USA > Ohio > Clinton County > The history of Clinton County, Ohio, containing a history of the county; its townships, cities, towns, etc.; general and local statistics; portraits of early settlers and prominent men; history of the Northwest territory, Volume 1 > Part 1
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49
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GENEALOGY COLLECTION
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ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 00825 8706
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2016
https://archive.org/details/historyofclinton01dura
TATOE
CLINTON COUNTY
THE
HISTORY
OF
CLINTON COUNTY,
OHIO, Volume1 CONTAINING .
A HISTORY OF THE COUNTY ; ITS TOWNSHIPS, CITIES, TOWNS, SCHOOLS, CHURCHES, ETC. ; GENERAL AND LOCAL STATISTICS; PORTRAITS OF EARLY SETTLERS AND PROMINENT MEN; HISTORY OF THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY ; HISTORY OF OHIO; MAP OF CLINTON COUNTY ; CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES, MISCELLANEOUS MATTERS, ETC., ETC.
1
ILLUSTRATED.
CHICAGO : W. H. BEERS & CO. 1882.
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PREFACE.
T HE task of preparing and arranging the history of Clinton County has been no light one. It has been necessary to brush the cobwebs of more than eighty years from before the face of events, and build the work'upon a foundation of facts, beginning in the days when the wide forests of the Northwest Territory had no settled inhabitants. For many years, the lamented Judge Robert Barclay Harlan and the venerable Dr. A. Jones engaged in searching the store houses of the past, and bringing to light the story of almost forgotten days. Upon the re- sult of their labors the present history is built. The walls were well laid, and it has simply been the province of others who have taken part in this work to com- plete the structure and round it off in a becoming manner. The attempt has been inade to portray the development of the county from its primitive condition through the various changes to the present, and it is the hope of the compilers and publishers that their labor has not been in vain.
A great portion of the work is from the notes of Judge Harlan and Dr. Jones, and some additional general matters have been incorporated by Pliny A. Durant, to whom was assigned the task of editing and arranging the great mass of mate- rial at hand. The township histories were prepared by the persons named, as fol- lows': Adams, by Hon. I. W. Quinby ; Chester, by A. H. Harlan ; Clark, by Frank L. Hockett ; Greene, by C. C. Bowers, Esq. ; Jefferson, by Hon. Thomas S. Jackson ; Liberty, by Hon. Jesse N. Oren ; Marion, by J. W. Rice, Esq. ; Richland, by Hon. Thompson Douglass, with the assistance of G. A. Graham, of Lebanon ; Vernon, by Cyrus L. Sewell ; Washington, by Peter Clevenger, Esq .; Wayne, by James H. Terrell ; Wilson, by Reuben B. Peelle ; Union, by F. E. Weakley and R. C. Brown, largely from the notes of Judge Harlan and Dr. Jones ; Wilmington, by P. A. Durant, F. E. Weakley and G. A. Graham, also mostly from notes furnished them by the parties named. Such additional data as seemed necessary the writers in charge looked up in all instances.
Acknowledgments for valuable services rendered are also due to the Hon. A. W. Doan, Hon. A. P. Russell, Parker B. Osborn, William Hale, Samuel and William Walker, Cyrus Linton and very many whose names cannot here be mentioned, in- cluding county and township officials, members of the various professions, bank- ers, merchants, manufacturers, etc. Each person who has assisted in the slightest degree is entitled to thanks. The work is herewith submitted to its patrons with the firm conviction that it will be found valuable at the present and in the time to come.
NOVEMBER, 1882.
THE PUBLSHERS.
-
CONTENTS.
PART I.
HISTORY OF THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.
PAGE.
PAGE.
PAGE.
menta
34
Discovery of Ohio. 32
English Explorations and Settle-
tory
65
PART II. HISTORY. OF THE STATE OF OHIO.
PAGE.
PAGE.
PAGE.
History of Ohio.
93
Organization of Counties. .137
French History 96 Description of Counties. .137
Ordinance of 1787, No. 32 ..
105
Early Events ..
137
The War of 1812 ..
122
Governors of Ohio
160
Conclusion
.200
Banking
.126
The Canal System
128
Some General Characteristics
.177
Ancient Works
174
Comments upon the Ordinance of
1787, from the Statutes of Ohio,
Edited by Salmon P. Chase, and
Ohio Land Tracts
129
Outline Geology of Ohio
.179
Improvements
132
Published in the year 1833 ......... 204
Ohio's Rank During the War.
... 182
State Boundaries.
.. 136
PART III. HISTORY OF CLINTON COUNTY.
PAGE.
INTRODUCTORY .. 214
CHAPTER I-
Physical Features 215
Geographical. 215
Topographical. 215
Geological. 216
The Courts and Civil List 330
Judges. 341
Judges of Probate. 342
Prosecuting Attorneys. 342
Sheriffs
342
Coroners
342
Treasurers
342
Recorders
342
dents of the Early Days-Story of the Deserted Camp-Frontier Happenings.
231
The Deserted Camp .... 233
Auditors
343
Representatives of the State Legislature ..
343
CHAPTER IV- Land Grants, Entries and Surveys. 240 State Senators 343 CHAPTER VIII-
CHAPTER V-
Pioneer Incidents-First Settler in the County
The County Government-Statistics 347
Population.
357 -
CHAPTER IX-
Internal Improvements. 359
Earliest Settlements in Ciinton County
Aspect of the Country when First Settled .. 261 Railways. 364
Wild Animals .. 265 CHAPTER X-
Development of the County 267
Old-Time Agriculture, Improved Stock, etc. 273
Early Schools and Churches. 275
Early Mills. 276
Miscellaneous. 277
The Death of Caleb Perkins 290 The Anti-Slavery Movement .. 380
A Home Idyl. 301 CHAPTER VI-
Civil Organization of the County-Location of the County Seat -- Court Houses and Jails -- Coun- ty Institutions and Societies ...
307
Location of the County Seat ...... 310
Townships First Erected and their Subsequent Subdivisions 315
Court Houses and Jails 315 The Clinton County Infirmary 319
Political-The Jackson Campaign-The Har- rison Campaign-Log Cabin Raisings and Cele- brations-Accident at Wilmington-Songs of 1840-Later Politics of the County-Anti-Slav- ery Feeling, etc ... 370
CHAPTER XI-
The Bench and Bar of Clinton County. 384
CHAPTER XII-
The Medical Profession .. 404 Clinton County Medical Societies. 414 CHAPTER XIII-
The Press of Clinton County ...
418
CHAPTER XIV-
The Military History of Clinton County .... 430 History of the Regiments 451-463 Clinton County Ex-Soldiers. ...
463 Infirmary Directors ... 321
Clinton County Agricultural Society .. ...
322
The Clinton County Farmers' Instituto ..
326
Clinton County Pioneer Society.
327
Clinton County Auxiliary Bible Society
329
CHAPTER VII-
The Soils ..
222
Climatological. 222 CHAPTER II-
Pre-historic ..
223
CHAPTER III-
Anti-Pioneer Days- Border Struggles - Inci-
Clerks
343
-Chain of Settlements by Townships-Early Schools and Churches-Mode of Living-Wil- derness Customs Eighty Years Ago ..
249 250 Early Roads 359
PAGE.
Geographical Position ..
19
Early Explorations
20
American Settlements ...
59
Division of the Northwest Terri-
Tecumseh and the War of 1812 ......
69
Black Hawk and the Black Hawk
War .......
73
A Brief Mention of Prominent
Ohio Generals.
.......... 191
Some Discussed Subjects
196
I
vi
CONTENTS.
PART IV.
TOWNSHIP HISTORIES.
PAGE.
WILMINGTON -...
475
Merchants of Wilmington ....
495
Schools ..
500
Church Organization and Buildinga ... 726
Railroads. 728
'Clinton Valley
728
728
Schools and Scool Buildings.
LIBERTY TOWNSHIP-
Timber, Stone and Gravei 730
Early Settlers .... 731
Churches. 737
Cemetries and Graveyards.
738
Schools and School Teachers
739
Towns.
741
Port William.
741
Lumberton
741
Gurneyville
742
Mckay's Station
742
Mount Pleasant.
742
Public Roads.
742
Pioneers
Township Organization. 575
Justices of tho Peace. 575
Religious Societies, Churches and Graveyards ... Mills 588
Tile Factory. 589
Concluding Notes and Incidents .. 500
ADAMS TOWNSHIP --
Streams. 595
Miils · 596
Timber
597
Formation of the Township .. 598 Survey of Adams Township. 600
Commissioners Order an Election 603
First Election in the Township ....
603
Township Officers .. 603
Justices of the Peace.
605
Roadways 605
The Cincinnati, Wilmington and Zanesville Raliroad
607
Villages
608
Post Offices
609
Schoolhouses.
610 610
Churches.
613
Adams Township in the War. 614
617
Family History
CHESTER TOWNSHIP-
Geological Structure.
640 .
Location ..
640
Warp and Woof. 645
The Lucas Family 647
The Harlan Family. 657 659
The Birdsall Family.
The Township.
Oakland
New Burlington.
668 671
Mills 675
Roads. 676
Rallroads 677
Chester Township in the War. 681
CLARK TOWNSHIP-
690
Early Settlements .. 694
Customs and Incidents of Early History. 696 General 805
GREENE TOWNSHIP-
Location, Surface, Soil, Water, Virgin Condi- tion, Appearance of the White Man. 705
Places of Settlement. 706
Organization of the Townshilp. 707
Incidents, Anecdotes and Amusements. 708
Development. 708
Schoois 709
Roads 710
Churches 710 Roads.
Villages ... 711
Improved Stock. 837
Schools
838
-
- Cincinnati, Columbus & Hocking Valley Rail- road Other Matters.
744
The Underground Raliroad .. 744
746
MARION TOWNSHIP-
746
Early Sottlemont ..
747
Schools 749
751
Lodges and Societies.
751 752
Blanchester.
Conclusion
752
RICHLAND TOWNSHIP- Justices of the Peace.
757
Early Settlements.
757
Roads. 761
Schools .. 761 762
Industries
Churches.
763
Burying Grounds.
765
Sabina
765
The Sabina Union Agricultural Society. Reesviiie ... 768 767
Conclusion 769
VERNON TOWNSHIP-
Early Settlement. 770
Personal Sketches of Early Settlers ..
772
Organization and Township Officers.
The War. 733
Schools Roads. 783 785 786
Churches.
Political
797
Old Time Politics in Vernon. 787
Clarksville 789
663 667 Conclusion 793
WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP- 795
Early Settlements.
796
Churches
803
Schools 803 804
Cemetries and Graveyards.
Towns
804
Mills
804
Physicians.
805
WAYNE TOWNSHIP- 806
Centerville 814
Land Owners in 1027. 820
Graveyards 823-825
WILSON TOWNSHIP- 826
Lewisviilo 836
Topographical Features. 836
Timber 836
Occupations 836
837
Now Vienna. 711 New Antioch. 718 Religious Organizations 838
PAGE ..
JEYFERSON TOWNSHIP -. ...... 723
Early Settlements .. 724
Churches. 501 512 Westboro 728
Incorporation, Town Officers, etc ..
Additions.
514 515
Franklin College.
Lodges
Pork Packing ..
Present Manufactures.
Fire Department ..
Library Association. 520 Wilmington Publio Hail .. 527
Banks 528
Gas 531
Cemeteries. 533
Literary Society.
535
UNION TOWNSHIP-
Location, Topography, Soil, Timber, Streams,etc. 536 537 Land Entries. 541
743
Schools 575 585 Temperance. 744
Liberty Township in tho War
Churches
754
School Teachers.
Churches and Burial Grounds.
516 518 521 523
----
-
CONTENTS.
· vii
PART V. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
PAGE.
PAGK.
Union Townahip.
921
Richland Townyhip.
1087
Chester Township. 033
1025 Jefferson Township.
Liberty Township.
1041
PORTRAITS,
Hon. Robert Barclay Harlan (deceased)
115
John Clevinger. 385
A. Jones, M. D
134
S. H. Hadley.
396
A. W. Doan ....
161
J. W. Haws
405
Thompson Douglass
170
Jacob S. Peterson. 416
Mrs. Ann Douglass.
171
William Hoblit (deceased). 425 436
J. W. Slack
206
Mrs. Ann Iliatt (deceased). David Curl.
447
Amos Huffman
226
Samuel Pylo.
458 467
Jesse G. Starbuck
247
Charles H. Harris.
478
Mrs. Amy Starbuck
246
John F. Miller
487
Samuel L. Haines.
259
Jonathan Hays.
498 508
Seth Linton ..
270
Mrs. N. E. King.
Mrs. Sarah Ann Linton
271
John E. Bond
281 292
Mrs. Abigail J. Hadley
293
Ilenry Swingley.
Jacob Theobald.
303
Mrs. Elizabeth Swingley ..
Henry Lazenby.
Henry Bates ..
Alexander Lieurance.
334
Stephen Evans.
Mrs. Sarah H. Whinery.
335 Samuel Zurface.
J. G. Coulter ..
345 William W. Moore.
Robert Skimming ...
356 HI. HI. Hadley ..
611
I. W. Quinby.
365
J. A. Haughey
622
S. T. Moon ..
376
A. J. Gaskins, M. D.
631
ILLUSTRATIONS.
Source of the Mississippi.
22
Present Site of Lake Street Bridge, Chicago, 1833 ... 58
LA Salle Landing on the Shores of Green Bay. .......
24 A Pioneer Dwelling.
60
Buffalo Hunt.
26 Lake Bluff.
62
Trapping
28 Tecumseh, the Shawnee Chieftain.
68
Mouth of the Mississippi
31
Indians Attacking a Stockade ...
71
High Bridge .........
33
Black Hawk, the Sac Chieftain. 74
Pontiac, the Ottawa Chieftain
42
Perrys' Monument, Cleveland ..
91
Indians Attacking Frontiersmen.
55 Niagara Falls.
92
. MISCELLANEOUS.
Map of Clinton County. .10-11
Population of the Principal Countries in the World 203
Constitution of the United States. 79
Population of Ohio by Counties ....... 202
Area of the United States ...... 203
Population of Clinton County ...... 357
Area of the Principal Countries in the World .. 203 Business References. 1177
Vernon Township .. 1117 Clark Township .... 951 Greene Township
Washington Township .. 1134
975 Wayne Township. 1150
Wilson Township.
1164
John R. Moon
187
Hezekiah Hiatt (deceased).
437
P. H. Vandervoort.
211
A. L. Wall.
235
A. Scilars.
Mrs. Polly Haines.
258
D. S. King ...
509 520 529
David L. Hadley.
Zephaninh Spear,
540
314 323 Alexander Brown
550 551 562 571 682 591 602
Joseph Whinery ...
Jonathan Leeka
George W. Fisher
.
844 Marion Township .... 1067 Adams Township.
PART I.
THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.
1
.2.
-
THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY. 1
GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION.
When the Northwestern Territory was ceded to the United States by Virginia in 1784, it embraced only the territory lying between the Ohio and the Mississippi Rivers, and north to the northern limits of the United States. It coincided with the area now embraced in the States of Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, and that portion of Minnesota lying on the east side of the Mississippi River. The United States itself at that period extended no farther west than the Mississippi River ; but by the purchase of Louisiana in 1803, the western boundary of the United States was extended to the Rocky Mountains and the Northern Pacific Ocean. The new territory thus added to the National domain, and subsequently opened to settlement, has been called the "New Northwest," in contradistinction from the old "Northwestern Territory."
In comparison with the old Northwest this is a territory of vast magnitude. It includes an area of 1,887,850 square miles ; being greater in extent than the united areas of all the Middle and Southern States, including Texas. Out of this magnificent territory have been erected eleven sovereign States and eight Territories, with an aggregate popula- tion, at the present time, of 13,000,000 inhabitants, or nearly one third of the entire population of the United States.
Its lakes are fresh-water seas, and the larger rivers of the continent flow for a thousand miles through its rich alluvial valleys and far- stretching prairies, more acres of which are arable and productive of the highest percentage of the cereals than of any other area of like extent on the globe.
For the last twenty years the increase of population in the North- west has been about as three to one in any other portion of the United States.
(19)
1.
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20
THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.
EARLY EXPLORATIONS.
In the year 1541, DeSoto first saw the Great West in the New World. He, however, penetrated no farther north than the 35th parallel of latitude. The expedition resulted in his death and that of more than half his army, the remainder of whom found their way to Cuba, thence to Spain, in a famished and demoralized condition. DeSoto founded no settlements, produced no results, and left no traces, unless. it were that he awakened the hostility of the red man against the white man, and disheartened such as might desire to follow up the career of discovery for better purposes. The French nation were eager and ready to seize upon any news from this extensive domain, and were the first to profit by DeSoto's defeat. Yet it was more than a century before any adventurer took advantage of these discoveries.
In 1616, four years before the pilgrims " moored their bark on the wild New England shore," Le Caron, a French Franciscan, had pene- trated through the Iroquois and Wyandots (Hurons) to the streams which run into Lake Huron ; and in 1634, two Jesuit missionaries founded the first mission among the lake tribes. It was just one hundred years from the discovery of the Mississippi by DeSoto (1541) until the Canadian envoys met the savage nations of the Northwest at the Falls of St. Mary, below the outlet of Lake Superior. . This visit led to no permanent result; yet it was not until 1659 that any of the adventurous fur traders attempted to spend a Winter in the frozen wilds about the great lakes, nor was it until 1660 that a station was established upon their borders by Mesnard, who perished in the woods a few months after. In 1665, Claude Allouez built the earliest lasting habitation of the white man among the Indians of the Northwest. In 1668, Claude Dablon and James Marquette founded the mission of Sault Ste. Marie at the Falls of St. Mary, and two years afterward, Nicholas Perrot, as agent for M. Talon, Governor Gen- eral of Canada, explored Lake Illinois (Michigan) as far south as the present City of Chicago, and invited the Indian nations to meet him at a grand council at Sault Ste. Marie the following Spring, where they were taken under the protection of the king, and formal possession was taken of the Northwest. This same year Marquette established a mission at Point St. Ignatius, where was founded the old town of Michillimackinac.
During M. Talon's explorations and Marquette's residence at St. Ignatius, they learned of a great river away to the west, and fancied -as all others did then-that upon its fertile banks whole tribes of God's children resided, to whom the sound of the Gospel had never come. Filled with a wish to go and preach to them, and in compliance with a
1
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21
THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.
request of M. Talon, who earnestly desired to extend the domain of his king, and to ascertain whether the river flowed into the Gulf of Mexico . or the Pacific Ocean, Marquette with Joliet, as commander of the expe- dition, prepared for the undertaking.
On the 13th of May, 1673, the explorers, accompanied by five assist- ant French Canadians, set out from Mackinaw on their daring voyage of discovery. The Indians, who. gathered to witness their departure, were astonished at the boldness of the undertaking, and endeavored to dissuade them from their purpose by representing the tribes on the Mississippi as exceedingly savage and cruel, and the river itself as full of all sorts of frightful monsters ready to swallow them and their canoes together. But, nothing daunted by these terrific descriptions, Marquette told them he was willing not only to encounter all the perils of the unknown region they were about to explore, but to lay down his life in a cause in which the salvation of souls was involved ; and having prayed together they separated. Coasting along the northern shore of Lake Michigan, the adventurers entered Green Bay, and passed thence up the Fox River and . Lake Winnebago to a village of the Miamis and Kickapoos. Here Mar- quette was delighted to find a beautiful cross planted in the middle of the town ornamented with white skins, red girdles and bows and arrows, which these good people had offered to the Great Manitou, or God, to thank him for the pity he had bestowed on them during the Winter in giving them an abundant " chase." This was the farthest outpost to which Dablon and Allouez had extended their missionary labors the year previous. Here Marquette drank mineral waters and was instructed in the secret of a root which cures the bite of the venomous rattlesnake. He assembled the chiefs and old men of the village, and, pointing to Joliet, said : " My friend is an envoy of France, to discover new coun- tries, and I am an ambassador from God to enlighten them with the truths of the Gospel." Two Miami guides were here furnished to conduct them to the Wisconsin River, and they set out from the Indian village on- the 10th of June, amidst a great crowd of natives who had assembled to witness their departure into a region where no white man had ever yet ventured. The guides, having conducted them across the portage, returned. The explorers launched their canoes upon the Wisconsin, which they descended to the Mississippi and proceeded down its unknown waters. What emotions must have swelled their breasts as they struck out into the broadening current and became conscious that they were now upon the bosom of the Father of Waters. The mystery was about to be lifted from the long-sought river. The scenery in that locality is beautiful, and on that delightful seventeenth of June must have been clad in all its primeval loveliness as it had been adorned by the hand of
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22
THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.
Nature. Drifting rapidly, it is said that the bold bluffs on either hand "reminded them of the castled shores of their own beautiful rivers of France." By-and-by, as they drifted along, great herds of buffalo appeared on the banks. On going to the heads of the valley they could see a country of the greatest beauty and fertility, apparently destitute of inhab- itants yet presenting the appearance of extensive manors, under the fas- tidious cultivation of lordly proprietors.
SOURCE OF THE MISSISSIPPI. .
On June 25, they went ashore and found some fresh traces of men upon the sand, and a path which led to the prairie. The men remained in the boat, and Marquette and Joliet followed the path till they discovered a village on the banks of a river, and two other villages on a hill, within a half league of the first, inhabited by Indians. They were received most hospitably by these natives, who had never before seen a white person. After remaining a few days they re-embarked and descended the river to. about latitude 33°, where they found a village of the Arkansas, and being satisfied that the river flowed into the Gulf of Mexico, turned their course
23
THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.
up the river, and ascending the stream to the mouth of the Illinois, rowed up that stream to its source, and procured guides from that point to the lakes. " Nowhere on this journey," says Marquette, "did we see such grounds, meadows, woods, stags, buffaloes, deer, wildcats, bustards, swans, ducks, parroquets, and even beavers, as on the Illinois River." The party, without loss or injury, reached Green Bay in September, and reported their discovery-one of the most important of the age, but of which no record was preserved save Marquette's, Joliet losing his by the upsetting of his canoe on his way to Quebec. Afterward Marquette returned to the Illinois Indians by their request, and ministered to them until 1675. On the 18th' of May, in that year, as he was passing the mouth of a stream-going with his boatmen up Lake Michigan-he asked to land at its mouth and celebrate Mass. Leaving his men with the canoe, he retired a short distance and began his devotions. As much time passed and he did not return, his men went in search of him, and found him upon his knees, dead. He had peacefully passed away while at prayer. He was buried at this spot. Charlevoix, who visited the place fifty years after, found the waters had retreated from the grave, leaving the beloved missionary to repose in peace. The river has since been called Marquette.
While Marquette and his companions were pursuing their labors in the West, two men, differing widely from him and each other, were pre- paring to follow in his footsteps and perfect the discoveries so well begun by him. These were Robert de La Salle and Louis Hennepin.
After La Salle's return from the discovery of the Ohio River (see the narrative elsewhere), he established himself again among the French trading posts in Canada. Here he mused long upon the pet project of those ages-a short way to China and the East, and was busily planning an expedition up the great lakes, and so across the continent to the Pacific, when Marquette returned from the Mississippi. At once the vigorous mind of LaSalle received from his and his companions' stories the idea that by fol- lowing the Great River northward, or by turning up some of the numerous western tributaries, the object could easily be gained. He applied to Frontenac, Governor General of Canada, and laid before him the plan, dim but gigantic. Frontenac entered warmly into his plans, and saw that LaSalle's idea to connect the great lakes by a chain of forts with the Gulf of Mexico would bind the country so wonderfully together, give un- measured power to France, and glory to himself, under whose adminis- tration he earnestly hoped all would be realized.
LaSalle now repaired to France, laid his plans before the King, who warmly approved of them, and made him a Chevalier. He also received from all the noblemen the warmest wishes for his success. The Chev-
C
1
24
THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.
alier returned to Canada, and busily entered upon his work. He at once rebuilt Fort Frontenac and constructed the first ship to sail on these fresh-water seas. On the 7th of August, 1679, having been joined by Hennepin, he began his voyage in the Griffin up Lake Erie. He passed over this lake, through the straits beyond, up Lake St. Clair and into Huron. In this lake they encountered heavy storms. They were some time at Michillimackinac, where LaSalle founded a fort, and passed on to Green Bay, the " Baie des Puans " of the French, where he found a large quantity of furs collected for him. He loaded the Griffin with these, and placing her under the care of a pilot and fourteen sailors,
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