USA > Illinois > Vermilion County > History of Vermilion County, Illinois : a tale of its evolution, settlement and progress for nearly a century, Volume I > Part 6
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SHADRACH BOND.
P. S. At the request of Judge Towle I send the enclosed certificate. This letter which, it will be noticed bears date of April 3, 1819, shows knowledge of the salt springs antedating the exploration of the Vermilion river by Barron and his company when they reached the springs September 22, 1819.
Barron's long connection with General Harrison was such, that had any knowledge of the springs been had, it would have been his as well. Barron was Harrison's interpreter and was well versed in all the dialects spoken by the In- dian tribes who lived, hunted or claimed to own the lands watered by the Wa- bash river and the streams flowing into it.
The extreme hostility of these Indians can be understood in no way better than by the fact that, in spite of the interest shown by General Harrison in other salt springs, these on the Vermilion were left alone. The positive previous knowledge of these springs is proven by the above quoted letter and again by the fact that it was less than a month after the treaty was made that Mr. Barron was again on the spot prepared to locate them. He took with him three white men and two Shawnee Indians whom he (Barron) had hired to show him min- erals, etc. Whether he took the white men to help him, or was going to share the profits of the expedition, is a little uncertain from the text of the affidavit on record. This affidavit, after making oath of his going to the salines in 1801, goes on to state that he was again at the same "salt spring situated on the Big Vermilion river, on the north side, about one and a half miles above the old Kickapoo town, and about fifteen or eighteen miles from the Big Wabash river, in the county of Clark, state of Illinois, on the 22d day of September, 1819, in company with Lambert Bona, Zachariah Cicott, and Truman Blackman, together with four Shawnee Indians whom I had hired to go with me and show me the minerals, salt springs, etc.
This party duly located the springs and returned to Fort Harrison that Bar- ron might make the necessary record of the discovery. A recent law of Illi- nois gave the discoverer of salines the right to manufacture salt within a given area. While Barron was perfecting his arrangements, Captain Blackman or- ganized another party to go on an expedition to these springs and take the credit of the discovery already made. This expedition was kept a secret, from all but the ones interested. Seymour Treat, Peter Allen, Francis Whitcomb, and Cap- tain Blackman's brother, Remember, comprised the party when they left Fort Harrison, but the two Beckwith brothers, Dan and George joined them at the North Arm Prairie, where they were living with Jonathan Mayo. It is thought that these five men crossed the Wabash at the mouth of Otter Creek, in the lat- ter part of October and struck out in a northwest course through the timber and prairies keeping the direction with a small pocket compass.
When they came to a stream, supposed to be the Big Vermilion, they camped. This was October 31, 1819. They inferred they were about 25 miles from the Wabash river. Here Captain Blackman pointed out a smooth spot of low ground about twenty to thirty rods across, where he said there was salt
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HISTORY OF VERMILION COUNTY
water. There was no vegetation growing there and little trace of people ever having used the water. Peter Allen in his affidavit testified that there were "some few places where the Indians had sunk curbs of bark into the soil for the purpose of procuring salt water." Two or three of the men were set to work with spades to dig in the soil and, by going two or three feet into the saturated ground, saline water was procured. This water was boiled down in a kettle they had brought with them for the purpose, and they found that about two gallons of water made four ounces of good clear salt. An experimental well was dug a few rods from the former, and the water was found to contain a larger per cent of salt. The agreement was made that Blackman should recognize Treat, Whit- comb and the Beckwiths as partners in the discovery of the salt springs and each should pay his portion of the expenses. Whitcomb and Beckwith were left in charge so that no one could come and claim possession. Blackman had learned a lesson from his own treachery of Barron. These men were to go on in the manufacture of salt while the others returned to Fort Harrison to procure tools and provisions as well as to move Treats' family.
In the latter part of November, Treat returned, coming up the Wabash and Vermilion rivers in a pirogue, with tools, provision and his wife and chil- dren. The men were good axe-men and a cabin was soon built so as to give Treat's family needed shelter. While the settlement was thus made, the devel- opment of the salt works was not so easily accomplished. Blackman had proved as dishonorable in the case of the second party as he had toward Barron.
Notwithstanding the promise to include the others in the profits of the dis- covery of the salt springs (which was after all not theirs, but Barrons) Black- man took the lease or permit to manufacture salt in his own name. Complaint was entered by the other men as well as by Mr. Barron, and some three years passed before the difficulty was adjusted. Another letter from Governor Bond gives one reason, at least, for the delay.
To J. B. Thomas, N. Edwards, and D. P. Cook :
KASKASKIA, Dec. 20, 1819.
On the 3d of April last I wrote the Secretary of the Treasury that Salines had been discovered upon sections 22 and 23 in township No. 2 N. Range No. 7 East of the principal meridian and requested that the usual reservations of land for use of the same might be made. I have not received the answer of the Secretary. Will you have the goodness to communicate with him on the subject and let me know the determination of the Government. A valuable salt spring has been discovered upon the Vermilion river in the eastern part of the state and I have received several applications to lease it. The lands about have not been surveyed and I can not lease until some reservation of land from public sale shall be made for its use. Will it not be possible to obtain a reservation before the surveys are made? Please to give me an early answer.
I have the honor to be Gent. Yrs. &c., SHADRACH BOND.
The gentlemen addressed in this letter were representing Illinois in Congress at that time. The examination of these salines was not made until the following year, however. It was August 28, 1822, before the President approved the nec-
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HISTORY OF VERMILION COUNTY
essary reservation, and even then the land could not be leased because of the fact that it was found to be on a section 16, all of such number being set apart for school lands. This complication called for the following letter from Gov. Coles to the members of Congress.
To N. Edwards, J. B. Thomas and D. B. Cook:
Gentlemen,-In the year 1819 a saline was discovered on the Vermilion river in this state, which was examined the ensuing year in conformity to the instruc- tions received from the commissioner of the General Land Office, by Col. Th. Cox, the Register of the Land Office at this place who reported that "from all appearances there was little reason to doubt of its being saline of more than ordi- nary value," and recommended that the Govt. should reserve from sale and appropriate for the use of the Saline a Tract of Land which "should extend two miles on each side of the creek, & about ten miles in length, extending
about six miles below Blackman's wells." Since Col. Cox made his examination and report, the lands in that district of country have been surveyed and the Salines have been found to be in section sixteen, in township 19, N. of Range 12 W. of the principal meridian. In a letter addressed by Mr. Meigs to Govr. Bond dated August 28, 1822, he says : "The President of the U. S. has approved of the reservation suggested by Th. Cox who was appointed to examine those salines in 1820," and adds that "Mr. Kitchell, the Register of the Land Office at Palestine, has been requested to des- ignate, according to the best of his Judgment the lands alluded to in Mr. Cox's report by section, Township & Range and to exempt them for sale." This Mr. Kitchell informs me he has done but has suggested a small alteration in the res- ervation as proposed by Mr. Cox. In the letter above referred to Mr. Meigs says "as Section on No. 16 in township 19 N. of Range No. 12 W. of the section principal Mn. is covered by a salt spring I would suggest that the Secretary of the Treasury is at present absent from the city, that you (Gov. Bond) make a selection of a section in the same township, for the purpose of education and report the same, to the Register of the Land Office at Palestine who will reserve the same from sale until the decision of the Secretary of the Treasury shall have been obtained."
In accordance with this suggestion Gov. Bond authorized Mr. Kitchell, the Register of the Land Office at Palestine to select another section in lieu of sec- tion 16, who selected and reserved from sale section No. 28 of the same town- ship for the purpose of education.
With a knowledge of these facts, but without knowing whether the proper sanction had been given to the exchange of the 16 section or of a more formal approbation of the President to the reservation, as designated by Mr. Kitchell, I have been induced by the earnest solicitation of the parties claiming to have discovered the Saline who have been applying for a lease the last three years, to lease it (viz : the West half of section 16, and the East half of Section 17) to them for the term of four years under the provision of act entitled "An act to encourage the discovery of salt water."
I have thought proper to state these facts for your information & to enable you to have perfected the title of the State to the Reservation in question and
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HISTORY OF VERMILION COUNTY
the proper sanction given to the exchange of the 16th section; and I am the more particular in calling your attention to them as doubts are entertained by some whether Legislative provisions may not be required in one or possibly both cases.
Permit me also to call your attention to the fact that proper titles have not been received for the grants of Land which the Federal Govt. has made to this State for the use of Salines & for the location of its seat of Govt. By having Patents made out & forwarded to this office you will render us acceptable service to this State and a particular favor on your fellow citizen.
EDWARD COLES.
That Gov. Coles was a man who would not work a hardship to any one is shown by the way he treated this complicated matter. A selection from a letter written by him dated May 11, 1823, will explain the whole thing. This letter was written to W. H. Crawford, the Secretary of the Treasury, and after refer- ence to the letter written him by Gov. Bond and the suggestion of Mr. Kitchell in selecting another section to take the place of the one covered by the salines yet was set apart as school land, all of which he says, "I presume has been re- ported to you," Gov. Coles goes on to say: "The object of this letter is, to ob- tain from the Govt. the express designation and formal reservation of lands for the Vermilion Saline, and its consent to the exchange of the 16 section and to the selection which has been made of section 28 in the same township for the purposes of education.
"Attention to this subject has become the more necessary as relying on the Government fufilling the declarations and suggestions of Mr. Meigs, I was induced in December last to yield to the importunities of the persons who claim to have made the discovery of the Salines, and who had been for several years waiting impatiently for the Lands to be surveyed (during which time some of them had been making salt in a small way), to grant them a lease for four years, on condition of the working and improving the saline."
During this interim of waiting for a lease to be given several wells were sunk at the salt works. Whitcomb and Beckwith, together sunk one to the depth of fifty feet, drilling mostly through solid rock and at their own expense. The salt was excellent in quality, purity and strength. Great expectation arose regarding these salt works in the Wabash valley. It was at this time in the infancy of the salt works that the letter written Gov. Bond by James B. McCall was sent and at the time that nothing seemed possible to be done to make a lease of the springs. He wrote: "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 consumed above the mouth of the Wabash is fur- nished by Kentucky, and the transportation so far up the stream materially en- hances 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 neces- sary article that their stock, &c., requires."
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HISTORY OF VERMILION COUNTY
This letter was written by Mr. McCall from Vincennes in a futile effort to have the Salines developed. The date was June, 1820, six months after Gov. Bond wrote his second letter to the members of Congress in which he expressed an anxiety to know the determination of the Govt. upon the subject of these Salines. In this letter he asks: "Has the Gov. established any general rules upon these subjects? What evidence will be required of the discovery of a salt spring? An early answer as will suit your convenience will be thankfully received."
Continuing the correspondence between Gov. Coles and W. H. Crawford, Secretary of the U. S. there is a letter, a part of which refers to this subject and is as follows :
EDWARDSVILLE, Illinois, July 19, 1823.
Sir-I had the honor to receive by the last Mail your letter of the 12 Ulto., giving the sanction of the President of the U. S. to the reservation made by J. Kitchell of the forty sections of land for the Vermilion Salines and approving the substitution of section 28 in township 19 N. of range 12 W. (you state 10 W., but this I presume must be a mistake) for the purpose of education, in lieu of the 16 section in the same township, on which the Vermilion salt springs are situated. I am with great Respect and esteem yours,
EDWARD COLES.
The following Spring the Salt works were leased to John W. Vance and then, for the first time, they were worked to their full power. Mr. Vance brought twenty-four large kettles from Louisville, in a bateau, down the Ohio to the mouth of the Wabash and thence up that stream to the Vermilion as far as the mouth of Stony Creek about four miles southeast of Danville. The water was low and the channel was obstructed by a sand bar at the mouth of the creek, so the boat was abandoned and the kettles were hauled by ox teams to their designation. The capacity of the springs soon justified the increase of the number of the kettles to eighty, each holding 140 gallons. A furnace was built of stone at the bench of the hill near the wells, and these kettles were set in it in a double row. It took 100 gallons of water from the wells to make a bushel of salt. From 60 to 80 bushels were a good week's run. The state only kept the salt springs until 1829 when in accordance with the following instructions the land was declared for sale. This letter from Gov. Reynolds tells its own story: To Amos Williams and William Reed.
Gentlemen :- You are by these presents, required to proceed in conformity to the provisions of "an act providing for the sale of the Vermilion Saline re- serve, and appropriating the avails thereof," approved January 19, 1829, to ad- vertise the said Saline lands, and to take such other steps as may be necessary to the full and complete execution of the duties imposed on the Register and Receiver by the said recited act.
Respectfully yours, JOHN REYNOLDS.
The use to which the proceeds from the sale of the Vermilion Salines was put is stated in another letter written the governor of Indiana, dated Dec. 29, 1832.
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HISTORY OF VERMILION COUNTY
After reciting the joint resolution of the general assembly of Illinois in re- gard to the improvement of the Wabash river he goes on to say: "Some years since the legislature being well satisfied of the importance of the improvement of the navigation of this river, appropriated the money arising from the sale of the first ten thousand acres of the Vermilion Saline lands. This sum amounts to $11,985.16, and is now ready to be applied on that object for which it was ap- propriated." He goes on to urge Indiana to contribute a sum equal to that, etc.
Although the Salines passed out of the ownership of the state in 1829, the salt works were an industry for many years afterward. The wells were aban- doned and the works closed between 1848 and 1850. G. W. Wolfe, of Catlin, - is the only living man who worked in them. When a boy of 18 his brother Isaac operated a well for two years. The young man pumped water for 25 cents per day and boarded himself. The stock of the well was made from hickory tree, through which a hole had been bored. It stood 25 ft. above ground and the pumper stood on a high elevation and pumped water into a huge trough that carried it over the kettles quite a distance away. Three hundred strokes of the big heavy handle were considered one man's task before he was permitted to rest, day in and day out. The most salt that could be made at that time was seven bushels per day and the price had been reduced to 50 cts. per bu. At this rate there was not profit enough in the works to have it worth while to keep them up. When the springs were first opened the brine yielded I bu. of salt to 170 gallons of water and made 40 to 50 bu. of salt per week. Later a cavity of 18 in. was found from which flowed a much stronger brine 100 gallons of which yielded a bu. of salt. The production became 120 bushels per week.
The salt sold readily at the salt works for from $1.25 to $1.50 per bushel. Much of it was taken down the river in pirogues to supply the country there. A great deal of it was taken away in wagons and much of it was taken on horse- back in sacks by people who were too poor to own a team.
People came from as far as the settlements at Buffalo, Elkhart Grove, the Sangamon and Illinois rivers and from the neighborhood of Rockville and Rose- dale Indiana. This prosperity continued until the discovery of great quantities of brine upon the Kanawha river and the completion of a government pier at the mouth of the Chicago Creek, making a practical harbor, where vessels could safely enter, made competition which could not be met at the Vermilion Salines. The works were finally abandoned, the buildings being vacant, were destroyed, and, at last, the very existence of this, at one time most important industry of eastern Illinois, is forgotten and by many can not be located. The settle- ment about the old salt works was long ago completely obscured, and now it is almost impossible to exactly locate the old wells themselves, without an appeal to the few residents of the county who had some one of the past generation tell about it, so completely has the change been made. Following the direction given by one who yet knows the location of these wells, and going a half mile west of the crossing of the Middle Fork, into the bottom, near the north bank of the Salt Fork, between the cultivated fields and the river, there is nothing remain- ing to show where this once great industry was located. 'All trace has been ef- faced, and, strange to say, this is the work of the great rival industry-the coal operations. Vegetation covers this spot where the wild animals came to get the
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HISTORY OF VERMILION COUNTY
necessary saline matter for their health; where the Indians and the French traders who came to them for their furs long before the white man came for the salt; where the white man sought wealth for himself and convenience for others. The Indians who were here when Major Vance came told him that the French traders and the Indians made salt at these springs for at least seventy or eighty years before they were developed by the Americans; and they told him, they "had no recollection of the time, it was so long ago, that our people commenced making salt here." Lost is every sign of the well-worn trail of the buffalo and other wild animals which were at the coming of the white man found converging at this brakish ooze from many directions. Even the testimony of its having been the resort of an abundance of game, by the quantity of broken arrow heads to be found in the locality for a half hundred years after Major Vance came, is no longer to be found. Grain is reaped on the spot where the buffalo and wild fowl roamed to satisfy their desire for salt; the farmer sells the produce of the soil from the land which yielded the salt manufacturer his wealth, and even the memory of Mother Bloss "who was the last to cling to the produce of the salt works," is dim at best in the minds of the people who pass this historic spot.
Had it not been for the finding of salt on the Vermilion River, the history of Vermilion County would have differed greatly.
It was salt and furs that prompted the settlement of this section. Any other river would have offered the furs, but at that time the salt was worth more than any other thing. It was worth more than any precious metal and of itself, induced settlement of this region as nothing else could have done. The fur bearing animals along the banks of the streams brought the trader; these in turn were driven away by the white man seeking salt and disappeared; the salt attracted the early settler and drove away the trader; this industry yielded all trace of its being to the later means of wealth in the region when the coal in- terests obliterated all signs of the former source of wealth.
Surely the way of life comes by abandonment.
CHAPTER VII. UNITED STATES LAND SURVEYS.
PLAN OF SURVEY OF THE EXTENSIVE TERRITORIES OF THE UNITED STATES-THE "HARRISON PURCHASE"-THE LATER SURVEY.
The system which governs the survey of the territories of the United States is a peculiar one. It is based upon a plan which makes a division of the land into squares of uniform size, so arranged that any tract of 160 acres, or a "quar- ter section," may have its distinct designation and be readily found upon the map, or recognized upon the ground by the marks the surveyors leave. Apple- ton's American Encyclopedia describes this plan clearly and concisely as follows :
Each great survey is based upon a meridian line run due north and south by astronomical measurements, the whole extent of the survey in these direc- tions, and upon a "standard parallel" or base line, running east and west, sim- ilarly established with great accuracy. Parallels to these lines are run every six miles, usually with the solar compass corrected by frequent celestial observations, and thus, as nearly as the figure of the earth admits, the surface is divided into squares of six miles north and south and the same east and west, each one containing thirty-six square miles. The territory is further divided into sec- tions by meridians and parallels run at every mile; while the half mile is marked on these lines by setting what is called a "quarter post," the points are established for the subdivisions into quartersections.
The squares of thirty-six square miles are termed townships, often con- tracted into "towns ;" and each line of them east and west is numbered either N. or S. from the base line, and each line of them N. and S. is termed a range, and either numbered E. or W. from the meridian. The N. and S. lines bor- dering the townships are known as range lines, and the E. and W. lines as town- ship lines. Each survey is designated by the meridian upon which it is based, and of these principal meridians there are six designated by numbers, and eighteen by special names. The first meridian adopted for these surveys was the boundary line between Ohio and Indiana; the second through Indiana on the meridian of 86 degrees 28 minutes, west from Greenwich; the third through Illi- nois, beginning at the mouth of the Ohio river; the fourth north from the mouth of the Illinois river; the fifth north from the river Arkansas; the sixth on the 40th parallel of longitude.
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HISTORY OF VERMILION COUNTY
After a township is determined the sections of it are numbered beginning with the northeast corner, running thence across and back until the 36th is reached in the southeast corner.
Because of the conquest of the Northwestern Territory by George Rogers Clark, and the addition of this land north and west of the Ohio river to the United States by surrender of her rights on the part of the commonwealth of Virginia, there remained but satisfactory treaties to be made with the Indians to open the country to the use of the white settler.
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