The History of Jo Daviess County, Illinois, containing a history of the county, its cities, towns, etc., a biographical directory of its citizens, war record of its volunteers in the late rebellion history of the Northwest, history of Illinois Constitution of the United States, Part 20

Author: Kett, H.F., & co., Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Chicago : H.F. Kett & co.
Number of Pages: 878

USA > Illinois > Jo Daviess County > The History of Jo Daviess County, Illinois, containing a history of the county, its cities, towns, etc., a biographical directory of its citizens, war record of its volunteers in the late rebellion history of the Northwest, history of Illinois Constitution of the United States > Part 20

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Fulton County was formed from Pike, January 28, 1823, and included all the territory north of the base line, and west of the fourth principal meridian, which had been in Pike.

Peoria County was created from Fulton, January 13, 1825, and, with some exceptions, included the same territory that comprised Fulton. The county seat was Fort Clark, now Peoria, and the first election of which record exists, within the present limits of Jo Daviess County, was in Fever

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HISTORY OF JO DAVIESS COUNTY.

River precinct of Peoria County, August 7, 1826. The election was held at the house of James Smith. This was the trading post then recently located by Amos Farrar and occupied by Smith as a tavern: a double log cabin that stood on the west bank of the river about half way between the foot of Perry and the foot of Franklin Streets, Galena. Water Street now passes over its site.

The following is a copy of a document found among the archives of Peoria County, at Peoria.

I hercby certify that Nehemiah Bates, T. W. Shull and Andrew Clamo, judges. and B. Gibson and Joseph Hardy, clerks of the election, were severally sworn before me as the law directs, previous to entering upon the duties of their respective offices.

Datcd at Fever River, this 7th of August, 1826.

JOHN L. BOGARDUS, Justice of the Peace of Peoria County.

[Poll Book Continued.]

Samuel C. Mure,

James Beck,

William Barton,

Edward Foster,

Thomas Nicholdson,

George E. Jackson,

Isaac Martin,

Benson Calvert,

Smith Moore,

Warren Town,

Little Walker,

William Kelley,

Jolın Richardson,

Andrew Mowery,

John McDonald,

Israel Mitchell,

Martin Porter,

John S. Miller,

Richard Palmer,

Richard Kirkpatrick,

James M. Hayle,

Thomas Reynolds, Jr. Thompson Homes,

William Kirkpatrick,

Atlas Moore,

Robert McGoldrick, Johnathan Browder,

Alexander Mitchell,

Georgc Middleton,

William Bridger, Jeremialı Smith, Martin Duke, Samuel Gouch,

Charles Shargout, Seth Catlin,

Hillary Paden,

Elisha Kellogg,

John Armstrong,

Jolin Hosley,

Henery M. Willison,

John Love, John Ray,

George Evans,

John Boyle, John O'Neil,

Thomas Ray,

Jolin Clewes,

James Rcad,

Mathew Fawcett,

Thomas Briggs,

James Moefett, Jolın Moefett, William Dalton,

Harbet Flewisland, Harrison H. Jordon,

Thomas McKnight, Thomas J. Webb, James C. Work, Alexis Phelps,

Charles Love,

Thomas McCrany,

James Williams, Andrew Arnett, Peter White,

John Kniglit,

William Mitchell, Isaac Hamilton, Levi Gilbert, A. P. Vanmeter,

Robert Clayton, Abner Eads, Josepli Clagg,

John M. Curtiss, George A. Reynolds, Levi McCormac, David Kirker,

James Harris, Jolın Marfield,

Jamcs Duncan, Hugh Walker,

Owen Callalian, Francis Martin,

Henry Gratiot, George Scott, Caleb Downey,

Thaddeus Hitt, Felix Scott,

Richard W. Chandler, John Ellis,

Aaron Crandall,

Jacob M. Hunter,

Jeremiah Godcr, Jolın Barrett, Cliandler Armstrong,

John Philley, Stephen Thracher, John Wood, James Trimble,

Stephen Howard, Charles St. Vrain, Thomas Davis, Andrew Clarmo, Joseph Hardy, J. W. Shull,

Nchemialı Bates, Barney Handley, John Furlong, Patrick Gorman, John Handley, William Hansley, Patrick Lawler, Charley Guilcgan, B. Gibson, Jolın L. Bogardus, James Foley, Thomas Fitzpatrick, John Gibbin,

Robert D. Dnke, Benjamin Bird, Nathan Smith, Adams Hvmer, James Parmcr, Abraham Kinney, Jolın Brown, Thomas Hymers, John Finnelcy, Jacob Glass, George M. Britton, William D. Adams, Danicl Snider, Peter Dumont, Ebenezer Owen, William St. John, Daniel Moore,

Cyrus Hibbert, Thomas Lumley, Benjamin Skillimus, Burt Curtis,

James Smith, William McCloskey,

William D. Johnston, John Coray,

Patrick Doyle, Charles Larock,

William Harvell,

James Taylor,

Isaac Hustow,

Crawford Fandle,

John Ames,

Stephen Sweet,

George Weddling,

Josiah Little,

Samuel Adams,

Bensan Hunt,

Thomas Drum, Ely Chaffin,

David Sciley, Charles Gear,

John J. Chandler, Enoch Lọng,

Thomas Alven,

John Williams,

Josiah Fulton,

James Colligan,

William Riley,

Jolın O. Handcock, Samuel S. Lawrence, Thomas Bado,

Isaac Wisehart,

William Troy,

James H. Kirkpatrick, Samuel Scott,

William Timmerahon,

Joseplı Winett,

Gotham Straiter,

Michael Byrnes,

Samuel Atchison,

Moses M. Twist,

David Clark, Thomas Harris, John Conlcy, Michael Finley,

James Browner, Danicl McCaig,

Thomas Thornton, William Hitt, Jolın Welmaker, Elias Addams, T. R. Lurton, Solomon Perkins, William Nickols, Thomas Connor, Thomas Bennett, Patrick Hogan, John R. Smith,

John B. Dophant,

Mathew Johnston,

Foeasson M. Donald,

Thomas Gray,

Francis Webster,

Daniel Fowless,

John R. Nickerson,

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HISTORY OF JO DAVIESS COUNTY.

There is a tax-list of 1826 on file at Peoria, containing 204 names of men in the Fever River Settlement; but the deputy collector who undertook to collect the taxes reports that they openly defied him and refused to pay a cent.

Jo Daviess County was organized from Peoria, February 17, 1827, and was bounded as follows: Beginning on the Mississippi River at the north- western corner of the state, thence down the Mississippi to the north line of the Military Tract, thence east to the Illinois River, thence north to the northern boundary of the state, thence west to the place of beginning. Galena was named as the county seat.

The earliest history and first occupation of the region of country now embraced within the limits of Jo Daviess County, are enshrouded in almost impenetrable obscurity. After the lapse of more than three quarters of a century, the almost total absence of records, and the fact that the whites who visited or lived in this region prior to 1820 have all passed away, render it impossible now to determine, with any degree of certainty, the name of him who is entitled to the honor of being recorded as first settler, or who first even temporarily sojourned on the banks of the Sin-sin-ah-wah (the home of the Eagle) and the Mah-cau-bee (the fever that blisters.)

Probably the first explorer of this region was Le Sueur, a French trader, who, on the 25th of August, 1700, while on an expedition to the Sioux on St. Peter's River (now the Minnesota,) discovered a small river entering the Mississippi on the right side, which he named " The River of the Mines." He describes it as a small river running from the northi, but it turns to the northeast, and he further says, that a few miles up this river is a lead mine. Le Sueur was unquestionably the first white man who ever trod the banks of Fever River, and visited the mines then known and probably worked by the natives.

When Julien Dubuque first located near the present town of Dubuque, in 1818, he was accompanied by one D'Bois, who is said to have located on the east bank of the Mississippi a short distance below the present town of Dunleith, very nearly opposite his companion's location. But nothing fur- ther is known of him, and from that time until about 1810 or '11 no definite information can be obtained. It is said that traces of white occupants at a very early period were discovered on the Sinsinawa by the first settlers or miners. It would be strange, indeed, with the knowl- edge of the immense deposits of lead and the abundance of game in this region, as well as of the mining operations of Dubuque on the west side of the Mississippi, if no adventurers or traders ever visited the Riviere au Feve, now Galena River, or ventured among the Sacs and Foxes on the east side of the Mississippi from 1788 until about 1820. Roving traders and the agents of the American Fur Company could not have overlooked the value of this location as a trading post, even if they made only annual visits, remaining long enough to dispose of their goods and purchase the lead and peltries accumulated by the Indians. But thus far no records of such occupation have been discovered, and the only positive evidence of the occupation of any portion of the territory of Jo Daviess County after D'Bois, and prior to 1819-'20, is the testimony of Captain D. S. Harris, of Galena, the oldest surviving steamboat captain on the Mississippi, and the oldest known survivor of the immigration of 1823, who says that, about 1811, George E. Jackson, a Missouri miner, had a rude log furnace and smelted lead on an island then existing in the Mississippi River, on the east side of

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HISTORY OF JO DAVIESS COUNTY.

the main channel, a short distance below Dunleith, nearly opposite the mouth of Catfish Creek. Here the first smelting now known to have been done by white men, within the limits of Jo Daviess County, was done. Jackson built a flat boat to float his lead to St. Louis, and had much trouble with the Indians on his way down the river. " He was joined," says Capt. Harris, "probably about 1812 or '13, by John S. Miller, but soon after the island was abandoned; Jackson went to Missouri, and Miller went down the river and built the first cabin and blacksmith shop on the present site of Hannibal, Mo." It is also said that in 1818, Miller, with George W. Ash and another, ascended the Mississippi with a boat load of merchan- dize as far as Dubuque's mines, trading with the Indians, and he probably visited La Pointe and may have spent some time there. Both Jackson and Miller returned to Fever River in 1823. The island has now nearly disap- peared, but in the Fall of 1823 two keel-boat loads of scorie and partially burned mineral were taken from the site of Jackson's old furnace, by Moses Meeker, brought to his furnace on Fever River and smelted.

The first permanent settlements by the whites in this county, and, in fact, in all Northwestern Illinois, of which any record or reliable knowledge now remains, existed about 1820 on the banks of the river now known as the Galena. This river was then known as Feve or Bean River. There is a tradition that the river took its name from one La Fevre, a Frenchman who first visited this locality, but there is no evidence to confirm it. The Indian name for the river was Mah-cau-bee-Macaubee, which, translated, means " fever," or, more literally, " fever that blisters," the Indian term for small pox. They gave it this name, it is said, because, in the early history of this county, when the extreme western frontier of the white settlements were many hundred miles eastward, some of the warriors from the populous In- dian villages then existing on the present site of Galena, and on the banks of a small creek a little way southward, went to the assistance of their eastern brethren. On their return they brought with them the loathsome disease for which they had no other name than Mah-cau-bee, the fever that blisters. The larger one they called "Moshuck-Macaubee-Sepo," Big Small Pox River, and the smaller " Cosh-a-neush-Macaubee-Sepo," Little Small Pox River. Hundreds of the natives died, and the Indians named both streams Macaubce. The smaller one is still called Small Pox Creek, but the larger was changed by the whites to the rather more pleasant name of Fever, and the little frontier hamlet was known as "Fever River Settlement," or La Pointe, until 1826-7, when the name of Galena was substituted. The name "Bean," which was sometimes applied to Fever River in early days, came from the fact that the early French traders and adventurers, who were evidently familiar with this locality long before 1820, had changed the Indian name to " Riviere au Feve," which, translated into Englishi, means "river of the bean;" hence the name "Bean River,"* applied to it in the early gazetteers.

* Since this was written, some additional light has been thrown upon the origin of the names "Bean " and "Fever." Mr. B. C. St. Cyr, one of the early merchants of Galena, on the authority of his uncle, who traded among the Indians in this region, more than a hundred years ago, states that the stream was then called by the French Fielle. from an old Indian chief, bearing that name, then living on its banks. This name, Fielle, signifying gall, was afterwards corrupted by later French visitors, or by the Indians themselves, to Feve, signifying bean, the pronunciation being somewhat similar. From Feve the transi- tion was easy, to Fevre-Fever. The origin of the Indian name Macaubee appears to be more modern. In 1835, Wm. H. Snyder, Esq, of Galena, spent some time with Col. Geo. Davenport. Mr. Snyder had then recently opened one of the ancient mounds on the bluff near the Portage, and found an immense quantity of human bones, evidently of quite modern date. Mentioning the circumstance to Col. Davenport, that gentleman said that the Indians

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HISTORY OF JO DAVIESS COUNTY.

This is but another indication pointing to the occupation of La Pointe, prior to the date of its first settlement, as now fixed by some historians. Certainly the names of the men who were first here, and applied the name "Riviere au Feve," have passed into oblivion.

As early as 1822, this extreme western frontier settlement had become sufficiently well known to have a place in the literature of that day. A rare copy of "The Gazetteer of Illinois and Missouri" ( now many years out of print), published in 1822, and at present in the possession of William Hempstead, Esq., of Galena, contains the following :-

" BEAN RIVER (Riviere au Feve, Fr.,) a navigable stream of Pike County, emptying into the Mississippi three miles below Catfishi Creek, twenty miles below Dubuque's mines and about seventy above Rock River. Nine miles up this stream, a small creek empties into it from the west. The banks of this creek, and the hills which bound its alluvian, are filled with lead ore of the best quality. Three miles below this on the banks of Bean River is the Traders Village consisting of ten or twelve houses or cabins. At this place the ore procured from the Indians is smelted and then sent in boats either to *Canada or New Orleans. The mines are at present extensively worked by Col. Johnson, of Ken- tucky, who during the last session of Congress (winter of 1821-2) obtained the exclusive right of working them for three years. The lands on this stream are poor, and are only valuable on account of the immense quantities of mineral which they contain."

In the same work Chicago is simply mentioned as " a village of Pike County, containing twelve or fifteen houses, and about sixty or seventy in- habitants." It is very evident that there was a " Traders Village" on or near the present site of Galena in 1822, and that it was a point of more importance, commercially, than Chicago, at that time. The statement of the gazetteer is confirmed by a letter from Capt. M. Marston, then Com- mander at Fort Edwards, to Amos Farrar, Fever River, dated April 12, 1822, in which occurs the following :- "The Johnsons of Kentucky have leased the Fever River lead mines and are about sending up a large number of men. It is also said that some soldiers will be stationed there. If this is all true, the Foxes, and all the trading establishments now there, must remove."

In 1803, when the United States purchased the province of Louisiana from Napoleon, of France, the existence of lead mines in this region was known. In 1807 Congress enacted that these mines should be reserved from sale, and held in fee simple, under the exclusive control of the govern- ment. Leases of three to five years were issued to various individuals to work them as tenants of the United States, but until about. 1823, the most of the work being done in Missouri, the mining operations appear to have been carried on without much system. Miners throughout all the lead mining districts paid but slight attention to Congressional enactments. Lessees were not properly supported in their rights, and of course became constantly involved in disputes with claimants and trespassers, which often proved ruinous to their undertakings.

In November, 1821, when the charge of the lead mines was transferred from the General Land Office to the War Department, no mines were known to be worked in any of the mining districts, under leases or legal authority, although many were known to be worked without authority es- pecially in Missouri.

living on the streams now called Fever River and Small Pox Creek had taken the small pox, and died in large numbers; the survivors fled, but while he (Davenport) lived at Portage, about 1816, they returned, gathered up the remains of the victims, and buried them in the the mound Snyder had opened. From that time the Indians called both streams " Macaubee," " the fever that blisters," hence the name Fever; the smaller stream being still called Small Pox.

* By way of Wisconsin River to the portage, then down the Fox River to Green Bay.

D.S. Harris GALENA, ILLS.

OF 175

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HISTORY OF JO DAVIESS COUNTY.

Mr. Seymour, in his history of "Galena Mines," etc., published in 1848- 49 states, on the authority of Jesse W. Shull, that previous to 1819 " the Sacs and Foxes, noted as warlike and dangerous tribes, had already killed several traders who liad attempted to traffic among them," and adds: "It was a current report among the settlers at Prairie du Chien, that a trader was murdered in 1813, at the mouth of the Sinsinawa. His wife, a squaw, had warned him to leave the country, as the Indians meditated taking his life. Disregarding her friendly warnings, he remained, and was murdered the same night."

In 1816, by a treaty made at St. Louis with various tribes to settle the disputes that had arisen under the treaty of 1804, by which the Sacs and Foxes had ceded to the United States all the lands lying between the Illi- nois and Wisconsin River east of the Mississippi, all the lands north of a line running west from the southern extremity of Lake Michigan to the Missis- sippi River were relinquished to the Indians, except a tract one league square at the mouth of the Wisconsin, and another tract five leagues square ou the Mississippi River, of which Fever River was about the center. These reservations were intended to be sufficient to embrace the lead mines known to be worked by the squaws and presumed to be valuable, although their location was not known to the government.

From the best information now accessible, it appears that the point of land lying between Fever River and the creek now known as "Meeker's Branch," at the junction of these streams, was called "January's Point," when the "first settlers " came in 1819 or '20. John Lorrain, in his History of Jo Daviess County, published in 1876, says: "In 1820 Jesse Shull and Samuel C. Muir opened a trading post near the present site of the City of Galena, then called "January's Point," and by this name it was known to the early settlers, as well as by the French name La Pointe-The Point- by which it was generally called by the traders and miners for years after- wards, until a Frenchman named Frederic Gros Claude settled near the site of January's old post, and then it was sometimes called Frederic's Point. The presumption is that Thomas II. January, a Pennsylvanian, occupied The Point as a smelter and trader long enough before the arrival of Shull and others to give liis namne to it, or " La Pointe," the name given to it by the French traders, familiar with the location and friendly with the Indians, perhaps, even before January located there. Captain Harris, previously quoted, however, thinks that January, who was from Pittsburg, was not permanently located here until about 1821 or 1822.

In the Spring of 1848, the Louisville Courier stated that one Henry Shreeve came up Fever River and obtained lead in 1810.

In February, 1810, Nicholas Boilvin, then agent for the Winnebagoes at Prairie du Chien, passed through this region on foot from Rock Island, with Indians for guides, and by them was shown a lead mine, which, from his memoranda, written in the French language, was near Fever River, and was probably what was afterward known to the early settlers as "the old Buck lead."

The veteran Capt. Harris says, that unquestionably Julien Dubuque operated on both sides of the Mississippi, and mined on Apple River, near the present villiage of Elizabeth, worked the old Buck and Hog leads, near Fever River, the Cave diggings, on what is now Vinegar Hill Township, and others, as early as 1805, and very probably at a still earlier date. Thie Indians were on very friendly terms with Dubuque, and when they reported

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HISTORY OF JO DAVIESS COUNTY.

a discovery to him he sent his assistants, Canadian Frenchmen and half- breeds, to prove them , and in some cases to work them. All over this region, when Capt. H. came to Fever River, a lad of fifteen, in 1823, traces of old mining operations existed, which were evidently not the work of the Indians. At what was called the Allenwrath diggings, at Ottawa, about two miles from the present City of Galena, a heavy sledge hammer was found under the ashes of one of these primitive furnaces, in 1826. This fur- nace had been worked long before the date generally assigned to the first white settlement in this region. This ancient haminer weighing from fifteen to twenty pounds, is still preserved by Mr. Houghton, for many years the leading editor of the Northwest. The Indians never used such an implement, and it was unquestionably left where it was found in 1826, by some of Dubuque's miners.

All these important considerations, in connection with the fact that the Mississippi River was the great highway of the pioneers of that day- that Prairie du Chien was a thriving French village, and had been a French military post as early as 1755, long before Dubnque located above the mouthi of Catfish Creek -- that a military and trading post existed at Fort Armstrong (Rock Island) previous to the later "first settlements" on the east side of the Mississippi, now Jo Daviess County, lead almost irresist- ably to the conclusion that " La Pointe " was well known to the earlier Indian traders. and that the lead inining region around Riviere an Feve had been visited and occupied, temporarily at least, by white men for many years prior to 1819-'20. But by whom? History is silent, and these hardy pioneers have left no footprints on the ever shifting sands of time.

It must be considered as reasonably certain, as previously stated, that the lead mining district now lying in both Jo Daviess County and in Wis- consin was more or less occupied by Dubuque's mnen before any permanent settlements were made in the territory. Dubuque, by his wonderful magnetic power, had obtained great influence among the Indians, then occupying this entire region. They believed him to be almost the equal of the Great Spirit, and they feared him nearly as much. They implicitly obeyed him, and it is not a mere chimera to presume that they reported to him the exist- ence of leads on the east, as well as on the west, side of the Father of Waters, and it is reasonable to suppose when such reports were made to him, that he verified them by actual observations made by himself or his men. From the remembrances of the oldest residents of this county now surviving, and the traces of mining done by whites long before any perma- nent settlements were made, it seems more than probable that Dubuque and his men were the first whites who occupied the Fever River lead mining district, in common with the aboriginal inhabitants.

It must also be considered certain that La Pointe, as the present City of Galena was called by the French traders and miners, was familiar to them as a trading post or point for many years before the first settlements were made, of which meagre fragmentary and often confused and conflicting ac- counts liave come down to the present day. These were favorite hunting grounds for the native tribes who had populous villages on the banks of the Macaubee and other streams in this county and it was undoubtedly a favorite resort for traders, who voyaged up and down the Mississippi on their periodical trafficking expeditions. That it was known as a good trading point for many years prior to Mr. Shull's location here in 1819 is beyond question. The total absence of records of the local events in these early

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HISTORY OF JO DAVIESS COUNTY.

days, however, renders it impossible now to determine who they were. Doubtless some of them were here after permanent settlements were made, and were among the first settlers.

In 1819, the historic diggings, known for more than half a century as the "Buck lead," were being worked by the Indians, the most of the work being done by the squaws. It was the largest body of mineral then ever dis- covered on Fever River, and an immense amount of Galena ore was taken out by the natives and sold to the traders before it was worked out by Jolinson. Mr. Farrar estimated that several million pounds had been taken from this lead by the Indians, more, in fact, than was taken from it by white miners afterwards. This lead took its name from " the Buck," a Sac or Fox chief who was encamped, with his band, on Fever River, in 1819, and worked it. Its existence had been known to the Indians for many years, and unques- tionably by Dubuque, previous to its working by Buck and his band. Close by it, and parallel with it, was a smaller lead, which was called the " Doe lead," in honor of Buck's favorite squaw. Before the arrival of Johnson, in 1820 or '21, the Indians took from this lead the largest nugget of mineral ever raised in the mines. It took all the force they could muster to raise it, and when they had safely landed it on terra firma the Indian miners wanted the traders to send it to Washington as a present to the "Great Father." As it never reached there, the presumption is that the traders pre- ferred to purchase the mineral, at the rate of a peck of corn for a peck of mineral.

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The History of Jo Daviess County, Illinois, containing a history of the county, its cities, towns, etc., a biographical directory of its citizens, war record of its volunteers in the late rebellion history of the Northwest, history of Illinois Constitution of the United States, Part 20

Author: Kett, H.F., & co., Chicago, pub Publication date: 1878 Publisher: Chicago : H.F. Kett & co. Number of Pages: 878

Author: Kett, H.F., & co., Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Chicago : H.F. Kett & co.
Number of Pages: 878