History of Madison County, Illinois With biographical sketches, Part 3

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

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IIennepin in the meanwhile had met with strange adven- tures. After leaving Creve-Cœur, he reached the Missis- sippi in seven days ; but his way was so obstructed by ice that he was until the 11th of April reaching the Wisconsin line. IIere 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 first of May. These falls Hennepin named in honor of his patron saint. Hennepin and his companions remained here for three months, treated very kindly by their captors. At the end of this time they met with a band of French, led by one Sieur de Luth,* who, in pursuit of game and trade, had penetrated to this country by way of Lake Su- perior. With his band Hennepin and his companions re- turned to the borders of civilized life in November, 1680, just after La Salle had gone back to the wilderness. HIen- nopin returned to France, where, in 1684, he published a narrative of his wonderful adventures.

Robert De La Salle, whose name is more eloscly connected with the explorations 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 tributarics 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 Prudhomme. Here La Salle was taken violently sick. Unable to proceed, he sent forward Tonti to communicate with Count Fronte- nac. 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 projeet 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 acces ible upon one side. There are no bluff's of such a height on the Illinois River answering the description. 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 Fronte- nac as Governor of Canada. This man was unfriendly towards La Salle, and this, with other untoward circum- stances, no doubt led him to attempt the colonization of the Mississippi country by way of the mouth of the river. Not- withstanding 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 Lou- isiana, and carried a body of two hundred 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 5th of February, and traveled castward 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 eame in sight. The stream was sounded and the vessels were anchored under shelter. But again misfortume overtook La Salle, and the vessel was wrecked, and the bulk of supplies was lost. At this june- ture 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 surrounding country in hope of finding the Mississippi. Ile was, of course, disappointed : but found on a stream, which is named the Vaches, a good site for a fort. He at onee re- moved his camp, and, after incredible exertions, constructed a fortification sufficient to protect them from the Indians. This fort was situated ou 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 em- barked on the river, with the intention of proceeding as far up as he could. The savages soon became troublesome, and

Joutel, historian of the voyage, accompanied La Salle, and subse- quently wrote his " Journal Istorique," which wa published in Par?, 1713.

* From this man undoubtedly comes the name of Duluth.

HISTORY OF MADISON COUNTY, ILLINOIS.

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 pur- pose 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 north-east- ward, 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 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 colo- nists were harassed and many of their people killed or car- ried captives to the Canadas. In 1688, the French posses- sions 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 extending 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 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 avenue 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 Colo- nies, and its close left everything as before, with the excep- tion that Nova Scotia was captured in 1710.

In 1718, New Orleans was laid out and settled by some European colonists. 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, and laid the foundation 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 civil- ized. 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 became the founder of Kas- kaskia. 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'Immaculée concepcion 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 mi sions. Soon after the founding of Kaskaskia, the missionary, Pinet, gathered a flock at Cahokia,+ 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 De- troit), || while in the southwest efforts were making to realize the dreams of La Salle. The leader in the last named en- terprise 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 Bay."

The post at Vincennes, on the Oubache river, (pronounced Wa-bā, meaning summer cloud moving swiftly), was estab- lished in 1702. It is quite probable 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 northwest, as it was not until this time that the atten-

# The authorities in relation to La Salle are Hennepin : a narrative pub- lished in the name of Tonti, in 1697, but disclaimed by him (Charlevoix III, 365. Lettres Edifiantes.

+ 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 inhabi- tants 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.

HISTORY OF MADISON COUNTY, ILLINOIS.

tion of the English was called to the occupation of this por- tion of the new world, which they then supposed they owned. Vivier, a missionary among the Illinois, writing " 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 natives within a spaec of twenty-one leagues, situated between the Mississippi and another river, called the Karkadiad, (Kaskaskia). In the five French 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 con- sumed, and great quantities of grain and flour are sent to New Orleans.""

Again, in an epistle dated November 17th, 1750, Vivier says : " For fifteen leagues above the mouth of the Missis- sippi, one sees no dwellings * * * * New Orleans contains black, white and red, not more, I think, than twelve hun- dred 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 Conpee, 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 observation. Vivier also says, "Some individuals dig lead near the surface, and supply the Indians and Can- ada. Two Spaniards, now here, who claim to be adepts, say that our mines are like those of Mexieo, 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 eoun- try, 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 ad- dition 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 north-west, they had stations at St. Joseph's on the St. Joseph's of Lake Michigan, at Fort Pontchartrain (Detroit), at Michilli- mackinac or Massillimaeinac, 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 aud settle- ment. Another nation, 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.

* Lettres Edifiantes (Paris, 1781), vii. 97-106.

+ Western Annal :.

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 discovered by Robert Cavalier de La Salle, in 1669. While La Salle was at his trading-post on the St. Lawrence, he found leisure to study nine Indian dialeets, the chief of which was the Iroquois. While con- versing 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 em- bark 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 improvements at La Chive to raiso the money, the offer was accepted by the Superior, 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, embarked 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 Niagara river, when 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. - De- lighted 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, afterwards famous as an explorer in the west. He had been sent by the Canadian 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 15

HISTORY OF MADISON COUNTY, ILLINOIS.

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 demand of Gordeur de St. Pierre why the French had built a fort on the Monongahela, the haughty com- mandant 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 Englishman 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 mis- sionary 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 Carignan, and was killed in 1735."+ Bancroft says a mili- tary establishment was formed there in 1716, and in 1742 a settlement of herdsmen took place .¿ 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 station 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 1676,|| and in Hennepin's volume of 1698, is a journal, said to be that sent by La Salle to Connt Frontenac in 1682 or '83, which mentions the route by the Maumee T 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, Illinois, 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 Alleghenis to the English crown. In Pennsylvania, also, Governor Keith and James Logan, Secretary of the Province from 1719 to

* Volney's View, p. 336.

+ Butler's Kentucky.

# History U. S. iii. 346.

¿ American State Papers, xvi. 32.

" Histoire General De : Voyages xiv., 758.

Now called Miami.

1731, represented to the powers of England the necessity of taking steps to secure the western lands. Nothing, however, was done by the mother country, except to take certain diplomatic steps to secure the claim of Britain to this unex- plored wilderness. England nad from the outset claimed from the Atlantic to the Pacific, on the ground that the dis- covery 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, 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 Confederacy in 1726, by which their lands were conveyed in trust to Eng- land, " 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 disputed, but never successfully. In 1774, a purchase was made at Lancaster of certain lands within the " colony of Virginia," for which the Indians received £200 in gold and a like sum in goods, with a promise that as settlements 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 vegan to com- plain, the promise of further pay was called to mind, and Mr. Conrad Weiser was sent across the Alleghenies to Logs- town. In 1784,* Col. Lee and some Virginians accom- panied him, with the intention of ascertaining the feelings of the Indians 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. Accordingly 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 Washington, and also Mr. Hanbury, of London, formed an association which they called the "Ohio Company," and in 1748 petitioned tlie king for a grant beyond the mountains. This petition was approved by the English government, and the government of Virginia was ordered to grant to the petitioners half a million of acres within the hounds of that colony beyond the Alleghenies, 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 suffi- cient 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.

* Plain Facts, pp. 47, 120.

HISTORY OF MADISON COUNTY, ILLINOIS.

Other companies were also formed about this time in Vir- ginia 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. *

The French were not blind all this time. They saw that if the British once obtained a stronghold upon the Ohio, they might not only prevent their settlements upon it, but in time would come to the lower posts, and so gain posses- sion of the whole country. Upon the 10th of May, 1744, Vandreuil, the French governor, well knowing the conse- quences that must arise from allowing the English to build trading posts in the north-west, seized some of their frontier posts, to further secure the claims of the French to the west. Having these fears, and seeing the danger of the late movements of the British, Gallisoniere, then Governor of Canada, determined to place along the Ohio evidences of the French claim to, and possession of, the country. For that purpose he sent, in the summer of 1749, Louis Celeron, with a party of soldiers, to place plates of lead, on which were written out the claims of the French, in the mounds and at the mouths of the rivers. These were heard of by Willliam Trent, an Indian commissioner, sent out by Vir- ginia in 1752, to treat with and conciliate the Indians, while upon the Ohio, and mentioned in his journal. One of these plates was found with the inscription partly defaced. It bears date August 16th, 1749, and a copy of the inscrip- tion, with particular account, was sent by De Witt Clinton to the American Antiquarian Society, among whose journals it may now be found. These measures did not, however, deter the English from going on with their explorations.

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History of Madison County, Illinois With biographical sketches, Part 3

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