USA > Illinois > Ogle County > The history of Ogle 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 history of the Northwest, history of Illinois etc > Part 24
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It must also be considered certain that La Pointe, as the present City of Galena was called by the French traders and miners, was familiar to them as a trading post or point for many years before the first settlements were made, of which meagre, fragmentary and often confused and conflicting ac- counts have come down to the present day. These were favorite hunting grounds for the native tribes who had populous villages on the banks of the Macaubee and other streams in this country, and it was undoubtedly a favorite resort for traders, who voyaged up and down the Mississippi on their periodical trafficking expeditions. That it was known as a good trading
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point for many years prior to Mr. Shull's location there in 1819, is beyond question. The total absence of records of the local events in these early days, however, renders it impossible now to determine who they were. Doubtless some of them were there after permanent settlements were made, and were among the first settlers.
In 1819, the historie diggings, known for more than half a century as the "Buek Lead," were being worked by the Indians, the most of the work being done by the squaws. It was the largest body of mineral then ever discovered on Fever River, and an immense amount of galena ore was taken ont by the natives and sold to the traders before it was worked out by John- son. Mr. Farrar estimated that several million pounds had been taken from this lead by the Indians, more, in fact, than was taken from it by the white miners afterwards. This lead took its name from the " Buck," a Sac or Fox chief who was encamped, with his band, on Fever River in 1819, and worked it. Its existence had been known to the Indians for many years, and unques- tionably by Dubuque, previous to its working by Buck and his band. Close by it, and parallel with it, was a smaller lead, which was called the "Doe lead," in honor of Buck's favorite squaw. Before the arrival of Johnson, in 1820 or '21, the Indians took from this lead the largest nugget of mineral ever raised in the mines. It took all the force they could muster to raise it, and when they had safely landed it on terra firma, the Indian miners wanted the traders to send it to Washington as a present to the "Great Father." As it never reached there, the presumption is that the traders preferred to purchase the mineral, at the rate of a peck of corn for a peck of mineral.
In 1816, the late Col. George Davenport, agent for the American Fur Company, trading with the Sacs and Foxes, occupied a trading post at the Portage, on Fever River, and lived there. How long is not now known. He soon after left that point and went to Rock Island. The post was after- wards occupied, in 1821, by Amos Farrar, of the firm of Davenport, Farrar & Farnham, agents for the American Fur Company. This important fact in the early history of that region is given on the authority of Wm. H. Snyder, Esq., of Galena, who received it from the lips of Davenport him- self, in 1835.
In 1819, when the "Buck lead" was being worked by the Indians, as above stated, Mr. Jesse W. Shull was trading at Dubuque's mines (now Dubuque) for a company at Prairie du Chien. That company desired him to go to Fever River and trade with the Indians, but he declared that it was unsafe-that the Sacs and Foxes had already murdered several traders- and declined to go unless he could have the protection of the United States troops. Col. Johnson, of the United States Army, was induced to summon a council of Sae and Fox nations at Prairie du Chien, and when the chief's had assembled he informed them that the goods that Mr. Shull was about to bring among them were sent out by their Father, the President of the United States (it was not considered a sin to lie to the Indians even then), and told them that they must not molest Mr. Shull in his business. Having received from the government officers and from the Indians assurances of protection, Mr. Shull came to Fever River late in the Summer of that year (1819), and erected a trading house on the bottom near the river, not far from the foot of Perry Street, Galena. Mr. Seymour, in his history of Galena, pub- lished in 1848, fixes the location as "just below where the American llouse now stands," but as the " American House " has long since disappeared,
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this location is not now very definite. During that year (1848), Mr. Sey- mour had a personal interview with Mr. Shull, then residing in Green County, Wisconsin, and gathered from his own lips the facts as stated above. At that interview Mr. Shull stated that himself and Dr. Samuel C. Muir were the first white settlers on Fever River, at that point, in 1819, that " during that year Dr. Muir commenced trading there with goods furnished by the late Col. Davenport, of Rock Island." Mr. Shull also stated that later in the same year Francois Bouthillier came and occupied a shanty at the bend, on the east side of Fever River, below the present limits of the City of Galena. It is to be regretted that Mr. Shull had not been more explicit, as it would be very interesting now to know whether Mr. Bonthillier built that shanty there, or whether it had been built by him or some other roving trader before that time, and whether it was occupied temporarily or permanently by him in 1819. Mr. Bouthillier was a French trader known at Prairie du Chien as early as 1812, when. it is said, lie acted as interpreter and guide for the British troops. He undoubtedly knew of the Fever River trading point, and may have frequently visited it and "occupied a shanty," as probably others had, prior to 1819. Mr. Shull himself does not appear to have been a very permanent fixture at that point tlien, for during "the Fall he moved his goods to the mouth of Apple River, of the Maquoketa, Iowa, and other places, to suit the convenience of the Indians as they returned from their Fall hunts." Mr. Shull does not appear as a trader after that year, although he may have been engaged in the Indian trade somewhat later, but he soon became interested in mining, and remained in the mining distriet, finally locating in Michigan Territory, now Wisconsin.
At that time all this region was a wilderness, occupied only by a few fur traders and roving tribes of Indians. The nearest settlements at the north were at Dubuque's mines and Prairie du Chien, the latter an old town of great distinction and extensive trade, relatively of as much impor- tanee in the Mississippi Valley at that period as St. Paul and St. Louis are now. On the east, the nearest village was Chicago, consisting of a few rude cabins inhabited by half-breeds. At Fort Clark (now Peoria), on the south, were a few pioneers, and thenee a long interval to the white settlements near Vandalia.
Dr. Samuel C. Muir, mentioned by Mr. Shull as trading at Galena, in 1819, may have been there at that time, but whether before, after, or with Mr. S., does not appear. It is very probable that he was there, may have been there before 1819, but if he engaged in trade it was very temporary. It may be that he came there on a tour of observation, and took a few goods with him, like the provident Scotchman he was, "to pay expenses." But Dr. Mnir was a physician. He had received his education at Edinburgh, and felt a just pride in his profession. He was a man of strict integrity and irreproachable character. He was a surgeon in the United States Army previous to his settlement at La Pointe. When stationed with his regi- ment at some post in the northern country he married an Indian woman of the Fox nation. Of that marriage the following romantic account is given.
The post where he was stationed was visited by a beautiful Indian maiden (whose native name unfortunately has not been preserved) who, in her dreams, had seen a white brave unmoor her eanoe, paddle it across the river, and come directly to her lodge. She knew, according to the supersti-
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DECEASED) OREGON
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tious belief of her race, that in her dream she had seen her future husband, and came to the fort to find him. Meeting Dr. Muir, she instantly recog- nized him as the hero of her dream, which she, with childlike innocence and simplicity, related to him. Her dream was indeed prophetie. Charmed with Sophia's beauty, innocence and devotion, the doctor honorably mar- ried her; but after awhile the sneers of his brother officers, less honorable, perhaps, than he, made him ashamed of his dark-skinned wife, and when his regiment was ordered down the river to Bellefontaine, it is said he embraced the opportunity to rid himself of her, and left her, thinking that she could never find him again, or, if she could, that she would not have the courage and power to follow him. But, with her infant child, the intrepid wife and mother started alone in her canoe, and, after days of weary labor, at last reached him, but much worn and emaciated, after a lonely journey of nine hundred miles. She said, " When I got there, I was all perished away-so thin." The doctor, touched by such unexampled devotion, took her to his bosom, and until his death, treated her with marked respect. She always presided at his table, and was respected by all who knew her, but never abandoned her native dress.
In 1819-'20, Dr. Muir was stationed at Fort Edwards, now Warsaw, but threw up his commission, and in the Spring of 1820 built the first cabin erected by a white man on the present site of the City of Keokuk, Iowa, but leased his claim to parties from St. Louis, and, later in the same year, went to LaPointe to practice his profession, and was the first physician known to have located in Northern Illinois. He remained in practice there about ten years. He had four children, viz .: Lonise (married at Keokuk, since dead), James (drowned at Keokuk), Mary and Sophia. Dr. Muir died suddenly, soon after he returned to Keokuk, left his property in such condition that it was wasted in vexations litigation, and his brave and faith- ful wife, left penniless and friendless, became discouraged, and with her children, disappeared, and it is said, returned to her people on the Upper Missouri.
Francois Bouthillier, the other and later occupant of that shanty in 1819, was a roving trader, following the Indians. Whether he remained there permanently from that time is very uncertain, but nothing further is known of him until Mr. J. G. Soulard, then on his way to Fort Snelling, found him there in 1821, still an Indian trader. "Mr. Bouthillier," says Mr. Shull, "after he occupied a ' shanty at the Bend,' in 1819, purchased a cabin then known as the cabin of Bagwell & Co., supposed to be situated near the lower ferry." ,But he says, " in 1824, and previous to Bouthillier's pur- chase, the house and lot had been sold for $80." Here Mr. Bouthillier engaged in trade, and established a ferry, which is the first permanent set- tlement made by him of which there is authentic account. Captain Harris says he remembers distinctly when Bouthillier built his trading house at or near that point.
In this connection, it is well to add that Mr. George Ferguson and Mr. Allan Tomlin, both early settlers and highly esteemed and reliable citizens of Galena, express the opinion that there was a trading post at the Portage, three and one half miles below LaPointe, between Fever River and the Mississippi, even prior to the advent of either of those whose names have been mentioned. However this may be, it must be admitted that there were a large number of Indians encamped or living there at that time, whose women and old men were engaged in raising lead from the " Buck lead," and
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the fame of their rude, and, for them, extensive mining operations, must have naturally attracted the attention of traders, who came there to traffic with them. Probably others than Shull, Muir and Bouthillier were in that vicinity with their goods, and the surrounding circumstances would seem to corroborate and justify the opinion expressed by Messrs. Ferguson and Tomlin. The Portage was a narrow neck of land between the Fever River and the Mississippi, so named because the Indians and traders were accus- tomed to transport their canoes and goods across to save their journey down the same point again, the distance across the neck being only a few rods. A furrow was plowed across this neck of land at its narrowest point, by Lient. Hobart, in 1834, and now there is a deep channel, called the "cut- off." That location was very convenient for a trading post.
If the lead mines attracted traders, they attracted miners as well. Among the first, if not the first, to work the mines, of whom any definite account has been preserved, was James Johnson, of Kentucky, said to be a brother of Colonel R. M. Johnson, of historic renown as the slayer of Tecumseh, and vice president with Van Buren. It has already been shown that "the Johnsons" of Kentucky were engaged in lead mining there in 1822. The date of Johnson's first arrival there must forever remain in obscurity, unless some records not now accessible, shall be found to show it. In a letter written by Dr. H. Newhall, dated Fever River, March 1, 1828, he speaks of the " Buck lead " as having been worked out by Colonel Johnson while he was at these mines in 1820-'21." Mr. J. G. Soulard, who passed LaPointe in 1821, on his way to Fort Snelling, and stopped there a day or two, says that, on his way up, they met Johnson's boat going down, and that, while there, he understood that he was mining there, but did not see him. From the best information now at hand, it would seem that Mr. Johnson first visited that region as a trader, as early, perhaps, as 1819, pos- sibly before, and that, in 1820.'1, he was mining there without authority from the government, under purchased permission of the Indians. It does not appear that the government exercised any especial jurisdiction there at that time, as the lead mining district was under the control of the general land office until 1821. It may be, also, that he was not mining, but sim- ply smelting the mineral purchased from the Indians.
Some time during the Summer of 1820, Mr. A. P. Vanmeter-or Vanmatre, as the name is spelled in early records-is said to have located at Galena, probably on the east side of the river, opposite the present woolen mill above Baker's Branch, as he was afterwards there engaged in smelting.
It is more than probable that others came with him, or during the same year, but their names do not appear of record. Mr. D. G. Bates was associated with Vanmatre shortly afterwards in the smelting business, but whether he arrived there contemporaneously with Mr. Vanmatre is not known.
In August or September, 1821, Amos Farrar was managing a trading post on Fever River as agent for the American Fur Company, and was living there with his Fox wife. This fact is established beyond question by a letter addressed to him at the "Lead Mines, Fever River," from Major S. Burbank, commander at Fort Armstrong, dated October 14, 1821, " by favor of Mr. Music," presenting Mr. Farrar with " my old black horse, if he will be of any service to you." A letter dated Fort Armstrong, Novem- ber 21, 1821, signed J. R. Stubbs, a blacksmith, addressed to Amos Farrar,
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Fever River, introducing to the latter the bearer of the letter, Mr. Symmes, who was accompanied by Mr. Connor and Mr. Bates "-undoubtedly B. Symmes and James Connor, and, perhaps, David G. Bates, who have always been considered among the earliest settlers in the mining region. These and other letters and papers belonging to Mr. Farrar were kindly placed at the disposal of the writer by Captain G. W. Girdon, of Galena, one of the oldest steamboat captains now in service on the Mississippi, and enabled him to fix the date of his permanent settlement on Fever River more accurately than can be done with some others. From these letters it appears that Mr. Farrar was, for at least two years before, and up to July 22, 1821, in the service of Lonis Devotion, as a trader on the Mississippi, located at Fort Armstrong, bringing his supplies via Green Bay from Canada. At that date he left the service of Mr. Devotion, and, immedi ately after, came to Fever River, as before stated, and probably located at the Portage. In 1823, he had a trading house on the bank of the river. near the centre of what is now Water Street, between Perry and Franklin Streets, Galena. On the 1st of June, 1825, Mr. Farrar received a permit, signed Charles Smith, acting sub-agent United States lead mines, permit- ting him to occupy five acres of United States land for cultivation, and to build a cabin thereon, situated near the Portage. He must comply with all regulations concerning cutting timber. Mr. Farrar had three children by his Indian wife (now all dead). About two years before his death he married Miss Sophia Gear, sister of Captain H. H. Gear, who still survives him. He died of consumption, at his residence within the stockade, July 24, 1832, beloved and respected by all who knew him. The following copy of a printed notice to the inhabitants will show the esteem in which he was held :
Yourself and family are respectfully invited to attend the funeral of Mr. Amos Farrar this morning at ten o'clock, from his late residence within the stockade.
GALENA, July 26, 1832.
This was probably the first funeral notice ever printed in Northwestern Illinois.
We have been thus elaborate in regard to the mining regions of Galena, to show the origin of settlements in Northwestern Illinois. The mines naturally attracted attention, and the more they became known, the greater was the influx of immigrants. Up to 1831, the immigration was confined exclusively to the mines at Galena, and but little attention was given to the rich farming lands of the prairies an ? river valleys, and only a few attempts had been made towards taking claims and making farms in any part of the country away from the Galena section. Early in the Sum- mer of 1825, a Mr. Kellogg started from Fort Clark for the Fever River Mines, and reached and crossed Rock River a few miles above the present City of Dixon. Passing up the prairie lying between Polo and Mount Morris, touching the western part of West Grove, he continued northward to Galena. Mr. Kellogg was the pioneer traveler from Fort Clark, now Peoria, and thus marked out a course of travel that came to be known as " Kellogg's Trail." During that Summer and Fall, a large number of fortune hunters, some with teams, but more on foot, and all camping out, passed over the same route, which continued to be the line of travel between Fort Clark and Galena until a shorter one was defined in 1826.
There were neither ferries nor bridges over any of the streams in those days, and the method of crossing them was primitive and simple. Indians,
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particularly the Winnebagoes, were numerous all through this country, and were thickly settled or encamped along Rock River, and were easily per- suaded to help the whites cross the river. Two of their canoes would be placed side by side, the two wheels of one side of a wagon placed in one of them, and the two wheels of the other side placed in the other canoe, thus forming a ferry boat, on which they would be transferred from one side of the river to the other. The horses or oxen were made to swim the river, and, safely crossed, they would be hitched up again, and the journey renewed.
As the country came to be understood, the Kellogg trail was regarded as circuitous, and bearing too far to the east to be the shortest, and. in the Spring of 1826, John Boles, who was traveling across the country, left the beaten trail, some miles south of Rock River, and crossed that stream just above where it is now crossed by the Illinois Central Railroad at Dixon. He then passed up through the country, about one mile east of Polo ; thence north to White Oak Grove, about half a mile west of Forreston ; thence through Crane's Grove, and so on to Galena. This trail immediately came to be the popular route of travel, and was known as " Boles' Trail." For three years, or until 1829, it was the only route used. It is said that, on the prairie, a few miles east of Polo, traces of this old trail are still to be seen and easily defined.
In the winter months there was but very little travel, probably from the fact that there was but little or nothing doing in the mines, and may be because of the exposure necessarily incident to the trip. In March, 1827, however, a heavy tide of travel set in from Fort Clark, and other parts of the state below there.
Among the first to come up that season and cross Rock River at the Boles trail (now Dixon) was Elisha Doty, who subsequently settled at Polo. When he arrived at the river it was still covered with ice, over which he essayed to cross, but before he had proceeded far the ice began to give way, and he was obliged to abandon the attempt. " While waiting on the bank (says Boss' Sketches of the History of Ogle County, published in 1859), just before starting on his return, abont two hundred teams collected there, all on their way to Galena. We mention this fact that an approximate idea may be formed of the amount of travel to and fro through the country at that early period."
This was not the only trail or line of travel from the southern part of the state, to Galena, at that date. About the same time the Kellogg trail was marked out, another trail, known as the "Lewiston Trail," was estab- lished. This trail crossed the river a little above Prophetstown, in what is now Whiteside County, and passed some miles west of the western line of Ogle County. There was probably as much travel on the Lewiston trail as on the Boles trail, and hence the reader will readily infer that there was an immense rush to the lead mines in 1827.
There was another trail from the south part of the state, known as the " Sucker Trail," and is often mentioned by old Illinoisans. One peculiarity of the miners was to apply to the people from the various states, names suggested by some peculiarity of character or surrounding circumstances. Miners and others came in such large number from Missouri as to suggest to the fertile imagination of the hardy settlers the idea that the State of Missouri had taken an emetic, and forthwith all Missourians were dubbed " Pukes." The people of Southern Illinois had the habit of coming up
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here with their teams in the Spring to haul mineral and work in the mines, but regularly returned to their homes in the Fall. This suggested that they were like the fish ealled "suckers," which run up the small streams in the Spring, and run down to deeper water at the approach of cold weather. Ail Illinoisans were called "Suckers," therefore, and here, in the lead mines of the Upper Mississippi, originated the term which is now applied to all residents of the "Sucker State." Kentuckians were called "eorn-crackers; " Indianians, "Hoosiers;" Ohioans, " Buekeyes," etc., and henee the name " Sucker Trail."
Isaae Chambers, the first white settler in Ogle County, passed through the county limits early in the Summer of 1827, en route for Galena, and was so favorably impressed with the beauty of the country and the richness of the soil, that he determined to make it his future home, which determi- nation he carried out in 1829, but of this more anon.
In 1827 the site of Dixon had become a fixed place for travelers to eross the river, but erossing was often attended with a great deal of ineon- venience, as up to this time, and until 1828, there was no ferry other than the kind of canoe ferry already described, and the Indians were not always present and in readiness with their canoes. When the water was low, the river could be forded withont difficulty, but this was not always the case. The establishment of a ferry at that point was first undertaken by a man named J. L. Begordis, of Peoria, who sent a man up in the early Summer of 1827 to build a shanty 8 by 10, on the bank, and to live there and " hold the fort," or ferry, until Begordis could find and forward the necessary work- men, carpenters, etc., to build the ferry boat. Soon after the shanty was completed, Mr. Doty (the father of Elisha Doty already mentioned), a car- penter, came, and work on the boat was commenced and vigorously prose- cuted. When the boat was about half completed, the Indians set fire to it, and informed its builders that they should not build a boat there, and told them to " go to Peoria." Doty and his assistant did not stand upon the order of their going, but went at once, for the command was im- perative, if not threatening.
In the Spring of 1828, Joe Ogee, a Frenchman and an Indian inter- preter, whose wife was a Pottawattomie woman, settled there, built a honse, and established a ferry. The records in the County Clerk's office at Galena, show that on the 7th day of December, 1829, Ogee applied to the Board of Commissioners of Jo Daviess County, for license to keep a ferry, although he had maintained one for more than a year. At the same time he made application for license to keep a tavern, both of which were granted. The county commissioners had power to fix both ferry and tavern rates, and as a reminder of times long agone, we copy the following rates at Ogee's Ferry:
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