USA > Illinois > Ogle County > Sketches of the history of Ogle County, Ill., and the early settlement of the Northwest > Part 2
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*Western Annals, pp. 62, 63.
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9
HISTORY OF OGLE COUNTY.
Letters from a Missionary-Settlements on the Mississippi-Lead Mines in Illinois-Their Value.
1750. Writing . from " Aux Illinois," eighteen miles from Fort Rosalie, on the 8th of June, 1750, Vivier says : "We have here, whites, negroes, and Indians, to say nothing of the cross-breeds. There are five French villages, and three villages of the natives within a space of 21 leagues, situated between the Mississippi and ano- ther river called the Karkadiad (Kaskas- kia.) In the five French villages are perhaps eleven hundred whites, three hundred blacks, and some sixty red slaves or savages. The three Illinois towns do not contain more than eight hundred souls, all told."
Vivier mentions in another part of the same letter Peoria, which probably con- tained as many inhabitants as the other three towns together. "Most of the French till the soil," he continues; "they raise wheat, cattle, pigs and horses, and live like princes. Three times as much is produced as can be consumed. and great quantities of grain and flour are sent to New-Orleans." Under date of November 17th of the same year, he writes : "For fifteen leagues above the mouth of the Mississippi one sees no dwellings, the ground being too low to be inhabited. Thence to New-Orleans the lands are only partially occupied. New- Orleans contains, black, white and red, not more, I think, than twelve hundred persons. To this point come all kinds of lumber, brick, salt beef, tallow, tar, skins and bear's grease, and above all, pork and flour from Illinois. These things create some commerce; forty vessels, and more, have come here this season. Above New-Orleans, plantations 2
are again met with; the most considera- ble is a colony of Germans, some ten leagues up the river. At Point Coupee, thirty-five leagues above the German set- tlement, is a fort. Along here, within five or six leagues, are not less than sixty habitations. Fifty leagues farther up is the Natchez Post, where we have a garri- son who are kept prisoners by their fear of the Chickasaws and other savages Here at Point Coupee, they raise excellent to- baeco. Another hundred leagues brings us to the Arkansas, where we have also a fort and garrison for the benefit of river traders. There were some inhabitants about here formerly. but in 1748 the Chickasaws attacked the post, slew many, took thirteen prisoners, and drove the rest into the fort. From the Arkansas to the Illinois, nearly five hundred leagues,* there is not a settlement. There should, however, be a good fort on the Ouabache, (Wabash,) the only path by which the English can reach the Mississippi. In the Illinois are numberless mines, but no one to work them as they deserve. Some individuals dig lead near the sur- face and supply the Indians and Canada. Two Spaniards now here, who claim to be adepts, say that our mines are like those of Mexico, and that if we would dig deeper we would find silver under the lead. At any rate, the lead is excellent. There is also in this country copper mines be- yond doubt, as from time to time large pieces are found in the streams.
*In most of the ancient French journals, distance is overrated, as in this instance. It is nearer five hundred miles than leagues.
10
HISTORY OF OGLE COUNTY.
Alleged Purchases at Logstown and Lancaster-Resisted by the Iroquois on the ground of Fraud.
CHAPTER IV.
We have heretofore followed the move- ments of the French, who were making bold advances and sustaining severe losses, while the English, although they were watching with the most jealous careful- ness the operations of the French, were comparatively inactive. Previous to 1750, no English settlement had been made West of the Alleganies, although Great Britain claimed the territory from the Atlantic to the Pacific, on the ground that the right secured by the discovery of the coast was a title of ownership to the whole country ; and she also claimed the interior by right of actual discovery and by her purchase of it from the Indian owners. Among the discoveries made by the En- glish, we motice, first, that of John How- ard, who, tradition says, left Virginia in 1742, crossed the Alleganies, and de- scended the Ohio in a canoe of buffalo skins to the Mississippi, where he was taken prisoner by the French. This is the first well authenticated account we have of the English explorations of the Ohio and Mississippi. Six years after, Conrad Weiser was sent from Philadelphia to Logstown, an Indian village on the Ohio, to gain the friendship of the West- ern savages by presents and professions of good will toward them. There had doubt- less been English traders along the Ohio some time previous to this expedition of Weiser; indeed, we have reason to believe that they had penetrated so far, as early as 1725, although there is no evidence which fixes the earliest date with any certainty. The country west of the Al-
leganies had, for a long time, to a great extent, been under the power of the Iroquois, a combination of six nations, who had by virtue of war gained posses- sion of what is now Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin, some of Bri- tish America, and even beyond the Mis- sissippi. In 1684, at a treaty meeting held at Albany, this confederacy placed itself under the protection of the British government, and sold to the English a vast tract of country south and east of the Illinois River, and extending aeross Lake Huron into Canada."* The six nations, also, in 1726, signed a deed which placed their lands in the possession of the British, "to be protected and defended by his Majesty to and for the use of their heirs."+ France by the treaty of Utrecht had agreed not to invade the country of Britian's Indian allies, and she certainly was justified in expecting the French to respect their obligations, and in claiming her own even by force of arms. The question of the extent of the possessions of the Iroquois arises here, which, with the claim of prior discovery by the French, leaves it a matter of investigation, whether or not the claims of the English were right, which we purpose to leave to oth- ers more curious.
Some of the country in question is said to have actually been purchased by the British, which fact was also put forward to substantiate their claim. This pur- chase was made at Lancaster, Pennsylva- nia, at a council which commenced its"
*Western Annals.
+Powell's Administration of the Colonies, page 267.
11
HISTORY OF OGLE COUNTY.
Purchase of Land by the Commissioners from Maryland-The " Ohio Company" formed to colonize the West.
session on the 22d of June, 1744, and lasted until the fourth of July. At this Convention the Commissioners from Mary- land paid for the land purchased £220, in Pennsylvania currency; and those from Virginia paid £200 in gold and as much goods, promising more as settlements ex- tended .* It was to fulfil this promise, as well as to " prospect" for settlements in the West, that Weiser made his expedi- tion in 1748. France mnade every possi- ble effort to drive back her rival without resorting to open war. In 1749, M. de Gallissoniere sent a party of soldiers under Louis Celeron, to place leaden plates, on which were inscribed at length the claims of France, in the mounds and at the mouths of the riverst in the disputed territories, which, with various other plans to establish their claims, proved unavailing.
Companies were formed to colonize the West, which met with British support without regard to French claims. In 1748, the " Ohio Company" presented their petition to the king for a grant of land beyond the mountains, in answer to which petition the Governor of Virginia was directed to grant to the company a half a million acres of laud beyond the mountains, in the Virginia Province. We find in the list of the members of this company, the name of George Washing- ton, then little known to fame. The
Loyal Company received a grant of eight hundred thousand acres of land, on the 12th of June, 1749; and on the 29th of October, 1751, the Green Briar Company received a grant of one hundred thousand acres.
Thus the clouds were gathering for the storm, the conflicting elements in which were none other than the two proudest nations of the Old World, whose stage of action was this whole broad continent. The French fanned the flame already kindled in the breasts of the red men against their eastern invaders, while the English showed that stern determination which only is attended with success. The French in 1759 began to strengthen cer- tain points ou the Upper Ohio, from which the lower posts might be easily at- tacked, and opened a line of communica- tion from Erie to the Allegany, on which road, at the head of French Creek, they built a fort. Early in 1752, the French demanded of theTwigtwees,a nation friend- ly to the English, the surrender of some traders who were established on the Mi- ami, in the Twigtwees' country. These Indians could not thus easily be fright- ened to deliver their friends into the hands of their enemies, and consequently an attack ensued. Assisted by the Otta- was and Chippewas, after a severe battle, in which fourteen of the natives were killed and many more wounded, the French captured the post and carried the traders to Canada as prisoners .*
This was the result of the first attempt of the English to establish a permanent
*The alleged purchase at Logstown was stur- dily resisted by the Iroquois, as also the Lan- caster treaty claim, as a fraud. It was never admitted by the tribes of the Six Nations. See a tract called " Plain Thoughts."
¿See Records of American Antiquarian So- ciety, vol. 2, page 535-41.
#An carly writer, speaking of this attack, says the prisoners were buried alive.
12
HISTORY OF OGLE COUNTY.
English Settlements West of the Mountains-The "Seven years War"-Grievances of the Colonists.
settlement west of the mountains. Blood had been shed; the French grew more zealous to blockade every avenue of approach, and the British, with a more fixed determination, prepared for the coming contest. Crown Point, Niaga- ra, Riviere de Bœuf and the junction of the Monongahela and Allegany Rivers immediately became the sites upon which were located French forts, which were speedily garrisoned, and the Governors of the American provinces were commanded to drive away the French intruders from these posts by force of arms. In the same year, 1754, Washington, with four hun- dred men, was sent from Virginia to es- tablish military works on the banks of the Ohio. Every American history has enlarged upon the achievements of this period, and it is scarcely necessary for us to repeat them. General Braddock soon arrived with a large force, and the seven years' war was fairly commenced. Speak- ing in this connection, Hart, in his "His- tory of the Valley of the Mississippi," says :
"This war was ostensibly begun to assert the rights of each nation to the territory west of the mountains, but it was, in fact, a contest for supremacy throughout all the North Ameri can dominions. It began amidst the mountain- passes of the Alleganies; it ended on the Plains of Abraham. The struggle was not of long duration, but it was effectual, and afforded a convincing proof of the valor and prowess of the English soldiers, and their superiority over their French opponents. Nor in this trial of arms are we to obliterate the memory of the services which the old English colonists of America rendered to their ancestors in their cudeavors to destroy French domination in this country. How far they were repaid for
their services, history has not failed to men- tion; and while the memory of their achieve- ments will forever be fixed in the minds of their countrymen, it will be accompanied by The melancholy reflection that they afterwards met with nothing but contumely and insult from that very power on whose behalf they were enlisted. The course of time and the progress of events have wiped away many of those asperities which formerly existed between the people of America and the mother coun- try; and neither the one nor the other can ever obliterate from the hearts of Americans the memory of those unrequited services, which their gallant ancestors rendered in behalf of England in the wild solitudes of the West.
"It was neither the 'Stamp Act' nor the 'Tea Duty' which aroused the sense of wrong at the hands of England among the American people. These may have been the proximate cause, but there were others more remote which served to increase that feeling of indignation at the evils they had endured from their hard task- masters. The Colonists contracted a debt of ten millions to assist England in the war of 1754, and, if we may judge from the remen- strances of our ancestors, whose memorials were sent home to the British Parliament, they felt the ingratitude of England in withholding payment of this debt, and the recognition of more brilliant exploits they had performed du- ring the memorable period."
We have said that the "seven years' war" was fairly commeneed, and indeed, it was, although not formally declared un- til the following year, 1756. The story of the arrival of Braddock, his assuming command of all the British forces, inclu- ding those of the colonies, his unskilful management and unhappy defeat, his burial in the road, although it forms am important link in our history as occuring the year previous to the Declaration of War, is too familiar to need delineation.
13
IIISTORY OF OGLE COUNTY.
The treaty ratified at Paris-England possessor of the Colonies on the Atlantic, Canada and part of Louisana ..
The destruction of life now became the employment of the living, and conspicu- ous among the annals of this period are the records of the gallant deeds of Wolfe and his brave companions, the destruction of Fort Duquesne, Washington's march through the Chestnut Ridge and the hazar- dous defence of Lewis and Bullitt, the fall of Montcalm, one of the bravest and noblest Frenchman of the age, before British bayoncts at Quebec, the surrender of Montreal and the massacre of Michili- mackinac-the details of these, time and space forbid cur repeating.
On the 16th of February, 1762, a treaty was ratified at Paris by virtue of which England became possessor, not only of the colonies on the Atlantic, but the Cana- das and that part of Louisiana lying east of the Mississippi, excepting the town of New-Orleans and the adjacent territory. In consideration of Havana and a greater part of Cuba, which the British had con- quered, they, by the same treaty, acquired the Floridas from Spain. By a secret treaty of the same date, the country lying West of the Mississippi, and which was designated by the general appellation of Louisiana, was ceded by France to Spain .*
It will be seen that this treaty, vague and ambiguous in its terms, gave rise to constant collisions between the subjects of the European governments, and was the source of almost endless discussions
between the authorities of our own gov- ernment and Spain; for, by the treaty of 1762, Great Britain ceded East Florida, and guaranteed West Florida to the crown of Spain.
Hart says :
"In the phraseology of diplomatists, noth ing could have been more uncertain than the limits assigned by the treaty of 1763. The right of navigating the Mississippi was for a long time a disputed point between England and Spain, and the space of twelve years was consumed in negotiating upon that and other subjects of boundary. It appears strange, that in the furthest recesses of the forest, where settlements originated out of that spirit of enterprise and industry which animated the bosoms of the early pioneers, their interests should have been so seriously affected by the wily intrigues of skilful diplomatists, but so it was; and we have seen that even the case of Langlade,* the English government had to
*Etherington, a British major, who was in possession of Fort Mackinac, April, 1763, gave authority to the Langlade family, of French descent, to make their permanent residence- at Green Bay. Lieutenant Governor Sinclair repeated this permission in 1782. Founded under the auspices of the French government, encouraged and sanctioned by the rigor- ous and arbitrary power of the British crown, this, an infant settlement of the now populous State of Wisconsin, became so firmly rooted that to this day the descendants of Sieur Au- gustin de Langlade, who became the principal proprietor of the post of Green Bay in 1750, are living there; and the succeeding generations have preserved uncorrupted the pol- ished manners and pure idiom of their native tongue, brought hither from the French court by their educated and high- minded ancestor.
We mention in this connection the settlement of Prairie du Chien, which, with that of Green Bay, dates its rise from the middle of the eighteenth century, and the other settlements of Wisconsin which we have incidentally or otherwise referred to, all of which increased in wealth and population, and now some of these are the most prominent locations in the State. Minnesota, too, the youngest member of our Confederacy, was the wonted field of the pale-face, who wandered over its fertile plains in quest of the prey which had long been that of the red man, and her earliest settlements date as far back as 1750,a few years previous to which time her soil was first bro- ken by L'Huiller on the banks of the Mankato, who with the pickaxe and spade undertook to find vast beds of copper which he imagined were lying under her surface. Captain Jona-
*The terms of this secret treaty have never been made known. On the third day of the preceding November, France ceded to Spain all her territories on the west side of the river, including the island and town of New-Orleans, which cession was accepted by the latter power on the 13th of the same month .- Hart's History.
14
HISTORY OF OGLE COUNTY.
O'Reilly takes possession of the Colony -- The French King expresses a desire for the prosperity of the inhabitants.
grant permission to the subject of a foreign government to take up his abode on the shores of Lake Superior. The right of occupation, acquired after long years of toil and hardship, was by them considered subordinate to that which had been gained in war and on the bat- the field.
"Have we not reason to be thankful for the enlightened spirit and policy of our own free institutions which guaranteed to the stranger as well as to the native the protection of our laws and government? Yet snch was the poli- cy pursued by the European government in many periods of their political existence, that aliens were not allowed to abide in the conntry without the special permission of the crown. Such, however, does not seem to have been the case under the cession of Louisiana to Spain. It will be remembered that this secret treaty was not the result of any warlike operations be- tween the two governments, and thus the Catho- lies inhabitants of Louisiana seemed to be the objects of the special care and solicitude of the French monarch.
"In a letter signed by the French King, dated April 21st 1764, addressed to M. D'Ab- badie, Director-General and Commandant of Louisiana, he informs him of the treaty of ces- sion, and directs him to give up to the officers of Spain the country and colony of Louisiana, together with the city of New-Orleans' and all the military posts. He expressed a desire for the prosperity and peace of the inhabitants of the Colony and his confidence in the affection and friendship of the king of Spain, He at the same time declared his expectation that the ecclesiastical and religions bodies, who had the care of the parishes and missions, would continue to exercise their functions ; that the Superior Council and ordinary Judges would continue to administer according to the laws,
forms and usages of the Colony; that the in- habitants would be maintained and preserved in their astates, which had been granted to themiby the Governors and Directors of the Colony, and that finally, all these grants, though not con- firmed by the French authorities, would be con- firmed by his Catholic Majesty.
"Although this letter was dated April, 1764,. it was not until the year 1768 that Spain exer -. cised any permanent jurisdiction over the ter -. ritory thus acquired by her.
"In the year 1766, Don Ulloa arived with a. detachment of Spanish troops, and demanded. possession of M. Aubey, the succeessor of D'Ab- badie, who was deceased. This functionary,. aided by the people, opposed the design of Spain. They complained that a transfer with -. out their consent was unjust, and, in a mo -- ment of irritation, resorted to their arms, and. obliged the Spaniards to measure their steps. to llavana."
On the 17th of August, O' Reilly arrived. from the East and took possession of the Colony without a show of resistance. By his authority six of the malcontents, who. had been prominent in the measures of 1766, were immediately hung, and six more were doomed to the dungeons of Cuba.
The French established their settle- ments in Upper Louisiana, on the west branch of the Mississippi in 1766, one of which was the foundation of the pres- ent eity of St. Louis; these were sub- jected to Spanish rule in 1770.
For years succeeding the signing of the secret treaty, the government of Spain in the Southwest presents a series of panoramic changes, interesting but pain- ful to contemplate, and which fall just beyond the scope of our preseut underta- king.
than Carver also explored this country in 1766, and claimed a settlement from a gift which he pretends to have received from the Indians; and among those of the present century whom we are to regard as pioneers in promoting the early and rapid settlement, and who are prominent among the early explorers of this territory, stand the names of Cass and Schoolcraft, Nicolet, Fremont and Long.
15
HISTORY OF OGLE COUNTY.
Major Clark's treaty with Pontiac-Pontiac's deception-Indians instructed in the arts of European Warfare.
Balanced, as it were, between the two great powers of Europe in the West, the Indian tribes of this country had been flattered and coaxed, hired and befriended by both parties, each in the hope of gain- ing a predominance of power by indu- cing them to become its allies ; and when, for a passing period, either had been more successful, it was not slow to place in their hands European implements of warfare, and to instruct them in Euro- pean arts of destruction. When, there- fore, Great Britain was the only power to be met in the defence of their sacred hunting grounds, and when they could clearly perceive that, should that power wonsult its own best interests, the final extermination of their race must be in- evitable, they were prepared to strike with effect the blow, which, should it be suc- cessful, would leave to them the bound- less fields which the Great Spirit had given them. Illy did they count the cost of measuring arms with the British Lion.
Pontiac, an Indian Chief, whose name will ever stand among those of Logan, Blackhawk, Tecumseh, Philip and the like, in the archives of American history, succeeded, after the peace of 1763, in banding against the common foe, the Hu- rons, the Ottawas, the Chippewas and the Pottawatomies of the North, and the Shawnees, the Sakies, the Cherokees and several other prominent nations of the South, to extirpate from the land, whether by fair or foul means, these their ene- mies who had made such startling in. roads upon the interior.
The author of "Western Annals" says : "The voice of their sagacious chief was heard
in the North, crying, . Why, says theGreat Spirit,- do you suffer these dogs in red clothing to en- ter your country and take the land I have giv -- en you? Drive them from it: drive them .. When you are in distress, I will help you. " That voice was heard, but not by the whites .. The unsuspecting traders journeyed from vil- lage to village, the soldiers in the forts shrunk from the sun of early summer, and dozed away the days; the frontier settler, singing in fancied security, sowed his crop, or, watching the sun- set through the girdled trees, mused upon one more peaceful harvest, and told his children of the horrors of the ten years' war, now, thank God! over. From the Alleganies to the Mississippi the trees had leaved, and all was calm life and joy. But through that country, even then, bands of sullen red men were jour- neying from the central valleys to the lakes and the eastern hills. Bands of Chippewas gathered about Michilimackinac. Ottawas filled the woods near Detroit. The Maumee post, Presque Isle, Niagara, Pitt, Ligednier, and every English fort was hemmed in by mingled tribes, who felt that the great battle drew nigh which was to determine their fate, and the possession of their noble lands. At last the day came. The traders everywhere were seized, their goods taken from them, and more than one hundred of them put to death. Nine British forts yielded instantly, and the savages drank, 'scooped up in the hollow of their hands,' the blood of many a Briton .. The border streams of Pennsylvania and Vir- ginia ran red again. . We hear,' says aletter from Fort Pitt, 'of scalping every liour.' In West- ern Virginia, twenty thousand people were driv- en from their homes."
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