USA > Illinois > Stark County > History of Stark County, Illinois, and its people : a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Volume I > Part 5
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Giving no credence to the horrible stories, Marquette continued his work of preparation and on May 13. 1673. accompanied by Louis Joliet, an explorer and trader, and five voyageurs, with two large canoes, the little expedition left the mission.
DISCOVERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI
Passing up Green Bay to the mouth of the Fox River, they aseended that stream to the portage, erossed over to the Wisconsin River and drifted down that stream in the belief and hope that it emptied into the great river of which they were in search. Nor were their hopes idle and their belief without foundation. On the morning of June 17, 1673, a little over a month from the time they left Point St. Ignaee, their eanoes floated out upon the broad bosom of the Mis- sissippi. Turning their eanoes down the mighty stream, a few days later they came to what is now the State of Illinois, opposite the city of Dubuque, Iowa, and were probably the first white men to see the western part of the state.
On their way down the river Marquette and Joliet visited some of the villages of the Illinois Indians in Southeastern Iowa. after which they continued their voyage until they met with a tribe of Indians whose language they could not understand, when they retraced their steps and returned to the French settlements about Miehilimackinac. They had been absent about four months and had traveled about two thousand five hundred miles, through an unknown region, anchoring at night in mid-stream to prevent attaeks by foes, and to avoid any rocks or rapids that might be in the river.
Joliet was a good topographer and prepared a map of the country through which he and Marquette had passed. The reports of their voyage, when presented to the French authorities, made the knowledge of the Mississippi's existence certain and it was not long until a move- ment was started to elaim the country drained by it for France.
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HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY
LA SALLE'S EXPEDITIONS
Robert Cavalier, Sieur de la Salle, in 1674, was granted the seigneury of Fort Frontenac, where the city of Kingston, Canada, is now located, and on May 12, 1678. Louis XIV. then King of France, granted him a permit to continue the explorations of Mar- quette and Joliet, "find a port for the king's ships in the Gulf of Mexico, discover the western parts of New France, and find a way to penetrate Mexico."
Nicholas Perrot had already made some explorations in the Illinois country in 1671; the missionaries Allouez and Dablon visited the Illi- nois Indians in 1672: and in 1673 Father Marquette ascended the Illinois and Desplaines rivers. The information gained from the reports of these early explorers led La Salle to select the Illinois River route as the best way to reach the Mississippi. His first attempt ended in failure, chiefly because his preparations had not been care- fully made. As his desire was to explore the great river from its source to its mouth, he sent Father Louis Hennepin in 1680 to lead an expedition from the mouth of the Illinois River to the headwaters of the Mississippi, and in April of that year Hennepin reached the Falls of St. Anthony, where the City of Minneapolis, Minnesota, now stands.
Late in December. 1681, La Salle, accompanied by his lientenant, Henri de Tonti; Jacques de la Metairie, a notary; Jean Michel, a surgeon; Father Zenobe Membre, a Recollet missionary, and "a num- ber of Frenehmen carrying arms," started upon the second expedi- tion to the mouth of the Mississippi. After a weary journey in the dead of winter, they arrived at. Peoria Lake on January 25. 1682. La Salle had reached this point about two years before, and had here built Fort Crevecoeur ( Broken Heart), so named because it was here he had been forced to abandon his first expedition. A short rest was taken at the old fort and on February 6, 1682, the whole party reached the mouth of the Illinois. Here another halt of a week was made until the Indian members of the expedition came up, their progress having been impeded by the heavy snow and ice. On the 13th the canoes started down the Mississippi and on April 8, 1682, La Salle and Tonti passed through two of the channels that led to the Gulf of Mexico. The next day La Salle formally took possession of all the country drained by the great river and its tributaries in the name of France, and conferred upon it the name of Louisiana, in honor of Louis XIV, the French king. Under this elaim Illinois became a dependency of France.
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HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY
Before the close of the year 1682 settlements were established by the French at Kaskaskia and Cahokia-the oldest settlements on the Mississippi River. A little later settlements or trading posts were established at Fort Chartres, Prairie du Rocher, Prairie du Pont and Peoria. To the French therefore belongs the honor of founding the first settlements within the limits of the present State of Illinois.
It is not surprising that in time a conflict of interests arose among the English, French and Spanish. Spain claimed the interior of the continent by virtue of De Soto's discovery of the Mississippi River. England had sent no expeditions into the interior, but upon the dis- coveries made by the Cabots claimed the country "from sea to sea." Neither Spain nor England made any attempt to found settlements in the Mississippi Valley. The elaim of La Salle was acknowledged by other European nations after some dispute and hesitation and France remained in control of the great valley for more than three- quarters of a century. At the beginning of the eighteenth century the English settlements occupied the Atlantic coast from Maine to Georgia ; Spain was in possession of the Peninsula of Florida and that part of the Gulf coast not ineluded in Louisiana: and France held the Valley of the St. Lawrence, the Great Lake Basin and the Mississippi Valley.
In 1712 the French Government granted to Antoine Crozat, a wealthy merchant of Paris. a charter giving him exclusive control of the Louisiana trade under certain conditions. But when his agents arrived in the Gulf of Mexico they found the Spanish ports closed to Crozat's ships, for Spain, while recognizing France's elaim to Loui- siana, as based upon the discovery of La Salle, was jealous of French ambitions. After five years, tired of constantly combating the Spanish opposition and other difficulties. Crozat surrendered his eharter.
Crozat was succeeded by the Mississippi Company, which was organized by John Law as a branch of the Bank of France. In 1718 Law sent about eight hundred colonists to Louisiana and the next year Philipe Renault went up the Mississippi to the Illinois country with about two hundred colonists. IIe reestablished the settlement at Kaskaskia and laid the foundations of the settlements at Prairie du Rocher and Prairie du Pont. Law was a good promoter, but a poor executive. In 1720 his whole scheme collapsed and so dismal was the failure that his company is known in history as the "Mississippi Bub- ble." In 1730 the white population of the French settlements in the Illinois country was about three hundred and fifty, and in 1732 Law surrendered his charter and Louisiana again became a French erown provinee.
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IHISTORY OF STARK COUNTY
FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR
In the meantime the English had been gradually pushing the frontier of their civilization farther westward. As early as 1667 the Hudson's Bay Company had been organized and its trappers and trad- ers passed freely among the Indian tribes around the Great Lakes and in the Upper Mississippi Valley, despite the French claim to the territory and oblivious to the French protests against their trespasses. The attack of the Fox Indians on the French post at Detroit in 1712 was ineited by the English traders. Again in 1730 the English and Dutch traders influenced some of the tribes to make war on the French in the hope of driving them from the country. The first open rupture between France and England did not come until 1753, when the former began the establishment of a line of forts from the Great Lakes to the Ohio River, for the purpose of holding back the threat- ened English occupation of the Ohio Valley. The French elaimed that the Allegheny Mountains formed a natural boundary, west of which the British had no right to pass. One of the French forts was located upon land claimed by Virginia, and Governor Dinwiddie of that colony sent George Washington, then just turned twenty-one, to demand of the French commandant an explanation of this invasion of English territory while the nations were at peace. The reply was unsatisfactory, not to say insolent, and in 1754 Washington was sent into the disputed territory with a detachment of troops, having been promoted to lieutenant-colonel.
Some years before this a charter had been granted by the British Government to an association called the Ohio Company. The charter carried with it a large tract of country and the right to trade with the Indians on the Great Miami River. In 1750 the Ohio Company built a fort and opened a trading post near the site of the present City of Piqua, Ohio. The Canadian authorities, regarding this as an en- eroachment upon French territory, sent a body of soldiers and Indians to break up the post. The Ohio Company then began a new post at the head of the Ohio River, where the City of Pittsburgh is now located. but again they were driven away by the French. Part of Washington's instructions in 1754 was "to complete the fort already commeneed by the Ohio Company at the forks of the Ohio, and to capture, kill or drive out all who attempted to interfere with the English posts."
An order of this kind naturally aronsed the indignation of the French and in May, 1756, that nation formally declared war against
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HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY
England. The conflict that followed is known in American history as the "French and Indian war," which in the end had a great influence upon the history of the Illinois country. After keeping the Indian tribes and American colonies in a state of turmoil for several years, the war was concluded by the treaty of Fontainebleau on November 3, 1762, by which France ceded that part of Louisiana lying east of the Mississippi River (except the City of New Orleans and the island upon which it is situated) to Great Britain. The treaty was ratified by the treaty of Paris on February 10, 1763, and on the same day it was announced that, by an agreement previously made in secret, all that part of Louisiana lying west of the Mississippi was ceded to Spain. Through the operation of these two treaties the jurisdiction of France came to an end in what is now the United States and Illinois became a British possession.
Many of the French subjects living east of the Mississippi refused to acknowledge allegiance to Great Britain and removed to the west side of the river. When the English colonies in America became in- volved in war with the Mother Country in 1775, a large number of the French, who had formerly lived in Illinois, recrossed the river and joined the colonists in their struggle for independence.
CLARK'S CONQUEST OF THE NORTHWEST
In the territory acquired by England by the treaty of 1763, several posts had been established by the French. prior to the cession. Near the present City of East St. Louis was Cahokia. Forty-five miles down the river was St. Philippe. A few miles below St. Philippe were Prairie du Rocher and Nouvelle Chartres (on the site of the old fort of that name), and a little farther south was Kaskaskia. On the Wabash River, in what is now the State of Indiana, were the posts of Ouiatenon and Vineennes, and still farther north was Detroit, the most important post of all. These posts were occupied by the British at the beginning of the Revolutionary war.
In 1777 George Rogers Clark, a colonel of the Virginia line, sent two spies-Samuel Moore and Benjamin Lin-into the Illinois country disguised as Inmters to ascertain the conditions there. Upon their return they reported the population of Cahokia as 300 whites and 100 negroes; that a few French families were living at St. Philippe and Prairie du Rocher; that Kaskaskia consisted of eighty houses, 500 white inhabitants and nearly as many negroes: that in none of the posts was the garrison very strong, and that many of the French inhabitants were friendly to the American cause.
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HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY
Armed with this information, Clark went before the Virginia Assembly and presented a plan for the overthrow of British power in the Mississippi Valley. On January 2, 1778, the Assembly voted £1.200 to defray the expenses of the expedition and the same day Governor Patrick Henry gave Colonel Clark seeret instructions an- thorizing him to raise seven companies of fifty men each, obtain boats at Fort Pitt ( Pittsburgh) for the transportation of troops, ammumi- tion and supplies down the Ohio River, "and during the whole trans- action you are to take especial care to keep the true destination of your forees seeret."
Clark raised but four of the seven companies. These four, com- manded by Captains John Montgomery, Joseph Bowman, Leonard Helm and William Harrod, rendezvoused on Corn Island, in the Ohio River. not far from the present City of Louisville, Kentucky. On June 24. 1778, the little army left the island and dropped down the Ohio, Clark's intention being to ascend the Wabash and attack the post at Vincennes first. Circumstances cansed him to change his plan and begin his campaign at Kaskaskia. Leaving the boats at the mouth of the Temmessee River, Clark marched his force aeross the country to Kaskaskia, which place was captured without opposition on the night of July 4, 1778.
The inhabitants were treated with every consideration and some of them joined Captain Bowman, who was sent up the river with his company to capture the post at Cahokia. Here another bloodless vietory was won and the inhabitants cheerfully took the oath of alle- giance to Virginia. Clark then commeneed his preparations for the reduction of the post at Vincennes. Father Pierre Gibault, who had been in charge of the parishes between the Wabash and Mississippi rivers for ten years, volunteered to bring the people of Vincennes over to the American interests without any military demonstration, provided his name should not be used openly in the transaction and that Dr. Jean Baptiste Laffont, a physician of Kaskaskia, might be charged with the temporal part of the mission.
The priest and the doetor, with their attendants, left Kaskaskia on the 14th of July, with an address to the people of Vincennes au- thorizing them to garrison their own town, ete. They succeeded in their embassy and Clark plaeed the post under the command of Capt. Leonard Helm, who was also appointed Indian agent for the depart- ment of the Wabash.
So far everything had worked well and Clark had succeeded be- vond his most sanguine expectations. But late in the fall Henry
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HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY
Hamilton, the British lieutenant-governor at Detroit, collected a force of thirty regulars, fifty French volunteers and 400 Indians, with which he descended the Wabash and on December 15, 1778, recap- tured the post at Vincennes. No attempt was made by the inhabitants to defend the place. They were disarmed and Captain Helm was detained as a prisoner of war. When this unfortunate event occurred Clark was making his preparations for his advance upon Detroit, but now he deemed it more important to take and hold Vincennes.
On January 29, 1779, Francis Vigo, a Spanish merchant who had been at Vincennes, arrived at Kaskaskia and gave Clark the informa- tion that Hamilton had weakened his garrison by sending his Indians against the frontier settlements; that the garrison did not number more than seventy-five or eighty men, and that the plan was to have the Indians gather at Vineennes early in the spring for the purpose of driving the Virginians from Kaskaskia and Cahokia. Upon learn- ing these things Clark realized that there was no time to be lost. On February 4, 1779, Capt. John Rogers and forty-six men embarked on a large keel-boat. with two four-pounders and four swivels and a supply of ammunition and provisions, under instructions to drop down the Mississippi and aseend the Ohio and Wabash rivers with all speed possible, while Clark, with the remainder of his force and some French volunteers marched across the country.
Crossing the Kaskaskia River, Clark followed the old trail be- tween the two posts until he reached the Embarrass River, near the present City of Lawrenceville, where the flooded condition of the country caused him to change his course and he struck the Wabash River about ten miles below the post. The mareh was one of great hardships, the men often wading in water up to their waists and the rations were limited for the greater portion of the march. Notwith- standing all the obstacles, on the morning of February 18. 1779, they were near enough to the fort to hear Hamilton's morning gun. Three days later, two canoes having been found, the men were ferried over the Wabash not far from the present Town of St. Francisville.
In his account of the expedition Clark says: "Our fate was now to be determined. probably in a few hours. We knew that nothing but the most daring eondnet would insure success." Confident that some of the inhabitants were friendly to the American cause, and believing that he had some friends among the Indians, Clark inaugurated his "daring eonduet" poliey by writing the following address:
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HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY
"To the Inhabitants of Post Vincennes:
"Gentlemen --- Being now within two miles of your village, with my army, determined to take your fort this night, and not being willing to surprise you, I take this method to request such of you as are true citizens and willing to enjoy the liberty I bring yon, to remain still in your houses. And those, if any there be, that are friends to the king, will instantly repair to the fort and join the hair-buyer general, and fight like men. And if any such as do not go to the fort shall be dis- covered afterwards, they may depend on severe punishment. On the contrary, those who are true friends to liberty may depend on being well treated, and I once more request them to keep out of the streets. For every one I find in arms on my arrival I shall treat him as an eneniy.
"G. R. CLARK."
After sending this by messenger, Clark began to maneuver his force in such a way as to make it appear much more formidable then it really was. A few horses had been captured from some hunters near the post. These were now mounted by the officers, who rode about in all directions, as though carrying orders. There were several stands of colors, each of which was fixed on a long pole and carried so that it could be seen above the top of one of the ridges, while the man who carried it remained out of view. These maneuvers were kept up until dark, when the direction of the advance was suddenly changed and before the inhabitants were aware of what was taking place Clark had gained the heights back of the village. Lieutenant Bayley advaneed with fourteen men and opened fire upon the fort, the main body taking possession of the town.
Without going into details regarding the events of the next forty- eight hours, early on the morning of the 24th Clark sent the following communication to Hamilton under a flag of truce:
"Sir: In order to save yourself from the impending storm that now threatens you, I order you immediately to surrender yourself, with all your garrison, stores, etc. For if I am obliged to storm, you may depend on such treatment as is justly due to a murderer. Beware of destroying stores of any kind, or any papers or letters that are in your possession, or hurting one house in town-for, by Heavens! if you do, there shall be no mercy shown you.
"G. R. CLARK."
Hamilton replied that he and his garrison were not disposed "to be awed into any action unworthy British subjects," and the attack
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HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY
on the fort was renewed. Some of the men begged to be permitted to storm the fort, but Clark knew he had no men to spare and kept his soldiers from exposing themselves as much as possible. In the after- noon Hamilton asked for a truce for three days, which Clark denied, and even refused to go to the gate of the fort for a conference, fearing treachery on the part of the British commander, who had won the appellation of "the hair-buyer general" through his custom of paying Indians a certain price for American sealps. However, Clark offered to meet Hamilton at the church, some eighty yards from the fort, and requested that Captain Hehn, who was still a prisoner, be present at the parley. The result of the meeting was the surrender of the fort. with all its stores and munitions and Clark took possession at 10 o'clock the next morning. Three days later Hamilton and his troops took their departure from Vincennes. During the siege Clark lost one man wounded, while the British casualties amounted to seven wounded.
Virginia elaimed the territory captured by Colonel Clark and in October, 1778, the Legislature of that colony passed an act providing that the conquered region should comprise the "County of Illinois." of which Col. John Todd was appointed county lieutenant in the spring of 1779. Soon after receiving his commission Colonel Todd visited Vincennes and Kaskaskia and organized in each place a tem- porary government, in accordance with the provisions of the act creating the county.
The importance of Colonel Clark's conquest can hardly be over- estimated. By the treaty of September 3. 1783. which ended the Revolutionary war, the western boundary of the United States was fixed at the Mississippi River. Had it not been for the action of Colonel Clark and his little band of heroes in driving the British ont of the Mississippi Valley, the chances are that the treaty would have applied only to the territory included in the thirteen original colonies. the western boundary of which would in all probability have been fixed along the summit of the Appalachian Mountains, and the interior of the continent would have remained an English possession. In 1784 Virginia relinquished her claim to the region and Illinois became territory of the United States. By the Ordinance of 1787 the country acquired by and through the campaign of Colonel Clark-lying north and west of the Ohio River-was organized as the Northwest Territory.
In 1800 all the Northwest Territory, except the present State of Ohio, was ereeted by an act of Congress into the Territory of Indiana. of which Illinois formed a part. On February 3. 1809. President
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HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY
Jefferson approved the act making Illinois a separate territory and appointed Ninian Edwards governor. At that time there were but two organized counties within the present state limits-Randolph and St. Clair. Immigration into the new territory was rapid and on April 18. 1818, President Monroe approved the "Enabling Act," which authorized the people of Illinois to eleet delegates to a constitutional convention and adopt a constitution, preparatory to admission into the Union as a state. The convention assembled at Kaskaskia in July, the constitution was ratified by the people and approved by Congress, and on December 3, 1818, Illinois was formally admitted to statehood. The two counties of 1809 have been multiplied until there are now 102 counties in the state. Stark became a separate and independent county in 1839.
Having thus briefly traced the evolution of Stark County, step by step, let us recapitulate. In 1543 the territory now comprising the county was elaimed by Spain. Through the elaim of La Salle, made on April 9, 1682, it was included in Louisiana and became a part of the French possessions in America. By the treaty of February 10, 1763, which ended the French and Indian war, it was ceded to Great Britain and remained a dependency of that government until the re- duction of the British posts by George Rogers Clark in 1778. It was then a part of Virginia until 1784, when it was ceded by that state to the United States. By the Ordinance of 1787 it was made a part of the Northwest Territory. From 1800 to 1809 it formed a part of the Territory of Indiana. It was then included in the Territory of Illi- nois, which was admitted to statehood in 1818, when Stark was still held by the Indians. By the treaty of Chicago, September 26, 1833. the Indian title to the land was extinguished and the white man came into full possession.
What were once the hunting grounds of the Pottawatomi Indians are now cultivated fields. Where once was the Indian trail is now the railroad. The whistle of the locomotive has supplanted the war- whoop of the savage. The tepee of the red man has given way to the schoolhouse and the halls of legislation have taken the place of the tribal council. Indian villages have disappeared and in their stead have come the towns of civilization, with paved streets, electrie lights, public libraries and all the evidences of modern progress. To tell the story of this progress is the aim of the subsequent chapters of this history.
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