USA > Missouri > A history of Missouri from the earliest explorations and settlements until the admission of the state into the union, Volume I > Part 26
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177 Lesieur's letter to the Missouri "Republican." March 1, 1872.
22I
THE CHEROKEES
with the white people, a portion of the tribe under the leadership of Yunwiusga'se'ti (dangerous man), foreseeing the final end, marched away for the unknown west.178 No doubt hunting excursions were also made from time to time by some of this tribe to the country west of the river. After the Revolutionary War, some of the Cherokees who had taken up arms for the English asked permission of Gov- ernor Miro to settle in the Spanish dominions.179 The Cherokees mentioned by Black Hawk in his autobiography may have been the "Bowls' Band," who in 1794, massacred the Scott party at Mussel- Shoals, on the Tennessee river, a massacre in excuse of which the Indians claim that the whites first made them drunk and then swindled them out of their annuity money, with which they were just returning from the Indian agency at Tellico; that, after they sobered up, when they asked for the return of their money the whites attacked them and killed two of them, and that they then retaliated and killed all the whites except the women and children. These, with their property and slaves, the Indians then escorted down the Mississippi as far as the St. Francois river, where they stopped. Thence they sent the women and children on in their boat farther south, where they arrived safely with their property. These Indians, under a chief named "The Bowl" (Dima'li), remained on the St. Francois, and advised the Cherokee nation of what had occurred. Their action was repudiated, and the Cherokee nation volunteered to assist in arresting and bringing to punishment all concerned in the massacre. Finally, however, Dima'li (The Bowl) and his men were exonerated, but they were greatly embittered at the conduct of their tribe in Georgia, and remained on the St. Francois, where they found a rich soil and abundant game.180 Here others of their tribe joined them, and from time to time they waged war with the Osages; and these, perhaps, were the Cherokees the Saukees and Renards met in battle, as recorded by Black Hawk. Black Hawk181 says that after subduing the Osages the attention of the Saukees and Renards was directed "toward an ancient enemy [named by him the Chero- kees] who had decoyed and murdered some of our helpless women and children," that they met them near the Maramec, and were greatly
178 19 Rep. Bureau of Ethnology, p. 99.
179 Letters of March 1798 to General Wilkinson.
180 19 Rep. Bureau of Ethnology, p. 100.
181 Life of Black Hawk, in the Pioneer Families of Mo., p. 463.
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HISTORY OF MISSOURI
outnumbered by them, but that a bloody action took place. He adds that his band lost three men, among them Peysa, his father, and that the Cherokees, on the other hand, lost twenty-eight men. It is more than probable that other Indians from the Gulf states also joined this band of Dima'li. According to Mooney,182 one Dima'li, in 1820, with a band of Cherokees crossed the Red river, going into Texas, then a portion of Mexico, in the vain attempt to escape the American advance, but it is doubtful whether this Dima'li is the same who was on the St. Francois in 1794, and hunted up and down that river and met the Saukees and Renards on the Maramec. Gayoso, in 1798, refused permission to some Cherokees to settle on the west side of the Mississippi in the Spanish territory; still, these Indians seem to have crossed and recrossed the river.183
It may be that these Indians are the same whom De Lassus described as "vagabond robbers of the Mashcoux, or self-styled Talapousa Creeks, expelled from their tribe," wandering up and down the Mississippi on both sides, and from New Madrid up the St. Francois to the waters of the Maramec. These Indians, De Lassus says, were "constantly committing barbarities in stealing, killing, violating, and burning houses." One of the chiefs of these Indians was Agypousetchy, and another Kaskaloua. They were engaged in war with the Osages and Saukees and Foxes. On one occasion seven or eight of these Indians came into Ste. Genevieve and sang and danced the scalp dance, pretending they had an engage- ment with the Osages, when as a matter of fact they had killed one Gabriel Bolon and his two nephews, early settlers on the Grand Glaise river. This was discovered a few days afterward when they came to St. Louis, by a Delaware squaw who was with them, but who had escaped, reporting the facts to De Lassus. These "Mashcoux" Indians may be the same to whom Black Hawk also refers in his autobiography as the "Muscow" nation, and who, when he was a young man, were engaged in war with the Osages. With them and his father, Black Hawk went on his first warpath against the Osages.184 It is probable that these Indians were finally absorbed or joined the Cherokee or the Shawnee and Delaware villages, after- ward from time to time located in various portions of the districts
182 19 Rep. Bureau of Ethnology, p. 138.
183 Letter of General Wilkinson, dated March 30, 1798.
184 Life of Black Hawk, in Pioneer Families of Missouri, pp. 461-2.
223
TRACES AND TRAILS
now embraced in the counties of Stoddard, New Madrid, Pemiscot, and Dunklin, and farther southwest.
It would be a mistake to suppose that the aborigines dwelling in the territory now embraced within the present limits of Missouri did not have established and well-known traces or trails, leading from their villages in various directions to their near or distant hunt- ing grounds, or to the villages of kindred allied or friendly tribes, or warpaths often marked with blood; or to imagine that, after the advent of the white man and the establishment of his trading places, they did not locate trails and paths to such trading posts, if such trading places were not established and located on already well-known paths or trails. In all early narratives we find distinct references to established roads. Garcilasso speaks of the roads along which De Soto moved. The chroniclers of Coronado's march make distinct mention of roads, and the absence of roads in certain direc- tions is noted. It is erroneous to suppose that the first explorers and pioneers started out into the wilderness continent without fol- lowing any path, trace, or trail. It is along these ancient warpaths or hunting trails, Nuttall 185 says, that we must trace the adventurous La Salle and, after his death, Jutel and other early travelers and explorers. It was certainly along such paths that Nicollet traveled, as well as Groseillier and Radisson. But it would be an error also to confuse the roads thus mentioned, and which were nothing but paths or traces, with even the humblest roads of our time. Along such a path Bourgmont marched in 1724, when he started on his expedition from Fort Orleans westward. On July 4, 1724, he says: "Nous avons passé trois petites rivières beaux chemins, grandes prairies," and on the 7th of July he remarks in his "Journal," "les chemins mauvais pour les chevaux." After marching ninety miles through the country in five days along this road, Bourgmont came to the Missouri river "vis-a-vis le village de Canzes." This road seems to have run parallel with the Missouri some distance from it and on the north side of the river, because, when Bourgmont on his march came to the river, the Kansas village was on the opposite side, and he crossed over in canoes. When, afterwards, he started with his force and Indian allies to visit the Padoucahs, living and hunting south and west of the Kansas river,
185 Nuttall's Arkansas, p. 104.
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HISTORY OF MISSOURI
it is not stated that he recrossed the Missouri river, but that he fol- lowed a smaller river coming from the northwest.186
These Indian highways often followed the routes instinctively made by the buffalo and other wild animals along dividing ridges, or down the valleys of streams, to salt-licks or to natural crossing places over rivers.187 It has been well observed that the routes thus instinct- ively made by the bison through the low passes of ranges of high hills and mountains, are the routes along which the great arteries of modern commerce run. Along these routes in single file the Indians traveled on foot with their dogs, and in later times on ponies, when going to distant places.
It would also be a mistake to suppose that these trails, traces or paths would be as visible to us as even the humblest and most indis- tinct of our roads.188 It is no exaggeration to say that for us these roads would not be visible at all, for, blocked by fallen trees, over- hung by brush and vines, winding in a tortuous course through the forests or prairies covered with tall grass, these primitive highways often baffled even the eagle eyes of the dauntless explorer, or voyageur des bois. Naturally, these paths or traces followed the high ground, the dividing ridges, avoiding the streams and following courses not exposed to overflow. Thus we find that from the main Indian path running northwest through the great prairies of north Missouri, a path or trace led south along a ridge to Loutre's Island.189 Gen- erally, from the river bottoms these traces or paths imperceptibly led to higher ground and into the hills, instead of making a direct rapid ascent, reaching the higher lands with the least physical exertion. These trails or traces did not all follow the high lands, but were also located in the low lands or level river bottoms, following the streams. De Soto in his march north, up the Mississippi, followed such an ancient aboriginal trail or trace. From the narrative of the chronicler of this expedition, it is clear that this road or path ran parallel with the river, generally some distance from it, but following an alluvial ridge, a clear and well-defined natural road to this day, touching the river at what is now Caruthersville and New Madrid.
186 Margry, Les Coureurs des Bois, vol. vi., p. 398 et seq.
187 Nuttall's Arkansas, p. 104.
188 The members of Long's exploring party, for instance, following one of these "great roads" call it an "obscure path."-Thwaites, note 126-Nuttall's Arkansas, p. 147 (Clark's Ed.).
18º Long's Expedition, vol. i., p. 75.
225
EARLIEST TRAILS
This road is marked with the monuments and remains of the mound- builders on every side, and, long before the advent of the Indian, was certainly traveled by that mysterious race. This oldest highway of Missouri runs through the present counties of Pemiscot, New Mad- rid, Scott and Cape Girardeau, crossing a bottom three miles wide between the last two counties, where we place the northern limits of De Soto's adventurous march, although two of his soldiers went farther north, probably as far at the Salines, in Ste. Genevieve county. From the narrative of Garcilasso, it would appear also that after returning to what is now New Madrid county, he marched from there in a southwest direction across what is known to-day as the Little river bottoms, into the present Dunklin county, undoubtedly following a path leading from New Madrid into what is now Arkansas.
Long after De Soto's march an Indian trail ran along the Missis- sippi river on the same ridge traversed by De Soto and his followers, and extending farther north, following the divide between the waters of the Mississippi and the waters of White Water, Castor and St. Francois to Ste. Genevieve, and passing up the north fork of Gabourie creek and across Establishment creek, across the Maramec to St. Louis. This trace connected the four Spanish posts, St. Louis, Ste. Genevieve, Cape Girardeau and New Madrid; and also Little Prairie, and passed through the Shawnee and Delaware Indian vil- lages on Apple creek. Along this Indian trail or path the first public road in Missouri was located and cut out by act of the Territorial legislature in 1807. This road, we may also suppose, was to some extent opened by the military expedition, which was organized by De Lassus in 1802, and which moved from Ste. Genevieve to New Madrid.
The earliest indications of the existence of a well known, if not well established, highway in the territory of what is now Missouri, we find noted on Franquelin's map, published in 1684. On this map a trail or trace is laid down, extending from the mouth of the Arkansas river to the mouth of the Osage, where, according to this geographer, was at that time the village of the Zages (Osages). This trail or trace is then shown to run east along the south side of the Missouri river for some distance, possibly as far as the mouth of the Gasconade. Although the map shows no river emptying into the Missouri at the point where the trail is shown to cross the Missouri river, it is evident
226
HISTORY OF MISSOURI
that the crossing thus indicated is near the mouth of the Gasconade. On the north side this trace is shown to run west with the river to the villages of the "Missourits," located on this map on the north side of the Missouri and above the villages of the Osages. It is said that in 1700 the "Missourits" dwelt at the mouth of Grand river, and it may be that even at the time Franquelin compiled his map, in 1684, these Indians had located their lodges at the mouth of this stream. Evidently, they then did not live at the mouth of the Missouri, where the earliest French explorers had located them. From Grand river another trail or path led west to a point opposite, may be, to the mouth of the Big Blue or the Kansas river, and along this "beaux chemin" we must trace Bourgmont. No doubt, also, a trail fol- lowed the river far beyond.
From a map published in 1720 with a work by Dr. James Smith, entitled, "Some Considerations of the Consequences of the French Settling Colonies on the Missouri," it appears that a path or trail was then known to exist across South Missouri, this path evidently being a continuation of a trail starting on the Atlantic coast in Virginia, known as the "Virginia warriors' path," leading across the Cumber- land mountains, thence to the falls of the Ohio, and thence across what is now southern Indiana and Illinois to the Mississippi and west through Southern Missouri to the Rocky mountains - a veritable Indian "Appian Way" across the continent. The map indicates that this trail crossed the Mississippi at Cape St. Anthony, but the location of this point is not certain. At present, Cape St. Anthony is above Grand Tower, but the geographers of the 18th century placed it farther south, somewhere near what is now known as Gray's Point. The Mississippi river, both at Grand Tower and Gray's Point, is narrow, with shoals of rock at low water extending almost from shore to shore, and hence little doubt exists that this Indian trail, dividing east of the Mississippi, crossed at both points. Father Gravier says that in 1700 the wild animals coming up from the low lands, and those coming from Illinois going south, crossed the river at Cape la Croix, now Gray's Point, thus indicating that here was one of the instinctive routes made by wild animals, over which the Indians were accustomed to travel. The trail crossing at or near Grand Tower would, on the west side, follow Apple creek or the dividing ridge between the waters of the St. Francois and Maramec, but the lower trail would hug the edge of the great alluvial
226
HISTORY OF MISSOURI
that the crossing thus indicated is near the mouth of the Gasconade. On the north side this trace is shown to run west with the river to the villages of the "Missourits," located on this map on the north side of the Missouri and above the villages of the Osages. It is said that in 1700 the "Missourits" dwelt at the mouth of Grand river, and it may be that even at the time Franquelin compiled his map, in 1684, these Indians had located their lodges at the mouth of this stream. Evidently, they then did not live at the mouth of the Missouri, where the earliest French explorers had located them. From Grand river another trail or path led west to a point opposite, may be, to the mouth of the Big Blue or the Kansas river, and along this "beaux chemin" we must trace Bourgmont. No doubt, also, a trail fol- lowed the river far beyond.
From a map published in 1720 with a work by Dr. James Smith, entitled, "Some Considerations of the Consequences of the French Settling Colonies on the Missouri," it appears that a path or trail was then known to exist across South Missouri, this path evidently being a continuation of a trail starting on the Atlantic coast in Virginia, known as the "Virginia warriors' path," leading across the Cumber- land mountains, thence to the falls of the Ohio, and thence across what is now southern Indiana and Illinois to the Mississippi and west through Southern Missouri to the Rocky mountains - a veritable Indian "Appian Way" across the continent. The map indicates that this trail crossed the Mississippi at Cape St. Anthony, but the location of this point is not certain. At present, Cape St. Anthony is above Grand Tower, but the geographers of the 18th century placed it farther south, somewhere near what is now known as Gray's Point. The Mississippi river, both at Grand Tower and Gray's Point, is narrow, with shoals of rock at low water extending almost from shore to shore, and hence little doubt exists that this Indian trail, dividing east of the Mississippi, crossed at both points. Father Gravier says that in 1700 the wild animals coming up from the low lands, and those coming from Illinois going south, crossed the river at Cape la Croix, now Gray's Point, thus indicating that here was one of the instinctive routes made by wild animals, over which the Indians were accustomed to travel. The trail crossing at or near Grand Tower would, on the west side, follow Apple creek or the dividing ridge between the waters of the St. Francois and Maramec, but the lower trail would hug the edge of the great alluvial
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227
NATCHITOCHES PATH
St. Francois basin, gradually ascending by way of Otter, Big Barren and Pike creeks to the plateaux of the Ozarks. Substantially on this route a railroad is now in operation. From a point on this ancient trace or trail thus shown by Dr. Smith's map, across Missouri, a little southwest of the mouth of the Osage river, a trail or trace is indicated (on his map) to extend north to the mouth of the Osage, agreeing with the trail or trace shown on Franquelin's map, published thirty-five years before. From the mouth of the Osage, this trace is also shown to extend across into what is now north Missouri to the mouth of the Des Moines river. Along this trail, diverging, however, on the north side of the Missouri to the mouth of the Gasconade, the Saukees and Renards had a warpath leading to the Osage village on the upper reaches of the river of this name in the beginning of the 19th cen- tury.
The Indian pathway, as shown by Smith, across southern Indiana and Illinois, passed through the present Vincennes. On the west side of the Mississippi, from the lower trace another path diverged southwest to Natchitoches, one of the ancient Spanish posts of Mexico, now in Louisiana. This Natchitoches path, at some point west of Black river, undoubtedly connected with the path running north to the mouth of the Osage. A path also led from Fort Massac to Cape Girar- deau,190 connecting with the pathway leading southwest through south- ern Illinois from Vincennes. After the settlement of the country, the Natchitoches path became the military and wagon road of the immigrants moving into Arkansas, crossing the Mississippi river at Bainbridge or Cape Girardeau, thence moving to the St. Francois river, crossing the same at the Indian ford, thence to Black river, there crossing near Poplar Bluff and Current river at what was long known as Pittman's ferry. Along this road Featherstonhaugh 191 traveled a part of the way in 1834, and notes that many desperate
190 Reynolds' Pioneer History of Illinois, p. 238.
191 "He said that the track by which we had come to his cabin from the main road was a part of the ancient Indian path or trail from Vincennes, on the Wabash, to Nachitoches, in Mexico, and had been adopted as the general road by white people moving in that direction. This was the reason why so many desperate men from all quarters- Spaniards, Frenchmen and Americans, and other outlaws - had settled near it, and that the greater part of the deserted cabins we had seen had been inhabited by them. There, under pretense of entertaining travelers, they got them in their cabins and often murdered them if they had anything to be plundered of." - Featherstonhaugh's Excursion Through the Slave States, vol. ii., p. 8 et seq. The United States cut out this military road crossing Current river and "Fourche de Thomas," also abbreviated by the French as "Fourche de Mas."
228
HISTORY OF MISSOURI
characters from all quarters had settled on it, because many people traveled that way. He says that Spanish, French, and American outlaws built cabins near it, and, under pretense of entertaining travelers, enticed them into their habitations and often murdered them, "if they had anything to be plundered of." This Indian high- way running northeast from Natchitoches, is given in part as the route of Cavelier in 1687, on Homan's map, supposed to have been compiled in 1720, and on that map is shown to extend as far north as the Arkansas river.
From the Arkansas river, beginning in the neighborhood of Little Rock, there was also a trace to the mouth of the Missouri. Nuttall says that such a trail or hunting path had been opened south to Mt. Prairie and Natchitoches from the Arkansas river, and north to St. Louis, from time immemorial, by the Indians. But before the foundation of St. Louis, this trail must have extended to the mouth of the Missouri river, near which was the village of the Missouris. With this trace the path from Vincennes to Natchitoches, which crossed the river below Cape Girardeau at Gray's Point, con- nected. It was followed from Cape Girardeau by Major S. H. Long on his expedition to Arkansas in 1810.
On De Lisle's map, published in 1722, the northern Indian trail, either an extension of the "Great Trail" or "Nemacolin's Path," is shown to strike the Mississippi river at the mouth of the Missouri, and, crossing this river there, runs in a northwest direction apparently on the dividing ridge between the waters of the Missouri and Des Moines. So also on a map of Philip Buache, compiled in 1755. Both these . maps carry this path to the Rocky mountains. This may be the trace Long 192 says strikes the Missouri below the Platte. On the map of Sieur le Rouge, published with Charlevoix's "Travels" in 1746, a path or trail, after crossing the Mississippi, seems to follow the Missouri river closely for some distance, and from the mouth of the Gasconade to Grand river, agrees perhaps with the trace or path laid down on Franquelin's map. 193 This Indian trading path and warpath led to Loutre Island located near the mouth of the Gasconade. It is more than probable that this trace or path, at least in part, afterwards became the celebrated
192 Long's Expedition - vol. i., p. 421.
193 A Trace in 1891 from "Charaton to the mouth of Grand river."- Ibid. V. 414.
229
WARPATHS TO OSAGE VILLAGES
Boonslick trace, and was followed by Benjamin Cooper and others in 1810.
An Indian trail or trace ran up Grand river for some distance. Long 194 says that it skirted the east side of this river and was sixty miles long. When he followed it in 1819, it was known as "Field's trace." At the upper end it connected with another trail running northwest, undoubtedly the continental trace or trail noted on De Lisle's map, extending northwest through the plains at the head- waters of the Little Platte and the Nishnabotna in Missouri and the almost boundless plains of the upper Missouri to the Rocky mountains. Field's trace to the headwaters of Grand river was a favorite war- path followed by the Saukees, Foxes, and Pottowatomies into the Osage country.195
After the establishment of the trading post at St. Louis, traces or bridle-paths led north and northwest from there to Bon Homme,196 St. Charles and, the Charette village, forty-seven miles; to Gasconade, one hundred miles; to Osage, one hundred and thirty-three miles; to Lamine, one hun- dred and fifty-four miles; to Moniteau creek, one hundred and sixty-one miles; to Saline, one hundred and seventy-two miles; to Moniteau river, one hundred and ninety-six miles; to Chariton, two hundred and twenty miles; to Old Fort Orleans, two hundred and thirty-five miles; to Grand Prairie, two hundred and thirty-nine miles; to Cole Bank, two hundred and thirty-four miles; to Blue River, three hundred and thirty-three miles; to the Kansas, three hundred and forty-one miles; to the Little Platte, three hun- dred and fifty miles ; to the Nodaway, four hundred and fifty miles; to Wolf river, four hundred and sixty-four miles; to the Big Nehama, four hundred and seventy-nine miles, and thence to Nishnabotna, five hundred and four miles, no doubt in many instances, following the ancient aboriginal routes, and also connecting with the trace or trail north of the river laid down on De Lisle's map.
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