History of St. Clair County, Illinois. With illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 3

Author: Brink, McDonough & Co., Philadelphia
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Philadelphia : Brink, McDonough
Number of Pages: 530

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HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY, ILLINOIS.

of Lake Erie, the Maumee and Wabash Rivers, and were pre- paring to explore the Ohio as a fourth route.

In 1699, D'Iberville, under the authority of the crown, disco- vered, 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 travers- ing 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 im- proved.

At this time a census of New France showed a total popula- tion 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 every- thing as before, with the exception that Nova Scotia was cap- tured 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 Napo- leon.

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 Ca- hokia 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 Crevecoeur), 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 became 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 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 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.t

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 southwest efforts were making to realize the dreams of La Salle. The leader in the last named enterprise was Le- moine 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-bā, meaning summer cloud moving swiftly), was established 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 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 mission- ary 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 thres villages of the natives within a space 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 consumed, and great quan- tities of grain and flour are sent to New Orleans."

Again, in an epistle dated November 17th, 1750, Vivier says : " For fifteen leagnes above the month 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 leagnes, 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 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."}

At the close of the year 1750, the French occupied in addition to the lower Mississippi posts aud 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 Pont-

* The authorities in relation to La Salle are Hennepin; a narrative published 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 North-west 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 Peo- ria, (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

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

# Western Annals.

HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY, ILLINOIS.

chartrain (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 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.

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 carly 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 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 con- sidered 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 Intend- ent, Talon. They issued letters patent, authorizing the enter- prise, 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 raise 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 On- tario. Their guides conducted them directly to the Seneca vil- lage 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 disap- pointed. 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. 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, afterwards famous as an explorer in the west. He had been sent by the Canadian government to ex- plore 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 demand 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 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 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." + Bancroft says a military 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 Count 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 ma- tured 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 Lo- gan, 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

* Volney's View, p. 336. t Butler's Kentucky. # History U. S., iii . 346. ¿ American State Papers, xvi., 32. | Histoire General Des Voyages xiv., 758.

" Now called Miami.

HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY, ILLINOIS.

country, 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, 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 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 disputed, but never successfully. In 1774, a purchase was made at Lancaster of certain lands within the " colony of Virginia," for which the In- dians 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 began to complain, the promise of further pay was called to mind, and Mr. Conrad Weiser was sent across the Alleghenies to Logstown. In 1784,* Col. Lee and some Virginians accompanied him, with the inten- tion 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 Logs- town, which was favorable to their views, Thomas Lee, with twelve other Virginians, among whom were Lawrence and Augus- tine, brothers of George Washington, 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 government, 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 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 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

The French were not blind all this time. They saw that if the

* Plain Facts, pp. 40, 120.

t Revised Statutes of Virginia.

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 possession of the whole country. Upon the 10th of May, 1744, Vaudreuil, the French governor, well knowing the consequences 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 evi- dences 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 William Trent, an Indian commissioner, sent out by Virginia in 1752, to treat with and conciliate the Indians, while upon the Ohio, and men- tioned 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 inscription, 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 explora- tions.

In February, 1751, Christopher Gist was sent by the Ohio Company to examine its lands. He went to a village of the Twigtwees, on the Miami, about 150 miles above its mouth. From there he went down the Ohio River nearly to the falls, at the present city of Louisville, and in November he commenced a survey of the company's lands. In 1751, General Andrew Lewis commenced some surveys in the Greenbrier country, on behalf of the company already mentioned. Meanwhile the French were busy in preparing their forts for defence, and in opening roads. In 1752 having heard of the trading houses on the Miami River, they, assisted by the Ottawas and Chippewas, attacked it, and, after a severe battle, in which fourteen of the natives were killed and others wounded, captured the garrison. The traders were carried away to Canada, and one account says several were burned. This fort, or trading house was called by the English writers Pickawillany. A memorial of the king's ministers refers to it as " Pickawellanes, in the center of the terri- tory between Ohio and the Wabash." This was the first blood shed between the French and English, and occurred near the present city of Piqua, Ohio. The English were determined on their part to purchase a title from the Indians of lands which they wished to occupy, and in the spring of 1752, Messrs. Fry,* Lomax and Patton, were sent from Virginia to hold a conference with the natives at Logstown, to learn what they objected to in the treaty at Lancaster, and to settle all difficultics. On the 9th June the commissioners met the red men at Logstown. This was a village seventeen miles below Pittsburgh, upon the north side of the Ohio. Here had been a trading point for many years, but it was abandoned by the Indians in 1750. At first the Indians declined to recognize the treaty of Lancaster, but the commissioners taking aside Montour, the interpreter, who was a son of the famous Catherine Montour, and a chief among the six nations, being three-fourths of Indian blood, through his influence

* Afterwards Commander-in-Chief over Washington, at the commencement of the French War of 1775.

HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY, ILLINOIS.

an agreement was effected, and upon the 13th of June they all united in signing a deed, confirming the Lancaster treaty in its fullest extent. Meanwhile the powers beyond the seas were try- ing to out-manœuver each other, and were professing to be at peace. The English generally outwitted the Indians, and secured

themselves, as they thought, by their politie conduct. But the French, in this as in all cases, proved that they knew best how

deputies at Winchester, Virginia, where he concluded a treaty. templation. And in September, 1753, William Fairfax met their treaty with the wild men of the debatable land was also in con- to manage the natives. While these measures were taken, another

In the month following, however, a more satisfactory interview

took place at Carlisle, between the representatives of the Iroquois,

Delawares, Shawnees, Twigtwees, and Wyandots, and the com-

missioners of Pennsylvania, Richard Peters, Isaac Norris, and

Benjamin Franklin. Soon after this, no satisfaction being

obtained from the Ohio, either as to the force, position, or pur-

poses of the French, Robert Dinwiddie, tben Governor of Vir-

ginia, determined to send to them another messenger, and learn

if possible their intentions. For this purpose he selected a young

surveyor, who, at the age of nineteen had attained the rank of

major, and whose previous life had inured him to hardships and

woodland ways ; while his courage, cool judgment, and firm will,

all fitted him for such a mission. This personage was no other than the illustrious George Washington, who then held consider-

able interest in western lands. He was twenty-one years old at the time of the appointment .* Taking Gist as a guide, the two,

accompanied by four servitors, set out on their perilous march. They left Will's Creek, where Cumberland now is, on the 15th of November, and on the 22d reached the Monongahela, about ten miles above the fork. From there they went to Logstown, where Washington had a long conference with the chiefs of the six nations. Here he learned the position of the French, and also that they had determined not to come down the river until the following spring. The Indians were non-committal, they

deeming a neutral position the safest. Washington, finding no- thing could be done, went on to Venango, an old Indian town at the mouth of the French Creek. Here the French had a fort called Fort Machault .. On the 11th of December he reached the fort at the head of French Creek. Here be delivered Gover- nor Dinwiddie's letter, received his answer, and upon the 16th

set out upon his return journey with no one but Gist, his guide, and a few Indians who still remained true to him. They reached home in safety on the 6th of January, 1754. From the letter of St. Pierre, commander of the French fort, sent by Washington to Governor Dinwiddie, it was perfectly clear that the French would not yield the West without a struggle. Active preparations were at once made in all the English colonies for the coming con- flict, while the French finished their fort at Venango and strength- ened their lines of fortifications to be in readiness. The Old

Dominion was all alive. Virginia was the center of great activities. Volunteers were called for, and from the neighboring colonies men rallied to the conflict, and everywhere along the Potomac men were enlisting under the Governor's proclamation,-which promised two hundred thousand acres on the Ohio. . Along this river they were gathering as far as Will's Creek, and far beyond this point, whither Trent had come for assistance, for his little band of forty one men, who were working away in hunger and

* Sparks' Washington, Vol. ii., pp. 428-447.

want, to fortify that point at the fork of the Ohio, to which both parties were looking with deep interest. The first birds of spring filled the forest with their songs. The swift river rolled by the Allegheny hillsides, swollen by the melting snows of spring and April showers. The leaves were appearing, a few Indian scouts were seen, but no enemy seemed near at hand, and all was so

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History of St. Clair County, Illinois. With illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 3

Author: Brink, McDonough & Co., Philadelphia Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Philadelphia : Brink, McDonough Number of Pages: 530

Author: Brink, McDonough & Co., Philadelphia
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Philadelphia : Brink, McDonough
Number of Pages: 530