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 17

Author: Johnson & co., Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Chicago : Johnson & Company
Number of Pages: 932

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 17

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These important changes in the original bill, says Mr. Ford in his History of Illinois, " were proposed and carried through both Houses of Congress by Mr. Pope on his own responsibility. The Territorial Legislature had not petitioned for them-no one had sug- gested them, but they met the general approval of the people." The change of the boundary line, however, suggested to Mr. Pope-from the fact that the boundary as defined by the ordinance of 1787, would have left Illinois without a harbor, on Lake Michigan-did not meet the unqualified approval of the people in the northwestern part of the new State. For many years the northern boundary of the State was not definitely known, and the settlers in the northern tier of counties did not know whether they were in Illinois or Michigan Territory. Under the provisions of the ordinance of 1787, Wis- consin at one time laid claim to a portion of northern Illinois, "including," says Mr. Ford, writing in 1847, " fourteen counties, embracing the richest and most populous part of the State." October 27, 1827, nine years after the admission of the State, Dr. Horatio Newhall, who had then recently arrived at the Fever River Settlement, (Galena. ) wrote to his brother, as follows : "It is uncertain whether I am in the boundary of Illinois or Michigan, but direct your letters to Fever River, Ill., and they will come safely." In October, 1828, a petition was sent to Congress from the people of that part of Illinois lying north of the line established by the ordinance of 1787, and that part of the Terri- tory of Michigan west of Lake Michigan and comprehending the mining district known as the Fever River Lead Mines, praying for the formation of a new territory. A bill had been introduced at the previous session of Congress for the establishment of a new territory north of the State of Illinois, to be called " Huron Territory," upon which report had been made, in part, favorable to the wishes of the petitioners, but they asked for the re-establishment of the line as ordained by Congress in 1787. They declared " that the people inhabiting the territory northwest of the Ohio had a right to expect that the country lying north of an east and west line passing through the southernmost end of Lake Michigan, to the Mississippi River, and between said lake, the Mississippi and the Canada line, would REMAIN TOGETHER " as a territory and State. They claimed that this was a part of the compact, unchangeably granted by the people of the original States to the people who should inhabit the " territory northwest of the Ohio." They declared that the change of the chartered limits, when Illinois was made a State, was an open invasion of their rights when they were unrepresented in either territory ; that "an unrepresented people, without their knowledge or consent, have been transferred from one sovereignty to another." They urged that the present " division of the mines and miners by an ideal line, separating into different governments individuals intimately con- nected in similar pursuits, is embarrassing." They asked for "even handed justice," and the restoration of their "chartered limits." The Miners' Journal, of Galena, of October 25, 1828, which contained the full text of the petition, said : " We do not fully agree with the memorialists in petitioning Congress again to dispose of that tract of coun- try which has once been granted to Illinois ; but we think that it would be for the in- terest of the miners to be erected, together with the adjoining county ahove, into a separate territory. And we firmly believe, too, that Congress departed from the clear and express terms of their own ordinance passed in the year 1787, when they granted to Illinois nearly a degree and a half of latitude of the CHARTERED LIMITS of this country. Whether Congress will annex this tract to the new territory we much doubt, but we be-

GENERAL HISTORY OF ILLINOIS.

lieve the ultimate decision of the United States Court will be, that the norther"

.. gan." line of the State of Illinois shall commence at the southernmost end of L?'

The petition was unavailing, and the northern line of Illinois remai- -Hanged, but

the agitation of the subject by the people of the northwestern part ilinois continued.

In 1840 the people of the counties north of the ordinance une sent delegates to a convention held at Rockford to take action in relation to the annexation of the tract north of that line to the Wisconsin Territory, and it is said the scheme then discussed embraced an effort to make Galena the capital of the territory. Resolutions were adopted requesting the senators and representatives in Congress for Illinois to exert their influence in favor of the project. The labors of the convention produced no results, but until the admission of Wisconsin as a State, there was a strong feeling among the people of northwestern Illinois that they rightfully belonged to Wisconsin, and there was a strong desire to be restored to their chartered limits.

This question agitated the people of the section concerned for many years. It entered into their political conflicts and exercised an important influence upon their local affairs. Many of the old settlers down to a late period, condemned this striking departure from the ordinance of 1787, which fixed the present line fifty miles further north. Boundary meetings at various places in the fourteen northern counties continued to be held from time to time, showing the feeling to be deep and wide spread. As late as January 22, 1842, a meeting of this character was held at Oregon City, at which, among others, the following resolution was adopted, and which is here introduced as showing the grounds of complaint, and the purpose of the people to either belong to Wisconsin or set up for themselves :

Resolved, That in the opinion of this meeting, that part of the Northwest Territory, which lies north of an " east and west line through the southerly bend or extreme of Lake Michigan," belongs to, and of right should be, a part of the State or States which have been or may be formed north of said line.

Wisconsin was yet a territory when this meeting was held. It resolved further that the ordinance of 1787 could not be altered or changed without the consent of the people of the original States and of the Northwest Territory ; that as a part of the people of said territory, they would not consent ; that the lines designated in the ordinance were better suited to the geographical situation and local interests of their region ; that they were decidedly opposed to placing any of the territory north of said line within the jurisdic- tion of a State south of it ; that they recommended the Legislature of Wisconsin to apply for admission into the Union, claiming the line of the ordinance as their southern boundary ; that they disclaimed any intention to absolve themselves from any pecuniary responsibility created by the Legislature of Illinois on account of the internal improve- ment system, etc. The resolutions were adopted unanimously, and a committee of nine was appointed to proceed to Madison, with full power to consult with the Governor and Legislature of Wisconsin Territory. Governor Doty and the legislature gave them assur- ance of earnest co-operation in petitioning Congress toward the end in view. But nothing ever came of the clamor. The essential point was, whether the acts of Congress of the Confederate States were of such binding force that a Congress of the United States could not annul or amend them, or, in other words, whether the former possessed a higher power than the latter.

The State Constitution was signed by the members of the Convention on the 26th day of August, but as already stated, the crowning act of State sovereignty was delayed until the 3d day of December, 1818, when the President approved and signed the Con- gressional act of admission previously quoted. The first election for Governor and other State officers and members of the Legislature was held on the third Thursday, and the two succeeding days (Friday and Saturday) in September, 1818.

Shadrach Bond, a native of Frederick county, Maryland, who came to Illinois in 1780, was elected governor. He was forty-five years old at the time of his election,

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having been born in 1773. His education was plain, but he possessed, says Mr. Rey- nolds, in his Pioneer History, a convivial, benevolent disposition, a shrewd observation of men, and a clear appreciation of events. Ilis person was erect, standing six feet in height, and after middle life he became portly, weighing two hundred pounds. His fea- tures were strongly masculine, complexion dark, hair dark, and eyes hazel. Ile was a favorite with the ladies. His jovial disposition, thorough honesty and unostentatious in- tercourse with the people, made him the most popular man of his time. He had been a member of the General Assembly under the Indiana Territory, a delegate to Congress in 1812, and in the latter capacity procured the right of pre-emption on the public domain. In 1814 he was appointed Receiver of public moneys at Kaskaskia. After his guberna- torial term expired, he was a candidate for Congress in 1824, against Daniel P. Cook, but was defeated. He was subsequently appointed Register of the land office at Kaskaskia, where he died April 11, 1830.

Pierre Menard, lieutenant governor, was born in Quebec, Canada, in 1767. At the age of nineteen years he found his way to Vincennes, and became a clerk in the employ of Col. Vigo, a merchant of that place. In 1790 he formed a partnership with one Du Bois, of Vincennes, and removed to Kaskaskia, where they commenced merchandising. His trade with the Indians and in other public capacities, soon made Pierre Menard well known. Nature made him frank, kind and honest. His mind, with but an ordinary edu- cation, was strong, and his judgment quick and unerring. His industry was wonderful. He was never idle. He was government agent for the Indians, and that race had the most implicit confidence in his integrity. It has been recorded to his credit, that he could buy their peltries at half the price they (the Indians) would ask from a " Long Knife." Mr. Menard had been a member of the lower house of the Legislature, while Illinois was under the jurisdiction of Indiana Territory, and a member of the Illinois Legislative Council from 1812 to 1818, of which he was the presiding officer. In fram- ing the Constitution the qualifications for lieutenant governor were first fixed the same as the qualifications for governor, which, among others, required United States citizenship of thirty years. But as that would have excluded Mr. Menard, who had only been natu- ralized ten years, the convention, as a special favor to him, changed the schedule, it being generally conceded that he would be the choice of the people for lieutenant governor. After the expiration of his term of office (four years), he declined all further tenders of public position, accepting only that of United States Commissioner to treat with the Indians, whose character he knew so well. He accumulated, it is said, quite a fortune, but it was greatly impaired by that kindness of heart which allowed him to become security for friends. The Legislature of 1839 preserved his name in Menard county. He died in 1844, at the age of seventy-seven years.

Elijah C. Berry was the first Auditor of Public Accounts ; John Thomas, State Treasurer ; Daniel P. Cook," Attorney General ; Elias K. Kane, Secretary of State ; and Messrs. Blackwell and Berry, State Printers.

John McLean, after whom McLean county was named, was the first member of Con- gress, elected in September, 1818.

The State Legislature convened on the 5th of October, 1818. As the State had not yet been declared admitted, because Congress was not in session, no legislation or busi- ness of any kind was attempted, except the election of officers. After a session of eight days a recess was taken until the first Monday in January, 1819, when the State officers were inaugurated, to whom the territorial officers turned over the keys and archives of the

*Mr. Cook only served as Attorney General a few months. In 1819 he was elected to Congress, and re-elected biennially until 1826, when he was defeated by Governor Duncan. He rose to a high position in Congress, and the last session he was there, he acled as chairman of the important committee of ways and means of the lower house. To his services, at this last session, the people of Illinois are indebted for the donation by Congress of 300,000 acres of land, for the construction of the Illinois and Michigan Canal. For him the County of Cook was appropriately named, as more than half of its great prosperity is owing to his exertions in Congress in favor of the canal .-- Ford.

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GENERAL HISTORY OF ILLINOIS.

young commonwealth. Ninian Edwards, retiring Governor, and Jesse B. Thomas, one of the Federal Judges for the Territory, were elected to the United States Senate, and Illinois was launched on a career of greatness unexampled in the history of States.

FINANCIAL.

The territorial revenue was raised by tax assessed upon lands. Bottom lands along the Mississippi, Ohio, and Wabash rivers were taxed at the rate of one cent an acre, or one dollar on every one hundred acres. Uplands were classed as second rate, and were taxed at seventy-five cents per one hundred acres. Unlocated, but confirmed land claims, were taxed at the rate of thirty-seven and one-half cents per one hundred acres. County tax was raised, for the most part, by tax levied on personal property, including slaves or indentured servants between the ages of sixteen and forty years, not to exceed one dollar each. The only realty taxed was lots and houses in towns, and country mansions worth two hundred dollars and upwards. One dollar was levied against every able-bodied, single man of twenty-one years, worth two hundred dollars in taxable property. Two men were appointed to appraise the property to be assessed. Merchants and ferries were licensed at fifteen and ten dollars respectively. Horses and cattle were taxed at a rate not to exceed fifty and ten cents respectively. The entire territorial revenue* between the 1st of November, 1811, and the 8th of November, 1814 (three years), was reported by the legislative committee on finance, in 1814, to be $4,875.45. Of this amount only $2,516.89 had actually been paid into the treasury ; the balance, $2,358.56, remained in the hands of delinquent sheriffs. When the State was declared admitted, December 3, 1818, the total amount of revenue was $7,510.44, a part of which was in the hands of delinquent collectors. The State was in an embarrassed condition, and the Governor, in his message, recommended a temporary loan of $25,000 which was therefore authorized by the Legislature. A sufficient supply of stationery for the use of the first Legislature was purchased for $13.50. The amount paid for stationery for the use of the 29th session of the General Assembly was $1,680.

State revenue, in the main, was raised by a tax assessed against lands held by non- residents, and fell almost entirely on the military tract between the Illinois and Missis- sippi rivers. Lands were divided by law into three classes, and valued at two, three, and four dollars an acre respectively.

County revenues were raised by a tax levied on personal property, including slaves or indentured servants, and by a resident land tax.

Levies of taxes were made according to the estimates of the sums required to meet accruing expenses, either State or county. The laws required non-residents to enter their lands for taxation directly with the Auditor of State, under oath, as to class, etc., and taxes on their lands were payable to that officer.

THE WHIPPING POST.

The whipping post and pillory, as well as slavery, existed in Illinois in the early days of her history. Under the laws of the Territory, whipping upon the bare back, be- sides other punishments, at the option of the courts was prescribed. The number of stripes were regulated by the grade of offense. Burglary or robbery, thirty-nine stripes ; perjury, larceny, receiving stolen goods, and obtaining goods by fraudulent pretenses, thirty-one stripes ; horse-stealing, first offense, fifty to one hundred lashes ; hog-stealing, twenty-five to thirty-nine lashes ; altering or defacing marks or. brands on domestic animals running at large, forty lashes, " well laid on;" bigamy, one hundred to three hundred stripes ; sodomy, one hundred to five hundred lashes. In all these offenses there were other penalties, alternatively or additionally, at the option of the court, such as fines, imprisonment, restitution, etc. Fines were collected from those unable to pay,

*Stuve.

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GENERAL HISTORY OF ILLINOIS.

by the sheriff selling them to any one who would pay the fine or costs for such term as the court might deem reasonable, and if the delinquent should abscond, the penalty was double the term of servitude and thirty-nine stripes. Standing in pillory was prescribed, in addition to other penalties, in perjury, forgery, and the altering or defacing of brands or marks on domestic animals. For this last offense, on second conviction, the culprit was to have the letter T branded in the left hand with a red hot iron. To prevent the common erime of killing stock running on the range, every one slaughtering an animal was required to exhibit the cars of hogs, or hides of eattle, to a magistrate or two free- holders within three days, under a penalty of ten dollars. For aiding the escape of a convict the punishment was the same as that of the culprit, except in capital cases, when stripes, standing in pillory, or sitting on the gallows with the rope adjusted about the neek, at the option of the court, was the penalty. Besides in treason and in murder, the penalty of death was pronounced against arson and rape, and horse-stealing on second conviction. * In regard to the collection of debts, the principles of the com- mon law prevailed, which wholly favored the ereditor. All the property of the judgment debtor, both real and personal, withont any of the present humane features as to exemp- tion, might be levied upon and sold under execution.

To the people of this enlightened and liberal age, such laws seem barbaric in the extreme, and were so in faet. But it may be said in excuse for them that the people were poor, the settlements sparse, and the conditions of the country and of society wild and unsettled, and that the " settlers " were too poor to build jails or penitentiaries. What few jails were built in those days were poor concerns, every way insecure, and offered but little hindrances to the escape of such as were confined within them. As the commonwealth grew older and increased in population and wealth, the people became more liberal and humane, until the last letter of the inhuman enactments herein quoted was entirely expunged from the statute books and now exists only in history.

EARTHQUAKES.

It will not be out of place in this connection, inasmuch as we are tracing the history of Illinois as a Territory and as a State, to go back and refer to an important, and at the time, startling oceurrenee in the latter part of the year 1816. A series of earthquake shoeks commenced on the night of the 16th of December of that year, which, according to Dr. Hildreth, a writer of note of that period, continued until the 26th of March fol- lowing. During the continuance of those earth shocks, the old town at the present site of New Madrid, on the Missouri side of the Mississippi river, was almost entirely destroyed. Lands were sunken for many miles around there, and down into Northeastern Arkansas. The writer has been told by reliable authority, that in the northeastern corner of Arkansas there is a tract of country known as the " sunken Inds," which is an impassible bog or quagmire - that, in the center there is a kind of island, which can be seen from the outer edges, but which has never been reached since the earthquake that occasioned it, and that as late as 1871-'2 there were evidences of animal life on the island, in the presence of deer, etc., supposed to have come from a parent stock left on the island when the earthquake subsided. This assertion is not vouched for as a fact. but is given from what is believed to be reliable authority - the statement of a resident of Arkansas, whose acquaintance the writer enjoyed while living in that State after the close of the war of the rebellion. But to return to Dr. Hildreth's statement : " The banks of the Mississippi in many places gave way in large masses and fell into the river. while the water changed to a reddish hue, became thick with mud thrown up from the bottom, and the surface, lashed violently by the agitation of the earth beneath, was covered with foam, which gathered into masses and floated along the trembling surface. Its vibrations were felt all over the valley, as far up ns Pittsburg." Mud and water was thrown up as high as the tops of trees. The vibrations were observed by the inhabitants

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living in that vicinity to be of two characters. One motion was horizontal and the other vertical. Of the two it was noticed that the horizontal vibrations were much the more destructive. The direction of the motion was from northwest to southeast, and numerous fissures opened up extending at nearly right angles with the direction of vibration.

CHAPTER VIII.

NORTHWESTERN INDIAN TROUBLES.

The Winnebago War - Just Provocation - Opinion of Gov. Reynolds-Gov. Edwards -Gen. Lewis Cass - Gen- erals Dodge and Whiteside - The Indian Chiefs Red Wing and We Kaw.

The year 1827 is memorable in the history of the Northwestern part of the State as being the period when the first serious troubles were experienced by the settlers of that region with their Indian neighbors, and afterwards dignified by the title of the "Winnebago War." At that time all the Territory north of the line established by the Ordinance of 1787, was in the undisputed possession of the Indians, except the reserva- tions at the mouth of the Wisconsin and on Fever river, and the mining districts of Jo Daviess county and Michigan Territory. Early in 1827, miners, settlers and adventurers flocked thither in great numbers, and inevitably extended their explorations for mineral beyond the " Ridge," recognized as the line of the " five leagues square," although it does not appear that the limits of the reservation were ever accurately determined. Many rich leads were discovered on Indian lands, and miners persisted in digging there, in direct disobedience of the orders of the superintendent of the United States Lead Mines to desist and withdraw from lands on which the United States were not authorized to even explore for mineral. In exceptional instances the right to mine was purchased of the Indians, but in most cases the restless searchers for mineral wealth totally disregarded the orders of the superintendent and the rights of the Indians, who, according to the acts of the trespassers " had no right which a white man was bound to respect." Frequent disputes occurred in consequence between the miners and the Indians. Mr. Shull, who had discovered a fine lead and had erected a shanty near it, was driven off, and his cabin destroyed by the Winnebagoes, who, owning the land, did no more, and perhaps not as much, as whites would have done under similar circumstances, to protect and preserve their rights and property. The dissatisfaction and ill feeling en- gendered by these encroachments upon their territory was, perhaps, a minor cause of the outbreak, but had no other cause operated to further exasperate the Indians, the difficulty might, and probably would, have been amicably adjusted without bloodshed.

About this time, and while these disputes between the miners and Indians were occurring, two keel-boats belonging to the contractor to furnish supplies for the troops at Fort Snelling, while on their way up the river stopped at a point not far above Prairie du Chien, where were encamped a large number of Winnebago Indians. John Wakefield, Esq., in writing from memory an account of the war, if it can be called such (and it must be admitted now, writing in a spirit of bitter prejudice against the Indians, who had been peaceable and friendly with the settlers here, until provoked beyond endur- ance) says that these boats were run by "Capt. Allen Lindsey, a gentleman of the first respectability in our country," and that he was with his boats on this particular trip, but it is to be hoped that Wakefield was in error, for no "respectable gentleman " could have permitted men under his command to indulge in such fiendish excesses, not only endan- gering their own lives, but imperiling the safety of all the frontier settlements as well.

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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 17

Author: Johnson & co., Chicago, pub Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Chicago : Johnson & Company Number of Pages: 932

Author: Johnson & co., Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Chicago : Johnson & Company
Number of Pages: 932