The history of Adams 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; general and local statistics, portraits of early settlers and prominent men, Part 14

Author:
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Chicago : Murray, Williamson & Phelps
Number of Pages: 1254

USA > Illinois > Adams County > The history of Adams 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; general and local statistics, portraits of early settlers and prominent men > Part 14

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Such is a hasty glance at scenes that were witnessed on this then wild shore of Lake Michigan. Such were the experiences and the struggles of the heroic men and women who ventured forth into the wilderness to plant the germs of civilization, and to lay the foundations of future cities and States. The site on which now stands a city which ranks among the great- est on the continent, is consecrated by the blood shed by heroes on that bright 15th day of August, 1812.

Fort Dearborn was rebuilt in 1816, under the direction of Capt. Bradley, and was occupied until 1837, when, the Indians having removed from the country, it was abandoned.

Congress, on the 2d of March, 1827, granted to the State of Illinois every alternate section of land for six miles on either side of the line of the then proposed Illinois and Michigan canal, to aid in its construction, from Chi- cago to the head of navigation of the Illinois river. The State accepted the grant, and on the 22d of January, 1829, organized a board of canal commis- sioners, with power to lay out towns along the line. Under this authority the commissioners employed Mr. James Thompson to survey the town of Chicago. His first map of the town bears date August 4, 1830. In 1831 the place contained about a dozen families, not including the officers and sol- diers in Fort Dearborn. On the 10th of August, 1833, it was organized by the election of five trustees-there being twenty-eight voters. On the 26th of September of the same year, a treaty was signed with the chiefs of the Pottawattamies, seven thousand of the tribe being present, and on the 1st of October they were removed west of the Mississippi. The first charter of

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THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.

the city was passed by the Legislature of Illinois, and approved March 4th, 1837. Under this charter an election was held May 1st, of the same year. A census was taken on the 1st of July, when the entire population was shown to be 4,170. The city then contained four warehouses, three hundred and twenty-eight dwellings, twenty-nine dry goods stores, five hardware stores, three drug stores, nineteen provision stores, ten taverns, twenty-six groceries, seventeen lawyers' offices, and five churches. It then embraced an area of 560 acres. At this date grain and flour had to be imported from the East to feed the people, for the iron arteries of trade did not then stretch out over the prairies of Illinois, Iowa, and other States. There were no ex- portations of produce until 1839, and not until 1842 did the exports exceed the imports. "Grain was sold in the streets by the wagon load, the trade being restricted to a few neighboring farmers of Illinois.

Of religious organizations the Methodists were the pioneers, being repre- sented in 1831, 1832 and 1833, by Rev. Jesse Walker. Their first quarterly meeting was held in the fall of 1833, and in the spring of the next year the first regular class was formed. The first Presbyterian church was organized June 26th, 1833, the first pastor being Rev. James Porter. It consisted at the time of twenty-five members from the garrison and nine from the citi- zens of the town. The first Baptist church was organized October 19th, 1833 ; and the first Episcopal church, St. James, in 1834. The first Cath- olic church was built by Rev. Schofler, in 1833-4.

The first great public improvement projected was the Illinois and Mich- igan canal, one hundred miles in length, and connecting Chicago with La Salle, at the head of navigation on the Illinois river. It was completed in the spring of 1848.

To the eye of an observer, Chicago seems to be situated upon a level plain, but in reality the height of the natural surface above the lake varies from three to twenty-four feet, and the grade of the principal streets has been raised from two to eight feet above the original surface. A complete sys- tem of sewerage has been established. The surrounding prairie for many miles is apparently without much variation of surface. Though it cannot be observed by the eye, yet the city really stands on the dividing ridge be- tween the two great rivers that drain half the continent, and is about six hundred feet above the ocean. Chicago river, before being widened, deep- ened, and improved, was a very small stream. It has but very little per- ceptible current, and for several miles is very nearly on a level with the lake. It is formed by.two branches, one from the north and the other from south, which unite about a mile from the lake. From this junction the stream flows due east to the lake. These streams divide the city into three parts, familiarly known as North Side, South Side, and West Side. Bridges constructed upon turn-tables, or pivots, are thrown across the streams at many places. By swinging the bridges round, vessels are allowed to be towed up and down the river by steam tugs, so that there is very little diffi- culty in the way of passing from one division of the city to another. The stream has been made navigable for several miles for sail vessels and pro- pellers, and immense warehouses and elevators have been constructed along its banks, where vessels are loaded and unloaded with great rapidity.

We have seen that when the first census was taken in 1837, the city had a population of 4,170. By 1840 it had increased to only 4,470 ; in 1845 it was 12,088 ; in 1850 it was 28,269 ; in 1855 it was 83,509. The census of 1870 showed a population 298,977.

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THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.

One of the gigantic public improvements of Chicago is that for supplying the city with water. Owing to the fact that the water in the lake, near the shore, was polluted by filth from the river, in 1865 a tunnel was cut under the lake, extending a distance of two miles from the shore. This tunnel is thirty-five feet below the bed of the lake. This work is regarded as an ex- ample of great engineering skill, and has proved to be successful. The con- tract price for this work was $315,139. Another great work is the tunnel under the Chicago river at Washington street, cut for the purpose of dis- pensing with the bridge over the river, and to obviate the necessity of the public waiting for vessels to pass. The contract price for this great work was $200,000.

There are other great public improvements of the city, which with her rail- roads leading out in all directions, her immense lake shipping trade, and her population of nearly half a million people, show the greatness that Chicago has attained, all within so short a time. As she has been great in her prosper- ity, so also has she been great in her calamities. On the 8th and 9th of Oc- tober, 1871, this city was the scene of one of the greatest conflagrations known in the annals of the world-greater than that of London in 1666, when thirteen thousand buildings were burned. In Chicago twenty thou- sand buildings were swept away by the devouring element, with miles of magnificent business blocks, palatial residences, and costly ornamentations -all covering an area of over five thousand acres! In all that part of the city between Harrison street and the Chicago river, and on the North Side for nearly four miles to Lincoln Park, there was nothing to be seen but the ruins of a city that had suddenly gone down at the merciless bidding of the fire-fiend. It was a scene of desolation and ruin, and its announcement at the time thrilled a sympathetic chord which vibrated throughout the whole civilized world. Like the fabled Phoenix, Chicago rose again from her own ashes, but grander and more magnificent than she was before. Chicago is now, and has for some years been, the greatest pork packing and grain shipping market of the world. Her commerce is of immense proportions and reaches to all lands where American trade is known. She is the commercial metrop- olis of the great Northwest, and the States of Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Wis- consin and Minnesota, pour their tributes of wealth over thousands of miles of railroads into her lap.

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BAKER-CO

OLD FORT DEARBORN, 1S30.

THE "OLD KINZIE HOUSE,"

ILLINOIS STATE CAPITOL.

HISTORY OF ILLINOIS.

FORMER OCCUPANTS.

MOUND-BUILDERS.

The numerous and well-authenticated accounts of antiquities found in various parts of our country, clearly demonstrate that a people civilized, and even highly cultivated, occupied the broad surface of our continent before its possession by the present In- dians; but the date of their rule of the Western World is so re- mote that all traces of their history, their progress and decay, lie buried in deepest obscurity. Nature, at the time the first Euro- peans came, had asserted her original dominion over the earth; the forests were all in their full luxuriance, the growth of many cen- turies; and naught existed to point out who and what they were who formerly lived, and loved, and labored, and died, on the conti- nent of America. This pre-historic race is known as the Mound- Builders, from the numerous large mounds of earth-works left by them. The remains of the works of this people form the most in- teresting class of antiquities discovered in the United States. Their character can be but partially gleaned from the internal evidences and the peculiarities of the only remains left,-the mounds. They consist of remains of what were apparently villages, altars, temples, idols, cemeteries, monuments, camps, fortifications, pleasure grounds, etc., etc. Their habitations must have been tents, struc- tures of wood, or other perishable material; otherwise their remains would be numerous. If the Mound-Builders were not the ancestors of the Indians, who were they? The oblivion which has closed over them is so complete that only conjecture can be given in answer to the question. Those who do not believe in the common parentage of mankind contend that they were an indigenous race of the West- ern hemisphere; others, with more plausibility, think they came from the East, and imagine they can see coincidences in the religion of the Hindoos and Southern Tartars and the supposed theology of

HISTORY OF ILLINOIS.

the Mound-Builders. They were, no doubt, idolators, and it has been conjectured that the sun was the object of their adoration. The mounds were generally built in a situation affording a view of the rising sun: when enclosed in walls their gateways were toward the east; the caves in which their dead were occasionally buried always opened in the same direction; whenever a mound was partially en- closed by a semi-circular pavement, it was on the east side; when bodies were buried in graves, as was frequently the case, they were laid in a direction east and west; and, finally, medals have been found representing the sun and his rays of light.

At what period they came to this country, is likewise a matter of speculation. From the comparatively rude state of the arts among them, it has been inferred that the time was very remote. Their axes were of stone. Their raiment, judging from fragments which have been discovered, consisted of the bark of trees, interwoven with feathers; and their military works were such as a people would erect who had just passed to the pastoral state of society from that dependent alone upon hunting and fishing.

The mounds and other ancient earth-works constructed by this people are far more abundant than generally supposed, from the fact that while some are quite large, the greater part of them are small and inconspicuous. Along nearly all our water courses that are large enough to be navigated with a canoe, the mounds are almost invariably found, covering the base points and headlands of the bluffs which border the narrower valleys; so that when one finds him- self in such positions as to command the grandest views for river scenery, he may almost always discover that he is standing upon, or in close proximity to, some one or more of these traces of the labors of an ancient people.

GALENA MOUNDS.

On the top of the high bluffs that skirt the west bank of the Mis- sissippi, about two and a half miles from Galena, are a number of these silent monuments of a pre-historic age. The spot is one of surpassing beauty. From that point may be obtained a view of a portion of three States,-Illinois, Iowa and Wisconsin. A hundred feet below, at the foot of the perpendicular cliff's, the trains of the Illinois Central Railroad thunder around the curve, the portage is in full view, and the " Father of Waters," with its numerous bayous

HISTORY OF ILLINOIS.

and islands, sketches a grand pamorama for miles above and below. Here, probably thousands of years ago, a race of men now extinct, and unknown even in the traditions of the Indians who inhabited that section for centuries before the discovery of America by Colum- bus, built these strangely wonderful and enigmatical mounds. At this point these mounds are circular and conical in form. The larg. est one is at least forty feet in diameter at the base, and not less than fifteen feet high, even yet, after it has been beaten by the storms of many centuries. On its top stands the large stump of an oak tree that was cut down about fifty years ago, and its annual rings indicate a growth of at least 200 years.

One of the most singular earth-works in the State was found on the top of a ridge near the east bank of the Sinsinawa creek in the lead region. It resembled some huge animal, the head, ears, nose, legs and tail, and general outline of which being as perfect as if made by men versed in modern art. The ridge on which it was situated stands on the prairie, 300 yards wide, 100 feet in height, and rounded on the top by a deep deposit of clay. Centrally, along the line of its summit, and thrown up in the form of an embankment three feet high, extended the outline of a quadruped measuring 250 feet from the tip of the nose to the end of the tail, and having a width of 18 feet at the center of the body. The head was 35 feet in length, the ears 10 feet, legs 60 and tail 75. The curvature in both the fore and hind legs was natural to an animal lying on its side. The general outline of the figure most nearly resembled the extinct animal known to geologists as the Megathe- rium. The question naturally arises, By whom and for what pur- pose was this earth figure raised? Some have conjectured that numbers of this now extinct animal lived and roamed over the prai- ries of Illinois when the Mound-Builders first made their appearance on the upper part of the Mississippi Valley, and that their wonder and admiration, excited by the colossal dimensions of these huge creatures, found some expression in the erection of this figure. The bones of some similar gigantic animals were exhumed on this stream about three miles from the same place.

LARGE CITIES.

Mr. Breckenridge, who examined the antiquities of the Western country in 1817, speaking of the mounds in the American Bottom, says: "The great number and extremely large size of some of

IIISTORY OF ILLINOIS.

them may be regarded as furnishing, with other circumstances, evidences of their antiquity. I have sometimes been induced to think that at the period when they were constructed there was a population here as numerous as that which once animated the borders of the Nile or Euphrates, or of Mexico. The most num- erous, as well as considerable, of these remains are found in pre- cisely those parts of the country where the traces of a numerous population might be looked for, namely, from the mouth of the Ohio on the east side of the Mississippi, to the Illinois river, and on the west from the St. Francis to the Missouri. I am perfectly satisfied that cities similar to those of ancient Mexico, of several hundred thousand souls, have existed in this country."

It must be admitted that whatever the uses of these mounds- whether as dwellings or burial places-these silent monuments. were built, and the race who built them vanished from the face of the earth, ages before the Indians occupied the land, but their date must probably forever baffle human skill and ingenuity.

It is sometimes difficult to distinguish the places of sepulture raised by the Mound-Builders from the more modern graves of the Indians. The tombs of the former were in general larger than those of the latter, and were used as receptacles for a greater number of bodies, and contained relics of art, evincing a higher degree of civ- ilization than that attained by the Indians. The ancient earth- works of the Mound-Builders have occasionally been appropriated as burial places by the Indians, but the skeletons of the latter may be distinguished from the osteological remains of the former by their greater stature.

What finally became of the Mound-Builders is another query which has been extensively discussed. The fact that their works extend into Mexico and Peru has induced the belief that it was their posterity that dwelt in these countries when they were first visited by the Spaniards. The Mexican and Peruvian works, with the exception of their greater magnitude, are similar. Relics com- mon to all of them have been occasionally found, and it is believed that the religious uses which they subserved were the same. If, indeed, the Mexicans and Peruvians were the progeny of the more ancient Mound-Builders, Spanish rapacity for gold was the canse of their overthrow and final extermination.

A thousand other queries naturally arise respecting these nations

HISTORY OF ILLINOIS.

which now repose under the ground, but the most searching investi- gation can give us only vague speculations for answers. No histo- rian has preserved the names of their mighty chieftains, or given an account of their exploits, and even tradition is silent respecting them.

INDIANS.

Following the Mound-Builders as inhabitants of North America, were, as it is supposed, the people who reared the magnificent cities the ruins of which are found in Central America. This peo- ple was far more civilized and advanced in the arts than were the Mound-Builders. The cities built by them, judging from the ruins of broken columns, fallen arches and crumbling walls of temples, palaces and pyramids, which in some places for miles bestrew the ground, must have been of great extent, magnificent and very pop- ulous. When we consider the vast period of time necessary to erect such colossal structures, and, again, the time required to reduce them to their present ruined state, we can conceive something of their antiquity. These cities must have been old when many of the ancient cities of the Orient were being built.

The third race inhabiting North America, distinct from the former two in every particular, is the present Indians. They were, when visited by the early discoverers, without cultivation, refinement or literature, and far behind the Mound-Builders in the knowledge of the arts. The question of their origin has long interested archaeologists, and is the most difficult they have been called upon to answer. Of their predecessors the Indian tribes knew nothing; they even had no traditions respecting them. It is quite certain that they were the successors of a race which had entirely passed away ages before the discovery of the New World. One hypothesis is that the American Indians are an original race indigenous to the Western hemisphere. Those who entertain this view think their peculiarities of physical structure preclude the possibility of a common parentage with the rest of mankind. Prominent among those distinctive traits is the hair, which in the red man is round, in the white man oval, and in the black man flat.

A more common supposition, however, is that they are a derivative race, and sprang from one or more of the ancient peoples of Asia. In the absence of all authentic history, and when even tradition is

HISTORY OF ILLINOIS.

wanting, any attempt to point out the particular location of their origin must prove unsatisfactory. Though the exact place of origin may never be known, yet the striking coincidence of physical organization between the Oriental type of mankind and the Indians point unmistakably to some part of Asia as the place whence they emigrated, which was originally peopled to a great extent by the children of Shem. In this connection it has been claimed that the meeting of the Europeans, Indians and Africans on the continent of America, is the fulfillment of a prophecy as recorded in Gen- esis ix. 27: "God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant." Assuming the theory to be true that the Indian tribes are of Shemitic origin, they were met on this continent in the fifteenth century by the Japhetic race, after the two stocks had passed around the globe by directly different routes. A few years afterward the Hamitic branch of the human family were brought from the coast of Africa. During the occupancy of the continent by the three distinct races, the children of Japheth have grown and prospered, while the called and not voluntary sons of Ham have endured a servitude in the wider stretching valleys of the tents of Shem.

When Christopher Columbus had finally succeeded in demon- strating the truth of his theory that by sailing westward from Eu- rope land would be discovered, landing on the Island of Bermuda he supposed he had reached the East Indies. This was an error, but it led to the adoption of the name of "Indians " for the inhab- itants of the Island and the main land of America, by which name the red men of America have ever since been known.

Of the several great branches of North American Indians the only ones entitled to consideration in Illinois history are the Algon- quins and Iroquois. At the time of the discovery of America the former occupied the Atlantic seaboard, while the home of the Iroquois was as an island in this vast area of Algonquin popula- tion. The latter great nation spread over a vast territory, and various tribes of Algonquin lineage sprung up over the country, adopting, in time, distinct tribal customs and laws. An almost continuous warfare was carried on between tribes; but later, on the entrance of the white man into their beloved homes, every foot of territory was fiercely disputed by the confederacy of many neighboring tribes. The Algonquins formed the most extensive alliance to resist the encroachment of the whites, especially the English. Such was the

IIISTORY OF ILLINIOS.

nature of King Philip's war. This King, with his Algonquin braves, spread terror and desolation throughout New England. With the Algonquins as the controlling spirit, a confederacy of conti- nental proportions was the result, embracing in its alliance the tribes of every name and lineage from the Northern lakes to the gulf. Pontiac, having breathed into them his implacable hate of the English intruders, ordered the conflict to commence, and all the British colonies trembled before the desolating fury of Indian vengeance.

ILLINOIS CONFEDERACY.

The Illinois confederacy, the various tribes of which comprised most of the Indians of Illinois at one time, was composed of five tribes: the Tamaroas, Michigans, Kaskaskias, Cahokas, and Peorias. The Illinois, Miamis and Delawares were of the same stock. As early as 1670 the priest Father Marquette mentions frequent visits made by individuals of this confederacy to the missionary station at St. Esprit, near the western extremity of Lake Superior. At that time they lived west of the Mississippi, in eight villages, whither they had been driven from the shores of Lake Michigan by the Iroquois. Shortly afterward they began to return to their old hunting ground, and most of them finally settled in Illinois. Joliet and Marquette, in 1673, met with a band of them on their famous voyage of discovery down the Mississippi. They were treated with the greatest hospitality by the principal chief. On their return voyage up the Illinois river they stopped at the principal town of the confederacy, situated on the banks of the river seven miles below the present town of Ottawa. It was then called Kas- kaskia. Marquette returned to the village in 1675 and established the mission of the Immaculate Conception, the oldest in Illinois. When, in 1679, LaSalle visited the town, it had greatly increased, numbering 460 lodges, and at the annual assembly of the different tribes, from 6,000 to 8,000 souls. In common with other western tribes, they became involved in the conspiracy of Pontiac, although displaying no very great warlike spirit. Pontiac lost his life by the hands of one of the braves of the Illinois tribe, which so enraged the nations that had followed him as their leader that they fell upon the Illinois to avenge his death, and almost annihilated them.

STARVED ROCK.

Tradition states that a band of this tribe, in order to escape the general slaughter, took refuge upon the high rock on the Illinois

HISTORY OF ILLINOIS.

river since known as Starved Rock. Nature has made this one of the most formidable military fortresses in the world. From the waters which wash its base it rises to an altitude of 125 feet. Three of its sides it is impossible to scale, while the one next to the land may be climbed with difficulty. From its summit, almost as inac- cessible as an eagle's nest, the valley of the Illinois is seen as a landscape of exquisite beauty. The river near by struggles between a number of wooded islands, while further below it quietly meanders through vast meadows till it disappears like a thread of light in the dim distance. On the summit of this rock the Illinois were besieged by a superior force of the Pottawatomies whom the great strength of their natural fortress enabled them to keep at bay. Hunger and thirst, however, soon accomplished what the enemy was unable to effect. Surrounded by a relentless foe, without food or water, they took a last look at their beautiful hunting grounds, and with true Indian fortitude lay down and died from starvation. Years afterward their bones were seen whitening in that place.

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The history of Adams 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; general and local statistics, portraits of early settlers and prominent men, Part 14

Author: Publication date: 1879 Publisher: Chicago : Murray, Williamson & Phelps Number of Pages: 1254

Author:
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Chicago : Murray, Williamson & Phelps
Number of Pages: 1254