USA > Illinois > Vermilion County > History of Vermilion County, Illinois, Volume One > Part 4
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In the meantime several wells were sunk, one of them by Beckwith and Whitcomb at their own expense, these wells averaging fifty feet in depth. It was necessary in most instances to drill through solid rock. The salt ob- tained was first class in quality, purity and strength, and during the year that followed the settlement of the dis- pute with Captain Blackman, the production of salt from the "Vermilion Salines" was increased.
The production of salt assumed a more important place in the embryo industrial world of the middle west in 1824 when Major John W. Vance came from Ohio and secured possession of the lease for the "Vermilion Salines."
In the spring of 1824, Vance brought twenty-four large iron kettles from Louisville, Kentucky, by boat down the Ohio River, up the Wabash River to the Vermilion River and up the Vermilion to the mouth of Stony Creek, about four miles southeast of the present site of Danville.
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It was necessary to haul the kettles, which were un- loaded at that point, to the "Salt Works" by ox teams. The water in the river was low and the channel was obstructed by a sand bar at the mouth of the creek, making it neces- sary to abandon the boat.
The twenty-four kettles were soon increased to eighty, each holding one hundred and forty gallons. These were set in a double row in a furnace constructed of stone, located on a sort of terrace on the side of the hill near the salt wells.
Salt was produced by boiling the water from these wells, the degree of fineness depending upon the rapidity of evaporation. Wood was used for fuel, this providing the biggest item in the operation costs, three men being kept busy felling trees and hauling timber to keep the furnace fires going. Two other helpers were employed in pumping and firing.
The salt was of good quality and found a ready sale, the price ranging from $1.25 to $1.50 a bushel at the "works." Much of the output was taken down the Ver- milion River in dug-outs to supply the growing market along the Wabash River. It required one hundred gallons of brine to produce a bushel of salt and between sixty and eighty bushels of salt were a good week's run.
Settlers from miles around came to the "works" and hauled the salt away in wagons, and those too poor to own teams came on horseback and carried it away in sacks. It was not unusual for settlers from as far away as Rock- ville and Rosedale, Indiana, and west as far as the Sanga- mon and Illinois rivers to bring their wagons to the "works," in fact it was salt that gave the settlers their first incentive for good roads.
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Today, people find it difficult to understand the impor- tance with which salt was regarded in the pioneer days, and this is best explained by quoting from the following letter written to Governor Bond at Vandalia, June 8, 1820, by James B. McCall, of Vincennes, Indiana, at the time when the dispute over the control of the lease for the "Ver- milion Salines" was at its height :
"The people of the eastern section of your state are very anxious that the manufacture of salt might be gone into. Appearances at the 'Vermilion Salines' justify the belief that salt may be made north of this sufficient for the consumption of all the settlers on the Wabash, and much below the present prices. Nearly all the salt con- sumed above the mouth of the Wabash is furnished by Kentucky, and the transportation so far upstream mate- rially enhances the price, and in the present undeveloped state of the country as to money, prevents a majority of the farmers from procuring the quantity of this necessary article that their stock, etc., requires."
Increased facilities for transportation in the growing middle west and the discovery of the Sciota salt fields in the thirties "killed" the 'Vermilion Salines," although the "works" was operated in a small way until 1840 when Isaac Wolfe, the lessee at that time, abandoned the wells.
But from 1824 until the thirties, with the coming of Major Vance, the settlement grew rapidly, and soon there were a dozen cabins, a trading post and the Vance Tavern, the first hotel to be opened in Vermilion County. This tavern was later moved to a spot on the old Danville- Urbana road, near St. Joseph, where it was operated as a tavern for many years by Joseph Kelly.
That first winter of 1819-20 when Mrs. Seymour Treat was the first and only woman in what is now Vermilion
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County was a winter to try the endurance of a man, but with the coming of spring there were rumors of more settlers on their way.
James Butler, originally from Vermont, came to Ver- milion County in the spring of 1820, took up a claim near the present site of Catlin, built a cabin and planted a crop. In the fall he returned to Clark County, Ohio, where his family was, and in the spring of 1821 brought them back with him and started the nucleus of another permanent settlement, which became known as Butler's Point.
John Hoag, Samuel Munnell and William Swank set- tled in what is now Carroll Township in 1820,. "Injun" John Myers and Simon Cox had settled there in 1818, but both were of an adventurous type and it is not believed they made any permanent homes, leaving the county and returning again later. Myers returned in 1821 with his brother-in-law, Joseph Frazier, of Indiana, and Cox came back in 1822.
Hoag and Munnell made their homes in 1820 on the northwestern edge of the timber which skirted the Little Vermilion. Swank followed at about the same time or a little later. Henry Johnson, the same year, made his home just across the line in what is now Georgetown Township. John Haworth settled the same year in what is now known as Vermilion Grove.
The spring of 1821 saw a rush of new settlers to Ver- milion County, and the population of that territory now included in the county numbered more than two hundred people.
It is believed that Seymour Treat and his wife moved to the new settlement of Denmark, the site of which is now practically covered by the waters of Lake Vermilion
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along about the time Major Vance took over the lease of the "Salt Works."
What is now Vermilion County was incorporated in Edgar County, which was organized by the state legis- lature January 3, 1823, and Seymour Treat was appointed a justice of peace, and Paris was selected as the county seat April 21 of the same year.
The "Salt Works" were practically abandoned in 1831, although worked in a small way as late as 1840 by Isaac Wolfe, and the long row of buildings became vacant, except for "Mother" Bloss, an eccentric old lady, who lived all alone. She spent her time in knitting and in boiling a little salt at the old furnace when the weather was pleas- ant. She would take the salt and her knitted articles to the growing village of Danville and barter them for the necessaries of life.
Ruby Bloss, daughter of "Mother" Bloss, had the dis- tinction of being the first white girl to be married in what is now Vermilion County. She became the bride of Cyrus Douglas, who resided at the Salt Works. The bridegroom walked to Paris to secure the marriage license and bought a pair of shoes there also for his bride as he objected to her being married in her bare feet, a style she followed. This marriage took place January 27, 1825.
Marquis Snow, who came to Butler's Point with James Butler in the spring of 1821 as the driver of one of the teams, and Miss Annis Butler, daughter of James Butler, were also united in marriage at the home of Seymour Treat on the same day. It is stated that Snow had the advantage of Douglas in that he rode a horse to Paris to get his mar- riage license.
Another report of this first marriage is that the two couples rode horseback, each couple on a horse the groom
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in front, from the "Salt Works" to the Treat cabin in Denmark, Dan and George Beckwith, in buckskin blouses, breeches and moccasins, bringing up the rear on foot. This report says there was a double marriage, with Douglas and his bride being wedded first.
One report is that a brother-in-law, a Mr. Denio, ob- jected to Ruby's marriage and she was compelled to sneak from her home to the home of James Woodin at Butler's Point, where she put on her new shoes and walked with Douglas to the Treat home. This report is that the two couples met for the first time after their marriage that night at the home of James Butler.
Douglas and Snow both bought farms near Yankee Point. Following the deaths of Snow and Mrs. Douglas, Douglas and Mrs. Snow were united in marriage and lived for many years at Fairmount.
In this chapter it was proposed to picture the dawn of the first white settlement of a permanent nature in what is now Vermilion County and to show that salt was the article of commerce that really was responsible for the settlement, or rather the urge to settle the county.
The "Salt Works" disappeared many years ago. Not even a vestige of a sign of the big furnace remains. They were situated a trifle over a half mile west of the crossing of the Middle Fork, in the bottom near the north bank of the Salt Fork.
The Indians in this section when the white people arrived declared that they and French traders had made salt at these springs for seventy or eighty years before they were developed by the white people. Well worn trails of wild animals converging to this spot provided proof that they had been known for many years. The great number
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of broken arrow heads found in this vicinity ever since the settlement of the county offered more proof of the urge for salt that lured wild animals to the springs, where they were killed by the wily Indian hunters.
It is perhaps the irony of fate that while wood was cut at great expense to provide fuel for the furnace at the "Salt Works," coal was showing above the ground not two hundred feet away, coal which was destined to in later years prove to be Vermilion County's greatest mineral asset, long years after the "Salt Works" were forgotten.
If the author has succeeded in visualizing for the reader the background of the settlement of Vermilion County he will be happy. He has tried to picture the romance of salt, which is the romance of the founding of this county, and now the age of salt will be followed by the story of the age of agriculture and town-building which has developed Vermilion into one of the foremost counties of the state.
7-Vol. 1
CHAPTER IV
THE WINNEBAGO AND THE BLACK HAWK WARS (By Lieut. Charles M. Crayton)
CAUSE OF TROUBLE WITH THE WINNEBAGOES-OTHER TRIBES JOIN- VERMILION COUNTY CITIZENS AID CHICAGO-PEACE IS CONCLUDED- CELEBRATION-SOLDIERS ARE REWARDED-DISSENSION OF INDIANS -BLACK HAWK AND HIS BAND-STATE MILITIA CALLED OUT- RETREAT AND CAPTURE OF BLACK HAWK.
Vermilion County had been organized less than a year when its citizens were called into military service against the Winnebago Indians. In 1827 this tribe was located in Northern Illinois and Southern Wisconsin between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi River. A camp of the In- dians was located near Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, and some white keel boat men visited the camp with a quantity of whisky on board. A drunken orgy ensued during which the white men abducted six or seven squaws, who had become intoxicated, to Fort Snelling farther up the river. On the return of the keel boats, the Indians, several hun- dred in number, attacked the boats and rescued their squaws, killing several white men and wounding others.
The Winnebagoes took up the war hatchet and spread terror over the country. One war party led by Chief Red Bird made an attack on an isolated settler's cabin and killed two men and a child.
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Messengers from the Winnebago tribe carried the war belt to the Pottowatomies who were their kinsmen and allies. The Pottowatomies were located in the vicinity of Chicago and the young men of the tribe began to show signs of going on the war path.
Chicago was then but a rambling village with not over a dozen American families, a number of half-breeds and a lot of vagrant Indians. A small company of about fifty men were organized under the command of Captain Beau- bien, a pioneer of that city. Rumors of Indian depreda- tions reaching alarming proportions, Colonel Gurdon S. Hubbard was dispatched to Vermilion County for aid. Hubbard was well acquainted throughout Eastern Illi- nois as he had had charge of the interests of the American Fur Company in this section since 1824, and in 1827 estab- lished a trading point at the present site of the Palmer National Bank in Danville. He left Chicago one after- noon and by night had reached his trading post on the north bank of the Iroquois River just north of the present city of Watseka.
He pushed on to Sugar Creek that night but on account of high water was delayed until day light. The next day he reached Peleg Spencer's, two miles south of Danville, from which point runners were sent out to assemble the Vermilion County Battalion of volunteer militia at But- ler's Point.
The militia mustered a company of fifty men at But- ler's Point next day. Archilles Morgan was elected cap- tain, Major Bayles first lieutenant and Isaac R. Moores, second lieutenant.
They marched along Hubbard's Trace-now the Dixie Highway-to the trading post on the Iroquois River where they were equipped and rationed, and after spending a day
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at the post cooking rations and looking over equipment, they moved next morning along the route now known as the Dixie Highway, fording the Kankakee River at the rapids in the present city of Momence. The streams and sloughs were filled with water, there were only dim Indian trails to guide them, but Colonel Hubbard was familiar with the topography of their line of march and led them into Chicago on the evening of the fourth day.
The Vermilion County men arrived in Chicago in a severe rainstorm without tents or shelter of any kind. They were quartered in sheds and empty buildings. On their arrival dissension arose among the Chicago volun- teers. The company was composed of a mixture of Ameri- cans and half-breed French-Canadians, and upon the ar- rival of the Vermilion County company, a number of Americans from Chicago tried to join up with the new arrivals. This matter was finally adjusted, and the com- pany did guard duty a little over a week when couriers arrived from Green Bay conveying the information that General Lewis Cass had concluded peace with the Indians.
The citizens of Chicago, who had been joined by a num- ber of refugees from the northern part of the State, cele- brated the occasion by knocking in the heads of a barrel of whisky, a barrel of gin and a barrel of brandy from which the soldiers drank libations to the victory. The ladies plied them with plenty to eat, and three New York ladies, not forgetting their spiritual welfare, went about distributing tracts. War was ever the same.
The return march was made in three days. Under the bounty act of 1852, each soldier was awarded a land war- rant for eighty acres as a reward for his services in the campaign.
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Thus ended the gallant march of the Vermilion County men to the rescue of the feeble settlement named Chicago, now the Magic City of the Western World.
THE BLACK HAWK WAR
The Black Hawk War was occasioned by the efforts of the government to remove the Sac and Fox Indians from their old home in the Northwestern part of the State to a new home west of the Mississippi River. A treaty was made with the Indians at Saint Louis in 1804 in which they ceded their tribal lands to the United States. Black Hawk, an influential chief, claimed that this treaty was made without the consent of his people, but the Sacs and Fox were transported across the river in 1831.
During the following winter, Black Hawk and his band recrossed the river and occupied their old home. His force numbered about five hundred warriors with their families. In response to the petitions of the panic stricken settlers, Governor John Reynolds called out the state militia to proceed against the Indians. The volunteers were mobil- ized at Dixon, while Black Hawk and his band were in camp about thirty miles away on a creek that has since borne the name of "Stillman's Run."
Brigadier General Samuel Whitesides was in command of the volunteers, while an independent troop of mounted scouts were under the command of Major Josiah Stillman. On May 14, 1832, Stillman's troop approached Black Hawk's camp. The latter was in a sad plight, as the Pot- towatomie allies had failed to join him and he was being hedged in against the Mississippi by a large force of white men. To add to his discomfort he was practically without provisions to feed the large band of men, women and chil-
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dren among his followers. When the scouts approached, Black Hawk, thinking it Whiteside's army, sent out three braves under a white flag to ask for a parley, and also five others to observe what happened to them.
The rangers captured the three men under the white flag and killed one of them, but in the ensuing confusion the other two escaped. They pursued and killed the five men sent as observers and charged pell mell at the Indian camp. Black Hawk had only forty men to meet the two hundred and seventy-five infuriated scouts who were ad- vancing to attack him, but the wily old chief made a fake retreat and drew the white men into an ambush. Sud- denly the Hawk raised the blood-curdling warwhoop of the Sacs, and forty howling braves swept down on the white men like a red whirlwind. As an old Indian fighter once observed, "It is one thing to hunt Indians, but it is another thing to have them hunt you." The two hundred and seventy-five scouts fled ignominously from the field, rode through their own camp and did not stop until they reached Dixon thirty miles away. Some did not even stop there, but continued on to their homes spreading dreadful tales of the Indian invasion as they went.
News of Stillman's disaster reached Danville on the following Sunday. The greater part of the people were at church when the messenger arrived. The meeting was closed and a call sent out for volunteers. In less than two hours a company was raised consisting of thirty-five men under command of Captain Dan Beckwith, which was immediately set in motion and reached Bicknell's Crossing (north of Rossville) by night. At daylight they took up the march to Joliet and during the day got between the retreating refugees and the Indians who were supposed to be in pursuit. They crossed the Kankakee near the
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present city of that name and advanced toward the Indian country, but saw no traces of the enemy.
In the meantime the Vermilion County militia was mustered consisting of eight companies under command of Captains Eliakan Ashton, Alex Bailey, J. M. Gillespie, James Gregory, Corbin S. Hutt, James Palmer, Morgan S. Payne and John B. Thomas. Isaac R. Moores was elected colonel, Gurdon S. Hubbard, lieutenant colonel, and John S. Murphy as aide.
The regiment was marched to Hubbard's trading post on the Iroquois and thence northwest over an old Indian trail to Joliet. On the way they met Captain Beckwith's company and the greatest part of the latter's personnel enlisted with the regiment, Captain Beckwith and a por- tion of his command returning home.
On arriving at Joliet, Colonel Moores began to "fort up," but orders were received from General Atkinson directing the regiment to proceed to the general headquar- ters at Ottawa. Captain Morgan Z. Payne's company was ordered to proceed to the DuPage River near the present site of Naperville. The day after the company arrived on the DuPage, William Brown and a fifteen-year-old boy were detailed to go about two miles from the camp with a wagon to get some clapboards. They were attacked by Indians who killed and scalped Brown, but the boy escaped. Brown, who lived with his widowed mother near Kyger's Mill, was the only Vermilion County man who lost his life in the war.
When Colonel Moores reached Ottawa with his Ver- milion County contingent, he discovered that more militia was under arms than needed, and the regiment, with the exception of Payne's company, was relieved from further duty and returned home.
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Payne's company was on duty for a short time after completing a block house near present Naperville and escorting refugees from Chicago back to their homes on the DuPage. After about thirty days service his company was ordered back to Danville.
Black Hawk's band had in the meantime retreated into Wisconsin where the Chief was captured and his band destroyed or scattered.
CHAPTER V
VERMILION COUNTY SOLDIERS IN THE BLACK HAWK WAR
REGIMENT OF COL. ISAAC R. MOORE-ABRAHAM LINCOLN ENROLLED IN THE SERVICE-OFFICERS AND COMPANY ROSTERS-IMPORTANCE OF THE BLACK HAWK WAR.
Colonel Isaac R. Moore, or Moores, commanded an inde- pendent regiment of Vermilion County soldiers which was mustered into the service of the United States May 23, 1832, and remained in the service until June 23, this regi- ment forming part of the government forces ordered out to fight in the famous Blackhawk War. John H. Murphy served as his aide.
Most of the soldiers in this regiment were from Ver- milion County. The Blackhawk War is touched upon in another chapter on Vermilion County's part in the wars of her country, but the muster rolls of the various com- panies in Colonel Moore's regiment given in this chapter are taken from the "Record of Illinois Soldiers in the Blackhawk War, 1831-32 and in the Mexican War, 1846-8, containing a complete roster of commissioned officers and enlisted men of both wars, taken from the official rolls on file in the War Department, Washington, D. C., prepared and published by authority of the thirty-second general
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assembly, by Isaac H. Elliott, adjutant general of the state of Illinois."
It is a notable fact that Abraham Lincoln, who main- tained a law office in Danville and who afterward became President, was captain of a company of the Fourth Regi- ment Mounted Volunteers, commanded by Brigadier Gen- eral Samuel Whitesides, which was mustered out of the service of the United States at the mouth of the Fox River, May 27, 1832. Captain Lincoln was enrolled in the service in this campaign April 21, 1832.
Captain Lincoln's company was no longer needed but Lincoln promptly forgot his commission as captain and enlisted as a private on May 27, 1832, in Captain Elijah Iles' company of Illinois Mounted Volunteers, under the command of Brigadier General H. Atkinson. This com- pany was mustered out of the service June 16, 1832.
There was another independent company of Mounted Volunteers, commanded by Captain Jacob M. Earley, en- rolled June 16, 1832, and mustered out of the service July 10, 1832, on White Water River of Rock River.
Captain Earley was from Sangamon County and his company represented a number of counties in the central part of the State. Abraham Lincoln's name appears again on the muster roll of this company, Lincoln having been mustered out of Captain Iles' company on June 16, 1832, and immediately reenlisting as a private in Captain Earley's company on the same day.
Serving with the immortal Lincoln in Captain Earley's company were James Climon, Gurdon S. Hubbard and Samuel McRoberts, all of Vermilion County. Hubbard and McRoberts were mustered into the service on the same day as Lincoln, but Climon did not sign the muster roll until June 21, five days later.
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There were eight companies in Colonel Moore's regi- ment and a curious fact is that Gurdon S. Hubbard, who enlisted as a private in Captain Earley's company June 16, and was mustered out of service in that company on July 10, is shown as having been mustered into service May 23, 1832, in Captain Alexander Bailey's company of mounted gunmen in Colonel Moore's regiment as a second lieutenant, and was not mustered out until June 23, 1832. It is probable that Hubbard may have secured his dis- charge from Captain Bailey's company on June 16, seven days earlier than the others and immediately reenlisted in Captain Earley's company.
Following are the rosters of the eight companies in Colonel Moore's regiment of Illinois Volunteers:
Captain John B. Thomas; first lieutenant, William Nox; second lieutenant, Gabriel G. Rice; sergeants- James C. McGee, Richard F. Giddens, Mijamin Byers, John Q. Deakin; corporals-John R. Jackson, William O. Neal, William Trimmel, David Moore; privates-William Atwood, Laban Buoy, John Coddington, John Cox, Michael Cook, William Cunningham, Lewis Creamer, William Chandler, Stephen B. Conner, Thomas Deer, Abner Fuller, George Gill, Enoch Humphreys, William Ham, James Har- ris, Crawford H. Jones, Henry Judy, Hiram Jackson, Elijah Jackson, Michael H. Jose, John Lane, John McGee, Henry McDonald, Hugh Newell, David Newell, Wilson Newell, John A. Reed, Morgan Reese, Henry Shockey, John B. Shampaign, Philip M. Standford, Jefferson Smith, Benjamin Tatam, Joseph Thomas, Edwin B. Tombs, Jesse B. Wright, Henry Wilson, Hiram Wilson, John M. Wilson.
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