USA > Wisconsin > Grant County > History of Grant County, Wisconsin > Part 63
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
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 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105 | Part 106 | Part 107 | Part 108 | Part 109 | Part 110 | Part 111 | Part 112 | Part 113 | Part 114 | Part 115 | Part 116 | Part 117 | Part 118 | Part 119 | Part 120 | Part 121 | Part 122 | Part 123 | Part 124 | Part 125 | Part 126 | Part 127 | Part 128 | Part 129 | Part 130 | Part 131 | Part 132 | Part 133 | Part 134 | Part 135 | Part 136 | Part 137 | Part 138 | Part 139 | Part 140 | Part 141 | Part 142 | Part 143 | Part 144 | Part 145 | Part 146 | Part 147 | Part 148 | Part 149 | Part 150 | Part 151 | Part 152 | Part 153 | Part 154 | Part 155 | Part 156 | Part 157 | Part 158 | Part 159 | Part 160 | Part 161 | Part 162 | Part 163 | Part 164 | Part 165
About the same time Walter Cunningham, who, says Mr. Houghton, had been appointed to investigate the Superior copper mines, returned from a tour through that region and estab- lished himself here with Flanagan. From this time, the regulations required the miners to pay the rent " not to exceed 6 per cent of the ore or its equivalent in metal," but in practice, it is said, the rent that was collected was generally paid through the smelters, as formerly.
Flanagan, his associate, Cunningham, and a clerk named Couroddy, by their associations and habits rendered themselves exceedingly odious to the people. Flanagan commenced a large number of suits against individuals for arrears of rent, and compromised them for what he could get in cash, but, it is said, made no returns to the Government of his collections -- defrauding the people and the Government at the same time. He was accustomed to say to the people that the " Government must be paid first," and his arrogant declaration to smelters and others that "I :um the Government," sufficiently indicates his character and the disposition he made of his col- lections. If he was "the Government," there was no necessity of making returns to anybody, and none were known to be made by him. Complaints of his high-handed proceedings reached Washington, and in 1843, Mr. Wann states, Capt. - Bell, stationed at St. Louis, was ordered by the Secretary of War to Galena, to investigate Flanagan's administration. He came, but re- mained but a few days, dismissed Flanagan and placed Maj. Thomas Mellville, of Galena, in charge of the office, temporarily, until reports could be made to the War Department, and a Superintendent should be appointed. The next year, 1844, according to the best information to be obtained, John G. Floyd, of Virginia, was appointed to the office. Mr. Floyd made an effort to enforce the collection of rent, and in some measure succeeded, but was removed in 1845, at the instance of Hon. Joseph P. Hoge, then member of Congress for this (then Sixth) District, and James A. Mitchel was appointed as his successor, who remained until the office was finally discontinued, about 1847, when the lands were thrown into the market. Practically, however, the office was little more than nominal after the resignation of Capt. Legate, in 1836. Under the pre-emption law, a large amount of mineral lands had been entered. Settlers were required to make oath that no mineral was being dug on the lands they desired to enter, and this re- quirement was easily evaded.
The people generally considered the agency as an imposition, and it was impossible to secure the implicit obedience to the rule of the superintendent that obtained in the days of Thomas and Legate. The experiment of reviving the office was not a success. The Govern- ment found upon trial that, instead of being a source of revenue, the management of the lead mines produced constant drafts upon the Treasury, and at last, after the settlers had petitioned in vain for years, early in the session of 1846-47, Congress authorized the sale of the lands. A
420
HISTORY OF THE LEAD REGION.
receiver was appointed, and by the 5th day of April, 1847, says Seymour, "land to the amount of $127,700 had been sold at ininimum prices, $1.25 per acre for farming, and $2.50 per acre for mineral lands, and the days of governmental supervision or ownership of the lead mines ended.
The amount of lead shipped from various ports on the Mississippi, principally from Galena, for nine years prior to the discovery of gold in 1849, and the estimated value thereof, is as follows :
1841-31,696,980 pounds, valued at $3 per hundred $950,909 40
Small bars and shot valued at. 31,433 50
Total.
$982,842 90
1842-31,407,530 pounds at $2.75@$3 per hundred $ 746,296 46
1843-39,461,171 pounds at $2.37} per hundred. 937,202 00
1844-43,722,070 pounds at $2.82} per hundred. 1,235,148 47
1845-54,492,200 pounds at $3.00 per hundred 1,634,766 00
1846-51,268,200 pounds at $2.90 per hundred. 1,486,778 09
1847-54,085,920 pounds at $3.00 per hundred. 1,622,577 60
1848-47,737,830 pounds at $3.50 per hundred 1,670,824 95
1849-44,025,380 pounds at $3.62} per hundred 1,595,920 02
In 1849, the gold discoveries in California disturbed " the even balance of ordinary busi- ness operations " in the lead-mining district. The tide of immigration that had been directed to this region, was diverted to the Pacific Coast, and a large number of miners and business men, dazzled by the glitter of California gold, left to seek their fortunes on the slopes of the Sierra Nevada. Large amounts of real estate, covered by valnable improvements, were forced into market and sold at nominal prices, to obtain the means wherewith to remove to California. Enormous "rates were paid for money, and a large amount of capital was withdrawn from the usual channels of trade ; improvements commenced or contemplated, were suspended or delayed, and the heavy emigration from the lead to the gold mining region was seriously felt. A large number of men usually engaged in prospecting, and by whom new and important discoveries had been constantly made, were no longer here, and operations were principally confined for a time to old "leads." But in compensation for this, the price of mineral advanced to $28 per thousand (it had at some periods been as low as $8 or $9, and was seldom higher than $22), and this advance caused operations to be renewed in diggings that had been abandoned as too unpro- ductive to be remunerative. Writing in 1850, in discussing the effect of the " gold fever," Mr. Seymour says : " Although lead is one of the baser metals, and does not strike the imagi- nation like pure gold dug from the bowels of the earth, yet it immediately becomes gold in the pockets of the miner, for nothing but gold is given in exchange for it by the smelter, and it is always in great demand at the market price. If enterprising men were willing to undergo here half the privations and sufferings which they endure by a journey to California and hard labor in the gold mining, their happiness and prosperity would probably be as well promoted by their pecuniary success, saying nothing of the extreme perils thereby avoided, and the painful disrup- tion of domestic ties, so common to this class of emigrants."
CHARLES BRACKEN'S SKETCH.
In 1859, Hon. Charles Bracken prepared an historic statement of the early times in the lead region for the purpose of influencing a Congressional grant of lands for railroad purposes. So far as these annals are concerned, the value of the document lies in the expression of facts, and also in the report thereto appended, giving a list of those who mined prior to 1830, and paid rent to the Government as well as tribute to the Indians. Mr. Bracken wrote :
" At a treaty held by Gen. William H. Harrison with the Sac and Fox Indians, at St. Louis, on the 3d day of November, 1804, those Indians sold to the United States all the land east of the Mississippi River, extending from the mouth of the Illinois River to the mouth of the Wisconsin River, including the lead mines east of the Mississippi. Another treaty was held on
421
HISTORY OF THE LEAD REGION.
the 24th of August, 1816, at Fort Crawford (St. Louis), between the United States representa- tives, Gov. Edwards, Gen. Clark and Mr. Choteau, and the Ottawa, Chippewa and Pottawatomie Indians. The Indians then proved, to the satisfaction of the Commissioners, that the country sold to Gen. William H. Harrison did not belong to the Sacs and Foxes alone, but was jointly the country of the Ottawas, Chippewas, Pottawatomies, Winnebagoes and Pottawatomies of the Illinois. The Winnebagoes were not parties to this treaty, and, as a result, the Govern- ment ceded to them all the country lying north of a line running west from the southerly bend of Lake Michigan to the Mississippi, reserving, however, a quantity of land north of that line equal to five leagues square, to be laid in such tract or tracts as the President of the United States might deem proper. Some six years after the ratification of that treaty, the President, acting under authority vested in him by the act of March 3, 1807, which authorized him to lease the salt springs and lead mines belonging to the Government, directed the Secretary of War to lease the lead mines. Acting under this order, Col. Bomford, of the Ordnance Bureau, on the 15th day of June, 1822, advertised in the principal newspapers throughout the United States that proposals would be received for leasing any land of the Government containing lead mines. Col. James Johnson, of Kentucky, responded to the notice, and became a lessee of the Govern- ment for the lead mines of the Upper Mississippi, and was the first person to come into the country for the purpose of mining under Government auspices. He proceeded with keel-boats to Fever River, where, although accompanied by Maj. Forsythe, the Indian agent at Rock Island, his landing was resisted by the Winnebago Indians (who had assembled in arms to resist the landing of any white men, saying that the Sacs, Foxes, Ottawas, Chippewas and Pottawat- omies had received presents and payments for lands which belonged to them, and that they never sold to the United States). After Mr. Johnson had counseled with the Indians for several days, and made them presents of merchandise and provisions, they consented to his landing and min- ing and smelting in their country. Others received similar leases and followed him, and the result was that, at the time of the treaty of Prairie du Chien, in 1829, when the Indian title to the country was extinguished, the miners had dispossessed the Indians of every foot of land where there were indications of lead ore. In thus taking possession of the rich mineral lands belonging to the Winnebago Indians, they carried out the object of the Government, as evinced by the clause of the treaty at Fort Edwards, in 1816, which authorized the President to reserve a quantity of land equal to two hundred and twenty-five sections in their country. As the quantity of land covered by a smelting lease was limited to three hundred and twenty acres, or cne-half section, the entire quantity reserved would authorize four hundred and fifty leases, and the Government well knew that, when that number of her citizens were dotted over those lands, the country was virtually lost to the Indians forever, and the result proved the correctness of this conclusion.
"It cannot be shown by any record, that a tract of land five leagues square, or any less in quantity, was ever officially located or reserved, as provided for in the treaty at Fort Howard, in 1816; but, under the orders of the Superintendent of the Lead-Mine District of the Upper Mis- sissippi, surveys were made for licensed smelters, covering a half-section of timbered land each. It appears that no record was kept of such surveys; yet, in every instance where a lease was granted a survey was made, and, as timber was necessary for smelting purposes, these surveys were always made in groves where plenty of wood could be obtained. It may be assumed, that, although there was no record kept, as the surveys were made under the direction of the Presi- dent, and had metes and bounds regularly established, they must necessarily be considered as a part of the reserve under the treaty ; yet, that position would not affect the miners' claims seriously, for in no instance was the mineral smelted taken from the timbered surveys ; it was taken from the adjoining prairie lands, which were undoubtedly the property of the Indians. So well was this understood by the miners and smelters that, at a very early day, they refused to pay rent for the lead dug and smelted from the Indian lands. The consequence was, in the spring of 1825, troops were ordered from Fort Armstrong (Rock Island) to force the payment of the rent. Against this military exaction the smelters strongly protested.
-
4:22
IIISTORY OF THE LEAD REGION.
"Up to the year 1825, the country east of the Mississippi, lying between the Rock and Wis- consin Rivers, and extending north to Lake Winnebago, was claimed conjointly by the Ottawas, Chippewas, Winnebagoes and Pottawatomies of the Illinois. The Winnebagoes, it will be remem- bered, were not parties to the treaty of 1816, at Fort Howard, and they were the actual occupants of the land around Fever River, and who resisted the landing of Col. Johnson. Previous to his arrival, Van Matre, Shull and others, who were licensed as Indian traders, also mined and smelted in the country. They were tolerated in this because they were married to Indian women, not because they had any recognized right to do so, conferred by the Government. But, after the arrival of Johnson, all who were smelting in the country were compelled to take out licenses and pay rent to the Government.
" At the treaty coneluded at Prairie du Chien, on the 19th day of August, 1825, known as the 'Treaty of Limits,' the seventh and ninth articles divided the mining country on the east of the Mississippi between the Chippewas, Winnebagoes, Ottawas, and the Chippewas and Pottawatomies of the Illinois, and, by the tenth article of the treaty, the United States solemnly establishes and recognizes the boundaries.
" In the summer of 1827, the Winnebago chief, Red Bird, attacked some keel-boats on the Mississippi, above Prairie du Chien, and killed some of the hands .*
"Previous to that time no attempt had been made by the miners to cross the boundary line established in 1825,* but then a military expedition was sent against the Winnebagoes to capture Red Bird. The miners who accompanied the expedition discovered numerous indications of mineral, and in the fall of 1827 a number of them prospected in the country, and a valuable discovery of mineral deposit was found near Dodgeville (in Iowa County). During the following year other mines were discovered.
" The miners purchased the right to mine here from the Indians, and, therefore, when called upon by the Superintendent of the lead mines, refused to pay rent to the Government. The consequence was, troops were ordered out from Fort Crawford (Prairie du Chien), to remove the miners from the Winnebago country. To avoid this issue, the miners finally consented to take out leases and pay rent to the Government, and did, therefore, actually pay two duties for the privilege of mining-one to the Indians to keep them quiet, and one to the Government to prevent expulsion.
" The Winnebagoes never consented to the reservation with the other tribes who made the treaties of 1804 and 1816, although they were, as shown, part owners of the country; neither can any evidence be adduced showing that the reservation provided for in the treaty of 1816, was ever located, except in the matter of timber surveys before mentioned. * * *
" When the first leases were granted, in 1822, the Fever River mines were fully 300 miles beyond the border settlements, and the Mississippi was the only thoroughfare into the country, and keel boats the only means of transportation. The consequence was that the necessary implements for mining purposes, as well as the necessaries of life, were taken to the mines at an enormous expense. For years the prosperity of the mines was retarded because the Government discountenaneed any attempts, at agriculture; the agents assuming that the fencing of farms would consume timber needed for smelting purposes. At first the ore was smelted in log furnaces, and thereby a heavy loss was sustained. For two seasons the mining and smelting operations were suspended, and great sacrifices were made by the miners in defending the country against the Indians. The miners, at a great loss in the expenditure of time and labor and money, and though suffering the worst dangers and deprivations that are to be met with on the frontier, opened this portion of the country to a permanent settlement. The expenditures of Col. Johnson alone amounted to $10,000."
*See "Winnebago War," in County History .- En.
*Thie le clearly a miastatement, since evidences of white occupation north of the present Illinois boundary are abundant .- En.
423
HISTORY OF THE LEAD REGION.
THOSE WHO SMELTED PRIOR TO 1830.
The list referred to, as showing the names of smelters, and the amount of rent lead collected by them prior to January 1, 1830, is here given. The rent was one-tenth :
G. W. Anderson
10,551
George E. Jackson
6,560
Gabriel Bailey.
10.900
Richard H. Kirkpatrick
42,809
J. J. Kirkpatrick.
2,339
D. G. Bates.
111,993
P. A. Lorimer
102,596
Bates & Van Matre.
37,809
P. H. Lebranm
45,392
Nehemiah Bates.
E. Lockwood.
133,576
Oliver Cottle
31,214
John McDonald
31,852
Ira Cottle
William Muldrow
32,618
Robert Collet ..
13,415
L. R. M. Moran
22,132
M. C. Comstock
262,476
James Morrison.
17,885
Henry Dodge.
31,661
Moses Meeker.
144,591
M. Detandbaritz.
91,966
J. Messersmith.
2,018
James B. Estes
4,760
Abel Moran.
64,693
James Frazier.
15,333
W. J. Madden
13,638
Abner Flack
4,530
R. H. Magoon.
57,207
B. Firmen ..
40,687
H. Newhall.
14,552
Thomas W. Floyd.
1,802
John Phelps.
22,226
J. P. B. & H. Gratiot
607,320
Alexis Phelps
24,426
Gratiot & Tury.
15,843
W. A. Phelps
95
J. Gale ..
4,189
J. Perry
9,121
Richard Gentry
38,252
J. H. Ronutree.
11,270
R. P. Guyard.
6,274
J. B. Skinner.
12,941
Allen Hill.
2,066
F. D. Slayton.
14,491
Robert A. Heath
27,032
William H. Smith
51,539
A. E. Hough
Washington Smith.
8,038
William Hempstead.
35,628
William Tate.
11,002
Joseph Hardy.
107,492
John Tompkins.
2.821
William S. Hamilton.
25,60I
J. E. Tholozan.
50,712
A. R. How.
10,032
A. P. Van Matre
12,869
Isaac Hamilton
33,786
Robert Waller
6,487
George Hacket.
4,163
W. Wayman.
3,016
Thomas Jenkins.
19,897
George W. Jones.
85,981
Total mineral taxed.
2,983,107
A. D. Johnson.
2,525
POLITICAL HISTORY OF THE DISTRICT.
The legislative actions by which the mining district has been geographically changed, may be briefly and appropriately stated here, at the risk of repeating certain statements given in the general history which opens this volume.
The ordinance of 1787 provided that not less than three, nor more than five, States were to be erected out of the territory northwest of the Ohio River. Three States were to include the whole territory, and these States were to be bounded on the north by the British Possessions ; but Congress reserved the right, if it should be found expedient, to form two more States of that part of the territory which lies north of an east-and-west line drawn through the southern extremity of Lake Michigan.
It is not necessary to trace the various changes of territorial jurisdiction to which Illinois, and especially its northwestern portion, was subjected, until the admission of the State into the Union in 1818. During all that time this section of the country was inhabited only by Indi- ans, and this whole region was claimed by them. In 1804, the Sacs and Foxes, then a power- ful tribe, by a treaty made at St. Louis with Gen. Harrison, then Governor of the Territory of Indiana, ceded to the United States all their lands lying east of the Mississippi; but Black Hawk and other chiefs who were not present at St. Louis, refused to be bound by it. All the territory north of the line drawn west from the southern extremity of Lake Michigan to the
9,543
Hardy & Catron
J. Yountz.
5,027
L. Collier ..
11,680
James Murphy.
101,788
52,303
36,706
John Bowles
57.240
38,690
424
HISTORY OF THE LEAD REGION.
Mississippi was in the undisputed possession of the native tribes, when the State of Illinois was: erected, in 1818, except a tract about five leagues square on the Mississippi, of which Fever River was about the center, which, by treaty with various tribes in 1816, the United States Gov- ernment had reserved, ostensibly for a military post, but really to control the lead mines. The Government had had knowledge for many years of the existence of lead mines here, but their location was not known, and it was thought that all would be included within the limits of the reservation. The Government designed to own and hold exclusive control of these mines.
In January, 1818, the Territorial Legislature of Illinois, assembled at Kaskaskia, peti- tioned Congress for the admission of the Territory as a sovereign State, with a population of 40,000.
The petition was sent to Nathaniel Pope, the Territorial Delegate, by whom it was promptly presented, and it was referred to the proper committee, which instructed Mr. Pope to prepare and report a bill in accordance with its prayer. The bill, as drawn in accordance with these instructions, did not embrace the present area of Illinois, and, when it was reported to Congress, certain amendments proposed by Mr. Pope were reported with it. It was generally supposed that the line established by the ordinance of 1787, namely, the line drawn through the southern part of Lake Michigan, west to the Mississippi, was to be the northern boundary of the new State. But this, if adopted, would have left the port of Chicago in the Territory of Michigan, as well as all the territory now embraced within the limits of fourteen rich and populous counties in Northern Illinois. A critical examination of the ordinance, however, convinced Mr. Pope that Congress had the power, and could rightfully extend the northern boundary of the State as far beyond the line provided in 1787 as it pleased. The principal amendments proposed by Mr. Pope, therefore, were, first, that the northern boundary of the new State should be extended to the parallel of 42 deg. 30 min. north latitude-this would give a good harbor on Lake Michi- gan ; and secondly, more important than the boundary line, to apply the 3 per cent fund arising from the sale of public lands to educational purposes, instead of making roads, as had been the case in Ohio and Indiana. These amendments were adopted without serious opposition, and Illinois was declared an independent State.
These important changes in the original bill, says Mr. Ford in his History of Illinois, "were proposed and carried through both houses of Congress by Mr. Pope on his own respon- sibility. The Territorial Legislature had not petitioned for them-no one had suggested them, but they met the general approval of the people." The change of the boundary line, however, suggested to Mr. Pope-from the fact that the boundary as defined by the ordinance of 1787, would have left Illinois without a harbor on Lake Michigan-did not meet the unqualified approval of the people in the northwestern part of the new State. For many years the northern boundary of the State was not definitely known, and the settlers in the northern tier of counties did not know whether they were in Illinois or Michigan Territory. Under the provisions of the ordinance of 1787, Wisconsin at one time laid claim to a portion of Northern Illinois, "in- cluding," says Mr. Ford, writing in 1847, "fourteen counties embracing the richest and most populous part of the State." October 27, 1827, nine years after the admission of the State, Dr. Horatio Newhall, who had then recently arrived at the Fever River Settlement, wrote to his brother as follows : "It is uncertain whether I am in the boundary of Illinois or Michigan, but direct your letters to Fever River, Ill., and they will come safely." In October, 1828, a petition was sent to Congress from the people of that part of Illinois lying north of the line established by the ordinance of 1787, and that part of the Territory of Michigan west of Lake Michigan, and comprehending the mining district known as the Fever River Lead Mines, pray- ing for the formation of a new Territory. A bill had been introduced at the previous session of Congress for the establishment of a new Territory north of the State of Illinois, to be called "Huron Territory," upon which report had been made, in part, favorable to the wishes of the petitioners, but they asked for the re establishment of the line as ordained by Congress in 1787. They declared " that the people inhabiting the territory northwest of the Ohio had a right to expect that the country lying north of an east-and-west line passing through the southernmost
425
HISTORY OF THE LEAD REGION.
end of Lake Michigan, to the Mississippi River, and between said lake, the Mississippi and the Canada line, would REMAIN TOGETHER " as a Territory and State. They claimed that this was a part of the compact, unchangeably granted by the people of the original States to the people who should inhabit the "territory northwest of the Ohio." They declared that the change of the chartered limits, when Illinois was made a State, was open invasion of their rights in a body when they were unrepresented in either territory ; that "an unrepresented people, without their knowledge or consent, have been transferred from one sovereignty to another." They urged that the present " division of the miners by an ideal line, separating into different governments individuals intimately connected in similar pursuits, is embarrassing. They asked for "even- handed justice," and the restoration of their "chartered limits." The Miners' Journal, of October 25, 1828, which contains the full text of the petition, says : " We do not fully agree with the memorialists in petitioning Congress again to dispose of that tract of country which has once been granted to Illinois ; but we think that it would be for the nterest of the miners to be erected, together with the adjoining county above, into a separate Territory. And we firmly believe, too, that Congress departed from the clear and express terms of their own ordinance passed in the year 1787, when they granted to the State of Illinois nearly a degree and a half of latitude of the CHARTERED LIMITS of this country. Whether Congress will annex this tract to the new Territory, we much doubt, but we believe the ultimate decision of the United States Court will be, that the northern boundary line of the State of Illi- nois shall commence at the southernmost end of Lake Michigan." The petition was unavailing, and the northern line of Illinois remains unchanged, but the agitation of the subject by the people of this region continued. In 1840, the people of the counties north of the ordinance line sent delegates to a convention held at Rockford to take action in relation to the annexation of the tract north of that line to Wisconsin Territory, and it is said the scheme then discussed embraced an effort to make Galena the capital of the Territory. Resolutions were adopted requesting the Senators and Representatives in Congress for Illinois to exert their influence in favor of the project. The labors of the convention produced no results ; but, until the admission of Wiscon- sin as a State, there was a strong feeling among the people of Northwestern Illinois that they rightfully belonged to Wisconsin, and there was a strong desire to be restored to their chartered limits. Perhaps the heavy debt with which Illinois was burdened at that time may have had some influence in causing the feeling.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.