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 2

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

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After extending their voyage to the mouth of the Arkansas, where they found a village of the Arkansas tribe, they ascended the Mississippi to the mouth of the Illinois. They ascended the latter river to its source. Along this stream they found many villages of the Illinois, or Illini, a large and powerful tribe. who were subdivided into five smaller tribes - the Tamaroas, Michigamies. Kahokias, Kaskaskias, and Peorias. The country between the Illinois and Mississippi rivers was inhabited by the three last named tribes. The Michigamies resided in the country bordering on Lake Michigan, and the Tamuroas occupiedl the territory now included in the counties of Jersey, Madison and St. Clair, Illinois. Kaskaskia -also designated by the carly explorers as " La Vantum " and " Great Illinois Town" was the largest of the villages, containing according to Marquette, sev- enty-five lodges. Without the loss of a man, or any serions accident, the party reached Green Bay in September, and reported their discoveries. Marquette made a faithful record of what they had seen and the incidents of the voyage. That record has been preserved. The report of Joliet was unfortunately lost by the upsetting of his canoe while on the way to Quebec.

At the request of the Illinois Indians, Marquette soon returned and established the mission of the Immaculate Conception at La Vantum. In the Spring of 1675, on account of failing health, he started to return to Green Bay. While passing along the shore of Lake Michigan, conscious that he was nearing the end of his earthly labors. he observed

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an elevated place near the mouth of a small river. He told his companions that the place was suitable for his burial, and requested them to land. On that lonely and desolate coast, May 18, 1675, at the age of thirty-eight, James Marquette ended his last earthly voyage, and received burial at the hands of his devoted companions. Two years later some Indians of the mission at Kaskaskia disinterred his remains, and conveyed them in a box made of birch bark, with a convoy of over twenty canoes, to Mackinaw, where they were reinterred at the mission church. The post was abandoned in 1706. and the church burned. The place of burial was finally lost, and remained lost for two hundred years. In May, 1876, the foundations of the old Jesuit Mission were accidentally dis- covered on the farm of one David Murray, with a number of church relics, the moldering remains of the great missionary and explorer, and a cross with his name inscribed upon it.

Joliet, after his return to Quebec, became again a trader with the Indians. His services were rewarded by the French government by the gift of the Island of Anticosti, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Little after this is known of him. He died about 1730.

The reports given of the discoveries of Marquette and Joliet, served to encourage other adventurers to engage in the effort to extend their explorations. Robert La Salle, a French navigator, who was born at Rouen about the year 1635, had long cherished a project of seeking a route to China by way of the Great Lakes. Before the return of Marquette and Joliet, he had explored Lake Ontario and visited the different Indian tribes. In 1675 he went to France and obtained from the Government a grant to a large tract of land about Fort Frontenac, the exclusive right of traffic with the Five Nations, and also a patent of nobility. He laid before his Government his desire to explore the Mississippi to its mouth, and take possession of all the regions he might visit in the name of the King of France. His plans were warmly approved, and he was provided with the means for carrying them into execution. In July, 1678, he returned to Fort Frontenac, soon after established a trading house at Niagara, and visited the neighboring Indian tribes for the purpose of collecting furs. He engaged the services of thirty mechanics and mariners and built the first ship for the navigation of the lakes. It was called the Griffin, and was a bark of sixty tons. Having been joined by Louis Hennepin and Chevalier de Tonti, the latter an Indian veteran, on the 7th of August, 1879, they launched the Griffin on Niagara river, and embarked for the valley of the Mississippi. They crossed Lake Erie and Lake St. Clair, reaching Green Bay, September 2d. For the purpose of relieving himself of some pressing financial obligations at Montreal, La Salle here engaged for a time in collecting furs with which he loaded the Griffin, and sent it in the care of a pilot and fourteen sailors on its return trip, with orders to return immediately ; but the vessel was never heard of afterward. He waited until all hope had vanished, and then, with Father Hennepin, Chevalier de Tonti, the Sieur de la Motte, and about thirty followers, began again the voyage. They ascended the St. Joseph in canoes to the portage, and carried their barks to the Kankakee, a distance of six miles, descended the Kankakee and the Illinois until they reached an Indian village on the latter stream, at the expansion of the same, known as Lake Peoria. The village was situated on the west bank of the lake, and must have been passed by Marquette and Joliet on their voyage up the river in 1673, although no mention is made of it by them. La Salle, Hennepin, Tonti and their followers landed at Lake Peoria, January 3d, 1680. The Indians received them hospitably, and they remained with them for several days. Here a spirit of discontent began to manifest itself among the followers of La Salle, and fearing trouble between his men and the Indians, they crossed the river and moved down about three miles, where they erected a fort, which La Salle named Fort Crevecœur (heart-break) a name expressive of La Salle's sorrow at the loss of his fortune by the disaster to the Griffin, and also his feelings in the fear of mutiny among his men. The party remained here until in February, when Tonti was placed in com- mand of the post, and Hennepin charged with a voyage of discovery to the sources of

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the Mississippi. La Salle returned on foot with three companions to Fort Frontenac for supplies. On his arrival he learned of the certainty of the loss of the Griffin, and also of the wreck of another vessel which had been sent with resources for him from France.

Father Hennepin, with two companions, Picard du Gay and Michel Ako, on the 29th of February, 1680, embarked from Fort Crevecœur in a canoe down the Illinois to its mouth, which they reached in a few days. They then turned up the Mississippi, reaching the mouth of the Wisconsin, April 11th. Above this point no European had ever ascended. They continued the voyage, reaching the Falls of St. Anthony, April 30th, 1680. Hennepin so named the falls in honor of his patron Saint. When they arrived at the mouth of St. Francis river, in what is now the State of Minnesota, they traveled along its banks a distance of 180 miles, visiting the Sioux Indians, who inhabited that region. The river, Hennepin, so named in honor of the founder of his order. In his account of this voyage, Hennepin claims that they were held in captivity by the Indians for about three months, although they were treated kindly by them. At the end of this time a band of Frenchmen, under the leadership of Seur de Luth, in pursuit of furs, had penetrated to this part of the country by the way of Lake Superior. The Indians allowed Hennepin and his companions to return with the traders. They descended the Mississippi to the mouth of the Wisconsin, passing up that stream and down the Fox river, and so on through Green Bay to Lake Michigan. Hennepin went to Quebec, and thence to France, where, in 1683, he published an account of his explorations and a description of the region of the Upper Mississippi. In 1697 (two years after La Salle's death) he published an enlarged work, in which he claimed that he had descended the Mississippi to its mouth. His faithful description of the valley for a time gave him credit for veracity, but the impossibility of reconciling his dates, and other circumstan- ces, are by the best authorities regarded as stamping his claim false. Before the time this work was published, as we shall see, La Salle had descended the Mississippi to its mouth. Hennepin explained his long silence as to his exploration to the mouth of the Mississippi, by claiming that he had feared the enmity of La Salle, who had ordered him to follow a different course, and had also prided himself upon his own claims as being the first European to descend the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico. Father Hennepin died in Holland, about the year 1699.

We now return to the further adventures of the brave and intrepid La Salle. He returned to Fort Crevecœur in the latter part of the year 1680, to find that Tonti had been abandoned by his men, and obliged to take refuge among the Pottawattamies. He spent another year in collecting his scattered followers, finally succeeded, and on the 6th of February, 1682, he had reached the mouth of the Illinois. As they passed down the Mississippi La Salle noted the different streams tributary thereto. They erected a fort near the mouth of the Ohio, and a cabin at the first Chickasaw bluff. On the 9th of April they entered the Gulf of Mexico. They re-ascended the river a short distance, founded the Fort of St. Louis, took possession of the whole valley in the name of France, and called it by the name of Louisiana, in honor of the king.

La Salle, having accomplished much for the glory of France, now retraced his steps northward. After spending one year about the great lakes, actively engaged in laying the foundations of French settlements in the new regions he had discovered, in Novem- ber, 1683, he reached Quebec, and soon after embarked for France. The government, with marks of great esteem, bestowed upon him a commission placing under his authority all the French and natives of the country, from Fort St. Louis to New Biscay. An expedition, with four vessels and 280 persons, was fitted out for the colonization of Louisiana ; it sailed August 1, 1684. Associated with La Salle, in this expedition, was Beaujeu, as naval commander. The mouth of the Mississippi was the objective point, but by mistake the fleet passed on northward. When the error was discovered La Salle desired to return, but Beanjeu persisted in advancing. Dissensions arose, and La Salle,

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with 230 colonists, disembarked. This was in February, 1685. A fortified post, which was called Fort St. Louis, was established, and attempts made at agriculture, but without success. Attempts were made to reach the Mississippi, which they thought near, but failed. La Salle and his followers traversed the wilderness toward New Mexico, and in January, 1687, by sickness and disaster, his party was reduced to thirty-seven. Some of these, following Beaujeu's example, revolted. La Salle, with sixteen men, then determ- ined to reach the country of the Illinois. Two men, who had embarked their capital in the enterprise, were bitter in their malignity toward the leader of this unsuccessful expedition. Their feelings found some gratification in the murder of a nephew of La Salle. The latter sought to investigate as to the death of his relative, but only shared his fate, as one of them fired upon him from ambush, and the heroic La Salle fell, the victim of quarrels and dissensions among his own followers. This event happened after he had passed the basin of the Colorado and reached a branch of Trinity river, in Texas.

We have thus briefly outlined the part taken by this energetic and adventurous explorer, in giving to civilization a knowledge of a region that was destined to constitute the richest and most productive portion of the American continent, if not indeed, of the world.

CHAPTER IL.

EARLY SETTLEMENTS IN THE NORTHWEST.

Early French Settlements - Indian Tribes - Mission at Kaskaskia - Kahokia - Vincennes - Fort Ponchartrain - Fort Chartres -La Belle Reviere - La Salle -The English Claim " From Sea to Sea " - Treaty with Indians in 1684- English Grants - French and Indians Attack Pickawillany - Treaty with the Six Nations - French and English Claims - George Washington - French and Indian War - Fall of Montreal-Treaty of Paris - Pontiac's Conspiracy - Detroit - Pontiac's Promissory Notes - Pontiac's Death - France Cedes Louisiana to Spain - Washington Explores the Ohio Valley - Emigration - Land Companies - The Revolution - Colonel Clark -Surrender of French Posts in Illinois - Surrender of Vincennes - Gov. Hamilton Taken Prisoner - Daniel Boone - Simon Girty - Virginia's " Land Laws."

As the French were the first to explore the region known as the Northwest, so they were the first to improve the opening thus made. The earliest settlements were in that part of the country east of the Mississippi and south of the Great Lakes, occupied chiefly by the Illinois tribes of the Great Algonquin family of Indians. The Illinois were divided into the Tamaroas, Michigamies, Kahokias, Kaskaskias, and Peorias, and were sometimes designated as the Five Nations. The three last named tribes occupy the country between the Illinois and Mississippi rivers; the Michigamies the region bordering on Lake Michigan, and the Tamaroas, a small tribe, in the same region occu- pied by the Kahokias, and now embraced in the counties of Jersey, Madison, and St. Clair, in the State of Illinois. The French opened the way for colonization by the establishment of missions among these tribes, their efforts in this direction having been attended with great success in Canada. A mission was founded at Kaskaskia by Father Gravier about the year 1698. This at the time of the visit of Marquette and Joliet, in 1673, was the largest and most important of the Illinois villages, and contained seventy- four lodges, or about fifteen hundred inhabitants. By the early explorers it was called by the several names of " Kaskaskia," " La Vantum," and "Great Illinois Town." Here, in 1675, Father Marquette had attempted to Christianize the Indians by establish- ing the mission of the Immaculate Conception. For years it was nothing more than a missionary station, occupied only by the Nations and the missionary. About the year 1700 missions were also established at Kahokia and Peoria, the latter being near the site

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of old Fort Crevecœur. Another of the early French settlements was at Vincennes on the Oubache ( Waba, now Wabash) river. Authorities disagree as to the date of this settlement, but it was probably about 1702. For many years this was an isolated colony of French emigrants from Canada, and several generations of their descendants lived and passed away in these vast solitudes, before either they or their savage neighbors were disturbed by the encroachments of an expanding civilization. During all this time they had maintained friendly relations with the natives. In July, 1701, a station was estab- lished by De la Motte on the Detroit river. called Fort Ponchartrain. While these attempts to colonize the Northwest were in progress, similar efforts were being made by France in the Southwest, but without maintaining like friendly relations with the natives, for in a conflict with the Chickasaws, an entire colony at Natchez was ent off. As these settlements in the Northwest were isolated but little is known of their history prior to 1750. In this year Vivier, a missionary among the Illinois, near Fort Chartres, writes of five French villages, with a population of eleven hundred whites, three hundred blacks, and sixty red slaves or savages. He says there were whites, negroes and Indians, to say nothing of half-breeds. They then raised wheat. cattle. swine and horses, and sent pork, grain and flour to New Orleans. On the 7th of November, 1750, the same priest writes :

" For fifteen leagues above the mouth of the Mississippi one sees no dwellings, the ground being too low to be habitable. Thence to New Orleans the lands are only par- tially occupied. New Orleans contains black, white and red, not more, I think, than twelve hundred persons. To this point come all lumber, bricks, salt beef, tallow, tar, skins and bear's grease ; and above all, pork and flour from the Illinois. These things create some commerce, as forty vessels and more have come hither this year. Above New Orleans plantations are again met with ; the most considerable is a colony of Ger- mans some ten leagues up the river. At Point Coupee, thirty-five leagues above the German settlement. is a fort. Along here, within five or six leagues, are not less than sixty habitations. Fifty leagues further up is the Natchez post, where we have a garri- son. who are kept prisoners through fear of the Chickasaws. Here and at Point Coupee they raise excellent tobacco. Another hundred leagues brings us to the Arkansas, where we have also a fort and a garrison for the benefit of the river traders. From the Arkansas to the Illinois, nearly five hundred leagues, there is not a settlement. There should be, however, a fort at the Oubache (Ohio), the only path by which the English can reach the Mississippi. In the Illinois country are numberless mines, but no one to work them as they deserve."

The fame of Robert Cavelier de La Salle was not achieved alone by his explorations of the Valley of the Mississippi, for, in 1669, four years before the discovery of the Mis- sissippi by Marquette and Joliet, La Salle discovered the Ohio river, or La Belle Riviere (Beautiful River), as the French called it. Being conversant with several Indian dia- leets, he had learned from some Senecas of a river called Ohio which rose in their country and flowed a long distance to the sea. La Salle then held the belief that the river flowing to the west emptied into the Sea of California, and longed to engage in the enterprise of discovering a route across the continent. He obtained the approval of the Government at Quebec, but no allowance to defray the expense. He sold his property in Canada for two thousand eight hundred dollars, and with the proceeds purchased canoes and the necessary supplies. With a party of twenty-four persons he embarked in seven canoes on the St. Lawrence, July 6th. 1669. Crossing over Lake Ontario, they were conducted by Indian guides to the Genesee, about where the city of Rochester, New York, is now located. The enterprise did not receive the approbation of the Indians at the Seneca village then situated on the bank of the Genesee at this point, and they refused to furn- ish him guides to conduct him further. After a month's delay he met an Indian belonging to the Iroquois tribe on Lake Ontario, who conducted them to their village,

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where they received a more friendly welcome. From the chief of the Iroquois at Onondaga he obtained guides who conducted the party to a river south of Lake Erie. This proved to be a tributary of the Ohio. They descended it, and thence down the Ohio to the great falls where Louisville now stands. By virtue of this discovery the French claimed the country along the Ohio, and many years after established military and trading posts at different points. One of these was Fort Du Quesne, erected in 1754, which was taken from them by the English a few years later and called Pittsburg, in honor of William Pitt, then prime minister of England.

Notwithstanding the discovery of the Ohio by the French under La Salle as early as 1669, the English claimed from the Atlantic to the Pacific on the ground that her sea- coast discoveries entitled her to the sovereignty of all the country from " sea to sca." In 1684, Lord Howard, Governor of Virginia, held a treaty with Indian tribes known as the Northern Confederacy, to - wit: the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas and Senecas. The Tuscaroras being subsequently taken in, these tribes became known as the Six Nations, and the English assumed their protection. They purchased from them large tracts of land and aimed to obtain a monopoly of the Indian trade. The English government made grants of land west of the Alleghanies, and companies were formed for their settlement. France, seeing the English obtaining a foothold by planting trading posts in the Northwest, in 1749 sent Lonis Celeron with a small force of soldiers to plant in mounds at the mouth of the principal tributaries of the Ohio, plates of lead with the claims of France inscribed thereon. The English, however, still continued to make explorations and establish trading posts. One of these grants of England was to a company known as the " Ohio Company," and embraced a tract of land on the Great Miami, described as being one hundred and fifty miles above its mouth. Christopher Gist was sent by this company in 1750 to inspect their lands and to establish a trading post. In 1752 a small party of French soldiers, assisted by Ottawas and Chippewas, attacked this post and captured the traders after a severe battle. The English called this post Pickawillany -the name being subsequently contracted to Pickaway or Piqua. The location of this post was doubtless near that of the present town of Piqua, on the Great Miami, about seventy - eight miles north of Cincinnati. Thus on the soil of what became a part of the State of Ohio was shed the first blood between the French and English for the possession of the Northwest.

In 1744 the English had entered into a treaty with the Six Nations at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, by which they acquired certain lands described as being within the "Colony of Virginia." The Indians subsequently complained of bad faith on the part of the English in failing to comply with some of the stipulations of the treaty. The Governor of Virginia appointed commissioners to hear the grievances of the Indians. They met at Logstown, on the north bank of the Ohio, about seventeen miles below the present city of Pittsburg, in the Spring of 1752. Notwithstanding the complaint of the Indians that the English had failed to supply them with arms and ammunition as they had agreed, they succeeded in obtaining a confirmation of the treaty of Lancaster.

In the mean time the French were quietly preparing to maintain their claims to the country in dispute. They provided cannon and military stores in anticipation of the coming conflict. The French were notified to give up their posts, but they failed to comply. Governor Dinwiddie finally determined to learn definitely their intentions, and for this purpose selected Major George Washington, then twenty-two years of age, as a messenger. With Christopher Gist as a guide, and four attendants or servants, Wash- ington set out through the wilderness on his perilous journey. He held a conference with the chiefs of the Six Nations at Logstown in November, 1753. He learned some- thing of the condition of the French, but the Indians desired to remain neutral and were disposed to be non - committal. Washington proceeded to Venango, where there was a French post called Fort Machault. Here he delivered to the French Governor, Dinwid-

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die's letter, and received the answer of St. Pierre, the commander of the fort, declining to give up without a struggle. Preparations for war were made in all the English colonies while the French continued to strengthen their lines of fortifications.

It will thus be seen that what is known as the French and Indian war had its origin in this dispute abont the possession of what is now one of the fairest and richest portions of our Republic. It resulted, not only in England maintaining her right to the territory in dispute, but in wresting Canada from France. It was a war of eight years duration, commencing with the attack of the French and Indians on the English post at Piqua in 1752. and virtually ending with the fall of the city of Montreal in April, 1760. Tieon- deroga. Crown Point, Niagara, and Quebec had all previously surrendered to the English, the first two without resistance. After the fall of Montreal the Governor of Canada signed a capitulation surrendering the whole of Canada to the English. One post, how- ever, that of Detroit, still remained in possession of the French. Major Rogers was sent from Montreal to demand its surrender. Beletre, the commander of the post, at first refused, but on the 29th of November, having heard of the defeat of the French arms in Canada, he also surrendered. September 29th, 1760, the treaty of peace between France and England, known as the treaty of Paris, was made, but not ratified until February 10th, 1763. Meantime the Northwest territory was entirely under English rule and settlements began to extend. The Indians who had been the friends and allies of the French during the war were not reconciled to the English, claiming that they had not carried out their promises. Under the famous Ottawa chief, Pontiac, they united in a general conspiracy to cut off all the English posts on the frontier. The Chippewas, Ottawas, Wyandots, Miamis, Shawnees, Delawares and Mingoes, buried the hatchet in their local quarrels, and united to exterminate the English.

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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 2

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