USA > Illinois > Vermilion County > History of Vermilion County, together with historic notes on the Northwest, gleaned from early authors, old maps and manuscripts, private and official correspondence, and other authentic, though, for the most part, out-of-the-way sources > Part 22
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198
HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.
were deposited. and one other was broken in two by the plow. The material of which they are composed is white chert. The samples illustrated are taken as an average, in size and shape. of the whole lot, the largest of which is 32 inches wide by 7 inches long, and the smallest 2 inches wide by nearly 4 inches in length. Some of them are nearly oval. others long and pointed at both ends. in others the. "shoulders " are well defined, while, for the most part. they are broadly rounded at one end and pointed at the other. They are all in the rough, and no finished implement was found with or near them. Indeed the whole lot are apparently in an unfinished condition. With very little dressing they could be fashioned into perfect im- plements, such as the "fleshers." "scrapers," "knives," "spear" and "arrow " heads described farther on. There are no quarries or deposits of flint of the kind known to exist within many miles of the locality where these implements were found. We can only con- jecture the uses for which they were designed. We can imagine the owner to have been a merchant or trader, who had dressed them down or procured them at the quarries in this condition. so they would be lighter to carry to the tribes on the prairies, where they could be perfected to suit the taste of the purchaser. We might further imagine that the implement merchant, threatened with some approaching danger, hid them where they were afterward found. and never returned. The eroded appearance of many of the "find " bear witness that the lot were buried a great many years ago."
Fig. 4 is an axe and hammer combined. The material is a fine-grained granite. The handle is attached with thongs of rawhide passed around the groove, or with a split stick or forked branch wythed around. and either kind of fastening could be tightened by driv- ing a wedge between the attachment and the surface of the implement. which on the back is slightly concaved to hold the wedge in place.
FIG. 4=12.
Figs. 5. 6 and 7 are also axes; material, dark granite. Heretofore it has been the popular opinion that these instruments are Vermilion county, Ill. "fleshers. " and were used in skinning animals, cutting up the flesh,
* The writer has divided the " lot." sending samples to the Historical Societies of Wisconsin and Chicago, and placed others in the collections of H. N. Rust, of Chicago; Prof. John Collett, of Indianapolis; Prof. A. H. Worthen, Springfield, Illinois; Jose- phus Collett, of Terre Haute, while the others remain in the collection of W. C. Beck- with, at Danville, Illinois.
199
STONE IMPLEMENTS.
and for scraping hides when preparing them for tanning. The re- cent discoveries of remains of the ancient " Lake Dwellers," of Switzerland, have resulted in finding similar implements attached to handles, making them a very formidable battle-axe.
FIG. 5=12.
.
Vermilion county, Ill.
FIG. 6=12.
Vermilion co., Ill. (H. N. Rust's Collection.)
From the implements obtained by Mr. Rust of the Sioux it can readily be seen how implements like Fig. 6, although tapering from the bit to the top, could be attached to handles by means of a rawhide band. Before fastening on the handle the rawhide would be soaked in water, and on drying would tighten to the roughened surface 'of the stone with a secure grip. A blow given with the cut- ting edge of this implement would tend to wedge it the more firmly into the handle .*
* In the Fifth Annual Report of the Regents of the University of New York (Albany. 1852. page 105), Mr. L. H. Morgan illustrates the ga-ne-a-ga-o-dus-ha, or war club, used by "the Iroquois at the period of their discovery." The helve is a crooked piece of wood, with a chisel-shaped bit formed out of deer's horn -shaped like Fig. No. 7, on the next page - inserted at the elbow, near the larger end; and in many respects it resembles the clubs illustrated in Plate X, vol. 2, of Dr. Keller's work on the " Lake Dwellings of Switzerland and other parts of Europe." Mr. Morgan remarks that "in later times a piece of steel was substituted for the deer horn, thus making it a more deadly weapon than formerly." There is little doubt that the Indians used such implements as Figs. 5, 6 and 7 for sphtting wood and various other pur- poses. The fact of their being used for splitting wood was mentioned by Father Charlevoix over a hundred and fifty years ago, as appears from extracts on page 181 of this book, quoted from his Narrative Journal.
200
HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.
Fig. 7 is another style of axe. The mate- rial out of which it is composed is greenstone. admitting of a fine polish. There would be no difficulty at all in shrinking a rawhide band to its surface. and the somewhat polished condi- tion of its sides above the "bit " would indi- cate a long application of this kind of a fasten- ing. It could also be used as a chisel in exca- vating the charred surface of wood that was being fashioned into canoes, mortars for crack- ing corn, or in the construction of other domes- tic utensils.
Fig. 8 is a club or hammer. or both. Its material is dark quartz. Some varieties of this implement have a groove cut around the cen- ter. like Fig. 9. The manner of handling it in- volves the use of rawhide. and. with some. is performed substantially in the same manner as Vermilion county, III. in Figs. 5. 6 and 7. except that the band of rawhide is broader. and extends some distance on either side of the lesser diameter
FIG. 8=12.
-
Vermilion county. Ill. (H. N. Rust's Collection.)
FIG. 7=12.
FIG. 36.
Dakota. (H. N. Rust's Collection.)
of the stone. In other instances they are secured in a hood of rawhide that envelops nearly the whole implement. leaving the point or one end of the stone slightly exposed. as in Fig. 36."
* Mr. Rust has in his collection a number of such implements. some of them weighing several pounds, which, along with the ones illustrated. were obtained by him from the Sionx of northwest Dakota. and which are "hooded " in the manner here described. Mr. Wm. Gurley, of Danville, Illinois, while in southwestern Colorado in 1876, saw many such clubs in use by the Ute Indians. They were entirely encased in rawhide, having short handles. The handles were encased in the rawhide that extended continuously. enveloping both the handle and the stone. The Utes used these implements as hammers in crushing corn, etc .. the rawhide covering of some being worn through from long use, and exposing the stone.
201
IMPLEMENTS FOR DESTRUCTIVE PURPOSES.
Fig. 9 was obtained from the Sioux by Mr. Rust. The stone is composed of semi-transparent quartz. Its uses have already been described.
FIG. 9.
Northwest Dakota (H. N. Rust's Collection).
Figs. 10 and 11 were probably used as spear-heads, they are certainly too large for arrow-heads, and too thick and roundish FIG. 10=1%. to answer the purpose of knives. The material is white chert. The edges of FIG. 11=12. both these implements are spiral, the "wind" of the opposite edges being quite uniform. Whether this was owing to the design of the maker or the twist in the grain of the chert, from which they are made, is a conjecture at best.
FIG. 12=12.
Vermilion county, Ill.
Fig. 12 was probably a spear or knife. The material is dark flint. A piece of quartz is impacted in the upper half of Vermilion county, Ill. Vermilion county, 111. the blade, the chipping through of which displays the skill of the person who made it. The shoulders of the implement are unequal, and the angle of its edges are not uniform. It is flatter upon one side than upon the other. These irregularities would throw it out of balance, and seemingly preclude its use as an arrow, while its strong shank and deep yokes above the shoulder would admit of its being firmly secured to a handle.
Fig. 13 was probably intended for an arrow-head, and thrown aside because of a flaw on the surface opposite that shown in the cut.
202
HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.
It is introduced to illustrate the manner in which the work FIG.13=12. progresses in making such implements. From an exam- ination it would appear that the outline of the implement is first made. After this, one side is reduced to the re- quired form. Then work on the opposite side begins, the point and edges being first reduced. The flakes are chipped off from the edges upward toward the center of and against the part of the stone to be cut away. In this Vermilion co., Ill. manner the delicate point and completed edges are pre- served while the implement is being perfected, leaving the shoulders, neck and shank the last to be finished.
Fig. 14 is formed out of dark-colored, hard, fine-grained flint. Its edges are a uniform spiral, making nearly a half-turn from shoulder
FIG.14=12.
FIG.15=1%.
FIG.16=12.
Vermilion county, Ill.
Vermilion county, Ill. (H. N. Rust's Collection.)
Vermilion county, Ill.
to point. It is neatly balanced, and if used as an arrow-head its wind or twist would, without doubt, give a rotary motion to the shaft in its flight. It is very ingeniously made, and its delicately chipped surface shows that the man who made the implement intentionally gave it the peculiar shape it possesses.
Fig. 15 is made out of fine-grained blue flint. It is unusually long in proportion to its breadth. Its edges are neatly beveled from a line along its center, and are quite sharp. Its well defined shoulders and head, with the yoke deeply cut between to hold the thong, would indicate its use as an arrow-point.
203
ARROW HEADS.
Fig. 16 is a perfect implement, and its surfaces are smoother than the observer might infer from the illustration. Its edges are very sharp and smooth and parallel to the axis of the implement. Its head, unlike that of the other implements illustrated, is round and pointed, with cutting edges as carefully formed as any part of the blade. It has no yoked neck in which to bury a thong or thread, and there seems to be no way of fastening it into a shaft or handle. It may be a perfect instrument without the addition of either. It is made out of blue flint.
ARROW HEADS.
Several different forms of implements (commonly recognized as arrow heads) are illustrated, to show some of the more common of the many varieties found everywhere over the country. Fig. 17 has uniformly slanting edges, sharp barbs and a strong shank. The material from which it is made is white chert. For shooting fish or in pursuing game or an enemy, where it was intended that the im- plement could not be easily withdrawn from the flesh in which it might be driven. the prominent barbs would secure a firm hold.
Fig. 18 is composed of blue flint; its outline is more rounded than the preceding specimen, while a spiral form is given to its deli- cate and sharp point.
FIG. 17=12.
Vermilion county, Ill.
FIG. 18=12.
Vermilion county, Ill.
FIG. 19=12.
Vermilion county, Ill.
FIG. 20=12.
Vermilion county, Ill.
Fig. 19 is composed of white chert. Its surface is much smoother than the shadings in the cut would imply. Its shape is very much like a shield. Its barbs are prominent, and the instrument would make a wide incision in the body of an animal into which it might be forced.
Fig. 20, like Fig. 17, has sharp and elongated barbs. It is fash- ioned out of white chert, and is a neat, smooth and well-balanced implement.
204
HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.
Fig. 21 is made from yellowish-brown quartz, semi-transparent and inclined to be impure. The surfaces are oval from edge to edge, while the edges themselves are beautifully serrated or notched, as is shown in the cut. It is, perhaps, a sample of the finest work- manship illustrated in this chapter. Indeed, among FIG. 21=12. the many collections which the writer has had oppor- tunities to examine, he has never seen a specimen that was more skillfully made.
Fig. 22 may be an arrow-point or a reamer. The material is white chert. Between the stem and the notches the implement is quite thick, tapering gradu- ally back to the head, giving great support to this part of the implement.
Fig. 23 is an arrow-point, or would be so regarded. Its stem is roundish, and has a greater diameter than the cut would indicate to the eye. The material from which it is formed is white chert.
Vermilion county, Ill.
FIG. 22=12. FIG. 23=12.
FIG. 24=12.
FIG. 25=12.
Vermilion co., Ill.
Vermilion co., Ill.
Vermilion co., Ill.
Vermilion co., Ill.
Figs. 24 and 25 are specimens of the smaller variety of " points " with which arrows are tipped that are used in killing small game. Fig. 24 is made out of black " trap-rock," and Fig. 25 out of flesh- colored flint.
Fig. 26 is displayed on account of its peculiar form ; the under surface is nearly flat, and the other side has quite a ridge or spine running the entire length from head to point. Besides this the head FIG. 26=12. and point turn upward, giving a uniform curve to the implement. If used as an arrow-point, the shaft, in consequence of the shape of the stone. would describe a curved line when shot from the bow. It Vermilion county, Ill. is made of white flint. No suggestions are offered as to its probable uses.
205
VARIETIES OF IMPLEMENTS FOR DOMESTIC USES.
IMPLEMENTS FOR DOMESTIC USES.
Fig. 27 is a pestle or pounder. It is made out of common gran- ite. There are many different styles of this FIG. 27 = 16. implement, some varieties are more conical, while others are more bell-shaped than the one illustrated. They are used for crushing corn and other like purposes. The one illus- trated has a concave place near the center of the base; this would the better adapt it to cracking nuts, as the hollow space would protect the kernel from being too severely crushed. In connection with this stone, the Indians sometimes used mortars, made either of wood or stone, into which the articles to be pulverized could be placed ; or the corn or beans could be done up in the folds Vermilion county, Illinois. of a skin, or inclosed in a leathern bag, and (H. N. Rust's collection.) then crushed by blows struck with either the head or rim of the pestle. The stone mortars were usually flat discs, slightly hollowed out from the edges toward the center.
Fig. 28 may be designated as a flesher or scraper. The specimen FIG. 28=12. illustrated is made of white flint. It is very thin, considering the breadth and length of the implement, and has sharp cutting edges all the way around. It might be used as a knife, as well as for a variety of other purposes. It is an unusually smooth and highly finished tool. It and its mate, which is considerably broader, and proportioned more like FIG. 29=12. Fig. 29, were found sticking perpendicular in the ground, with their points barely ex- posed above the surface, on the farm of Wm. Foster, a few miles east of Danville. Illinois. Both of them will Vermilion county, Ill. make as clean a cut through several folds of paper as the Vermilion co., Ill. blade of a good pocket-knife.
Fig. 29 is composed of an impure purplish flint. It is very much like Fig. 28, and was probably used for similar purposes.
206
HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.
FIG. 30=12. Fig. 30, as the illustration shows, is rougher- edged than the two preceding ones. The side opposite the one shown has a more uneven sur- face than the other. A smooth, well-defined groove runs across the implement (as shown by the dark shading) as though it were intended to be fastened to a helve, although the groove would afford good support for the thumb, if the implement were used only with the hand. Vermilion county, Ill. The material is a coarse, impure, grayish flint. Fig. 31 might be said to combine the qualities of a FIG. 32=12. knife, gimlet and bodkin. Its cutting edges extend all FIG. 31=12. around, and along the stem the edges are quite abrupt. The implement was origi- nally much longer, but it appears to have lost about an inch in length, its point hav- ing been broken off. The blade will cut cloth or paper very readily. The mate- rial is white flint.
Vermilion county, Ill.
FIG.33=12.
Vermilion county, Ill.
Fig. 32 may be classed with Fig. 31. The material is dark fine-grained flint, and the implement perfect. There is a per- ceptible wind to the edges of the stem, while the edges of the head are parallel with the plane of the implement, and so sharp that they will cut cloth, leather or paper. It was probably used to bore holes and cut out skins that were being manu- factured into clothing and other articles.
Vermilion county, Ill.
Fig. 33 may have been made for the same uses as Figs. 31 and 32. The blade is shaped like a spade, the stem representing the handle. It tapers from the bit of the blade where the stem joins the shoulder, which is the thickest part of the imple- ment, and from the shoulder it tapers to both ends. The bit is shaped like a gouge. and makes a circular incision. It is a smooth piece of workmanship, made out of white flint.
207
STONE IMPLEMENTS.
Fig. 34 has been designated as a "rimmer." The FIG. 34=12. material of which it is made is flesh-colored flint. The stem is nearly round, and the implement could be used for piercing holes in leather or wood. Another use at- tributed to it is for drilling holes in pipes, gorgets, discs and other implements formed ont of stone where the material was soft enough to admit of being perforated in this way.
Fig. 35. By common consent this implement has Vermilion received the name of " discoidal stone." The one illus- county, Ill. FIG. 35=12. trated is composed of fine dark-gray granite. Several theories have been offered as to the uses of this imple- ment, - one that they are quoits used by the Indians in playing a game similar to that of "pitching horse- shoes"; that they were employed in ' another game resembling "'ten-pins," in which the stone would be grasped on its concave side by the thumb and Vermilion county, Ill. (H. N. Rust's Collection.) second finger, while the fore-finger rested on the outer edge, or rim, and that by a peculiar motion of the arm in hurling the stone it would describe a convolute figure as it rolled along upon the ground. We may suggest that implements like this might be used as paint eups, as their convex surface would enable the warrior to grind his pigments and reduce them to powder. preparatory to decorating his person.
The implements illustrated were, no doubt, put to many other uses besides those suggested. As the pioneer would make his house, furniture, plow, ox yokes, and clear his land with his axe, so the Indians, in the poverty of their supply, we may assume, were com- pelled to make a single tool serve as many purposes as their ingenu- ity could devise.
2
CHAPTER XX.
THE WAR FOR THE FUR TRADE.
FORMERLY the great Northwest abounded in game and water-fowl. The small lakes and lesser water-courses were full of beaver, otter and muskrats. In the forests were found the marten, the raccoon. and other fur-bearing animals. The plains, partially submerged, and the rivers, whose current had a sluggish flow, the shallow lakes, producing annual crops of wild rice, of nature's own sowing, teemed with wild geese, duck and other aquatic fowl bursting in their very fatness .*
The turkey, in his glossy feathers, strutted the forests, some of them being of prodigious size, weighing thirty-six pounds. +
The shy deer and the lordly elk, crowned with outspreading horns, grazed upon the plain and in the open woods, while the solitary moose browsed upon the buds in the thick copsewood that gave him food and a hiding place as well. The fleet-footed antelope nibbled at the tender grasses on the prairies, or bounded away over the ridges to hide in the valleys beyond, from the approach of the stealthy wolf or wily Indian. The belts of timber along the water-courses
* "The plains and prairies (referring to the country on either side of the Illinois River) are all covered with buffaloes, roebucks, hinds, stags, and different kind of fallow deer. The feathered game is also here in the greatest abundance. We find, particu- larly, quantities of swan, geese and ducks. The wild oats, which grow naturally on the plains, fatten them to such a degree that they often die from being smothered in their own grease."-Father Marest's letter, written in 1712. We have already seen, from a description given on page 103, that water-fowl were equally abundant upon the Maumee.
+ In a letter of Father Rasles, dated October 12, 1723, there is a fine description of the game found in the Illinois country. It reads: "Of all the nations of Canada, there are none who live in so great abundance of everything as the Illinois. Their rivers are covered with swans, bustards, ducks and teals. One can scarcely travel a league without finding a prodigious multitude of turkeys, who keep together in flocks, often to the number of two hundred. They are much larger than those we see in France. I had the curiosity to weigh one, which I found to be thirty-six pounds. They have hanging from the neck a kind of tuft of hair half a foot in length.
"Bears and stags are found there in very great numbers, and buffaloes and roebucks are also seen in vast herds. Not a year passes but they (the Indians) kill more than a thousand roebucks and more than two thousand buffaloes. From four to five thousand of the latter can often be seen at one view grazing on the prairies. They have a hump on the back and an exceedingly large head. The hair, except that on the head, is curled and soft as wool. The flesh has naturally a salt taste, and is so light that, although eaten entirely raw, it does not cause the least indigestion. When they have killed a buffalo, which appears to them too lean, they content themselves with taking the tongue, and going in search of one which is fatter." Vide Kip's Jesuit Missions, pp. 38, 39.
208
209
THE HUNTER'S PARADISE.
afforded lodgment for the bear, and were the trellises that supported? the tangled wild grapevines, the fruit of which, to this animal, was an article of food .. The bear had for his neighbor the panther. the; wild cat and the lynx, whose carnivorous appetites were appeased im the destruction of other animals.
Immense herds of buffalo roamed over the extensive area bounded on the east by the Alleghanies and on the north by the. lakes. embracing the states of Ohio, Indi- ana, Illinois, Wisconsin and the southern: half of Michigan. Their trails checkered. the prairies of Indiana and Illinois in every direction, the marks of which, deep worn in the turf, remained for many years after the disappearance of the animals that made them.# Their numbers when the country was first known to Europeans were immense, and beyond computation. In their migrations southward. in the fall, and on their return from the blue-grass regions of Ken- tncky in the spring, the Ohio River was obstructed for miles during: the time occupied by the vast herds in crossing it. Indeed, the , French called the buffalo the "Illinois ox," on account of their- numbers found in " the country of the Illinois," using that expres- sion in its wider sense, as explained on a preceding page. So great importance was attached to the supposed commercial value of the buffalo for its wool that when Mons. Iberville, in 1698, was engaged. to undertake the colonization of Louisiana, the king instructed him to look after the buffalo wool as one of the most important of his duties ; and Father Charlevoix, while traveling through "The Illinois," observed that he was surprised that the buffalo had been so long neglected.+ Among the favorite haunts of the buffalo were the marshes of the Upper Kankakee, the low lands about the lakes of northern Indiana, where the oozy soil furnished early as: well as late pasturage, the briny earth upon the Au Glaize, and the Salt Licks upon the Wabash and Illinois rivers were tempting places of resort. From the summit of the high hill at Ouiatanon, over- looking the Wea plains to the east and the Grand Prairie to the west.
*"Nothing," says Father Charlevoix, writing of the country about the confluence of" the Fox with the Illinois River, "is to be seen in this course but immense prairies, inter- spersed with small groves which seem to have been planted by the hands of men. The grass is so very high that a man would be almost lost in it, and through which paths are to be found everywhere, as well trodden as they could have been in the most popu- lated countries, although nothing passes over them but buffaloes, and from time to. time a herd of deer or a few roebuck ": Charlevoix' Narrative Journal, vol. 2, p. 200 .. + Brackenridge's Views of Louisiana.
14
210
HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.
as far as the eye could reach in either direction, the plains were seen covered with groups, grazing together, or, in long files, stretching away in the distance, their dark forms, contrasting with the green- sward upon which they fed or strolled, and inspiring the enthusiasm of the Frenchman, who gave the description quoted on page 104. Still later, when passing through the prairies of Illinois, on his way from Vincennes to Quiatanon, - more a prisoner than an ambassa- dor,-George Croghan makes the following entry in his daily jour- nal : "18th and 19th of June, 1765 .- We traveled through a pro- digious large meadow, called the Pyankeshaws' hunting ground. Here is no wood to be seen, and the country appears like an ocean. The ground is exceedingly rich and partially overgrown with wild hemp .* The land is well watered and full of buffalo, deer, bears, and all kinds of wild game. 20th and 21st .- We passed through some very large meadows, part of which belonged to the Pyanke- shaws on the Vermilion River. The country and soil were much the same as that we traveled over for these three days past. Wild hemp grows here in abundance. The game is very plenty. At any time in a half hour we could kill as much as we wanted."+
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