USA > Illinois > Vermilion County > History of Vermilion County, Illinois : a tale of its evolution, settlement and progress for nearly a century, Volume I > Part 3
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Beside the wars into which the Miamis were drawn, they were greatly reduced in numbers by reason of the ravages of smallpox; whole villages were depopulated by this dread scourge. As the years passed, the Miamis were degraded by the vices of the white man, and became weakened and easily over- come by their enemies. The Kickapoos and the Pottowatomies drove them to the east of the Wabash river before white men came to settle this part of the Wabash Valley.
The early settler came into contact and were better acquainted with these Indians who came later, than with the Piankeshaws, or any other tribe of the Pottowatomies. The Kickapoos were associated with, or were a part of, the Mascoutins, a tribe who had, some time before the appearance of the Kickapoos, as such, in the Wabash Valley, gone to the mouth of the Ohio river. Writers differ in considering the relationship between these two tribes. They are some- times classed as the same, and sometimes, as two distinct people. Even while they were regarded as separate bands or subdivisions of a tribe, it had to be admitted that their language and customs were identical. They always occupied contiguous villages and hunted in company with each other, over the same coun- try. They were always united in interests. No instance is on record where they were ever arrayed against each other, or where they ever took opposite sides in any alliance with other tribes. Treaties were always made with the Kickapoos when both were involved, and instances are recorded when known Mascoutins signed their names as Kickapoos.
The Kickapoos were connected with the Northwest, being first noticed by Samuel Champlain, in 1612, "residing near the place called Sakinam," meaning the country of the Sacs, which bordered on Lake Huron, in the vicinity of Sagi- naw Bay. Father Claude Allouz visited "a mixed village of Miamis, Kickapoos
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and Mascoutins, on Fox river, in the winter of 1669-70. Like the Miamis, the Kickapoos were not inclined to receive religious impressions from the early mis- sionaries. Tonti quaintly records their ruthless murder of Father Ribourd in these words :- "They carried him away and broke his head." Other instances are on record of their cruelty to the missionaries. Previous to 1718 they had villages on the Rock river, having been driven thither by the scarcity of game and enmity of the Sioux. The Rock river is laid down on a map of La Salle's discoveries as the Kickapoo river-"the Assin-Sepe."
The Kickapoos came into the Wabash Valley as disputers of the Miamis' claim as early, at least, as 1765. The distinction between them and the Mascou- tins is inferred from the record made as late as 1815, of the Mascoutins residing on the west bank of the Wabash between Vincennes and the Tippecanoe river, and the Kickapoos living a short distance above them, in several large villages. On the other hand, it is a well-known fact that an important Kickapoo village was located at the mouth of the Vermilion river, a few miles south of Danville, and a large Kickapoo burial ground was to be found a few miles west on the Salt Fork of the Vermilion river.
No instance is recorded where the Kickapoos assisted either the French or British in any of the intrigues or wars for the fur trade, or the acquisition of disputed territory in the Northwest. They early incurred the displeasure of the French, but there is no record that they became the allies of the British on any occasion.
As a military people the Kickapoos were inferior to the Miamis, the Dela- wares, and the Shawnees, in movements requiring large bodies of men, but they excelled in predatory warfare. Small parties of five to twenty would push out hundreds of miles from their villages and swoop down upon a feeble settlement, or an isolated pioneer's cabin, and make off before an alarm could be given. The Kickapoos were very much attached to the country along the Vermilion river and General Harrison, then the Superintendent of Indian Affairs, had great trouble in gaining their consent to cede it to the United States. They valued it highly as a hunting ground, and also because of the minerals it was supposed to contain. But they were not alone in an appreciation of this terri- tory. The Government was desirious of its possession, and General Harrison was determined to secure it. In a letter dated December 10, 1809, addressed to the Secretary of War, General Harrison expressed his anxiety to have the Kickapoos release their title as high up as the Vermilion river. He particularly coveted the tract "bounded on the east by the Wabash, on the south by the northern line of the so-called Harrison Purchase, extending from opposite the mouth of Raccoon creek, northwest fifteen miles; thence to a point on the Vermilion river twenty-five miles in a direct line from its mouth; thence down the latter stream to its confluence." "This small tract of land (of about twenty- five miles square, is one of the most beautiful that can be imagined. It is, moreover, believed to contain a rich copper mine. The Indians are so extremely jealous of any search being made for this mine that the traders were always cautioned not to approach the hills which were supposed to contain it."
Beckwith's Historic Notes of the North-West (foot-note, page 164), states that there was a mistake made in this letter concerning the mineral in this
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HISTORY OF VERMILION COUNTY
mine; that it was not copper but a mineral having something like the appearance of silver. Explorations on the bluffs of the Little Vermilion, in the seventies, resulted in the discovery of a number of ancient furnaces, with the charred coals and slag remaining in and about them. The furnaces were crude, consisting of shallow excavations of irregular shape in the hillsides. These basins were but a few feet across; they too, were lined with fine clay. The bottoms of the pits were connected by ducts, or troughs, also made of fireclay, leading into reser- voirs, a little distance lower down the hillside, into which the metal could flow, when reduced to a liquid state, in the furnace above.
The pits were carefully filled with earth and every precaution was taken to- prevent their discovery, a slight depression on the surface of the ground being the only indication of their presence. These mines were, from every appearance, entitled to a claim of considerable antiquity, and were probably "the silver mines of the Wabash," of which repeated mention is made by early writers.
The most plausible explanation of the use to which this metal was put was. given, at the time the mines were explored by a half-breed Indian whose ances- tors lived in the vicinity and were in the secret. He said that, after being smelted the metal was sent to Montreal, where it was used as an alloy with sil- ver and made into brooches, wristbands and other jewelry, and returned to the traders to be disposed of to the Indians.
The territory described by General Harrison, extended into the southeast corner of what is now Vermilion County, and is yet a tract of the same descrip- tion, for it is one of the most beautiful to be imagined, for, together with the adjoining territory in that part of the county, it makes the richest farm lands to be found any where. This land, although coveted by Harrison, was not ceded to the United States until, at a treaty made at Edwardsville, in 1819. This was ten years after the above quoted letter was written, but, meanwhile, Tecumseh had "taken up the hatchet against the white people" and all Governor Harrison's time was taken in "fighting it out," as Tecumseh said, and securing the Wabash Valley to the white man.
Since the battle of Tippecanoe was only indirect in results of influence to the settlement of Vermilion County, a brief mention of its importance, is only admissible. True it is, it made the occupancy of this territory possible at that time. When making the treaty the Kickapoos claimed the entire territory which they ceded as theirs "by descent from their ancestors, by conquest from the Illinois Nation (probably inferring the Miamis a part of the Illinois Nation) and by uninterrupted possession for more than half a century."
As compared with other Indians, the Kickapoos were industrious and intelli- gent, and cleanly in their habits. They were better armed and clothed than the other tribes. The men, as a rule, were tall, sinewy and active; the women were lithe, and many of them by no means lacking in beauty. Their dialect was soft and liquid as compared with the rough gutteral language of the Pottowatomies. The Kickapoos lived to themselves and did not, as a rule, mix with the white people; because of this they preserved their characteristics. The vices of the white man were less temptation to them than to other tribes. They were never of great numbers, as compared to the Miamis or Pottowatomies, but their energy was great so that they well compared. In language, manners and cus-
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toms the Kickapoos resembled the Sacs and Foxes, whose allies they were gen- erally counted.
The Kickapoos shared the part of the Wabash Valley with the Pottowatomies after the last years of the 18th Century. The Pottowatomies had been neigh- bors of the Miamis to the north for some time before the treaty of Green- ville, in 1795. At this time the Pottowatomies announced their determination to settle upon the Wabash river. They made no pretentions to ownership of that country, and gave, as their reason for taking the Miami territory, that "they were tired of eating fish and wanted to eat meat."
The Pottowatomies had gradually wandered from the Lake Huron country southward, without any fixed land of their own. The other tribes called them squatters. They were of the same family as the Ottawas and Ojibbeways with but a difference of dialect, not a difference of language. Their manners, as well as their dialect, were rough and barbarous, as compared with other Algon- quin tribes. They were loyal to the French, maintaining their alliance so long as New France existed in America. When other Indians "as far west as the Illinois" were induced to be bound by the "Silver Covenant Chain" and desert the French at the Siege of Niagara, the Pottowatomies were not counted in the number. After the French were vanquished by the British the Pottowatomies heartily upheld their kinsman Pontiac, in his attempt to recover the country.
The Pottowatomies fought with the British during the Revolutionary war, and in the war of 1812, being a menace to the frontiers of Kentucky, Ohio and Pennsylvania. It was the Pottowatomies who perpetrated the massacre at Fort Dearborn, August 15, 1812. After settling themselves in the Wabash country, the Pottowatomies agreed with the Kickapoos, already there, that they, together, would take possession of the north and west sides of the river, leaving the east side for the Miamis, now grown too weak to resist this arrangement.
This was a hard bargain for the Miamis, but they could make no resistance; they were dealing with a stronger people.
One of these mixed Pottowatomie towns was located but a short distance out- side of present-day Vermilion County. The exact location of this town is a mat- ter of record in a speech made by the renowned Indian chief, "Kesis" (the Sun), to General Wayne, when telling of his own village which was "a day's walk below the Wea town on the Wabash." He referred to the village which stood on the site of the Shelby farm near Cayuga, which is yet owned by descendents of the family living in Vermilion County, Illinois. Evidences of Indian fighting have been found in various parts of Vermilion County. The old Baird farm, now owned by John Baird, near Indianola, has given much evidence of a battle hav- ing been fought at that spot, but it is impossible to determine whether it was between the Pottowatomies, or the Kickapoos against the Piankeshaws, or was even at an earlier date. The Revolutionary war was concluded without Great Britain making any provision for her Indian allies, who continued their hos- tilities. No treaty had been made between the United States and the Wabash tribes. The Indians of this territory were a menace to the frontier, and there seemed no help for it. The United States government tried peaceable means to bring an end to Indian depredations, and, failing in this, sent out expeditions into the Wabash country, under General Harrison and then under General Charles
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Scott, and last under General Wilkinson, which, in every case, resulted in the burning of Indian villages, the devastation of their fields and the capture of wom- en and children, but not the conquering of the Indians themselves. The prison- ers were taken to Fort Washington. Again the government tried to bring the Wabash tribes to a treaty of peace. Grown vindictive and arrogant beyond words, the Indians declined all overtures.
General Putnam, who was the Indian Agent of the Ohio Company, at Mari- etta, at the hazard of his life, visited the hostile tribes, and finding they would not go to Philadelphia nor Fort Washington, he induced them to meet at Vin- cennes. Starting from Fort Washington, August 26, 1792, he went to Vin- cennes, reaching there September 12. He was accompanied by the Moravian missionary, John Heckwelder. They took the surviving prisoners who had been captured by General Scott and General Wilkinson the previous year, with them. There were one hundred forty persons put into the boats and taken down the Ohio and up the Wabash rivers. The Indians who had already come to Vin- cennes when they reached there, September 12, "were assembled upon the banks of the river, and when they saw their friends approaching," wrote Heck- welder, "they discharged their guns in token of joy and sang the praises of those from whom they had been separated, in terms peculiar to themselves."
The prisoners were at once delivered to their friends. For the next ten days the Indians came daily to make the treaty. By the morning of the twenty- fourth, delegates representing the Eel Creeks, Wea, Pottowatomie, Mascoutin, Kickapoo, Piankeshaw, Kaskaskia and Peoria tribes, had all arrived. Speeches were made by both General Putnam for the United States, and the assembled chiefs and definite articles of peace were concluded. These were signed on the twenty-seventh of September, 1792. This was the first treaty ever entered into between the United States and the several Wabash tribes. It was a treaty of peace and friendship only. General Putnam took many presents with him when he went to Vincennes to make this treaty. Among these were two large white wampum belts of peace with a silver medal suspended to each, bearing the arms of the United States.
When the chiefs of the several tribes had signed the articles of the treaty, General Putnam addressed them as follows :- "Brothers, listen to what I say : We have been for some days past engaged in establishing a peace and we have succeeded through the influence of The Great Spirit. Brothers, we have wiped off the blood, we have buried the hatchet, on both sides, all that is past shall be forgotten." Taking up the belts, he continued: "Brothers, this is the belt of peace which I now present to you in the name of the United States. This belt shall be the evidence of, and the pledge for, the performance of the articles of the treaty of peace which we have concluded between the United States and your tribes this day.
"Brothers, whenever you look at this, remember that there is a perpetual peace and friendship between you and us, and that you are now under the pro- tection of the United States. Brothers, we will hold this belt in our hands,- here at this end, the United States holds it, and you hold it by the other end. The road you see is broad, level and clear. We may now pass to one and another easy and without difficulty. Brothers, the faster we hold this belt the happier
GEORGE WASHINGTON
PRESIDENT
PEACE MEDAL GIVEN AT THE TREATY OF VINCENNES, SEPT. 27, 1792 Found at the old Kickapoo Indian burying ground near the mouth of the middle fork of the Vermilion river, four miles west of Danville. Now in possession of Mrs. Lynne Beckwith, Danville
REVERSE SIDE OF PEACE MEDAL
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HISTORY OF VERMILION COUNTY
we shall be. Our women and children will have no occasion to be afraid any more. Our young men will observe that their wise men performed a good work. Brothers, be all strong in that which is good. Abide all in this path, young and old, and you will enjoy the sweetness of peace." After speaking this way General Putnam delivered the belts.
Among the Indians present was the renowned Pottowatomi chief, "Kesis," whose village was the one mentioned above, located on the site of the Shelby farm, near the mouth of the Vermilion river.
There was an old Indian burial ground, near the mouth of the Middle Fork of the Vermilion river when the first settlers came to this section. This burial ground bore all evidence of having been used by the Indians many years prior to the time of the cession of the territory along the Vermilion river. Any one curious to locate the site of the old burying ground can do so on the bluffs near the mouth of the Middle Fork four miles West of Danville.
There are no signs of its once use as a burial place. It has not had any such use since the removal of the Pottowatomies west in 1838, and few who pass on the road beneath the bluffs every day know that it was ever a burial ground.
It was sixty odd years after the signing of the treaty at Vincennes, that two young men, living on a farm near this burying ground, were walking by the river, when they saw a skull which had evidently been washed out of the bluff. They made search and found a grave from which it had come. Examining the grave, a medal was found. It may be this skull was not found by accident, as this story would imply, but was the result of digging in the grave, seeking treasure. Whatever the cause of finding the medal, the article itself, and its being in a grave in this burying ground, is the matter of interest.
This medal is reproduced in this volume and it can readily be seen to be exactly as the description given by the Moravian missionary, of the peace medal presented by General Putnam to the Indians at the Vincennes treaty in 1792. This medal is of silver set in a rim of the same metal. The engraving is by hand, of course, and is very distinct. It can be studied with little trouble from the illustration. The side upon which is engraved the Coat of Arms of the United States was explained to the Indians by Gen. Putnam in these words :- "Brothers, the engravings on this medal distinguish the United States from all other nations ; it is called their arms, and no other nation has the like. The prin- cipal figure is a broad eagle. This bird is a native of this country and is to be found in no other part of the world; and both you and the Americans being born in this land and having grown up together with the eagle, they have placed him in their arms, and have engraved him on this medal, by which the great chief, General Washington, and all the people of the United States, hold this belt fast. The wings of the eagle are extended to give protection to all our friends, and to assure you of our protection so long as you hold fast this belt. In his right foot the eagle holds the branch of a tree, which, with us, is an em- blem of peace, and it means that we love peace, and wish to live in peace with all our neighbors, and to assure you, that while you hold this belt fast, you shall always be in peace and security, whether you are pursuing the chase, or repos- ing yourselves under the shadow of the bough. In the left foot of this bird is
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HISTORY OF VERMILION COUNTY
placed a bundle of arrows; by this is meant that the United States have the means of war and that when peace cannot be obtained or maintained with their neighbors, on just terms, and that if, notwithstanding all their endeavors for peace, war is made upon them, they are prepared for it."
The other side of the medal needed no interpretation to an Indian. It tells its own story better than any words could. The Indian has thrown his toma- hawk, the emblem of war, at the foot of the tree under whose roots it was to be typically buried. With his other hand, the Indian has extended the pipe of peace (after he, himself, had smoked it) to Washington, and he, representing the United States, has reached his hand to receive and smoke. These acts of friendly feeling insures protection to the pioneer plowman and his cabin in the background. The eye in the rim of this medal shows that it has never been sus- pended.
Since it is believed that Kesis, the great Chief, was buried in this burying ground, it is reasonable to think that this medal was buried with him. The young men sold the medal to Samuel Chester at the time, and he later disposed of it to Josephus Collett of Terre Haute, and it is now in the possession of Mrs. Lynne Beckwith of Danville, Illinois. The Pottowatomies were the last of their race to leave the Wabash country. They were the redmen with whom the early settlers of this section were best acquainted. Whatever notion of the American Indian there has been handed down from one generation to another, in this section, was had from association with the Pottowatomies.
There were reservations made for them in both Indiana and Illinois, but the white man crowded them out, and at last they were sent beyond the Mississippi river.
The final migration of the Potowatomies from the Wabash Valley was under charge of Col. Pepper and Gen. Tipton and took place in the summer of 1838. It was a sad sight, these children of the forest being driven from the homes of their childhood. Bidding farewell to the hills, valleys and streams of their infancy, the graves of their revered ancestors, leaving these sacred scenes to be desecrated by the plowshares of the white man. No wonder the downcast warriors wept-the old men trembled and the swarthy cheek of the youth paled. There were about one thousand persons of all ages in the line of march. Reluctantly they wended their way toward the setting sun, watch- ing their chances to break into the brush and return to their dearly loved homes, saying they would rather die than leave their country. When they reached Danville they halted several days being in want of food. Without tents, and a liberal supply of food, there was much suffering among them. While at Danville they camped on the Dave Fowler farm. During their stay there were many deaths.
The mournful procession passed on across Illinois, without adequate means of conveyance for the weak, the aged and the infirm. Several years later the Miami Nation was removed to their western homes by coercive means under an escort of United States troops. This once proud and powerful nation was far inferior in point of numbers to the Pottowatomies. Their removal took the last of the original proprietors of the section, thenceforth to be known as Vermilion County, Illinois, to beyond the Mississippi river. This left the
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fields and plains, the woods and rivers, which had been the red man's home to the use of the white man.
Generations have come and gone since the American Indian has lived in Eastern Illinois. All that is now known of him is through the questionable tales found in books, or worse, the representation of his life as shown on the stage, copied as it is from those of his race west of the Mississippi river.
The American Indian has passed from his old haunts as has passed the buffalo, the wild game, the beaver and even the woods, from the borders of the streams.
CHAPTER III.
PIANKESHAW.
DANVILLE WAS BUILT ON THE SITE OF THE OLD INDIAN VILLAGE OF PIANKESHAW- PIANKESHAW AN IMPORTANT INDIAN VILLAGE-CHIPPECOKE, THE CAPITAL SEAT OF THE PIANKESHAW-ORIGIN OF THE NAME OF THE VERMILION RIVER- EXTRACT FROM THE JOURNAL OF GEORGE CROGHAN-AN ENTRY IN M. GAME- LIN'S JOURNAL, LOCATING THE VILLAGE OF PIANKESHAW-POTTOWATOMIES TOLD GURDON HUBBARD ABOUT PIANKESHAW-LIFE OF THE DWELLERS IN PIAN- KESHAW-MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE RACE WHO FIRST LIVED IN DAN- VILLE-FRENCH TRADERS IN VERMILION COUNTY.
Few people who walk the streets of Danville, the county seat of Vermilion County, Illinois, realize that they are walking upon historic ground of another race; that the present city is the second one upon this site; that long before the white men who are credited with its discovery and settlement had seen this favored location, and other people had an important town established here which attracted notice and comment from early writers.
This Indian village, to which reference is made, is frequently mentioned in early memoirs and treaties, and it is always described in such a way as to leave no doubt of its location.
Mention has already been made of the fact that the Miami Confederacy of Indians were the first known dwellers in the Wabash Valley. After their immi- gration thither the Miamis proper resided about Fort Wayne on the St. Mary's and St. Joseph's rivers, near their confluence which forms the Miami river. They also lived on the upper Wabash. The Ouatonons, or Weas, as the English called them, lived further down; their principal villages being on the Wea Plains, between what is now Attica and LaFayette.
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