USA > Illinois > Peoria County > The History of Peoria County, Illinois. Containing a history of the Northwest-history of Illinois-history of the county, its early settlement, growth, development, resources, etc., etc. > Part 15
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For nearly four years after the Territory was organized, no legislature existed. The Governor was both executive and, in a great measure, the law-making power. The pow- ers thus exercised were conferred by the ordinance of 1787, under which the privileges of the citizen were limited to the freehold property class. The elective franchise was denied to all who were not the owners of fifty acres of land, and no one could aspire to a seat in the Legislature unless he was a freeholder of two hundred to five hundred aeres of land. Those of the territorial officers not appointed by the President, were appointed by the Governor. The people were not permitted to elect justices of the peace, county surveyors, treasurers, coroners, sheriffs, clerks, judges of the inferior courts, nor even choose the officers of the territorial militia. All this power, and much more, was vested in the Governor.
At the time of the organization of the Territory, the population was estimated at 9,000. The census of 1810 returned a total of 12,282. Of this number 11,501 were whites, 168 were slaves, and 613 of all others except Indians. The settlements had extended north to the Wood River country in the present county of Madison ; east, along Silver creek and up Kaskaskia river, and south and east from Kaskaskia for a distance of fifteen miles on the Fort Massac road. The Birds had located at the mouth of the Ohio, at the present site of Cairo. At old Massae and the Ohio salines a small settlement had been recognized for some time. At Shawneetown there had been a few straggling houses since 1805. A few families were scattered along the west side of the Wabash, a man named McCawley having pushed inland as far as the Vincennes road-crossing of the Little Wa- baslı. These, however, were mostly abandoned during the war of 1812. The settlements were all weak, and from 1810 until the close of the war, there was no immigration of note.
Such was the extent of settlements and population when the people voted in favor of advancing their Government to the second grade. September 16, following, the Governor and judges having organized Madison, Gallatin and Johnson counties, their establishment was published by proclamation. This increased the number of counties to five. Another proclamation of the same date ordered an election to be held in each county on the 8th, 9th and 10th days of October, for five members of the legislative council, seven members of the House and a delegate to Congress. Shadrach Bond was elected as delegate to Congress. The choice for members of the Council and House of Representatives resulted :
GENERAL HISTORY OF ILLINOIS
Council - Benjamin Talbot. Gallatin county : William Biggs. St. Clair county ; Samuel Judy. Madison county : Pierre Menard. Randolph county; Thomas Ferguson. Johnson county-5.
House-George Fisher. Randolph county ; Phillip Trammel and Alexander Wilson. Gallatin county ; John Grammar. Johnson county ; Joshua Oglesby and Jacob Short, St. Clair county : William Jones. Madison county-7.
This was a new departure for the people of Illinois, and the dawning of that politi- cal career that has made the State so noted among the other States of the Union. and the first election for law-makers ever held in the Territory. Stuve's History of Illinois. published in 1476. preserves the following sketches of the members :
PIERRE MENARD. chosen to preside over the deliberations of the council, was a Canadian Frenchman. and had settled at Kaskaskia in 1790. He was a merchant, and enjoyed an extensive trade with the Indians. over whom he exercised a great influence, and was. for many years. government agent for them. He was well informed, energetic, frank and honest. and very popular with all classes.
WILLIAM BIGGS was an intelligent and respectable member. who had been a soldier in Clark's expedition. and ten years afterward had been a prisoner for several years among the Kickapoos. He wrote and published a complete narrative of his Indian captivity, and in 1:26 Congress voted him three sections of land. He was County Judge for many years.
SAMUEL JUDY was a man of energy, fortitude and enterprise. The Fall preceding he commanded the corps of spies in Gov. Edwards' military campagn to Peoria Lake. Some of his descendants still reside in Madison county.
JOSHUA OGLESBY was a local Methodist preacher of ordinary education. resided on a farm and was greatly respected by his neighbors.
JACOB SHORT. the colleague of Oglesby, removed to Illinois with his father Moses in 1796. and pursued farming. He distinguished himself as a ranger in the war of 1812.
He
GEORGE FISHER possessed a fair education. and was a physician by profession. He removed from Virginia to Kaskaskia in 100 and engaged in merchandising, but resided on a farm when elected to the territorial assembly. He was afterwards in publie life.
PHILLIP TRAMIMEL was a man of discriminating mind, inclined to the profession of arms. He was the lessee of the United saline in Gallatin county.
ALEXANDER WILSON (Mr. Trammel's colleague), was a popular tavern keeper at Shawneetown, and a man of fair ability.
WILLIAM JONES was a Baptist preacher. grave in his deportment, and possessed of moderate abilities. He was born in North Carolina, removed to Illinois in 1806, in the Rattan Prairie east of Alton.º
JOHN GRAMMAR made his first appearance in public at this first session of the Illinois Territorial Legislature. He had no education. but was a man of great natural shrewdness. He afterward represented Union county frequently during a period of twenty years.
It was related of him that after his election. in order to procure elothing suitable to the occasion and in which to appear in the Assembly. himself and family gathered a large quantity of hickory nuts, which were taken to the Ohio saline and traded for blue strouding. such as the Indians wore for breech-cloths. When the neighboring women assembled to make up the garments, it was found that he had not invested quite enough nuts. The pattern was measured in every way possible, but it was unmistakably scant. After exhausting every device to make the goods " hold out " and fill the desired measure. the women decided that the next best and only thing that could be done would be to make a " bob-tailed coat and a long pair of leggings," which resolution they carried into execution. And arrayed in this suit he made his appearance at the capital, and
"Annals of the West.
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GENERAL HISTORY OF ILLINOIS.
continued to wear it the greater part of the session. .. Notwithstanding his illiteracy." says Mr. Ford. " he had the honor of originating the practice much followed by public men since, of voting against all new measures. it being easier to conciliate public opinion for being remiss in voting for a good measure, than to suffer arraignment for aiding in the passage of an unpopular one.
By proclamation. issued on the 10th of November. the Governor ordered the mem- bers elect to convene at Kaskaskia, the seat of government. on the 25th of that month. The two bodies met in a large. rough old building of uncut limestone .* with steep roof and gables. of unpainted boards. situated in the center of a square. which. after the ruin and abandonment of Fort Chartres, had served the French as the headquarters of the military commandant. The first floor, a large. low. cheerless room. was fitted up for the House, and a small chamber above for the Council Chamber. Pierre Menard was chosen President of the Council. and John Thomas as Secretary. William C. Greenup was elected Clerk of the House. The two Houses elected a door-keeper in common. All the twelve members boarded with one family. and lodged. it has been said. in one room. * * *
* The members addressed themselves to the business in hand, with- out delay or circumlocution. Windy speeches and contention were unknown. and parliamentary tacticians, if any there were. met with no indulgence : and it has been naively remarked that not a lawyer appeared on the roll of names.
CHAPTER VI.
THE WAR OF 1812.
The Outbreak - Massacre at Fort Dearborn - Slaughter of Prisoners - Kinzie Family Saved - Expedition Against the Indians- An Indian Killed - Town Burned - Peoria Burned -Second Expedition Against the Indians - Expedition np the Mississippi - A Desperate Fight - Another Expedition.
For some years previous to the war between the United States and England. in 1512. considerable trouble was experienced with the Indians. Marauding bands of savages would attack small settlements and inhumanly butcher all the inhabitants. and mutilate their dead bodies. To protect themselves. the settlers organized companies of rangers and erected block-houses and stockades in every settlement. The largest. strongest and best of these was Fort Russell, near the present village of Edwardsville. This stockade was made the main rendezvous for troops and military stores. and Gov. Edwards. who. during the perilous times of 1812. when Indian hostilities threatened on every hand. assumed command of the Illinois forces. established his headquarters at this place. The Indians were iucited to many of these depredations by English emissaries, who for years continued their dastardly work of " setting the red men, like dogs. upon the whites."
In the Summer of 1811 a peace convention was held with the Pottawatomies at Peoria, when they promised that peace should prevail ; but their promises were soon broken. Tecumseh. the great warrior, and fit successor of Pontiac. started in the Spring of 1:11. to arouse the Southern Indians to war against the whites. The purpose of this chieftain was well kuown to Gov. Harrison, of Indiana Territory. who determined during Tecumseh's absence to strike and disperse the hostile forces collected at Tippecanoe. This he successfully did on Nov. 7. winning the sobriquet of .. Tippecanoe." by which he was afterwards commonly known. Several peace councils were held, at which the Indi- *Stuve.
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ans promised good behavior, but only to deceive the whites. Almost all the savages of the Northwest were thoroughly stirred up and did not desire peace. The British agents at various points, in anticipation of war with the United States, sought to enlist the favor of the savages by distributing to them large supplies of arms, ammunition and other goods.
The English continued their insults to our flag upon the high seas, and their govern- ment refusing to relinquish its offensive course, all hopes of peace and safe commercial relations were abandoned, and Congress, on the 19th of June, 1812. formally declared war against Great Britain. In Illinois the threatened Indian troubles had already caused a more thorough organization of the militia and greater protection by the erection of forts. As intimated, the Indians took the war-path long before the declaration of hostili- ties between the two civilized nations, committing great depredations, the most atrocious of which was the
MASSACRE AT FORT DEARBORN.
During the war of 1812 between the United States and England, the greatest, as well as the most revolting, massacre of whites that ever occurred in Illinois, was perpetrated by the Pottawatomie Indians, at Fort Dearborn. This fort was built by the Government, in 1804, on the south side of the Chicago river, and was garrisoned by 54 men under command of Capt. Nathan Heald, assisted by Lieutenant Helm and Ensign Ronan : Dr. Voorhees, surgeon. The residents at the post at that time were the wives of officers Ileald and llelm and a few of the soldiers, Mr. Kinzie and his family, and a few Cana- dians. The soldiers and Mr. Kinzie were on the most friendly terms with the Pottawato- mies and Winnebagoes, the principal tribes around them.
On the 7th of August, 1812. arrived the order from Gen. Hull, at Detroit, to evacu- ate Fort Dearborn, and distribute all United States property to the Indians. Chicago was so deep in the wilderness that this was the first intimation the garrison received of the declaration of war made on the 19th of June. The Indian chief who brought the dispatch advised Capt. Heald not to evacuate, but that if he should decide to do so, it be done immediately, and by forced marches elude the concentration of the savages before the news be cireulated among them. To this most excellent advice the Captain gave no heed, but on the 12th held a council with the Indians, apprising them of the orders re- ceived, and offering a liberal reward for an escort of Pottawatomies to Fort Wayne. The Indians, with many professions of friendship, assented to all he proposed, and promised all he required. The remaining officers refused to join in the council. for they had been informed that treachery was designed, -that the Indians intended to murder those in the council, and then destroy those in the fort. The port holes were open, displaying cannons pointing directly upon the council. This action, it is supposed, prevented a massaere at that time.
Mr. Kinzie, who knew the Indians well, begged Capt. Heald not to confide in their promises, or distribute the arms and ammunition among them, for it would only put power in their hands to destroy the whites. This argument, true and excellent in itself, was now certainly inopportune, and would only incense the treacherous foe. But the Captain resolved to follow it, and accordingly on the night of the 13th, after the distri- bution of the other property, the arms were broken, and the barrels of whisky, of which there was a large quantity, were rolled quietly through the sally-port, their heads knocked in nud their contents emptied into the river. On that night the lurking red- skins erept near the fort and discovered the destruction of the promised booty going on within. The next morning the powder was seen floating on the surface of the river, and the Indians asserted that such an abundance of " fire-water" had been emptied into the river as to make it taste " groggy." Many of them drank of it freely.
On the 14th the desponding garrison was somewhat cheered by the arrival of Capt.
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GENERAL HISTORY OF ILLINOIS.
Wells, with 15 friendly Miamis. Capt. Wells heard at Fort Wayne of the order to evacu- ate Fort Dearborn, and knowing the hostile intentions of the Indians, made a rapid march through the wilderness to protect, if possible, his niece, Mrs. Heald, and the officers and the garrison from certain destruction. But he came too late. Every means for its defense had been destroyed the night before, and arrangements were made for leaving the fort on the following morning.
The fatal morning of the 16th at length dawned brightly on the world. The sun shone in unclouded splendor upon the glassy waters of Lake Michigan. At 9 A. M., the party moved out of the southern gate of the fort, in military array. The band, feeling the solemnity of the occasion, struck up the Dead March in Saul. Capt. Wells, with his face blackened after the manner of the Indians, led the advance guard at the head of his friendly Miamis, the garrison with loaded arms, the baggage wagons with the sick, and the women and children following, while the Pottawatomie Indians, about 500 in
OLD FORT DEARBORN.
number, who had pledged their honor to escort the whites in safety to Fort Wayne, brought up the rear. The party took the road along the lake shore. On reaching the range of sand-hills separating the beach from the prairie, about one mile and a half from the fort, the Indians defiled to the right into the prairie, bringing the sand-hills between them and the whites. This divergence was scarcely effected when Capt. Wells, who had kept in advance with his Indians, rode furiously back and exclaimed, " They are about to attack us. Form instantly and charge upon them !" These words were scarcely uttered before a volley of balls from Indian muskets was poured in upon them. The troops were hastily formed into line and charged up the bank. One veteran of 70 fell as they ascended. The Indians were driven back to the prairie, and then the battle was waged by 54 soldiers, 12 civilians, and three or four women - the cowardly Miamis having fled at the ontset - against 500 Indian warriors. The whites
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behaved gallantly, and sold their lives dearly. They fought desperately until two-thirds of their number were slain ; the remaining 27 surrendered. And now the most sieken- ing and heart-rending butchery of this calamitous day was committed by a young sav- age, who assailed one of the baggage wagons containing 12 children, every one of which fell beneath his murderous tomahawk. When Capt. Wells, who with the others had become prisoner, beheld this seene at a distance, he exclaimed in a tone loud enough to be heard by the savages, " If this be your game, I can kill, too;" and turning his horse, started for the place where the Indians had left their squaw's and children. The Indians hotly pursued, but he avoided their deadly bullets for a time. Soon his horse was killed and he severely wounded. With a yell the young braves rushed to make him their pris- oner and reserve him for torture. But an enraged warrior stabbed him in the back, and he fell dead. Ilis heart was afterward taken out, eut in pieces and distributed among the tribes. Billy Caldwell, a half-breed Wyandot, well-known in Chicago long after- ward, buried his remains the next day. Wells street in Chicago, perpetuates his memory.
In this fearful conbat women bore a conspicuous part. A wife of one of the soldiers, who had frequently heard that the Indians subjected their prisoners to tortures worse than deith, resolved not to be taken alive, and continued fighting until she was literally cut to pieces. Mrs. Ileald was an excellent equestrian, and an expert in the use of the rifle. She fought bravely, receiving several wounds. Though faint from loss of blood. she managed to keep in her saddle. A savage raised his tomahawk to kill her, when she looked him full in the face, and with a sweet smile and gentle voice said, in his own language, " Surely you would not kill a squaw." The arm of the savage fell, and the life of this heroic woman was saved. Mrs. Helm had an encounter with a stalwart Indian. who attempted to tomahawk her. Springing to one side, she received the glancing blow on her shoulder, and at the same time she seized the savage round the neck and en- deavored to get his scalping-knife which hung in a sheath at his breast. While she was thus struggling, she was dragged from his grasp by another and an older Indian. The latter bore her, struggling and resisting, to the lake and plunged her in. She soon per- ceived it was not his intention to drown her, because he hekl her in such a position as to keep her head out of the water. She recognized him to be a celebrated chief called Black Partridge. When the firing ceased she was conducted up the sand-bank.
SLAUGHTER OF PRISONERS.
The prisoners were taken back to the Indian eamp, when n new scene of horror was enacted. The wounded not being included in the terms of the surrender, as it was in- terpreted by the Indians, and the British general, Proetor, having offered a liberal bounty for American sealps, nearly all the wounded were killed and scalped, and the price of the trophies was afterwards paid by the British general. In the stipulation of surrender, Capt. Heald had not particularly mentioned the wounded. These helpless sufferers, on reaching the Indian camp, were therefore regarded by the brutal savages as fit subjects upon which to display their cruelty and satisfy their desire for blood. Referring to the terrible butchery of the prisoners, in an account given by Mrs. Helm, she says : " An old squaw, infuriated by the loss 'of friends or excited by the sanguinary scenes around her, seemed possessed of demoniac fury. She seized a stable-fork and assaulted one miserable victim, who lay groaning and writhing in the agonies of his wound, aggravated by the scorching beams of the sun. With a delicacy of feeling, scareely to have been expected under such circumstances, Wan-bee-nee-wan stretched a mat across two poles, between me and this dreadful scene. I was thus spared, in some degree, a view of its horrors, although I could not entirely close my ears to the cries of the sufferer. The following night five more of the wounded prisoners were tomahawked."
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GENERAL HISTORY OF ILLINOIS.
KINZIE FAMILY SAVED.
That evening, about sundown, a council of chiefs was held to decide the fate of the prisoners, and it was agreed to deliver them to the British commander at Detroit. After dark, many warriors from a distance came into camp, who were thirsting for blood, and were determined to murder the prisoners regardless of the terms of surrender. Black Partridge, with a few of his friends, surrounded Kinzie's house to protect the inmates from the tomahawks of the bloodthirsty savages. Soon a band of hostile warriors rushed by them into the house, and stood with tomahawks and scalping-knives, awaiting the signal from their chief to commence the work of death. Black Partridge said to Mrs. Kinzie : "We are doing every thing in our power to save you, but all is now lost ; you and your friends, together with all the prisoners of the camp, will now be slain." At that moment a canoe was heard approaching the shore, when Black Partridge ran down to the river, trying in the darkness to make out the new comers, and at the same time
OLD KINZIE HOUSE.
shouted, "Who are you ?" In the bow of the approaching canoe stood a tall, manly personage, with a rifle in his hand. He jumped ashore exclaiming, " I am Sau-ga-nash." "Then make all speed to the house ; our friends are in danger, aud you only can save them." It was Billy Caldwell, the half-breed Wyandot. He hurried forward, entered the house with a resolute step, deliberately removed his accoutrements, placed his rifle behind the door, and saluted the Indians: "How now, my friends! a good day to you. I was told there were enemies here, but am glad to find only friends." Diverted by the coolness of his manner, they were ashamed to avow their murderous purpose, and simply asked for some cotton goods to wrap their dead, for burial. And thus, by his presence of mind, Caldwell averted the murder of the Kinzie family and the prisoners. The latter, with their wives and children, were dispersed among the Pottawatomie tribes along the Illinois, Rock, and Wabash rivers, and some to Milwaukee. The most of them were ransomed at Detroit the following Spring. A part of them, however, remained in captivity another year.
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GENERAL HISTORY OF ILLINOIS.
EXPEDITION AGAINST THE INDIANS.
By the middle of August. through the disgraceful surrender of Gen. Hull. at De- troit, and the evacnation of Fort Dearborn and massaere of its garrison. the British and Indiaus were in possession of the whole Northwest. The savages, emboldened by their successes, penetrated deeper into the settlements, committing great depredations. The activity and success of the enemy aronsed the people to a realization of the great danger their homes and families were in. Gov. Edwards collected a foree of 350 men at Camp Russell, and Capt. Russell came from Vincennes with about 50 more. Being officered and equipped, they proceeded about the middle of October on horseback, carrying with them twenty days' rations, to Peoria. Capt. Craig was sent with two boats up the Illi- nois, with provisions and tools to build a fort. The little army proceeded to Peoria lake, where was located a Pottawatomie village. They arrived late at night. within a few miles of the village, without their presence being known to the Indians. Four men were sent out that night to reconnoiter the position of the village. The four brave men who volunteered for this perilous service were Thomas Carlin (afterward Governor), and Robert, Stephen and Davis Whiteside. They proceeded to the village and explored it and the approaches to it thoroughly, without starting an Indian or provoking the bark of a dog. The low lands between the Indian village and the troops were covered with a rank growth of tall grass, so high and dense as to readily conceal an Indian on horse- back, until within a few feet of him. The ground had become still more yielding by recent rains, rendering it almost impassable by mounted men. To prevent detection, the soldiers had camped without lighting the usual camp-fires. The men lay down in their cold and cheerless camp, with many misgivings. They well remembered how the skulk- ing savages fell upon llarrison's men at Tippecanoe during the night. To add to their fears, a gun in the hands of a soldier was carelessly discharged, raising great consterna- tion in the camp.
AN INDIAN KILLED.
Through a dense fog which prevailed the following morning, the army took up its line of march for the Indian town, Capt. Judy with his corps of spies in advance. In the tall grass they came up with an Indian and his squaw, both mounted. The Indian wanted to surrender, but Judy observed that he " did not leave home to take prisoners." and instantly shot one of them. With the blood streaming from his month and nose. and in his agony " singing the death song," the dying Indian raised his gun, shot and mortally wounded a Mr. Wright, and in a few minutes expired. Many guns were im- mediately discharged at the other Indian, not then known to be a squaw, all of which missed her. Badly scared, and her husband killed by her side, the agonizing wails of the squaw were heart-rending. She was taken prisoner, and afterward restored to her nation.
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