USA > Illinois > Vermilion County > History of Vermilion County, Illinois, Volume One > Part 2
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CHAPTER X
DANVILLE, CONTINUED
DANVILLE INCORPORATED IN 1872-CHIEF INDUSTRIES-DEVELOPMENT OF THE FIRE DEPARTMENT-PRESENT FORM OF CITY GOVERNMENT -GERMAN SOCIETIES IN DANVILLE-RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS-DE- VELOPMENT AND DISAPPEARANCE OF DENMARK-GROWTH OF THE COUNTY-DANVILLE AS A CENTER-ITS THRIVING INDUSTRIES TODAY -PRESENT POPULATION.
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HISTORY OF VERMILION COUNTY
CHAPTER XI
HOOPESTON
EARLY IMPORTANCE OF HOOPESTON -ITS PROMOTERS - FIRST POST OFFICE-RELIGIOUS SERVICES-OUTSTANDING CITIZENS-THE NORTH VERMILION CHRONICLE-HOOPESTON INCORPORATED IN 1874-DE- MAND FOR GOOD SCHOOLS-POPULARITY OF JACOB S. McFERREN AND HIS OFFICIAL CAREER - OTHER DOMINANT FIGURES - ALBA HONEYWELL-THE ILLINOIS CANNING COMPANY-BANKING INSTITU- TIONS- DONALD J. AND WILLIAM McFERREN CARRY ON TRADITIONS IN HOOPESTON - LODGES - CHAMBER OF COMMERCE - LIBRARY - PARKS-CHURCHES.
CHAPTER XII
TOWNSHIPS AND VILLAGES
CATLIN TOWNSHIP: CRADLE OF VERMILION COUNTY-BUTLER'S POINT- THE FIRST MILL- EARLIEST SETTLERS - JOHN PAYNE - PIONEER TEACHERS-"GRANDMA" GUYMON-VILLAGE OF CATLIN-ITS FIRST MERCHANTS-HISTORICAL POINTS OF INTEREST-CARROLL TOWN- SHIP: ITS ORIGIN-NATURAL RESOURCES-"INJIN JOHN" MYERS- OTHER PIONEERS-EARLY PHYSICIANS AND TEACHERS-RELIGIOUS GROUPS-INDIANOLA.
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HISTORY OF VERMILION COUNTY
CHAPTER XIII
TOWNSHIPS AND VILLAGES-Continued
ELWOOD TOWNSHIP: DERIVATION OF NAME-SOCIETY OF FRIENDS -- FIRST CABIN IN 1820-JOHN HAWORTH-CAUSE OF EDUCATION-THE SEMINARY-GROWTH OF CHURCHES-INFLUENCE OF THE QUAKERS- SETTLEMENT OF RIDGEFARM-GEORGETOWN TOWNSHIP: INDUCE- MENTS TO PIONEERS-FIRST PERMANENT SETTLERS-EARLY RE- LIGIOUS LIFE-VILLAGE OF GEORGETOWN-ITS RAPID DEVELOP- MENT-LEADING MERCHANTS-PROMOTION OF EDUCATION-GEORGE- TOWN SEMINARY-WESTVILLE: ITS IMPORTANCE AS A VILLAGE- CHIEF INDUSTRY-POPULATION.
CHAPTER XIV
TOWNSHIPS AND VILLAGES-Continued
MIDDLEFORK TOWNSHIP: LOCATION-ARRIVAL OF THE PARTLOW FAM- ILY IN 1829-NUMEROUS EARLY SETTLERS-A POPULAR TAVERN- RELIGIOUS AND EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS-MERCANTILE ESTABLISH- MENTS-NEWELL TOWNSHIP: EARLIEST FAMILY-LENEVE BROTH- ERS-PIONEER LOG SCHOOL HOUSE-ADVENT OF METHODISM-PILOT TOWNSHIP: ATTRACTIONS TO SETTLERS OF 1830-INFLUENCE OF RELIGION AND EDUCATION-COLLISON-ROSS TOWNSHIP: THE DAVI- SONS AND GRUNDYS-LEADING PIONEERS-RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATION VILLAGE OF ROSSVILLE.
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HISTORY OF VERMILION COUNTY
CHAPTER XV
TOWNSHIPS AND VILLAGES-Continued
VANCE TOWNSHIP - BLOUNT TOWNSHIP -GRANT TOWNSHIP - BUTLER TOWNSHIP -SIDELL TOWNSHIP-OAKWOOD TOWNSHIP -JAMAICA TOWNSHIP-LOVE TOWNSHIP-McKINDREE TOWNSHIP-SOUTH ROSS TOWNSHIP.
CHAPTER XVI
THE VERMILION COUNTY BENCH AND BAR (By Hon. James A. Meeks)
EARLY LAWYERS-FIRST COURT HELD AT BUTLER'S POINT-JAMES O. WATTLES FIRST CIRCUIT COURT JUDGE-OTHER EARLY JUDGES -- DAVID DAVIS-INFLUENCE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN IN THE DANVILLE COURTS-"UNCLE JOE" CANNON-LATER DAY LAWYERS-PRESENT MEMBERS OF THE BAR.
CHAPTER XVII
THE MEDICAL PROFESSION
PIONEER DOCTORS-MEDICINE IN 1824-VERMILION COUNTY MEDICAL SOCIETY - DOCTORS OF TODAY - SAINT ELIZABETH'S HOSPITAL- LAKEVIEW HOSPITAL.
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HISTORY OF VERMILION COUNTY
CHAPTER XVIII
SCHOOLS OF VERMILION COUNTY (By Larkin A. Tuggle, County Superintendent of Schools)
FIRST TEACHER-OTHER EARLY TEACHERS-VERMILION ACADEMY- GEORGETOWN SEMINARY-DANVILLE SEMINARY-SCHOOL SUPERIN- TENDENTS-FIRST PUBLIC SCHOOL-PRESENT SYSTEM OF EDUCA- TION - STATISTICS - PRIVATE SCHOOLS - PAROCHIAL SCHOOLS - BROWN'S BUSINESS COLLEGE-UTTERBACK'S BUSINESS COLLEGE- JOHN GREER HIGH SCHOOL.
CHAPTER XIX
THE DANVILLE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE (By H. Ernest Hutton, President)
EARLY COMMERCE CLUBS-THE ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND CLUB-AD- VENT OF THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE-A SUCCESSFUL PROGRAM- RECORD OF ACHIEVEMENTS-DETAILED STUDY OF CITY-SPECIAL COMMITTEES - FAR REACHING ACTIVITIES - MEMBERSHIP - THE "DANVILLE PLAN"-OFFICERS-"100,000 IN THE MAKING."
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HISTORY OF VERMILION COUNTY
CHAPTER XX
THE DEVELOPMENT OF HIGHWAYS IN VERMILION COUNTY (By W. S. Dillon, County Superintendent of Highways.)
TRAVEL IN THE EARLY DAYS-THE "OLD PLANK ROAD" OF 1843-LE- SEURE'S LANE-BRIDGES-FIRST BRICK ROAD-VARIOUS BOND ISSUES -TICE ROAD LAW OF 1913-IMPETUS TO BUILD ROADS-TOWNSHIP ACTIVITY-SUCCESS IN "PULLING DANVILLE OUT OF THE MUD"- COUNTY CONTRACTS.
CHAPTER XXI
THE CLAY PRODUCTS INDUSTRY
DANVILLE AS THE CERAMIC CITY-THE BRICK INDUSTRY-WESTERN BRICK COMPANY-CLAY PRODUCTS-A PROMISING FUTURE.
CHAPTER XXII
VERMILION COUNTY COAL
FIRST COAL MINES IN THIS SECTION-PROMOTERS-ROMANTIC CAREER OF "MIKE" KELLY-APPROXIMATE COAL PRODUCTION-DANVILLE'S FUTURE IN COAL.
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HISTORY OF VERMILION COUNTY
CHAPTER XXIII
POWER AND RAILROADS
DANVILLE AS AN IMPORTANT LINK-INDUSTRIAL CENTER-POSSIBILI- TIES OF ELECTRICITY-THE DANVILLE PLANT-DANVILLE INDIANA LINE-THE ILLINOIS POWER AND LIGHT CORPORATION-RAILROADS -THEIR SIGNIFICANCE TO DANVILLE.
CHAPTER XXIV
CLUBS
DANVILLE CIVIC COUNCIL-CHAMBER OF COMMERCE-THE ROTARY CLUB -THE KIWANIS CLUB-AMERICAN BUSINESS CLUB-THE EXCHANGE CLUB-BUSINESS AND PROFESSIONAL WOMAN'S CLUB-THE ALTRUSA CLUB-THE DANVILLE CLUB-"MICAWBER CLUB"-WOMAN'S CLUB- FEDERATED WOMAN'S CLUB-DANVILLE MUSICAL CYCLE-DANVILLE CHORAL SOCIETY-THE DANVILLE CIVIC MUSIC ASSOCIATION-HOME DECORATIVE CLUB-THE CLOVER CLUB-THE MONDAY ART CLUB- THE "G. I. P." CLUB.
CHAPTER XXV
VERMILION COUNTY IN THE WORLD WAR
DECLARATION OF WAR-RECRUITING-BATTERY A AND COMPANY L FIRST IN THE SERVICE-HEAVY ENLISTMENTS-VERMILION COUNTY'S CLAIM AS THE MOST PATRIOTIC COUNTY IN AMERICA SUBSTAN- TIATED-CASUALTIES IN FRANCE-DISTINGUISHED SERVICE CROSS- SIGNING OF THE ARMISTICE-TOTAL ENLISTMENT FIGURES FOR VER- MILION COUNTY.
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HISTORY OF VERMILION COUNTY
CHAPTER XXVI
THE PRESS
AMOS WILLIAMS AND R. H. BRYANT ESTABLISH THE FIRST NEWSPAPER IN 1832-THE DANVILLE PATRIOT-EARLY DAY NEWSPAPERMEN- SLOGANS-VERMILION COUNTY PRESS-NEWSPAPERS AS MOLDERS OF PUBLIC OPINION-EARLY MARKET QUOTATIONS-THE DANVILLE TIMES-CLINTON CLAY TILTON-CAREER OF JOHN H. HARRISON- THE COMMERCIAL-NEWS OF TODAY-OTHER LEADING PUBLICATIONS OF VERMILION COUNTY.
CHAPTER XXVII
NATIONAL SOLDIERS HOME
ESTABLISHMENT IN 1897-ITS PURPOSE-WAR VETERANS-HOSPITAL- BUILDINGS AND GROUNDS-MANAGEMENT-"UNCLE JOE" CANNON.
CHAPTER XXVIII
EARLY MILLS IN VERMILION COUNTY By Juanita Martin
TOWN OF ALVIN TODAY-IMPORTANCE OF THE MILL-OLD BARLOW MILL AND ITS CENTURY OF SERVICE-MILLING IN DANVILLE-AMOS WIL- LIAMS-A LIFE OF SERVICE-SIGNIFICANCE OF A PIONEER INDUSTRY.
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HISTORY OF VERMILION COUNTY
CHAPTER XXIX
EXTINCT TOWNS (By W. H. Hackman)
THE PASSING OF SALEM-WEAVER CITY IN 1872-FATE OF THE TOWN OF GILBERT-PROSPECT CITY - LEESBURG - MONROE - FRANKLIN- MYERSVILLE-GREENVILLE-EARLIER NAMES OF PRESENT TOWNS- EFFECT OF THE RAILROAD.
CHAPTER XXX
A CIVIL WAR TIME MYSTERY (By Hud Robbins)
DISCOVERY OF SKELETONS - NUMEROUS EXPLANATIONS - SUPPOSED GUERILLA WARFARE-REMINISCENCES OF OLD RESIDENTS-"LOST ISLAND."
CHAPTER XXXI
WHEN LINCOLN PRACTICED LAW IN DANVILLE (By Clint C. Tilton)
BIRTH AND EARLY LIFE-FIRST PUBLIC APPEARANCE-EARLY POPU- LARITY-INNUMERABLE LINCOLN STORIES-ADMISSION TO THE BAR IN 1837 - RIDING THE CIRCUIT-EARLY LAW PARTNERSHIP -THE FRIENDSHIP OF WARD HILL LAMON-ELECTED PRESIDENT-ASSO- CIATION OF LAMON AND EUGENE FIELD-PERSONAL HABITS OF LIN- COLN-LAST APPEARANCE IN DANVILLE-NEWS OF LINCOLN'S ASSAS- SINATION.
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HISTORY OF VERMILION COUNTY
CHAPTER XXXII
MISCELLANEOUS
YOUNG WOMEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION - THE DANVILLE PUBLIC LIBRARY.
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VERMILION COUNTY COURT HOUSE, DANVILLE
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History of Vermilion County
CHAPTER I
EXPLORATION AND CONQUEST.
ORIGINAL INHABITANTS-INDIAN TRIBES-IMPORTANCE OF THE PIANKE- SHAWS, POTTAWATOMIES AND THE KICKAPOOS-THE "SALINES"- FRENCH AND SPANISH CONQUESTS-FATHER MARQUETTE, EXPLORER -PONTIAC'S PLAN-DOWNFALL OF FRENCH RULE-VISIT OF GEORGE CROGHAN-INDIAN TREATY WITH THE ENGLISH-CAPTURE OF VIN- CENNES-SUCCESS OF THE CLARK EXPEDITION.
The flags of four nations have waved their way across what is now Vermilion County-France, by right of dis- covery ; England, by right of conquest; our own American colors, also by right of conquest; and Spain, by what might be described as hope of conquest.
Indian tribes, chiefly the Piankeshaws, the Potta- watomies and the Kickapoos, left their imprint upon Ver- milion County, their habitations ranging from the "Ver- milion Salines" to the mouth of the Vermilion River, where it flowed into the Wabash River.
The "Salines" were known to the Indians from the earliest days and the French explorers and fur traders, who in advance of civilization's march traversed this territory.
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HISTORY OF VERMILION COUNTY
The "Salines of Vermilion" are referred to in early French records as far back as 1706. They were on the historic Detroit-Kakaskia trail and was a stopping point of the hardy Frenchmen in the days when Fort de Chartres was the center of French power in the Mississippi Valley.
Old records in Montreal, Canada, reveal the fact that Jesuit Fathers visited the "Salines" in 1750 and found a large Indian village, extending from a point west of the "Salines" to within six to eight miles of where the Ver- milion empties into the Wabash River, and occupying both sides of the Vermilion River.
The French records show an advanced stage of civiliza- tion in those days, many of the Indians having rude cabins, instead of wigwams, and raising corn, or maize, and pump- kins, in small fields enclosed with brush fences, indicating an attempt at individual ownership of the land, even among the savages.
The French flag was followed by the British flag and the Illinois country had been won to the American flag by George Rogers Clark, when it was invaded by a Spanish force on its way in 1781 from Saint Louis, the capital of New Spain, to the British fort on the Saint Joseph River in Michigan.
Sixty-five Spanish cavaliers, under the command of Don Eugenie Peurre, Don Carlos Tayon and Don Luis Chevalier, set out from Saint Louis to capture the British fort. Their "invasion" of American territory on the way to the British fort was probably due to ignorance, but had the troop of adventurers been large enough to occupy the territory crossed, international complications might have arisen, for the "invaders" did capture and destroy the British fort.
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HISTORY OF VERMILION COUNTY
The miniature army camped three days at the "Ver- milion Salines," according to old Spanish records, two of these days being spent in conference with the Indians in an effort to induce them to acknowledge Spanish sov- ereignty.
The Spaniards met with failure and on the third day a battle was fought with the Indians, in which the "invad- ers" were beaten and forced to go on their way. Several cannon balls, of foreign make, found a number of years ago imbeded in the bluff near the "Salt Works," furnished the corroboration for this story.
From Michigan, the Spaniards returned to the Kan- kakee River, built some boats and floated down the Kan- kakee, the Illinois and the Mississippi Rivers to Saint Louis and home.
It is interesting to speculate upon the possible trend of history had the Spaniards been successful with their nego- tiations with the Indians at the "Vermilion Salines," or in the battle that finally closed the conference.
Even with the defeat at the hands of the Indians here, had the Spaniards pressed their claim to the territory between Saint Louis and the Michigan fort captured from the British, the resultant history may have been different.
One cannot but have admiration for the courage of the little group of Castilian cavaliers, who set out so bravely to march so many hundred miles to vent their feelings upon the British, and in the romance of Vermilion County, the Spanish "invasion" should ever be an interesting chapter.
Fur trading had its place in the Indian settlement of this territory, even as salt was a factor in the settlement of this section by the white people.
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HISTORY OF VERMILION COUNTY
Fur trading was far in advance of the coming of civil- ization. Traffic in furs did not have for its objective any part in the coming of the white settlers. It was only after the fur business had gone into a decline that other factors served to draw the pioneer.
The first mention in French records of Indians in this territory came with the discovery of the upper reaches of the Mississippi River June 17, 1673, by Father Marquette, the French missionary-explorer. He descended the Mis- sissippi to the mouth of the Arkansas River, then returned and ascended the Illinois River, being the first white man to make the journey and to return to Lake Michigan by way of the Chicago portage.
At the mouth of the Des Moines River, Father Mar- quette and his party met a party of natives, who called themselves Illini, which word in their language meant "men."
Conversation was held with these natives in the Algon- quin dialect. The Illinois Indians were a subdivision of the Algonquin family and closely allied to the Miamis. They occupied the central and western portions of what is now the State of Illinois.
From the early French records it would appear that the Miamis originally belonged to the Illinois nation and that they came from the west to the Mississippi River, where they split, the Miamis spreading eastward as far as Ohio and the Illinois Indians remaining west of the Wabash River.
The great Miami confederacy, formed for protection against enemy tribes, comprised the Miamis, the Weas and the Piankeshaws. The latter Indians were found along the Vermilion River as early as 1718 by French explorers.
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HISTORY OF VERMILION COUNTY
It is the history of the Piankeshaws that concerns Ver- milion County and it is the Piankeshaws that probably occupied this territory the longest and were most con- cerned with the battle of the French and the English for the fur trade of this immediate territory.
Encroachment of English traders from the eastern colonies upon the French trade with the Indians and the successful efforts of the English to win the Indians away from their first white friends, the French, resulted in the French order to seize all English traders found west of the Alleghanies.
In 1751, four English traders were captured on the Vermilion River and sent to Canada. The Piankeshaws, however, were almost completely won over by the English by 1752 and on Christmas day of that year killed five French traders in their village along the Vermilion River.
A French detachment was sent to the Vermilion to secure the effects of the slain men and found that the Piankeshaws had decamped. The bodies of the five men were found on the ice.
This act of the Piankeshaws, history records, was in retaliation of the killing, unjustifiably, of four Pianke- shaws on the Illinois River by the French and four more had been placed in irons.
The French claimed that a Frenchman and two slaves had been killed the previous day by Piankeshaws, but the eight men seized, four of whom were killed, disclaimed any knowledge of this act.
The whole Miami confederacy became pro-English and the claim was made by the French that the British paid the Indians for the scalps of two French soldiers.
Many of the Piankeshaws, following this estrangement from the French, withdrew from the Vermilion and the
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HISTORY OF VERMILION COUNTY
Wabash Rivers eastward to the Big Miami. "Old Brit- ton," the Piankeshaw king, who unquestionably ruled the Piankeshaws when they lived along the Vermilion, was killed by the French in an attack upon the Miami village, Pickawillany, on the Big Miami. His body was boiled in a kettle and eaten by the Indians who were with the French in retaliation for the murders by his braves of the French traders on the Vermilion and at Vincennes.
"Old Britton's" successor as king of the Piankeshaws was his son, "The Turtle," who is believed to be the great Miami chieftain, "Little Turtle," the ages corresponding and the Piankeshaws being members of the Miami con- federacy.
The Piankeshaws, out of all the Indian tribes of this territory, were friendly to the colonists in the American Revolution. It is believed that their stronghold on the Vermilion River was practically abandoned when the greater part of them followed their king to the new home in western Ohio, although Gurdon Hubbard and four traders, employes of the American Fur Company, who came to the present site of Danville in 1819 declared they found a Piankeshaw village here.
The same year, the new comers at the "Vermilion Salines," reported there was a Kickapoo village north of the spot now known as Glenburn, west of Danville, and which was known to the traders and early settlers as "Kickapoo Flats."
The Treaty of Paris, February, 1763, which gave all this territory to the English broke the French hold on North America, although the French still retained some territory.
This downfall of French rule may have brought many of the Piankeshaws back to their old homes on the Ver-
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HISTORY OF VERMILION COUNTY
milion River, for in June and July, 1765, George Croghan, sent by the English to conciliate the various Indian tribes and win them over to the English, was at a Piankeshaw village on the Vermilion River and there met Pontiac, per- haps the Indians' greatest Chieftain.
This meeting followed the collapse of Pontiac's efforts to unite all the Indian nations and oust the English. He was a natural leader with vision enough to see that the English would eventually destroy the Indians.
The French were traders and Pontiac had watched their passing with regret, for the English were more domi- neering and demanded land for settlement.
Croghan and his party were captured near Vincennes by Kickapoo Indians, spurred on by French traders at Ouitanon, a former French post on the north side of the Wabash River, between Covington and Lafayette, and believed to have been near Independence.
The English were taken to Vincennes and later brought to what is now the site of Danville, where they met Pontiac and his party on their way to Fort Chartres. Pontiac had failed several months before in a personal attempt to cap- ture Detroit and many of his former followers had deserted him.
Croghan, already at Ouitanon, had held conferences with the Weas, Piankeshaws, Kickapoos and Mascoutins and won them over to the English despite the fact that he was a captive.
Orders were then received to take Croghan to Fort Chartres, and his captors and the members of his party retraced their steps westward as far as Danville, where they met Pontiac, with a party of Iroquois, Delaware and Shawnee deputies.
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HISTORY OF VERMILION COUNTY
The official records do not give the place of this meeting, but the fact that north and south and east and west trails converged in the vicinity of the "Vermilion Salines" and that there was a large Indian village stretched along the Vermilion River lends credence to the fact that the present site of Danville was where Croghan and Pontiac first met and conferred, Pontiac agreeing to surrender possession of the northwest territory to the accredited agent of Great Britain.
Both parties returned to Ouitanon where the treaty between the English and the Indians was agreed upon and which was later ratified at Detroit. It should be mentioned here that Fort Ouitanon, while garrisoned by a detachment of English soldiers following the surrender of the French to this territory in 1763, was captured by Pontiac's In- dians, while the French still retained Vincennes and Fort Chartres.
This territory, of which Vermilion County is now a part, provided little of historical interest after Mr. Crog- han's success, until the American Revolution, when the English from the western posts of Vincennes, Kaskaskia and Detroit, incited the Indians against the frontier settle- ments.
It is probable that the Kickapoos predominated in this immediate section, living in close harmony with the Pianke- shaws and the Pottawatomies. It is claimed that there was a mixed Kickapoo-Pottawatomie village on the banks of the Vermilion River, near its junction with the Wabash River.
Of the three tribes, the Piankeshaws are credited with not taking any decisive action against the Americans, but it became necessary to win all the Indians over to the side of the colonists, and next in importance to this county
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HISTORY OF VERMILION COUNTY
comes the expedition of General George Rogers Clark, who in the summer of 1778 took possession of Kaskaskia and Vincennes.
It was only necessary to conciliate the Indians and the French and at Cahokia treaties of peace were concluded with the Piankeshaws, Ouitenons, Kickapoos, Illinois, Kas- kaskias, Peorias and other branches of other tribes that inhabited the country between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi River.
Piankeshaws, Kickapoosand Pottawatomie Indians from the Vermilion River villages were undoubtedly represented at this council, and there is also no question but that fur traders traversed this immediate country regularly. The French traders and residents of the various posts were not averse to the occupation of the country by the Americans, because of their memory of the domineering manner in which the English supplanted them in control of the coun- try, and the French carried more influence, despite their being vanquished by the English, with the Indians.
On December 15, 1778, the English again occupied Vincennes through Henry Hamilton, the British lieuten- ant-governor of Detroit, who had an "army" of about thirty British soldiers, fifty French volunteers and four hundred Indians from the Michigan post.
Clark, at Kaskaskia, realized the danger to his forces with the English at Vincennes, took immediate action and on February 24, 1779, the fort and town were surrendered and the English force made prisoners of war.
Clark then held possession of the northwest until the close of the war and in this way secured possession of this valuable territory for the new American republic. At the treaty of Paris, which followed the close of the Revolution- ary War, only the fact that Clark had conquered this coun-
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HISTORY OF VERMILION COUNTY
try and was in undisputed military possession of it at the time impelled the British commissioners to relinquish their claim.
It is probable that had General Clark not been success- ful in his plan to capture Vincennes and Kaskaskia and make peace with the Indians, that this country would have still been retained as British territory after the Revolu- tionary War and we would still be governed from Canada.
It is difficult to realize the importance of this phase of the American Revolution, so far away from the principal seat of operations, in fact Virginia appeared to be the only one of the embryo states of the new republic that did recog- nize the necessity for wresting this territory from British control and this entire country became a part of the new State of Virginia and was designated by the Virginia Assembly as Illinois County.
It was following the success of the Clark expedition that the Spanish "invasion" of the Vermilion country was staged by a group of adventurers from Saint Louis, but that "invasion," described in the forepart of this chapter, was in nowise an attempt to invade American territory. The Spanish force had for its objective the capture of the British fort on the Saint Joseph River in Michigan and the leaders did not know when they staged the battle near the "Vermilion Salines" with the Indians that this territory had been conquered by the Colonists.
CHAPTER II
INDIAN TROUBLES AND TREATIES
HOSTILITY OF THE INDIANS CONTINUES-GENERAL ANTHONY WAYNE- PEACE CONFERENCE-GENERAL PUTNAM OF THE OHIO COMPANY- SILVER MEDALS AS PEACE TOKENS-"OLD KICKAPOO TOWN"-TECUM- SEH AND HIS PLAN-THE HARRISON CAMPAIGN-BATTLE OF TIPPE- CANOE-DEFEAT AND DEATH OF TECUMSEH-SUCCESSFUL TREATIES WITH THE INDIANS.
Following the close of the Revolutionary War and the Treaty of Paris, the United States continued to have trou- ble with the Indians of this territory, who still considered themselves allies of Great Britain.
Great Britain made no provisions for her Indian allies after the close of the war and in the absence of any treaties with the new United States, the Indians continued hos- tilities.
General Anthony Wayne was finally appointed mili- tary commander of the northwest and under his jurisdic- tion, General Putnam, an agent of the Ohio Company at Marietta, Ohio, volunteered his services to negotiate treaties of peace with the Indians of this country, after three peace messengers had been murdered.
At Vincennes on September 27, 1792, the first peace treaty between the United States and the Wabash tribes as the Indians of this section were known, was negotiated
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HISTORY OF VERMILION COUNTY
by Putnam with the Eel Creek, Wea, Pottawatomie, Mas- coutin, Kickapoo, Piankeshaw, Kaskaskia and Peoria tribes.
General Putnam, according to government records, car- ried with him besides a quantity of goods for presents, "the following silver ornaments: Twenty medals, thirty pairs of arm and wristbands, twelve dozen of brooches, thirty pairs of nose jewels, thirty pairs of ear jewels, and two large white wampum belts of peace, with a silver medal suspended to each, bearing the arms of the United States."
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