississippi, which they entered on the 17th with a joy, as Marquette says, which he could not express."}

Sailing down the Mississippi, the party reached the Des Moines River, and, according to some, visited an Indian village some two leagues up the stream. Here the people again tried to persuade them from prosecuting their voyage down the river. After a great feast and a dance, and a night passed with this hospitable people, they proeceded on their way, escorted by six hundred persons to their eanoes. These people called themselves Illinois, or Illini. The name of their tribe was Peruaca, and their language a dialect of the Algonquin.

Leaving these savages, they proceeded down the river. Passing the wonderful rocks, which still excite the admira- tion of the traveller, they arrived at the mouth of another great river, the Pekitanoni, or Missouri of the present day. They noticed the condition of its waters, which they described as " muddy, rushing and noisy."

Passing a great rock, § they came to the Quabouskigon, or Ohio. Marquette shows this river very small, even as com- pared with the Illinois. From the Ohio they passed as far down as the Akamsca, or Arkansas, where they came very near being destroyed by the natives; but they finally paci- fied them, and, on the 17th of July, they commenced their return voyage.

The party reached Green Bay in September without loss or injury, and reported their discoveries, which were among the most important of that age. Marquette afterwards returned to Illinois, and preached to the natives until 1075.

On the 18th of May of that year, while cruising up the eastern coast of Lake Michigan with a party of boatmen, he landed at the mouth of a stream putting into the lake from the east, since known as the river Marquette. He performed mass, and went a little apart to pray, and being

" See legend of the great bird, the terrible " Prasa," that devoured men and was only overcome by the sacrifice of a brave young chief. The rneks above Altou, IlInois, have some rude representation of this monster.

¡ Prairie Indiau . 11

* Marquette's journal. & The grand bow

HISTORY OF MADISON COUNTY, ILLINOIS.

gone longer than his companions deemed necessary, they went in search of him, and found him dead where he had knelt. They buried him in the sand.

Wbile this distinguished adventurer was pursuing his labors, two other men were preparing to follow in his foot- step, and make still further explorations, and, if possible, more important discoveries. These were the Chevalier Robert de la Salle and Louis Hennepin.

La Salle was a native of Rouen, in Normandy. He was educated at a seminary of the Jesuits, and designed for the ministry, but, for reasons unknown, he left the seminary and came to Canada, in 1667, where he engaged in the fur trade.

Like nearly every intelligent man, he became intensely interested in the new discoveries of the West, and conceived the idea of exploring the passage to the great South Sea, which by many was believed to exist. He made known his ideas to the Governor-General, Count Frontenac, and de- sired his co-operation. The Governor at once fell in with his views, which were strengthened by the reports brought back by Marquette and Joliet, and advised La Salle to apply to the King of France in person, and gave him letters of introduction to the great Colbert, then Minister of Finance and Marine. Accordingly, in 1675, he returned to France, where he was warmly received by the King and nobility, and his ideas were at once listened to, and every possible favor shown to him.

He was made a Chevalier, and invested with the seigniory of Fort Catarocouy, or Frontenac (now known as Kingston) upon condition that he would rebuild it, as he proposed, of stone.

Returning to Canada, he wrought diligently upon the fort until 1677, when he again visited France to report progress. He was received, as before, with favor, and, at the instance of Colbert and his son, the King granted him new letters patent and new privileges. On the 14th of July, 1678, he sailed from Rochelle, accompanied by thirty men, and with Tonti, an Italian, for his lieutenant. They arrived at Quebec on the 13th of September, and after a few days' delay, proceeded to Frontenac. Father Lewis Hennepin, a Franciscan friar, of the Recollet sect, was quietly working in Canada on La Salle's arrival. He was a man of great ambition, and much interested in the discoveries of the day. He was appointed by his religious superiors to accompany the expedition fitting out for La Salle.

Sending agents forward to prepare the Indians for his coming, and to open trade with them, La Salle himself em- barked, on the 18th of November, in a little brigantine of ten tons, to cross Lake Ontario. This was the first ship of European build that ever sailed upon this fresh-water sea. Contrary winds made the voyage long and troublesome, and a month was consumed in beating up the lake to the Niagara River. Near the mouth of this river the Iroquois had a village, and here La Salle constructed the first fortification, which afterwards grew into the famous Fort Niagara. On the 26th of January, 1679, the keel of the first vessel built on Lake Erie was laid at the mouth of the Cayuga Creek, on the American side, about six miles above the falls.

In the meantime La Salle had returned to Fort Frontenac

to forward supplies for his forthcoming vessel. The little barque on Lake Ontario was wrecked by carelessness, and a large amount of the supplies she carried was lost. On the 7th of August, the new vessel was launched, and made ready to sail. She was about seven tons' burden.

La Salle christened his vessel the "Griffin," in honor of the arms of Count Frontenac. Passing across Lake Erie, and into the small lake, which they named St. Clair, they entered the broad waters of Lake Huron. Here they en- countered heavy storms, as dreadful as those upon the ocean and after a most tempestuous passage they took refuge in the roadstead of Michillimackinac (Mackinaw), on the 27th of August La Salle remained at this point until the middle of September, busy in founding a fort and constructing a trading-house, when he went forward upon the deep waters of Lake Michigan, and soon after east anchor in Green Bay. Finding here a large quantity of furs and peltries, he deter- mined to load his vessel and send her back to Niagara. On the 18th of September, she was sent under charge of a pilot while La Salle himself, with fourteen men,* proceeded up Lake Michigan, leisurely examining its shores and noting everything of interest. Tonti, who had been sent to look after stragglers, was to join him at the head of the lake. From the 19th of September to the 1st of November, the time was occupied in the voyage up this inland sea. On the last-named day, La Salle arrived at the mouth of the river Miamis, now St. Joseph. Here he constructed a fort, and remained nearly a month waiting for tidings of his vessel; but, hearing nothing, he determined to push on before the winter should prevent him. On the 3d of December, leaving ten men to garrison the fort, he started overland towards the head-waters of the Illinois, accompanied by three monks and twenty men. Ascending the St. Joseph River, he crossed a short portage and reached the The-a-ki-ki, since corrupted into Kankakee. Embarking on this sluggish stream, they came shortly to the Illinois, and soon after found a village of the Illinois Indians, probably in the vicinity of the rocky bluffs, a few miles above the present city of La Salle, Illinois. They found it deserted, but the Indians had quite a quantity of maize stored here, and La Salle, being short of provisions, helped himself to what he required. Passing down the stream, the party, on the 4th of January, came to a lake, probably the Lake Peoria, as there is no other upon this stream. Here they found a great number of natives, who were gentle and kind, and La Salle determined to construct a fort. It stood on a rise of ground near the river, and was named Creve- Cœur t (broken-heart), most probably on account of the low spirits of the com- mander, from anxiety for his vessel and the uncertainty of the future. Possibly he had heard of the loss of the " Griffin," which occurred on her downward trip from Green Bay ; most probably on Lake Huron. He remained at the Lake Peoria through the winter, but no good tidings eame, and no supplies. His men were discontented, but the brave adventurer never gave up hope. He resolved to send a party on a voyage of exploration up the Mississippi, under

# Annals of the West. + The site of the work is at present unknown.

HISTORY OF MADISON COUNTY, ILLINOIS.

the lead of Father Hennepin, and he himself would proceed on foot to Niagara and Frontenae, to raise more means and enlist new men ; while Tonti, his lieutenant, should stay at the fort, which they were to strengthen in the meantime, and extend their intercourse with the Indians.

Hennepin started on his voyage on the last day of Febru- ary, 16$0, 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. Ile 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 disappointment 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 peaceable tribes dwelling on the prairics. 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 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.

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History of Madison County, Illinois With biographical sketches, Part 2

Author: Brink, W.R. & Co Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Edwardsville, Ill. : W. R. Brink & co. Number of Pages: 698

Author: Brink, W.R. & Co
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Edwardsville, Ill. : W. R. Brink & co.
Number of Pages: 698