USA > Illinois > Marshall County > Records of the olden time; or, Fifty years on the prairies. Embracing sketches of the discovery, exploration and settlement of the country, the organization of the counties of Putnam and Marshall, biographies of citizens, portraits and illustrations > Part 7
USA > Illinois > Putnam County > Records of the olden time; or, Fifty years on the prairies. Embracing sketches of the discovery, exploration and settlement of the country, the organization of the counties of Putnam and Marshall, biographies of citizens, portraits and illustrations > Part 7
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Father Buche continues: "By the wild surging herd my pony was knocked down, and I lay prostrated by his side, while the frightened buffalo jumped over me in their flight, and it was only by the interposi- tion of the Holy Virgin that I was saved from instant death."
76
RECORDS OF THE OLDEN TIME.
ILLINOIS BECOMES A STATE.
CHAPTER XIII.
THE COMPACT OF FREEDOM.
FTER the War of the Revolution and the recognition of American Independence, the Western Territories were claimed by Virginia, New York, and other States. After much discussion, the claimants agreed to transfer their sev- eral interests to the General Government, and in pursu- ance of the arrangement, Virginia, in 1784, ceded the ter- ritory that now constitutes the States of Indiana, Wiscon- sin, Ohio and Michigan, to the Federal Government, with the stipulation that when divided into States they were to be guaranteed a republican form of government, "with the same sover- eignty, freedom and independence as the other States." The celebrated "Compact of 1787" followed. It was the triumph of Thomas Jefferson's foresight and unceasing labors in the cause of freedom. He was ably as- sisted by Dr. Cutler, of Massachusetts, and to them jointly is mainly due the credit that " slavery was forever excluded from this great territory." Yet slaves were held in Southern Illinois for years, having been brought thither by the early French settlers, and it was not until 1850 that the last bondsmen disappeared from the census.
On the 13th of July, 1787, Congress established the Northwest Ter- ritory, and General St. Clair was appointed Governor. He came to Kas- kaskia in 1790, and organized the county of St. Clair, the first in the State.
The population of Illinois was then about 2,000, and it took ten years to add another 1,000.
May 7, 1800, Indiana Territory-including our State-was set apart, Gen. William Henry Harrison appointed Governor, and Vincennes made the capital. The first Legislature assembled in 1805, but its doings were not popular with the Illinoisans, who termed it the " Vinsain Legislater."
77
THE RANDOLPH COUNTY COVENANTERS.
In that year the population numbered about 5,000, which in 1810 bad in- creased to 12,282.
In 1809 the State was severed from its "Hoosier" connection, and permitted to set up a territorial government of its own, with Ninian Ed- wards for its first Governor.
In 1812, a Legislature was chosen, consisting of five Councillors and seven Representatives, which met at Kaskaskia, November 25. War with Great Britain was raging at the time, and much anxiety was felt as to the Indians, who, bought over with liberal promises, had generally arrayed themselves with the enemy. In 1815 peace was restored, and a great im- petus given to immigration.
In January, 1818, the Territorial Legislature of Illinois petitioned Congress for admission into the Union as a State. A bill was introduced at once, but was not acted on till April, when it became a law.
As first intended, the northern boundary of the State was to begin at the southern shore of Lake Michigan, running westward, but as this would have left Chicago in what is now Wisconsin, the Delegate in Con- gress sought and obtained a change to the line that now exists, thus secur- ing to the State fourteen additional counties in the fairest portions of the West.
Wisconsin afterward claimed the territory, denying that Congress had a right to alter the petition of the Illinois Territorial Legislature, but the question quieted down, and the disputed territory is now ours as much . as any other portion of the State. A Convention was called to frame a constitution in the summer of 1818, and assembled in Kaskaskia. During the session, the Rev. Mr. Wiley and his congregation, a sect of so-called "Covenanters," in Randolph County, sent a petition asking the members to declare in the instrument they were preparing, that "Jesus Christ was the head of all governments, and that the Holy Scriptures were the only rule of faith and practice." The Convention not only failed to embody this doctrine in the Constitution, but treated the petition with no especial courtesy beyond its mere reception. Therefore, as Gov. Ford states, "The Covenanters refused to sanction the State Government, and have been con- strained to regard it as an heathen and unbaptized government, which de- nies Christ, for which reason they have constantly refused to work on the roads, serve on juries, hold any office, or do any act whereby they are sup- posed to recognize the Government." They steadily refused to vote until 1824, when the subject of admitting slavery was submitted to the popular
78
RECORDS OF THE OLDEN TIME.
vote. Their suffrages were unanimously cast for freedom and a free State.
Shadrach Bond was elected the first Governor, in October, 1818. Nin- ian Edwards and Jesse B. Thomas were chosen Senators, and John Mc- Lean, Representative in Congress. Joseph Phillips was chosen Chief Jus- tice, and Thomas C. Brown, John Reynolds and William B. Foster, Asso- ciate Justices of the Supreme Court. Gov. Ford, who afterward wrote a history of the State, did not speak in flattering terms of some of these men, and was particularly severe on Foster, whom he styled a "great rascal." He was a polished gentleman, and drew his salary with commend- able regularity, but never sat upon the bench, and after one year resigned and left the State.
The first Legislature assembled at Kaskaskia in 1818, from whence the seat of government was changed the succeeding year to Vandalia.
In 1823, Peoria County was formed, with Peoria as the county-seat. In 1826 the Commissioners of that county fixed the boundaries of Fox River Precinct, which extended from Senachwine Creek to the River La- Page (Du Page), or from Chillicothe northward, including the counties of Putnam, Marshall, Bureau and La Salle, and the territory west to the Mississippi River.
Gideon Hawley and James Beersford were Justices of the Peace, with jurisdiction equal with the territory. The voting place was at David Walker's house, at the mouth of Fox River (Ottawa).
Marriages were solemnized only at Peoria, and the first on record within the jurisdiction was as follows :
STATE OF ILLINOIS, PEORIA CO., July 29, 1829.
This is to certify that Willard Scott and Caroline Hawley were this day united in mar- riage by me.
ISAAC SCARRETT, Missionary.
The ceremony, if short, was binding, and we may believe the parties enjoyed quite as much happiness as follows the elaborate nuptials of to- day, supplemented with cards, cake, bridesmaids, an expensive trousseau, a trip to Europe, and winding up, as is too often the case, with a sensa- tional suit for divorce.
79
ORGANIZATION OF PUTNAM COUNTY.
=
PUTNAM COUNTY.
CHAPTER XIV.
GURDEN S. HUBBARD.
HE earliest know white settlers who came to what is now Putnam County were certain fur traders, who located at the most eligible points for their business along the Illinois River. The first of these represented the American Fur Company. Antoine Des Champs, a Canadian Frenchman, was the general agent. He established himself at Pe- oria in 1816, and in 1817 was succeeded by Gurden S. Hubbard, now (1880) of Chicago, who will introduce him- self in the letter below, addressed to the Hon. A. T. Purviance, County Clerk of Putnam County:
CHICAGO, April 8th, 1867.
A. T. PURVIANCE :
Dear Sir :- Yours of the 4th received. The trading house occupied by Thomas Hart- zell was erected in 1817, and occupied by Beaubien, in the employment of the American Fur Company. The following year I was with him as his clerk, for he could not read or write ; besides, was old, and passed most of his time sick in bed. I was then sixteen years old, and the had entered the employment of American Fur Company in May of that year. Hartzell was at that time trading on the river below, in opposition to the American Company. Some years after, I think about 1824 or 5, he succeeded Beaubien in the employment of the American Fur Company. There-was a house just below, across the ravine, built by Antoine Bourbon- ais, also an opposition trader, who, like Hartzell, went into the employ of the American Fur Company under a yearly salary. My trading post, after leaving Beaubien, was at the mouth of Crooked Creek till 1826, when I located on the Iroquois river, still in the employ of
* * the American Fur Company, and so continued till 1830, when I bought them out. *
The last time that I visited the old spot where the trading house stood, the chimney was all that remained. This was made with clay and sticks. Four stakes were driven firmly in the ground, then small saplings withed across about two feet apart. Clay mortar tempered with ashes laid on long hay cut from the low lands, kneaded and made into strips about three feet long and three thick, laying the center over the first round of saplings, twisting them in below, until the top was reached, when the chimney inside and out was daubed with the clay and mortar smoothed off with the hand. The hearth of dry clay, pounded. It was our custom to keep rousing fires, and this soon baked and hardened the chimney, which gave it durability. The roof was made of puncheons, I think ; that is, split boards, the cracks
80
RECORDS OF THE OLDEN TIME.
well danbed with clay, and then long grass put on top, held down by logs of small size to keep the grass in its place. The sides of the house consisted of logs, laid one on top of the other, about seven feet high. The ends of these logs were kept in place by posts in the ground.' The ends were sapling logs set in the ground, upright to the roof, pinned to a beam laid across from the top of the logs, comprising the upper sides of the building. A rough door at one end, and a window at the other, composed of one sheet of foolscap paper, well greased. It was a warm, comfortable building, where many an Indian was hospitably enter- tained, and all were jolly and happy. There I first knew Shaubena. His winter lodge was on Bureau River, at the bluffs. I became very much attached to him, and he to me. I never knew a more honest man, and up to the time of his death our friendship did not seem diminished.
Yours, etc.,
G. S. HUBBARD.
We copy the above because it is reliable and valuable as historical fact, and for the reason that it describes the first house ever built by a white man in this section of country.
At these trading houses pelts and furs were obtained from the Indians in exchange for powder, balls, tobacco, knives, and beads and other trink- ets, and shipped in boats called batteaux to the headquarters of the Fur Company, or to the larger independent traders at New Orleans or in Canada.
In 1821, two cabins were built near that of the Fur Company, one of which was occupied by Bourbonais, or " Bulbona," as he was called, and the other by Rix Robinson, a Connecticut Yankee. Both had married squaws, and were raising half-breed children. The Frenchman went to what became known as Bulbona's Grove, and established a trading post, which he occupied for many years.
At this time there were few white people north of Springfield, and the entire northern part of the State was a wilderness, inhabited by In- dians and wolves. Hubbard affirmed that in passing from his trading post at Hennepin he found no white settlers until within eighteen miles of St. Louis.
In 1825, says Peck's Gazetteer: "In Northern Illinois there was not an organized county, a post-road or a considerable settlement. Chicago was little more than a village in Pike County, situated on Lake Michigan, at the mouth of Chicago Creek, containing twelve or fifteen houses and about sixty or seventy inhabitants. Peoria was a small settlement in Pike County, situated on the west bank of the Illinois River about two hundred miles above its junction with the Mississippi. A few lead miners had clustered about the lead mines at Galena, but a road through the wil- derness was not made until late this year, when 'Kellogg's Trail' pointed
81
PIKE, PEORIA AND PUTNAM COUNTIES.
the devious way from Peoria to Galena. Not a white man's habitation nor a ferry was to be seen along its entire route."
The Military Bounty Land Tract was the first to be settled by Ameri- can emigrants. It was surveyed by the Government, in 1815 and 1816, and the greater part subsequently appropriated in bounties to soldiers of the war of 1812. It extended from the junction of the Illinois and Mis- sissippi Rivers, running north 169 miles to a line drawn from the great bend of the river above Peru to the Mississippi, containing 5,360,000 acres.
Pike County was laid off in 1821, and was immense in its boundaries. It included all that part of the State north and west of the Illinois River, from its junction with the Kankakee to the Mississippi River, and east of the Kankakee to the Indiana line, and running north to Wisconsin! In 1823 it had seven or eight hundred inhabitants.
January 13, 1825, among other counties, Putnam was created. It em- braced a territory extending from the present northern limit of Peoria County, along the Illinois and Kankakee Rivers to the Indiana line, and thence north to Wisconsin, and west to a point thirty-five miles from the Mississippi; thence due south 105 miles, and east to beginning, com- prising 11,000 square miles! In 1830, Putnam and Peoria Counties united contained 1,310 whites, Putnam alone about 700. But this county was never organized, however. Its judicial business appears to have been transacted at Peoria, when there was any.
In 1829, '30 and '31, settlers had begun to come in and locate along . the margins of the timber and at the edges of the larger groves. But still they were few and far between. There being no ferries, goods were taken across the river in canoes, while horses were made to swim.
In 1831 Thomas Hartzell established a ferry at Hennepin, the first on the river above Peoria.
In 1831 Putnam County was again created, with new boundaries, and in the spring of that year organized in accordance with the act of the Legislature of the January previous.
Chicago had not then a municipal existence, but was a lively village of 250 inhabitants, including the garrison of Fort Dearborn. The Indian title to most of the land in Northern Illinois had not been extinguished, and no land outside of the military tract was for sale. But a single steamer had yet troubled the waters of the Illinois River above Peoria. There were a few settlers in the vicinity of Lacon and Hennepin, and on
82
RECORDS OF THE OLDEN TIME.
Round and Half Moon Prairies, in what is Marshall County now, as well as on the Ox Bow Prairie, and at Union Grove, in Putnam County.
The new county, as created in 1831, comprised thirty-eight full and thirteen fractional townships, and included nearly the whole of what is now Bureau, Putnam, Marshall and Stark Counties-a greater territory than the entire State of Rhode Island. Commissioners to locate a county seat were appointed, consisting of John Hamlin, of Peoria; Isaac Perkins, of Tazewell, and Joel Wright of Canton. The act of incorporation pro- vided it should be located on the Illinois River, "as near as practicable in the center of the county, with a just regard to its present and future sus- ceptibility of population, and to be named Hennepin."
The Commissioners accordingly met early in May, and after examina- tion of the various sites along the river, were about deciding to locate the county seat where Henry, in Marshall County, now stands, when the inhabitants of the Spoon River region interposed a plea that its location there would delay them in the formation of a new county, which they desired to have set off as soon as population would justify. The Commis- sion gave due attention to this plea, and resolved upon another site. As an understanding had already gone abroad that the location would be made at Henry, a chalked board was set up at that point, giving notice that another locality had been chosen. On the 6th of June, a report was made to the County Commissioners' Court, then sitting near Henne- pin, that "they have selected, designated, and permanently located the said seat of justice" where it now is. Provision was made in the organic act for its location upon Congress lands, if deemed advisable .*
The boundaries of the new county, as fixed by the act of January 15, 1831, were defined as "commencing at the south-west corner of Town 12 north, Range 6 east, running east to the Illinois River; thence down the middle of said river to the south line of Town 29 north; thence east withi said line to the third principal meridian ; thence north with said meridian line forty-two miles; thence west to a point six miles due north of the north-west corner of Town 17 north, Range 6 east; thence south in a right line to the place of beginning."
The first election under the law was to choose county officers, and was held at the house of Win. Hawes, on the first Monday of March, 1831. The judges of election were Thomas Hartzell and Thomas Gallaher, while James W. Willis performed the duties of clerk.
*Ford's " History of Marshall and Putnam Counties."
.
/
83
FIRST PUTNAM COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT.
The day was cold and dreary; roads were unknown save here and there a bridle-path; there were no bridges, and not a great deal of en- thusiasm was manifested.
But twenty-four votes were cast, and as there was but one set of can- didates, they were declared elected. They were: Thomas Gallaher, George Ish and John M. Gay for County Commissioners, Ira Ladd for Sheriff, and Aaron Cole for Coroner.
Hooper Warren was Clerk of the Circuit Court, Recorder of Deeds, County Clerk, and also, when he had nothing else to do, was Justice of the Peace.
Putnam was assigned to the Fifth Judicial Circuit, comprising fifteen counties, of which Hon. Richard M. Young was Judge and Hon. Thomas Ford (afterward Governor) District Attorney.
The new county seat was named in honor of Father Hennepin, the well-known explorer, and the first white man who is supposed to have set foot on the shores of the Illinois at this locality. The name was fixed by the law creating the county, so that all the different places seeking the location of the seat of justice, and failing, thus escaped the honor of bear- ing the name of Hennepin.
CIRCUIT COURT.
The first Circuit Court in Putnam County was held on the first Mon- day of May, 1831. In accordance with law, the County Commissioners' Court had selected the house of Thomas Gallaher, Esq., on the bank of the Illinois River, about one-fourth of a mile above Thomas Hartzell's trading house, as a suitable place for holding court.
Accordingly, on the day named the Court met, and there being no Clerk as yet provided, the Judge appointed Hooper Warren to the posi- tion, and fixed his official bond at $2,000. John Dixon and Henry Thomas became his sureties. The Sheriff made due proclamation, and the Circuit Court of Putnam was declared in session.
The Grand Jurors for the term were: Daniel Dimmick, Elijah Epper- son, Henry Thomas, Leonard Roth, Jesse Williams, Israel Archer, James Warnock, John. L. Ramsey, William Hawes, John Strawn, Samuel Laughlin (foreman), David Boyle, Stephen Willis, Jeremiah Strawn, Abraham Stratten, and Nelson Shepherd.
84
RECORDS OF THE OLDEN TIME.
Summoned, but did not appear: Thomas Wafer, George B. Willis, John Knox, - Humphrey, Jesse Roberts, and Lemuel Gaylord, Sr. The Petit Jurors were : Wm. Boyd, Hugh Warnock, Wm. H. Ham, Lewis Knox, Samuel Patterson, Joseph Ash, Christopher Wagner, Joseph Wallace, John Whittaker, Wm. Cowan, Wm. Wright, Ashael Hannum, Anthony Turk, John Burrow, John Myers, Ezekiel Thomas, Mason Wil- son, Smiley Shepherd, Justin Ament, and William Morris.
The Grand Jury held its sessions on a log under the shade of the trees. The only work done was the finding of an indictment against a man named Resin Hall and a woman named Martha Wright. He had a cabin in the woods, where he openly lived with two wives, to the great disgust of his bachelor neighbors, who thought where women were so few there should be a more equal distribution. Before the setting of the next court, Mr. Hall and his two wives folded their tents and disappeared.
There was no further business before this court, which lasted but one day and adjourned. At the next term, September, 1831, James M. Strode, Esq., was appointed Prosecuting Attorney, pro tem, in the absence of State's Attorney Thomas Ford, and Clark Hollenback indicted for malfeasance in office as Magistrate.
Court was afterward held at the house of Geo. B. Willis, and where- ever it could find room for a year or two, until more permanent quarters could be had.
At the May term, 1832, John Combs, summoned as a juror, failed to appear. The Court sent an officer, armed with an attachinent, after the delinquent, brought him in a prisoner, and fined him $5.00 and costs.
. David Jones, of rather tempestuous fame, was recognized to keep the peace, and gaye bonds in the sum of $50.00, with Roswell Blanchard and Elijah Epperson as his sureties that he would be peaceful to all the world, and especially as to George Ish.
In May, 1832, Clark Hollenback's case came up, but for some unknown reason the State's Attorney quashed it. He had been indicted for some crookedness as Justice of the Peace, but the affair never came to trial.
COURT HOUSES AND JAILS.
A new Court House and jail had been contemplated, and October 8th, 1831, the County Commissioners "ordered that a new Court House be built on plans furnished by John M. Gay, Esq., by May, 1832."
85
CONSTRUCTION OF COURT HOUSES AND JAILS.
December 9th, 1831, a jail was ordered to be built. It was to be seven feet in the clear, the upper and under floors to be made of hewn timber, one foot square, the roof "raved clapboard," three feet long. "The door to be made of inch boards doubled, nailed together with hammered nails six inches apart, to be hung with iron hinges, the hooks one inch square, six inches long, boarded, the hasp of the lock to go two-thirds of the way across the door, the window to be a foot square, with two bars of iron each way. To be twelve feet square, and cost eighty dollars.",
This costly structure was erected according to specifications, and ac- cepted; and it is on record that one of its first prisoners, with a little out- side help, pried out a log and escaped.
August 14th, 1832, "Notice was ordered given in The Sangamon Journal (Springfield), that three several jobs of building a court house will be sold the third Monday of September, 1832.
"1st. The foundation to be of stone, fifty feet on the ground each way, out to out; wall three feet high, two feet thick, one foot six inches under ground.
"2d. Brick wall to be equal in extent to foundation, twenty-two feet high, first story twelve feet, two and a half brick thick; second story ten feet high, two brick thick.
"3d. Carpenter work all to be done in good style, and the whole to be finished by September, 1833."
Until 1833, the Circuit Court had no regular place for holding its ses- sions, and among bills audited were several for payment of rent of room used, the usual price charged being two dollars for the term, which if in winter included the firewood used.
In March, 1833, Ira Ladd was employed to build a new jail, of the following dimensions :
"Lower floor to be double, of hewn timber-white or burr oak, one foot square-sixteen feet square; the lower tier of timber to be laid close side by side; second tier to be of same material and size laid crosswise, so as to make both solid-making it two feet thick, sixteen inches square, and sunk in the ground to a level with the top of the floor, four to eight inches above the ground. The outer wall to be sixteen feet from out to out, and each way sixteen feet highi, of square timber hewn or four-sided ; walls one foot thick, logs to be close, the corners plumb, notched dove- tail, corners cut down true and smooth, iron spikes in each log at the cor- ners, of three-quarter inch iron, to be driven in in presence of wit-
86
RECORDS OF THE OLDEN TIME.
nesses; the lower seven feet to be of white or burr oak. Inner wall twelve feet square, one foot thick, seven feet high, corners notched; one foot of space between inner and outer wall, to be filled with good hard timber, except walnut or ash. Space to be filled with one foot square timber seven feet long, set on end. Second floor of timber one foot square, sixteen feet long; upper story nine feet nine inches high. One window, one foot square, in lower story between the fourth and fifth logs, grated double, with one and one-quarter inch iron rods, and a door and window in upper story, securely made. A hatchway connected the upper and lower stories. The cost of this model log fortress was fixed at $334!
The next important record is found January 7, 1836, when it was "ordered that $14,000 be appropriated for a court house," and Wm. M. Stewart was appointed to make out the plans. The contract was to be let March 3, 1836, and an advertisement was ordered inserted in the Chicago Democrat and Sangamon Journal to that effect.
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