History of Knox County, Ohio, its past and present, Part 4

Author: Hill, N. N. (Norman Newell), comp; Graham, A. A. (Albert Adams), 1848-; Graham, A.A. & Co., Mt. Vernon, Ohio
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Mt. Vernon, Ohio : A. A. Graham & Co.
Number of Pages: 1096

USA > Ohio > Knox County > History of Knox County, Ohio, its past and present > Part 4

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* Mr. C. W. Butterfield, author of Crawford's Campaign, and good authority, says: "John Nicholet, a Frenchman. left Quebec and Three Rivers in the summer of 1634, and visited the Hurons on Georgian Bay, the Chippewas at the Sault Ste. Marie, and the Win- nebagoes in Wisconsin, returning to Quebec in the summer of 1635. This was the first white man to see any part of the Northwest Territory. In 1641, two Jesuit priests were at the Sault Ste. Marie for a brief time. Then two French traders reached Lake Superior, and after them came that tide of emigration on which the French based their claim to the country."

HISTORY OF OHIO.

the French. Accompanying him were Courcelles, as Governor, and M. Talon, who subsequently fig- ures in Northwestern history. By 1665, affairs were settled and new attempts to found a mission among the lake tribes were projected.

"With better hopes-undismayed by the sad fate of their predecessors" in August, Claude Allouez embarked on a mission by way of Ottawa to the Far West. Early in September he reached the rapids through which rush the waters of the lakes to Huron. Sailing by lofty sculptured rocks and over waters of crystal purity, he reached the Chippewa village just as the young warriors were bent on organizing a war expedition against the Sioux. Commanding peace in the name of his King, he called a council and offered the commerce and protection of his nation. He was obeyed, and soon a chapel arose on the shore of the bay, to which admiring crowds from the south and west gathered to listen to the story of the Cross.

The scattered Hurons and Ottawas north of Lake Superior; the Pottawatomies from Lake Mich- igan; the Sacs and Foxes from the Far West; the Illinois from the prairies, all came to hear him, and all besought him to go with them. To the last nation Allouez desired to go. They told him of a "great river that flowed to the sea, "and of "their vast prairies, where herds of buffalo, deer and other animals grazed on the tall grass." "Their country," said the missionary, "is the best field for the Gospel. Had I had leisure, I would have gone to their dwellings to see with my own eyes all the good that was told me of them."

He remained two years, teaching the natives, studying their language and habits, and then returned to Quebec. Such was the account that he gave, that in two days he was joined by Louis Nicholas and was on his way back to his mission.

Peace being now established, more missionaries came from France. Among them were Claude Dablon and Jacques Marquette, both of whom went on to the mission among the Chippewas at the Sault. They reached there in 1668 and found Allouez busy. The mission was now a reality and given the name of St. Mary. It is often written " Sault Ste. Marie," after the French method, and is the oldest settlement by white men in the bounds of the Northwest Territory. It has been founded over two hundred years. Here on the inhospitable northern shores, hundreds of miles away from friends, did this triumvirate employ themselves in extending their religion and the influence of their -

King. Traversing the shores of the great lakes near them, they pass down the western bank of Lake Michigan as far as Green Bay, along the southern shore of Lake Superior to its western ex- tremity, everywhere preaching the story of Jesus. " Though suffering be their lot and martyrdom their crown," they went on, only conscious that they were laboring for their Master and would, in the end, win the crown.

The great river away to the West of which they heard so much was yet unknown to them. To cx- plore it, to visit the tribes on its banks and preach to them the Gospel and secure their trade, became the aim of Marquette, who originated the idea of its discovery. While engaged at the mission at the Sault, he resolved to attempt it in the autumn of 1669. Delay, however, intervened-for Alloucz had exchanged the mission at Che-goi-me-gon for one at Green Bay, whither Marquette was sent. While here he employed a young Illinois Indian to teach him the language of that nation, and there- by prepare himself for the enterprise.

Continued commerce with the Western Indians gave protection and confirmed their attachment. Talon, the intendant of the colony of New France, to further spread its power and to learn more of the country and its inhabitants, convened a congress of the Indians at the Falls of St. Mary, to which he sent St. Lusson on his behalf. Nicholas Perrot sent invitations in every direction for more than a hundred leagues round about, and fourteen nations, among them Sacs, Foxes and Miamis, agreed to be present by their embassadors.

The congress met on the fourth day of June, 1671. St. Lusson, through Allouez, his interpre- ter, announced to the assembled natives that they, and through them their nations, were placed under the protection of the French King, and to him were their furs and peltries to be traded. A cross of cedar was raised, and amidst the groves of ma- ple and of pine, of elm and hemlock that are so strangely intermingled on the banks of the St. Mary, the whole company of the French, bowing before the emblem of man's redemption, chanted to its glory a hymn of the seventh century :

"The banners of heaven's King advance; The mysteries of the Cross shines forth."*

A cedar column was planted by the cross and marked with the lilies of the Bourbons. The power of France, thus uplifted in the West of which Ohio is now a part, was, however, not destined

* Bancroft.

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to endure, and the ambition of its monarchs was to have only a partial fulfillment.

The same year that the congress was held, Mar- quette had founded a mission among the Hurons at Point St. Ignace, on the continent north of the peninsula of Michigan. Although the climate was severe, and vegetation scarce, yet fish abounded, and at this establishment, long maintained as a key to further explorations, prayer and praise were heard daily for many years. Here, also, Marquette gained a footing among the founders of Michigan. While he was doing this, Allouez and Dablon were exploring countries south and west, going as far as the Mascoutins and Kickapoos on the Milwaukee, and the Miamis at the head of Lake Michigan. Allouez continued even as far as the Sacs and Foxes on the river which bears their name.

The discovery of the Mississippi, heightened by these explorations, was now at hand. The enter- prise, projected by Marquette, was received with favor by M. Talon, who desired thus to perpetuate his rule in New France, now drawing to a close. He was joined by Joliet, of Quebec, an emissary of his King, commissioned by royal magnate to take possession of the country in the name of the French. Of him but little else is known. This one excursion, however, gives him immortality, and as long as time shall last his name and that of Marquette will endure. When Marquette made known his intention to the Pottawatomies, they were filled with wonder, and endeavored to dis- suade him from his purpose. "Those distant na- tions," said they, " never spare the strangers; the Great River abounds in monsters, ready to swal- low both men and canoes; there are great cataracts and rapids, over which you will be dashed to pieces; the excessive heats will cause your death." "I shall gladly lay down my life for the salvation of souls," replied the good man; and the docile nation joined him.

On the 9th day of June, 1673, they reached the village on Fox River, where were Kickapoos, Mascoutins and Miamis dwelling together on an expanse of lovely prairie, dotted here and there by groves of magnificent trees, and where was a cross garlanded by wild flowers, and bows and ar- rows, and skins and belts, offerings to the Great Maniton. Allouez had been here in one of his wanderings, and, as was his wont, had left this emblem of his faith.

Assembling the natives, Marquette said, " My companion is an envoy of France to discover new countries ; and I am an embassador from God to

enlighten them with the Gospel." Offering pres- ents, he begged two guides for the morrow., The Indians answered courteously, and gave in return a mat to serve as a couch during the long voyage.

Early in the morning of the next day, the 10th of June, with all nature in her brightest robes, these two men, with five Frenchmen and two Al- gonquin guides, set out on their journey. Lifting two canoes to their shoulders, they quickly cross the narrow portage dividing the Fox from the Wisconsin River, and prepare to embark on its clear waters. "Uttering a special prayer to the Immaculate Virgin, they leave the stream, that, flowing onward, could have borne their greetings to the castle of Quebec. 'The guides returned,' says the gentle Marquette, 'leaving us alone in this unknown land, in the hand of Providence.' France and Christianity stood alone in the valley of the Mississippi. Embarking on the broad Wisconsin, the discoverers, as they sailed west, went solitarily down the stream between alternate prairies and hillsides, beholding neither man nor the wonted beasts of the forests; no sound broke the silence but the ripple of the canoe and the lowing of the buffalo. In seven days, 'they en- tered happily the Great River, with a joy that could not be expressed;' and the two birchbark canoes, raising their happy sails under new skies and to unknown breezes, floated down the calm magnificence of the ocean stream, over the broad, clear sand-bars, the resort of innumerable water- fowl-gliding past islets that swelled from the bosom of the stream, with their tufts of massive thickets, and between the wild plains of Illinois and Iowa, all garlanded with majestie forests, or checkered by island groves and the open vastness of the prairie."*

Continuing on down the mighty stream. they saw no signs of human life until the 25th of June, when they discovered a small foot-path on the west bank of the river, leading away into the prairie. Leaving their companions in the canoes, Marquette and Joliet followed the path, resolved to brave a meeting alone with the savages. After a walk of six miles they came in sight of a village on the banks of a river, while not far away they discovered two others. The river was the " Mou- in-gou-e-na," or Moingona, now corrupted into Des Moines. These two men, the first of their race who ever trod the soil west of the Great

* Bancroft.

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River, commended themselves to God, and, uttering a loud cry, advanced to the nearest village. The Indians hear, and thinking their visitors celestial beings, four old men advance with rever- ential mien, and offer the pipe of peace. “We are Illinois," said they, and they offered the calu- met. They had heard of the Frenchmen, and welcomed them to their wigwams, followed by the devouring gaze of an astonished crowd. At a great council held soon after, Marquette published to them the true God, their Author. He also spoke of his nation and of his King, who had chastised the Five Nations and commanded peace. He questioned them concerning the Great River and its tributaries, and the tribes dwelling on its banks. A magnificent feast was spread before them, and the conference continued several days. At the close of the sixth day, the chieftains of the tribes, with numerous trains of warriors, attended the visitors to their canoes, and selecting a peace- pipe, gayly caparisoned, they hung the sacred calumet, emblem of peace to all and a safeguard among the nations, about the good Father's neck, and bid the strangers good speed. "I did not fear death," writes Marquette; "I should have esteemed it the greatest happiness to have died for the glory of God." On their journey, they passed the perpendicular rocks, whose sculptured sides showed them the monsters they should meet. Farther down, they pass the turgid flood of the Missouri, known to them by its Algonquin name, Pekitanoni. Resolving in his heart to one day explore its flood, Marquette rejoiced in the new world it evidently could open to him. A little farther down, they pass the bluffs where now is a mighty emporium, then silent as when created. In a little less than forty leagues, they pass the clear waters of the beautiful Ohio, then, and long after- ward, known as the Wabash. Its banks were in- habited by numerous villages of the peaceful Shawanees, who then quailed under the incursions of the dreadful Iroquois. As they go on down the mighty stream, the canes become thicker, the insects more fierce, the heat more intolerable. The prairies and their cool breezes vanish, and forests of white- wood, admirable for their vastness and height, crowd close upon the pebbly shore. It is observed that the Chickasaws have guns, and have learned how to use them. Near the latitude of 33 degrees, they encounter a great village, whose inhabitants pre- sent an inhospitable and warlike front. The pipe of peace is held aloft, and instantly the savage foe drops his arms and extends a friendly greeting.

Remaining here till the next day, they are escorted for eight or ten leagues to the village of Akansea. They are now at the limit of their voyage. The Indians speak a dialect unknown to them. The natives show furs and axes of steel, the latter prov- ing they have traded with Europeans. The two travelers now learn that the Father of Wa- ters went neither to the Western sea nor to the Florida coast, but straight south, and conclude not to encounter the burning heats of a tropical clime, but return and find the outlet again. They had done enough now, and must report their dis- covery.

On the 17th day of July, 1673, one hundred and thirty-two years after the disastrous journey of De Soto, which led to no permanent results, Marquette and Joliet left the village of Akansea on their way back. At the 38th degree, they en- counter the waters of the Illinois which they had before noticed, and which the natives told them afforded a much shorter route to the lakes. Pad- dling up its limpid waters, they see a country un- surpassed in beauty. Broad prairies, beautiful up- lands, luxuriant groves, all mingled in excellent harmony as they ascend the river. Near the head of the river, they pause at a great village of the Illinois, and across the river behold a rocky prom- ontory standing boldly out against the landscape. The Indians entreat the gentle missionary to re- main among them, and teach them the way of life. He cannot do this, but promises to return when he can and instruct them. The town was on a plain near the present village of Utica, in La Salle County, Ill., and the rock was Starved Rock, afterward noted in the annals of the Northwest. One of the chiefs and some young men conduct the party to the Chicago River, where the present mighty city is, from where, continuing their jour- ney along the western shores of the lake, they reach Green Bay early in September.

The great valley of the West was now open. The "Messippi" rolled its mighty flood to a south- ern sea, and must be sully explored. Marquette's health had keenly suffered by the voyage and he concluded to remain here and rest. Joliet hasten- ed on to Quebec to report his discoveries. During the journey, each had preserved a description of the route they had passed over, as well as the country and its inhabitants. While on the way to Quebec, at the foot of the rapids ncar Montreal, by some means one of Joliet's canoes became cap- sized, and by it he lost his box of papers and two of his men. A greater calamity could have

HISTORY OF OHIO.

hardly happened him. In a letter to Gov. Frontenac, Joliet says:

"I had escaped every peril from the Indians; I had passed forty-two rapids, and was on the point of disembarking, full of joy at the success of so long and difficult an enterprise, when my canoe capsized after all the danger scemed over. I lost my two men and box of papers within sight of the French settlements, which I had left almost two years before. Nothing remains now to me but my life, and the ardent desire to employ it in any service you may please to direct."

When Joliet made known his discoveries, a Te Deum was chanted in the Cathedral at Quebec, and all Canada was filled with joy. The news crossed the ocean, and the French saw in the vista of coming years a vast dependency arise in the val- ley, partially explored, which was to extend her domain and enrich her treasury. Fearing En- gland might profit by the discovery and claim the country, she attempted as far as possible to prevent the news from becoming general. Joliet was re- warded by the gift of the Island of Anticosti, in the St. Lawrence, while Marquette, conscious of his service to his Master, was content with the salvation of souls.

Marquette, left at Green Bay, suffered long with his malady, and was not permitted, until the au- tumn of the following year (1674), to return and teach the Illinois Indians. With this purpose in view, he left Green Bay on the 25th of October with two Frenchmen and a number of Illinois and Pottawatomie Indians for the villages on the Chicago and Illinois Rivers. Entering Lake Michigan, they encountered adverse winds and waves and were more than a month on the way. Going some distance up the Chicago River, they found Marquette too weak to proceed farther, his malady having assumed a violent form, and land- ing, they erected two huts and prepared to pass the winter. The good missionary taught the na- tives here daily, in spite of his afflictions, while his companions supplied him and themselves with food by fishing and hunting. Thus the winter wore away, and Marquette, renewing his vows, pre- pared to go on to the village at the foot of the rocky citadel, where he had been two years before. On the 13th of March, 1675, they left their huts and, rowing on up the Chicago to the portage be- tween that and the Desplaines, embarked on their way. Amid the incessant rains of spring, they were rapidly borne down that stream to the Illi- nois, on whose rushing flood they floated to the

object of their destination. At the great town the missionary was received as a heavenly messenger, and as he preached to them of heaven and hell, of angels and demons, of good and bad deeds, they regarded him as divine and besought him to remain among them. The town then contained an immense concourse of natives, drawn hither by the reports they heard, and assembling them before him on the plain near their village, where now are pros- perous farms, he held before their astonished gaze four large pictures of the Holy Virgin, and daily harangued them on the duties of Christianity and the necessity of conforming their conduct to the words they heard. His strength was fast declining and warned him he could not long remain. Find- ing he must go, the Indians furnished him an escort as far as the lake, on whose turbulent waters he embarked with his two faithful attendants. They turned their canoes for the Mackinaw Mis- sion, which the afflicted missionary hoped to reach before death came. As they coasted along the eastern shores of the lake, the vernal hue of May began to cover the hillsides with robes of green, now dimmed to the eye of the departing Father, who became too weak to view them. By the 19th of the month, he could go no farther, and requested his men to land and build him a hut in which he might pass away. That done, he gave, with great composure, directions concerning his burial, and thanked God that he was permitted to die in the wilderness in the midst of his work, an unshaken believer in the faith he had so earnestly preached. As twilight came on, he told his weary attendants to rest, promising that when death should come he would call them. At an early hour, on the morn- ing of the 20th of May, 1675, they heard a feeble voice, and hastening to his side found that the gen- tle spirit of the good missionary had gone to heav- en. His hand grasped the crucifix, and his lips bore as their last sound the name of the Virgin. They dug a grave near the banks of the stream and buried him as he had requested. There in a lonely wilderness the peaceful soul of Marquette had at last found a rest, and his weary labors closed. His companions went on to the mission, where the news of his death caused great sorrow, for he was one beloved by all.

Three years after his burial, the Ottawas, hunting in the vicinity of his grave, determined to carry his bones to the mission at their home, in accor- dance with an ancient custom of their tribe. Hav- ing opened the grave, at whose head a cross had been planted, they carefully removed the bones and

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cleaning them, a funeral procession of thirty canocs bore them to the Mackinaw Mission, singing the pongx he had taught them. At the shores of the mission the bones were received by the priests, and, with great ceremony, buried under the floor of the rude chapel.

While Marquette and Jolict were exploring the head-waters of the "Great River," another man, frarless in purpose, pious in heart, and loyal to his country, was living in Canada and watching the operations of his fellow countrymen with keen eyes. When the French first saw the in- hospitable shores of the St. Lawrence, in 1535, under the lead of Jacques Cartier, and had opened A new country to their crown, men were not lacking to further extend the discovery. In 1608, Champlain came, and at the foot of a cliff on that river founded Quebec. Seven years after, he brought four Recollet monks; and through them and the Jesuita the discoveries already narrated orrorred. Champlain died in 1635, one hundred years after Cartier's first visit, but not until he had explored the northern lakes as far as Lake Huron, on whose rocky shores he, as the progenitor of' n mighty mace to follow, set his feet. Ile, with others, hold to the idea that somewhere across the country, a river highway extended to the Western The reports from the missions whoso history has been given aided this belief; and not until Marquette and Juliet returned was the delu- rion in any way dispelled. Before this was done, however, the man to whom reference has been : I. Robert Cavalier, better known as La Salle, hned endeavored to solve the mystery, and, while Jning on his grant of luund eight miles above Montreal, had indeed effected important discoveries.

La Salle, the next actor in the field of explor- ntion after Champlain, was born in 1643. His father's family was among the old and wealthy burghers of Rouen, France, and its members WIT quently entrusted with important govern- mental positions. Hle carly exhibited such traits of character ns to mark him among his associates. Coming from a wealthy family, he enjoyed all the advantages of his day, and received, for the times, an excellent education. He was a Catholic, though his subsequent life does not prove him to have been a religious enthusiast. From some enuse, he joined the Order of Loyola, but the cir- cumscribed sphere of action set for him in the order illy concurred with his independent dis- position, and led to his separation from it. This was effected, however, in a good spirit, as they

considered him fit for a different field of action than any presented by the order. Having a brother in Canada, a member of the order of St. Sulpice, he determined to join him. By his connection with the Jesuits he had lost his share of his father's estate, but, by some means, on his death, which occurred about this time, he was given a small share; and with this, in 1666, he arrived in Montreal. All Canada was alive with the news of the explorations; and La" Salle's mind, actively grasping the ideas he afterward carried out, began to mature plans for their perfection. At Montreal he found a semi- nary of priests of the St. Sulpice Order who were encouraging settlers by grants of land on easy terms, hoping to establish a barrier of settlements between themselves and the Indians, made ene- mics to the French by Champlain's actions when founding Quebec. The Superior of the seminary, learning of LaSalle's arrival, gratuitously offered him a grant of land on the St. Lawrence, eight miles above Montreal. The grant, though danger- ously near the hostile Indians, was accepted, and La Salle soon enjoyed an excellent trade in furs. While employed in developing his claim, he learned of the great unknown route, and burned with a desire to solve its existence. He applied himself closely to the study of Indian dialects, and in three years is said to have made great progress in their language. While on his farm his thoughts often turned to the unknown land away to the west, and, like all men of his day, hc desired to explore the route to the Western sca, and thence obtain an casy trade with China and Japan. The "Great River, which flowed to the sca," must, thought they, find an outlet in the Gulf of California. While musing on these things, Marquette and Jolict were preparing to descend the Wisconsin; and LaSalle himself learned from a wandering band of Senccas that a river, called the Ohio, arose in their country and flowed to the sca, but at such a distance that it would require eight months to reach its mouth. This must be the Great River, or a part of it: for all geographers of the day considered the Mississippi and its tributary as one stream. Plac- ing great confidence on this hypothesis, La Salle repaired to Quebec to obtain the sanction of Gov. Courcelles. His plausible statements soon won him the Governor and M. Talon, and letters patent were issued granting the exploration. No pecuniary aid was offered, and La Sium, at ing expended all his means in improving his

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History of Knox County, Ohio, its past and present, Part 4

Author: Hill, N. N. (Norman Newell), comp; Graham, A. A. (Albert Adams), 1848-; Graham, A.A. & Co., Mt. Vernon, Ohio Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Mt. Vernon, Ohio : A. A. Graham & Co. Number of Pages: 1096

Author: Hill, N. N. (Norman Newell), comp; Graham, A. A. (Albert Adams), 1848-; Graham, A.A. & Co., Mt. Vernon, Ohio
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Mt. Vernon, Ohio : A. A. Graham & Co.
Number of Pages: 1096