Grundy County, Illinois - Chapter with an unread heading (no. 1 of those read), 1882

Chapter with an unread heading (no. 1 of those read)

THE relation of the physical features of a country to its development is an important one, and he who would learn the hidden Causes that make or mar a nation at its birth must seek in these " the divinity that shapes its ends." Here is found the elixir vitce of national life ; the sjn-ing from whence flow those forces that on their broader current wreck the ship of state or bear it safely on to its appointed haven. It is in these physical features that are stored those potent industrial possibilities that make the master and the slave among the nations. From the fertile soil comes fruit-laden, peace-loving agriculture; from the rock-bound stores of mineral wealth springs the rude early-time civilization of the Pacific slope, or the half savage clashing of undisciplined capital and labor in the mining regions ; from the rivers rises, fairjdike, the commercial metropolis, which " crowned with the glory of the mountains," and fed with the bounty of the plains, stands the chosen arbiter between the great forces that join to make a nation's greatness. The intluence of this subtle power knows no bounds. Here it

The manifestations of this potent factor in human economy are scarcely less marked in the smaller divisions of the State, and in them is found the natural introduction to a consideration of a county's social, political and military history.

Grundy County, situated in the northeastern part of the State of Illinois, is bounded on the north by Kendall, on the east by Will and Kankakee, on the south by Livingston, and on the west by La Salle. It includes twelve townships, or about 420 square miles, forming a rectangle of twenty-four miles lotig and about seventeen and a half miles wide. Of this, about two thirds is slightly rulling prairie, and the balance mostly well timbered creek banks and river bottoms.

a W. S. W. course, with but little variation. Its principal atlluent on the south is Mazon Creek, which drains fully one third of Grundy, and portions of Livingston, Kankakee and "Will Counties. Its principal water supply is from surface drainage, but few springs being found along its course. From this character, one would readily predicate the truth that a very wet season often causes it to overflow its banks, though twenty feet or more in height, while a dry one leaves its bed bare, except where deep pools have formed.

A few miles west of the Mazon is the Waupecan, draining a comparatively small extent of country ; but in an ordinary season, carrying nearly as much water, the product of several strong springs on the lower part of its course - some of them from the drift, others from the sandstones and shales of the Coal Measures, which show a small outcrop here. Still farther to the westward, are Billy Run, Hog Run, and Armstrong Run, which are simply ]irairie drains, and show no outcrop of rocks. Nettle Creek, on the north side of the river, is principally of the same character ; but in the lower part of its course, there are a few springs, and two or three outcrops of the shales and sandstones which overlie the lower coal. Finally, in the northeast corner of the county is the Au Sable Creek, with a comparatively large amount of water, partly derived from springs and partly from drainage of this and Kendall County.

Of the post-tertiary formations, the beds of the alluvium formation are very largely developed in the terraces of the river valley and the beds of the smaller streams. From the west line of the county nearly to Au Sable Creek, the Illinois and Michigan canal follows the north bank of the present river valley pretty closely, while the second terrace varies from half a mile to two miles to the northward. On the south side of the river the higli, gravelly banks of the second terrace hug the river banks very closely, as far as the Waupecan Creek. Here they lose mucli of their elevation, and have as their continuation a low ridge about a mile distant from the present bank. East of Mazon Creek this declines still more and becomes the heavy sand ridge which bears still farther southward and then eastward, south of "Wilmington into Kankakee County. This sand ridge forms the water shed between Mazon Creek and Kankakee River, so that, where it strikes the bank of the latter stream, to the southward of "Wilmington, the water flows from within two hundred yards of the river, through swamps and sloughs and finds its way through the Mazon, into the Illinois, opposite Morris. The flats of the old river valley, back of the present banks, show in many places plain evidence of the comparatively recent date of their formation. On section 11, (in Erienna) town 33 north, range 6 east, a layer of thin slabs of fissile sandstone of the Coal Measures is found a short distance below the surface. They were evidently distributed here by the current of the river, not long before it became so contracted as to leave this level dry. "When this old channel was the outlet of Lake, Michigan, a large body of water must have flowed through here, and appearances seem to indicate that its diversion toward Niagara must have been sudden rather than gradual; otherwise thepresent valley would probably have been wider, and the descent to it less abrupt.

A topographer would take peculiar pleasure in studying the various islands of the old valley, especially at the contlucnces with the Illinois of the Au Sable and Nettle Creeks, both of which streams, apparently, were much larger than at present. Upon one of these islands stands Morris, the county seat. Another, and far the largest in the county, is the high land lying between the head of the Illinois, the lower part of the Kankakee, and the slough which contains Goose Lake, and runs thence to Pine Bluff, near the embouchure of the Mazon, upon the Illinois valley.

The following level points within this county, are gathered princi]>ally from the notes of the Illinois Hiver Survey. The figures indicate distances below the established "datum of six feet below the lowest registered water of Lake Michigan":

These levels show that the elevation of first terrace above the river, opposite Morris, is a little over seventeen feet, and that the elevation of the second bluff or gravel ridge above the first terrace is about eighteen and one half feet.

The coarser portion of the beds of river gravel consists mostly of fragments of the Niagara group limestone, which forms so heavy beds, from below Joliet to Chicago and beyond. Much of the sand is probably due to the disintegration of the Coal Measure sandstones, while some of it may have come from the northward. There is, however, in these beds, but a very small proportion of the metaraorphic material from Canada, which forms so large a part of the true drift, but upon, the surface of the soil, and often partially buried, are great numbers of small boulders of quartzite, gneiss, granite and trap, unquestionably of northern origin. These are especially abundant south of Goose Lake, over the surface of the valley which starts from the Kankakee, near the county line, includes Goose Lake, and joins the Illinois valley near where the Mazon first strikes the bottoms. This was probably a shallow channel, in which floating fields of ice lodged, melted and dropped the loads of stone which they had brought from the northward. Similar aggregations of boulders occur in the adjacent parts of Will County, at points where eddies would have been likely to detain the ice floes. It is suspected that this Goose Lake channel was formerly the main channel of the Kankakee, which there met the Des Plaines only four miles above Morris.

The bed of " potter's clay," worked near the southwest bank of Goose Lake, and lying " near the level of the fire clay," owes its origin and deposition to river action, though principally consisting of the decomposed shales and fire clays of the Coal Measures.

During the autumn of 1868 the remains of a Mastodon were found at Turners strippings, about three miles eastof Morris, under eighteen inches of black mucky soil, and about four feet of yellowish loam, and resting on about a foot of hard blue clay, which covered the coal. The bones were badly decayed, and most of them were broken up and thrown away by the miners; a portion were saved, however, of which a fra^jineiit of a lower jaw, apart of a thigh bone, three teeth, and a few small bones were presented to the State Cabinet. The locality is a portion of the old river bottom, but it is uncertain, from the lack of scientific investigation at the time, whether to believe that the presence of the bones indicates that the animal was mired and died liere, or to suppose that the carcass was deposited here by the river.

The Coal Measure rocks of this county are too soft and too readily' disintegrated to allow of the preservation of any scratches that may, at any time, have been impressed upon their surface; so that, although we find in the gravel very numerous scratched and polished pebbles and boulders, it is within only a very small area that striated and polished rock surfaces have been noticed. In the S. E. quarter of Sec. 23, township 34: north, range 7 east, (Saratoga) at "Walter's quarry of Trenton limestone, smoothly polished surfaces have been frequently met with; so in one or two other localities. As these localities, however, are all within the old river valley, we can not, with certainty, predicate upon these facts the conclusion that those scratchings and polishings are attributable to glacial action. In fact, these and some other circumstances give some reason for assuming that they are results of river action alone. At Petty 's shaft, the outer portion of the shale next to the creek banks, is found broken up for several feet, and thoroughly mingled with the drifted materials which here form an overlying bank of about fifteen feet. This disturbance, as well as the grinding of the surface, may fairly be attributed to the action of the creek while at its former level. But, while allowing that, in these particular cases, river agencies are sufficient to account for all observed phenoinciia, the frequent occurrence in the Drift of gravel of large and small boulders unquestionably plantd and striated by glacial action must also be recorded. These are especially abundant along the Mazon.

The True Drift, in the western part of the county consists, mainly, of the tough blue " boulder clay," with pebbles and boulders, sometimes also including fragments of wood, overlaid but slightly, or not at all, with gravel, and underlaid, so far as known, with a bed of " hard-pan," and a water-bearing quicksand which has thus far prevented any knowledge of the underlying materials. The eastern part of the county, on the contrary, shows but little boulder clay, this being replaced by a heavy layer of sand and gravel. Township 34 north, range 6 east, (Xettle Creek) has no known outcrop of rock, and wells near its south line have reached depths of fortyeight, fifty and fifty-two feet, before meeting the quicksand. Townships 31 and 32, (Highland and Vienna) of the same range, and so much of 33 as lies south of the river, (Norman) together with townships 31 aiul 32, range 7 east, (Goodfarm and Mazon) possess no outcrop of rock, but the depth of the Drift is not known. At Gardner, in section 9, township 31 north, range 8 east, (Greenfield), the Drift is said to be one hundred feet deep at the coal shaft. At Braceville, section 25, township 32 north, range 8 east, it was found to be forty-four feet deep. Going northward into township 33, in ranges 7 and 8, (Wauponsee and Feli.\,) it rapidly thins out, owing partly to the downward slope of the surface, partly to the upward slope of the iinderl}'- ing rocks, "vvhieli come to the surface in the northern part of these townships. Much of the " coal land " in the immediate neighhorhood of Morris is bare of drift, having been stripped by the old river. To the northward, however, through township 34 north, range 7 east, the gravel and boulder clay lie, in some places, forty feet deep. Township 3i north, range 8 east, is deeply buried in Drift; at Minooka, on the line between sections 1 and 2, a well-boring found one hundred feet of gravel overlying the shaly limestone of the Cincinnati Group.

Of the rock formations, tlie beds of the coal measures occupy far the larger part of tlie surface of the county. The outcrops, however, are so disconnected, and the beds so irregular, that it has been found practically impossible to construct any general section to represent connectedly all the outcrop. Apparently tlie higher beds exposed in the county are those which outcrop near the old coal openings on the Waupecan, in the southeast quarter of section 20, township 33 north, range 7 east, (Wauponsee). No outcrop of beds above the coal has been discovered, nor has any been seen in the deeper parts of the mine. Near the outcrop a foot of coal was left as a working roof. The seam is now five feet thick, resting on a bed of lire clay. It is coal No. 4 of the Illinois section. The connection below is not exposed, but at a short distance from the floor of the seam, not over ten feet, there is a coarse, ferruginous, shaly sandstone, filled with fragments of Lepidodendron, Calamites, Neuropterls hirsida^ etc., with an occasional streak of coaly matter. Of this bed, there is a low, nearly continuous outcrop for a mile up the stream, the last spot observed being at " Hog-grove quarry," in the southwest quarter of section 28. At the road crossing, about half a mile down the creek from the coal mine, tlie sandstone rises a little, and exposes about six feet of bine and black shales filled with a variety of small mollusca. The lower part of the blue shale holds two thin layers of rusty brown nodules of carbonate of iron, which often, partially or wholl}', include shells of these mollusca. Tiie upper part of the black shale also contains nodules of the same material (with probably some phosphate of lime) but smaller and less evenly distributed; the smaller of these contain comminuted scales and bones of fishes, and judging from both form and contents, are probably the fossil excrement of larger fishes. These beds, with others, outcrop at intervals for about' a mile along the right bank of the stream ; and the following section will fairly represent the whole :

Another outcrop, on nearly the same horizon, occurs on Mazon creek from the center of the south line of southwest quarter of section 6, township 32 north, range 8 east (Braceville), to near the center of the south line of section 2.5, (Wauponsee). The strata are here very irregular in tliickness, but the following section gives an average representation of the exposed outcrop:

Small quantities of coal have been mined at this seam at several points along the limited outcrop. The coal is said to be good liouse-fuel, but rather soft. The argillaceous limestone of No. 5, of this section generally contains numerous shells of the genera Productus, Athyris, Terebratula, etc., and some fragments of criniods. The coal apparently holds the position of the thin coal which locally underlies No. 56 of the La Salle County section.

The outcrop along the Mazon appears nearly continuous, but still I have not been able to satisfy myself as to the connection of the above beds with those of the lower part of the stream. The strata, there developed, consist of very variable sandy clay shales and sandstones, in some places becoming nearly pure clay shales, but containing many nodules of carbonate of iron. Pine Elufi', at the lowermost crossing of the Mazon, is composed of about forty feet of heavily bedded, but rather fissile sandstone, partly nearly white, partly highly ferruginous. Less than a mile up the creek the lower part of this bed changes to highly argillaceous sandy shales with occasional streaks and nodules of sandstone. The section is not quite continuous, but there is no distinct line of demarcation to separate these latter beds from the ferruginous sandy shales, twenty to thirty feet thick, of section 24, of township 33 north, range 7 east (Wauponsee), which contain large numbers of fossiliferons nodules of carbonate of iron, for which this locality has become famous. Besides a large variety of ferns mentioned in the State Geological report, these nodules also contain a large numberof fossil insects, marking this as one of the richest deposits of Carboniferous Articulates ever discovered, if not the richest. These nodules range from about two to about ten feet above the main coal seam of all this region, the intervening space being occupied by the soft, blue clay shales, filled with fossil plants, which, at most points, overlie this seam.

About a mile farther up this stream coal has been dug in the beds and banks of the stream, bnt is now abandoned. Still further south, near the soutlieast corner of section 19, township 33 nortli, range 8 east (Felix), a shaft was sunk upon the creek bottom, starting at about twenty-five feet below the general level of the prairie. The section is as follows:

At this place the coal is about eight feet below the bed of the creek. Near the water level, an offshoot from the main seam, about seven inches thick, is exposed in the bank; the shales immediately over it afforded a few plants.

Near the center of section IS, township 33 north, range 8 east (Felix), Mr. John Ilolderman's artesian well furnishes the following section:

It will be noticed that this section gives the sandstone as iininediately overlying the coal. This condition of the seam has been elsewhere noticed, so far as I can learn, only in a shaft snnk near the southeast corner of section 9 of the same township, and in one shaft in the adjoining part of Will Connty.

On the north side of the Illinois Kiver, in the neighborhood of Morris, the coal outcrops in the bank of the canal, and in the Btre'ch of low land, about one mile to the northward. The overlying beds are here mostly bine clay shales, with occasional ii-- regular layers of sandstone. The iron nodnles, above mentioned, occur here at the level, but not in so great numbers as at the Mazon locality. The shales immediately above the coal frequently yield magnificent specimens of fossil ferns and other plants. In the north part of township 33 north, range 6 east (Erienna), the shaly sandstones overlying this seam are exposed in the bottom of every little rnn which cuts away the soil from the edge of the second terrace, and fragments of them are found scattered just below the surface over the ^^-hole lower flat.

It has long been a favorite theory with minors that another seam of coal could be found by sinking shafts in the bottom of the present working. This is not impossible, at points distant from the outcrop; but at Morris, and to the eastward, the coal lies directly upon lower Silurian rocks, with only four or five feet of firm clay to separate them. Tliisis shown at several points.

It was supposed that the coal seam extended, in its full thickness, much further northward; but two wells, one in section 27, and the other in section 13, township

31 north, range 7 east, (Saratoga) after passing through fossiliferons shales which overlie the coal, met with only about ten inches of soft coaly shale, underlaid by a few inches of greenish clay shale, with small rounded grains of calcareous (?) matter, (probably belonging to the Cincinnati group) which rested upon the solid limestones of the Trenton. From these and similar facts is derived the conclusion that the present line of workings corresponds very nearly with the original outline of deposit of the true coal seam, while beyond this line, only occasional small outlying patches will ever be found, though thin layers of coaly shale may be met with some miles further northward. On the Au Sable Creek, a few miles north of the county line, small quantities of coaly shale and cannel-coal have been found, bat they are probably of no practical value, and have no direct connection with the Morris seam.

Upon the lower part of the Au Sable, however, in the southeast quarter of section 19, township 31 north, range 8 east (An Sable), there is a peculiar outcrop of probably the lower seam. We have here a seam of coal twenty-eight inches thick, with a floor of fire clay at least six feet thick, and a roof of black shale, which is, at the outcrop, quite solid and a foot thick, but at the shaft, perhaps fifty yards distant, it thickens to between five and six feet and becomes quite soft. This shale has yielded a few small Discince Lingulw, and a few fragments of fish scales; but these are not sufiicient to determine its position in the series. The bed seems to be but a small outlier, covering only a few acres, as borings to the southward and westward have failed to find any continuation of the bed in these directions, while to the northward and eastward tlie sliales and limestone of the lower Silurian outcrop within a few hundred yards. It seems to be still uncertain whether this is a locally peculiar condition of the main seam, or lies above or below it. If it be the main seam, the black roof sliales are probably tlie equivalent of the bed mentioned in the La Salle County section, as lying tliere about eighteen feet above the coal ; but no other outcrop of it has been seen in this part of Grundy, though" it appears in a shaft in the southeastern corner of the county.

Another peculiar outcrop of uncertain connections is along the Kankakee, from the east line of the county to the " Head of the Illinois," in section 36, township 34 north, range 8 east (Au Sable), where the river has cut through some fifty feet of shales and sandstones of the coal measures, including a thin seam of coal, and has reached the underlying shaly limestone of the Cincinnati group. A few indistinct plants have been met with in the sandstone, but in too poor condition for specific determination. In conclusion, the outline of the Coal Measure in Grundy County may be roughly stated a:i a line running from near the northwest corner of the county, with some variations in an east-southeast course to the mine on Au Sable Creek, just above the railroad; thence southeasterly to the Goose Lake slough, and easterly to the east end of the lake; thence northerly to the mouth of the Kankakee.

Tlie shales and shaly limestones of the Cincinnati group outcrop in the northeastern part of the county, showing most prominently upon the high ground between

Goose Lake and the head of the Illinois. This outcrop consists of coarse granular, highly fossiliferous, ferrnginous limestones, readily disintegrated by the weather, which have been used, to some extent, for fences. This outcrop continues southward for about a mile, and forms the bottom of the north half of Goose Lake, the south half being underlaid with coal. At the ford of the Kankakee, in the northwest quarter of section 36, in Au Sable township, beds of soft blue shal}' limestone, which probably lie near the base of this group, outcrop in the bed of the river, but show little upon the bank, and contain but few and indistinct fossils.

From the bed of the canal, a half mile west of Dresden, there were thrown out considerable quantities of a heavy, but rather cellular ferruginous limestone, in heavy layers, probably belonging below tlie beds mentioned. The outcro]) at this jjoiut did not quite reach the surface. Over most of the country, north of the Illinois, the alluvial and drift deposits cover the country so as to allow of outcrops only along the streams. In ascending the Au Sable Creek from the railroad, the scattered fragments of the shal}' limestones of this group are frequently seen, but no outcrop is met until the middle of section 3 in Au Sable township is reached, where small quantities of stone have been quarried for wells and foundations. From this point there is a nearly continuous outcrop to some distance above the county line.

A small outcrop of rock of this age is exposed in the bed of Collins' run, a branch of the Au Sable, in the southwest quarter of section IS, of the same township. The rock here is a rather more solid limestone, breaking irregularly, and containing but few fossils. It is reported that similar small outcrops occur further up this run, but they have not been 0])ened, so as to kuow whether stoue of any value cau be obtained. Similar outcrops were observed in the bottoms of ditches near the middle of the north line of Saratoga township. In the borings about Morris, only a few feet of beds which can be referred to this group are found between the Coal Measures and the underlying Trenton limestone, and to the northward of that place no such beds have been found.

The two remaining outcrops of rock in this county are limestones of the Trenton group, prob:il)ly near its top. The principal one is near the center of section 2i, township 3-t north, range 7 cast (Saratoga); this rock has been quarried for building purposes and for making'lime. Thetoplayersof theqnaiiy are thin, and somewhat stained with iron. Below these, the rock is lieavily bedded, gray or light drab, tine grained, clinking limestone, not very rich in fossils, butyielding some good specimens of several varieties. This rock iias been penetrated to the depth of twenty feet without e.xposing any other layers; but it is said thatat onepoint the drill passed into a pocket of a softer black material. Possibly this may have been a small deposit of carbonaceous material analagous to the petroleum which this rock has yielded in small quantities in the adjoining county of La Salle. These beds contain small portions of pj'rite [sulphide of iron) disseminated through the whole mass. There were also occasional streaks of soft clay. Tiie quarry has exposed two sets of crevices, one trending south 45° west, and the other south 35" east. These crevices are tilled with a fine clay of very nearly the same color as the limestone, through which are sparsely disseminated small crystals of blende {stdjj/iide of zinc) with occasional pyramidal crystals of pyrite; no galenite has been observed. The remaining outcrops of this rock are in the bed of the Au Sable, on the two sides of the yoke-like bend of the stream, in the east half of the northeast quarter of section 19, in Au Sable township, and consists of small patches of a thin bedded, fine grained limestone, containing but few fossils. In the Morris boring, the Trenton limestone is two hundred feet thick.

St. Peter's sandstone has been struck at the railroad station in Morris, at a depth of 370 feet, and here, as elsewhere in this region, has furnished a constant and abundant supply of artesian water.

The economic geology of this county is quite an important feature, coal, brick and potters' clay, building stone and sand, lime and water being found in abundance, beside In-draulic lime and iron ore in smaller quantities. Coal underlies fully three fourths of the county, the seam averaging about three feet, except on the borders of the field. It has been very largely worked in the immediate vicinity of Morris, upwards of one hundred openings having been made, though a larger part of them at this writing have been abandoned. These are principally shafts from thirty to sixty feet deep, though there are several extensive strippings. Some of the latter uncover coal thirty inches thick, which is about the average thickness in this neighborhood; while others on the borders of the outcrop, find not more than eighteen inches. A smaller cluster of shafts and strippings is found to the south and west of Goose Lake, with average thickness of full thirty inches. At a stripping in the southwest corner of section 12, in Felix township, the bed is locally thickened to over four feet, but contains, near its center, a heavy band of crystalline carbonate of iron and lime, with much disseminated pyrite.

This seam is also worked at Braceville, by a shaft ninety-eight feet deep, and in section 26, of the same township, by a shaft of 110 feet. At Gardner, it is worked by a shaft ICO feet deep. In the southeast corner of this township, three or four shafts, of about sixty feet each, work this seam in its usual condition; but one in the northeast corner of section 25, finds a roof of black slaty shale, with heavy ironstone concretions covering about three feet of a very pure " block coal," with much mineral charcoal in the partings. Both the coal and the accompanying beds, at the mine on the Au Sable Creek, closely resemble the conditions found here; and at both points the indications leave it uncertain whether they represent a local change of the main seam, or are portions of a lower seam which is only occasionally present. The weight of opinion seems to favor the former view.

The upper seams, which have been worked Tipon the Waupecan Creek, and upon the Mazon, near the mouth of Johnny run, apparently occur over only small areas at either locality; and elsewhere, wherever met with, they have proved to be irregular seams, locally quite thick, but of the running out to a mere streak of coaly matter, and even disappearing altogether. The Mazon seam is, apparent!}', the equivalent of a stream, which, on the eastern side of the coal field, in the Wabash valley, is usually too thin to work, except at a single point, where it reaches twenty-two inches.

The outcrops are not sufficient to give any exact data as to dips, but there seems to be no reason to believe that the main seam lies at a greater depth than 2.50 feet in any part of the county, if indeed it be anywhere so deep. Whenever, therefore, anj' portion of the southern ]iart of the county becomes so thickly settled as to create any considerable demand for coal, it can be obtained on the spot without much difficulty. This seam is of pretty constant thickness, at every point where it has been opened, and the miner can relv upon finding a paying thickness of coal at almost any point in this part of the county. At many points, also, one or more of the upper seams would be found much nearer the surface, with from two to nine feet of coal.

In the openings of this county, as elsewhere, the miner is often troubled with "faults" and "rolls," which interrupt the regularity and even the continuity of the seam. Upon the outer edge of the field, near Morris, and to the eastward, the dip of the seam is very variable and irregular, which greatly interferes with the drainage of the mines in many cases. Much of this seems to have resulted from the irreeularity of the denuded surface of the Silurian rocks upon which the coal was deposited; but in one or two cases, the indications seem to prove that these contortions are the result of the removal of the subjacent limestone by solution in subterranean streams after the deposition of the coal. This seems to be the only explanation of the condition of the seam, in a shaft a short distance east of the Jugtown pottery. In this neighborhood, the seam is generally about twenty feet below the surface; but in the shaft referred to, it was found forty

So far as known, all coal rained in the county contains more or less pj'rite - "sulphur" of the miners - and streaks of calcite; but this is so variable, even in neighboring portions of the same mine, that it would be useless to attempt to disci'iminate between the products of the various localities. As a whole, the product of the main seam is a line steam and grate coal, and is lar<rely shipped to the Chicago market, the distance being only sixty-two miles.

The best clay for brick making is not found here, though there are several large brick yards in the county. The materials used are the decomposed shales which overlie the lower coal. As these beds contain considerable calcareous matter, the brick are not very firm and do not stand the weather well. It would appear prol)able that the fireclay below the coal would make a better article. This has been tried with some success at Gardner. The fire clay, and soft clay shales underlying it, are said to be thirty-five feet deep and so much of these beds as may be convenient, in mining the coal, is dug out and used promiscuously. Without thorough grinding, therefore, in thepugmill, the briclisare variable in character and irregular in burning.

The only bed of Potter's clay known and worked is that near the west end of Goose Lake, and extensively used at Jugtown, in the manufacture of a fair grade of domestic earthernware, together with drain tile and sewer pipes. The bed consists of more or less thoroughly decomposed clay shale and fire clay of the Coal Measures, containing many fragments of coal, thoroughly mingled and deposited in a low part of the old river channel, which contains Goose Lake, by the current of the river which formerly flowed there. The bed has been worked to a depth of fifteen or twenty feet, but the mixed character of the materials has given much trouble to the potters.

The principal source of building stone in this county is the quarry of Trenton limestone in Saratoga township, about four miles northeast of Morris. This yields an abundance of light gray or drab massive limestone, which has been extensively used for foundation walls, and in a few cases also for the superstructures. It appears fitted to stand the weather as well as any ordinary stone, and is said to dress well. The Cincinnati group along the An Sable Creek near the county line, yields small quantities of stone for wells and foundations, but nothing suitable for superstructures. Beds of the same group upon the northern side of Goose Lake, have been quarried slightly, for similar purposes. Upon the bank of theWaupecan Creek in the southeast quarter of section IS, in Wauponsee township, small quantities of a very solid limestone - No. 6, of the "Waupecan section - have been quarried. A sandstone, representing Nos. 1 and 3 of the same section, has been quarried to some extent for foundations on the upper part of the stream, at "Ilog Grove Quarry," and has given good satisfaction; though when exposed to the weather it crumbles rapidly. The same defect exists in the sandstone of Pine Blufi".

Lime is obtained from the Saratoga quarry, where considerable quantities of the stone are annually burned, though some care has to be exercised to exclude from the kiln the ferruginous layers. The only hydraulic . limestone found in the county occurs in nodules along the Kankakee Kiver, and in email quantity. The abundant supply from an adjoining county renders these deposits of no commercial value.

Builders' sand is obtained in unlimited quantities from the sand ridges of the river valley. From one of these ridges, about one mile south of Morris, large quantities of road gravel are also obtained.

Iron ore is found in form of ironstone nodules (carbonate of iron) on the Mazon and Waupecan Creeks, but nut in sufficient quantities to supply a furnace. Bog ore is found near the quarries in Saratoga, but its quality or quantity has not been tested.

The natural supply of water through this county is quite variable. In a dry season, large portions are very scantily supplied. In oi'dinary seasons, however, wells running ten or fifteen feet into the top of the drift in the eastern part, supply all needs. In the western part of the county, reliable wells can be obtained only by passing through the boulder clay to the underlying quicksand. The lower seam of coal is everywhere accompanied by an abundance of water, which is pure and good, until the working of the coal exposes the accompanying pyrite to decomposition. A well bored at the tile factory in Jugtown some years ago, struck coal at about thirty feet, and gave exit to a strong stream of water, highly charged with sulphurated liydrogen. Small springs of similar character are said to accompany the supposed line of outcrop of this coal seam, along the foot of the first terrace, from Mazon Creek, nearly to the Morris bridge. A very strong s]jring of this character flows from beneatli the drift gravel, over the black shale, No. 3, of the upper Mazon section, in the south- M'est quarter of section C, in Braceville township, leaving a heavy white deposit of sulphur on the surface of the shale.

The artesian boring on the northeast quarter of section 3, in Felix township, brings to the surface a small but constant supply of slightly sulphurous water from the upper part of the Trenton limestone, at a de])th of about 137 feet. On section IS of the same township, a boring of 325 feet failed to secure flowing water, after penetrating 1S5 feet of the Trenton limestone. The boring for the railroad well at Morris, shows this limestone to be 200 feet thick, and that in tliis county the underlying St. Peter's sandstone is full of pure water, which is ready to flow to the surface wherever it is tapped. This abundant supply can be reached anywhere in the northern part of the county at about 400 feet, and in the southern part, at probably nowhere more than 600 feet, and in part of it much less than that.

" Gas" wells in the boulder clay are known at two localities. Near the northeast corner of section 3, in Vienna township, a well at twenty feet, gave off" so much carbonic acid gas, as to prevent farther excavations. Probably this flowed from some ancient soil, like the muck beds encountered in Livingston and other counties. On section 35 in Nettle Creek township, a well at forty-seven feet, gave oif light carburetted hydrogen with so much noise as to be heard at a considerable distance, and in such quantity as to blaze " as high as the house," for some minutes after being approached with a lighted c;indle. The gas still flows freelj', though it is several years since the well was dug, and a load of gravel has been thrown in, to act as a filter for the water, which was at first filled with quicksand, brought up by the ebullition of the gas. Similar phenomena have been observed in otiier wells in this vicinitj'. A large spring on section 22 of the same township, constantly gives off bubbles of this gas. Springs of similar character have been found along the outcrop of the lower coal seam in the adjoining county of La Salle, and it is generally accepted as a partial indication of the coal outline, when the depth of drift prevents actual observation.

PREHISTORIC RACES - EARLIEST TRACES OP MAN - MOUND BUILDERS AND REMAINS- INDIAN TRIBES - RELATIONS WITH THE WHITES - WAUPONSEE - SHABBONA - NUCQUETTE.

Their

EOBINSO:X CEUSOE'S unexpected discovery of a human footprint upon tlie sands of his solitary island, was hardly more startling than have been the discoveries of antiquarians in Europe within tlie past twenty-live years. Scientitic followers of Usher and Petarius, had placed the various migrations of men, the confusion of tongues, the peopling of continents, tlie development of types - the whole evolution of human society, within the narrow compass of little more than four thousand years, when the discoveries of the geologist and ethnologist developed the trace of human existence dating back to a possible period, 30,000 years ago. Nor are contirmatory evidences to tlie truth of these discoveries entirely wanting in the new world. The gold-drift of California has sup))lied abundant testimony to tlie high antiquity of man, and notably the " Pliocene Skull," the popular conception of which is derived more widely, perhaps, from a characteristic poem by Bret Harte than from scientific publications. Explorations in Illinois, Missouri and South Carolina, have yielded similar testimony, and while it should be stated, that in many cases these evidences rest upon the testimony of single observers, and that there is not that recurrence of "finds" which would render " assurance doubly sure," yet there seems to be no doubt in thu minds of scientists that the "elder m;in " was also an inhabitant of this nexo world. Descending to a later time and one probably falling within tiie historic period,* we find the more tangible traces of an early race of men. Of this race, named from the character of their remains, the Mound Builders, we find the evidences vastly multiplied, and of such character as to aflbrd means of forming a reasonable conjecture as to their mode of life, their advancement in civilization, and final destiny. These evidences, though first accepted with great distrust, have been so amplified and confirmed by more recent researches, as to leave no room for reasonable doubt as to the former existence of this race. Tlie remains upon which this conclusion is based, " consists," says Mr. Foster, " of tumuli symmetrically raised and often enclosed in mathematical figures, such as the square, the octagon and circle, with long lines of circumvallation; of pits in the solid rocks, and rubbish heaps formed in the prosecution of their mining operations, and of a varietj' of utensils, wrought in stone or copper, or moulded in clay."-|- To the uninstnicted mind these mounds doubtless seem a very sliglit foundation upon which to construct tlie fabric of a national existence, and yet to the archffiologist they furnish " proofs as strong as II0I3' AVrit; " in them they find as distinctive characteristics as mark the prehistoric remains of the Pelasgi, the " wall-builders " of Europe, a not dissimilar race in many respects, and one vvlio long ago found a place in the realities of history; and while they differ in external form and are scattered over a wide scope of territory, - characteristics in marked contrast with those of the aboriginal race found here in possession of the couiitrv, yet the scientist finds in each mound the never failing marks of a race peculiarity.

The widest divergence from the typical mound is found iu Wisconsin. Here instead of the circular or pyramidal structure are found forms, for the most part, consistins of rude, siijautic imitations of various animals of the region, such as the buffalo, bear, fox, wolf, etc.; of the eagle and night hawk, the lizard and turtle, and in some instances the unmistakable form of man. These, though not raised high above the surface, and even iu some cases represented intaglio, attain the largest dimensions; one representing a serpent extending 700 feet and another representing a turtle, had a body 56, and a tail 250 feet long. The significance of these peculiar forms has not been determined, but unmistakable evidences have been discovered which mark tlieni as the work of the same race whose structures are found elsewhere, so numerous throughout the Mississippi valley. Typical structures are sometimes classified with reference to tlieir purpose as

"Enclosures - 1. For defense; 2. Sacred; 3. Miscellaneous. Mounds - 1. Of sacrifice; 2. For tem])le sites; 3. Of sepulture; 4. Of observation." Of tiie first class, the enclosures for defense seem to have been constructed siin])ly for protection against hostile attack. Tlie locations chosen are those best adapted naturally to repel a military attack. The only ajiproach is generally by a steep and narrow way, requiring the assailant to place himself at immense disadvantage, wliile the garrison provided with parapets often constructed of rubble stone, could fight under cover and may be found in these stones, his store of ammunition. The "sacred" enclosure included within its lines, the mounds of the three leading classes, as the uses to which they were put, were all sacred to this people, and yet in the " American Bottom " in Illinois, where the mound system reaches, perhaps its highest development, the mounds of these classes are not enclosed. The mounds of sacrifice or altars, as the}' are variously termed, are generally characterized by the fact " that they occur only within the vicinity of the enclosures or sacred places; that they are stratified; and that they contain symmetrical altars of burned clay or stone, on which were deposited various remains, which in all cases have been more or less subjected to the action of fire." * In relation to this latter characteristic it should be said, that it is not at all plain that the use of fire was intended for the purpose of cremation. A thin coating of moist clay' was applied to the bodj' nude, or wrapped in cloth, and upon this a fire was maintained for a more or less prolonged period, but in many cases the heat was not siitKcient to destroy the cloth sometimes found in a good state of preservation. This evidently did not result from a lack of knowledge, as cremation and urn burial was also practiced. Temple mounds are described by Squier and Davis as -' distinguished by their great i-egularity of form and genei-al large dimensions. They consist chiefly of pyramidal structures, truncated and generally having graded avenues to their tops. In some instances they are terraced or have successive stances. But whatever their form, whether round, oval, octangular, square, or oblong, tiiey have invariably flat or level tops," and upon these were ]irobably constructed their temples, but which, constructed of perishable materials, have left no trace of their existence. This class of mounds are not found along the lake region or that line which seems to mark the farthest advance of this people. The principal structures of this class are found at Cahokia in Illinois, near Florence and Claiborne in Kentucky, at Seltzertown, Mississippi, at Marietta, Newark and Ciiillicothe in Ohio, and at St. Louis, Missouri. The mound at Cahokia, "the monarch of all similar structures in tlie United States,'' may well serve as a type. AYhen in all its integrity, this mound formed a huge jiarallelograin with sides at the base, res])ectively 700 and 500 ieet in length, towering to the height of 90 feet. On the southwest there was a terrace 160 by 300 feet, which was reached by a graded way, and the summit was truncated, atfording a phitform 200 by 450 feet. This structure, ui)on which was probably reared a spacious temple, jierhajM the principal one in the euipire, co\X'reJ an aroa of about six acres, while in close proximity were four elevated platforms, varying from 250 to 300 feet in diameter. The great mound of St. Louis reached a height of thirty-five feet, and that at Marietta to about the same lieiglit.

'' Sepulchral mounds," says Mr. Foster in his volume on the Prehistoric Races, "consist, often, of a simple knoll, or group ot knoJls, of no considerable height, without any detinite arrangement. Exani]:)les ot this character may be seen at I>ul)U(|uo, Meruni, Chicago, and Lajiorte, wliifh, on explciration, have yielded skulls ditleriiig wiilel> from the Indian tyjie. * * * Tlie corpse was almost invariaiily ])lacud near the oi-iginal surface of the soil, enveloped in bark or coarse matting, and in a few instances fragments of cioth have been observed in tliis connection. Sometimes a vault of timber was built over it, and in others it was enclosed in long and broad flags of stone. Sometimes it was placed in a sitting position, again it was extended, and still again it was compressed within contracted limits. Trinkets were often strung about the neck, and water jugs, drinking cups, and vases, which probably contained food, were placed near the head. Over the corpse thus arrayed, a circular mound was often raised, but sometimes nothing more than a hillock." Other mounds have been found that favoi'cd the theory that many of these structures were used for miscellaneous burial. A notable example is the " Grave Creek Mound," in West Virginia, twelve miles below Wiieeling. This mound is something over 7() i'eet high, of circular form, with a circumference at the base of about 900 feet. h\ the center of this mound, on a level with the original surface, was found a vault with twelve human skeletons, and thirty-four feet above this was found a similar vault, enclosing a skeleton which had been decorated with a profusion of shell-beads, copper rings, and plates of mica. In a mound at Yincennes "a bed of human bones, arranged in a circle eighteen feet in diameter, closely packed and pressed together." In anotlier at Merom, three tiers of vaults were found, in each of which were found from five to seven human skeletons. Mounds of observation is a rather fanciful classification intended to mark mounds found on elevated points of land. Tlie authors of this classification think that these may have been iised as platforms on which to build signal fires, and such is their elevation and outlook that such signals could liave been seen at great distance. This tlieory of a special purpose, however, has not been accepted, as supported by any special evidence. They may have been so used, or simply as an eligible site for residence.

There is in addition to these mounds a large number which are 'not embraced in this classification, which following Mr. F. W. Putnam, whom Mr. Foster quotes at length, ma}' be called "Habitation Mounds." A large number of these are described as located at Merom, Indiana, and " a group of fifty-nine mounds" at Hutsonville, Illinois, a few miles above the former place and across the Wabash River. These mounds were carefully examined " to ascertain if they were places of burial," without discovering a single bone or implement of any kind, but, on the contrary, the excavations " showed that the mounds had been made of various materials at hand, arKl in one case ashes were found which had probably been scraped up with other material and thrown upon the heap." In the ancient fort at Merom, in depressions found within the earthworks, were found striking evidences of food having been cooked and eaten there, and the conclusion drawn by Mr. Putnam is, " that these pits were the houses of the inhabitants or defenders of the fort, who were probably further protected from the elements and the arrows of assailants, by a niof of logs and bark, or boughs." Anotlier writer,* in a paper read before the American Association for tiie Advancement of Science at their Boston meeting, August, ISSO, says: "There is in tiiis region a peculiar class of mounds that was for a long time a puzzle to me. They are usual!}' found in groups of from two or three to twenty or thirty, and even more, and are generally on some pleasant knoll or rising ground in the vicinity of a spring or watercourse, especially in the vicinity of our j)rairies or level areas of land. These mounds are from one to three, and in a few instances, even four feet in heigiit, and from twenty to fifty feet in diameter. One mound of the group is always larger than the rest, and always occupies the commanding position. Sometimes the group is arranged in a circle; other groups have no apparent design in arrangement. Numbers of these mounds can be seen in the cultivated fields.

" Although I have made excavations in them, and dug trenches entirely through them, I have found nothing but ashes, charcoal, decayed portions of bones of fishes and animals partially burned, shells from the adjacent streams, flint chippings, and

"After examining many of these structures I am induced to believe that ther are possibly the remains of ancient dwellinfrs, made by placing in an upright position the trunks of young trees in a circle, or in parallel rows, the tops of the poles inclining inward and fastened togetiier, the wliole being covered with earth and sod to form a roof, or in tlie same manner as many Indian tribes make tlieir mud lodges; as for instance, the Mandansand the Omahas. Such a structure, after being repaired from time to time by the addition of more earth on top, would finally, by the decay of the poles, fall inward and the ruins would form a sligiit mound.

" Conant and Putnam describe such mounds in Missouri and Tennessee, some of the largest of these ancient towns being provided with streets and highways. They are also found in Southern Illinois, Indiana and Ohio. Putnam has described an enclosed town in Tennessee, in whicli were many low mounds, or rather, as he calls them, earth circles, tliat he has pretty conclusively shown to be sites of the lodges or houses of the people."

To which of these classes tlie mounds found at Morris shall be referred, is difficult to determine. There were nineteen of these mounds, circular in form, from two to four feet high, and from seventeen to thirty in diameter at the base. These were superficially explored and evidences of the intrusive burials of Indians found, but nothing bearing upon their ancient origin. The growth of the village has encroached upon these ancient relics and their site so obliterated as to ailord little inducement fur any scientific investigation. There are mounds along the southern marg-in of the river that ofi'er better j^rospects of reward to a properly conducted research, but at best such exjiloration is likely to develop little more than to coimect their origin with this ancient people.

These mounds, with the implements formed in stone, metal and pottery (of whicli the scope of this work allows no mention), form the data upon which is founded the historical speculation concerning this people. Once having reasonably established the former existence of this extinct race, the absorbing question presents itself - who were the Mound Builders? The limited space devoted to this subject, however, forbids any extended consideration of the interesting scientific deductions made from this data, though the conclusion arrived at may be briefly stated in the language of Mr. Foster,* as follows: "Their monuments indicate that they had entered upon a career of civilization; they lived in stationary communities, cultivating the soil and relying on its generous yield as a means of support; they clotlied themselves in part at least, in garments regularly spun and woven; they modeled clay and carved stone, even of the most obdurate character, into images representing animate objects, even the human face and form, with a close adlierence to nature; they mined and cast copper into a variety of useful forms; they quarried mica, steatite, chert, and the novaculite slates, which they wrought into articles adapted to personal ornament, to domestic use, or to the chase; unlike the Indians who were ignorant of the curative proper- ties of salt, thej collected the brine of the salines into earthen vessels moulded in baskets which they evaporated into a form which admitted of transportation; they erected an elaborate line of defense, stretching for many hundred miles, to guard against the sudden irruption of enemies; they had a national religion, in which the elements were the objects of supreme adoration; temples were erected upon the platform mounds, and watchfires lighted upon the highest summits; and in the celebration of the mysteries of tlieir faith, human sacrifices were probably ofiered up. The magnitude of their structures, involving an infinitude of labor, such only as could be e.xpended except in a community where cheap food prevailed, and the great extent of their commercial relations reaching to widely separated portions of the continent, imply the existence of a stable and eflicient government, based on the subordination of the masses. As the civilizations of the old world growing out of the peculiar conditions of soil and climate developed certain forms of art which are original and unique, so on this continent we see the crude conception in the truncated pyramid, as first displayed in Wisconsin, Ohio and Illinois, and the accomplished result in the stonefaced foundations of the temples of Uxraal and Palenque. And finally, the distinctive character of the Mound Builder's structures, and also the traditions which have been preserved, would indicate that this people were expelled from the Mississippi Valley by a fierce and barbarous race, and that they found refuge in the more genial climate of Central America, where they developed tiiose germs of civilization, originalJv planted in their northern homes, into a

The obvious inquiry suggested by these conclusions is, who succeeded this extinct race ? To this question science offers no answer. Two hypotheses are entertained as to the origin of Mound Builders liere, the one supposes them to be of autothionic origin, and that semi-civilization originating here flowed southward and culminated in the wonderful developments of the Toltecs of Mexico ; the other supposes to have originated in the South American continent or in Central America, and to have emigrated northward from natural causes, and later to have returned to Mexico, driven from their northern empire by an irresistible ibe or by a powerful political irruption among themselves. Upon any tlieory, the line of their most nortiiward advance is pretty clearly define 1, and writers upon this subject generally agree that the line of defenses "extending from sources of the Alleghanj' and Susquehanna, in New York, diagonally across the country, through central and nortliern Ohio, to the Wabash," accurately indicates the region from whence attacks were made or expected, and marks the farthest extent of the Mound Builders' empire. But what was the character of the foe, what his action on the retreat of tlie Mound Builders, and what his final destiny, is an unwritten page of science, and for which there exists no known data. It is a late suggestion, that the North American Indian may be a degenerate but legitimate descendant of the dominant race, but tiiere is a broad chasm to be bridged before the Mound Builder or his successful assailant can be linked with those aboriginal tribes. With- out making any such attempt, however, the Indian naturally succeeds this people in regular historical order, and passing over the vexed question of his origin, it is sufficient I'ur the purposes of this work tiiat tlie whites found him everywhere in full possession of the country.

With the advent of the white man in America, hegan an "irrepressible conflict" which was destined never to cease so long as the red man retained a vestige of power. In this struggle, the absence of national organization or affiliations on the part ot the Indians, made the final success of the whites inevitable from the beofinninsr. Taking each tribe or section of country in succession, the little band of adventurers conquered this vast country in detail, and planted here one of the mighty nations of the world. It was due to this lack of any bond of union that the Illinois tribes were allowed to rest so long undisturbed in their fiincied security. Euiiiors of the conflict waging on the Atlantic border were borne to their ears by chance visitors from other tribes, and later by remnants of vanquished tribes who sought with them an asylum from their foes, but still no apprehension of impending disaster dawned upon their superstitious ignorance, while the reflection that the Iroquois, the enemy which tlieir experience had taught them most to fear, had met an overpowering foe, gave them no little satisfaction.

The great family to which these tribes were allied by language, physical and mental peculiarities, was the Algonquin. Before the encroachments of the whites the numerous tribes of this family occupied most of the teri'itory now embraced in the United States, between the 35th and GOth parallels of latitude, and the 60th and l(J5th meridians of longitude. According to Davidson,* the starting point in the wanderings of the Algonquin tribes on the continent as determined by tradition and the cultivation of maize, their favorite cereal, was in the southwest. Passing up the western side of the Mississippi valley, they turned eastward across that river, the southern margin of their broad tract reaching about to the 3.5th parallel, while the center probably covered tlie present territory of Illinois. On reaching tiie Atlantic coast thov seem to have moved northeasterly alon<ithe seaboard to the mouth of the St. Lawrence; thence ascending this river and the shores of the great lakes, they spread northward and westward to Hudson Bay, the basin of Lake "Winnipeg and the valley of the upper Mississippi; and thence the head of the migratory column circling around the source of the great river, recrossed it in a southeasterly direction above the Falls of St. Anthony, and passing bv way of Green Bay and Lake Michigan came into the present limits of Illinois, Indiana and Ohio. Thus after revolving in an irregular ellipse of some 3,000 miles in diameter, they fell into the original track eastward. This extended course of migration induced by a varietvof causes and circumstances, continued through a long period, the original stock probably receiving considerable accessions from the nomadic tribes of the Pacific slope, and leaving behind large numbers at each remove, until the head of the column came to rest from sheer lack of momentum or other moving influences. Thus scattered over a larae expanse of country, and broken into nnnierous tribal organizations, they lost much of their family affiliations and characteristics, and the early whites found the Algonquins everywhere possessing the border lands, and wao'cd with them their first and bloodiest wars. Situated within the ellipse above described, were the nations of the Iroquois family, who held together by circumstances and posted advantageously on the inner side of the circle, able at any time to mass their forces upon a single point of tlie circumference, soon proved a devastating scourge to the Indian world, and especially so to the Algonquins.

Of the tribes of this latter family this history has to do only with the tribes of the "Illinois Confederation." This was made up of the Taraaroas, Michigaraies, Kaskaskias, Cahokias and Peorias. The name of the confederation, as explained by Gallatin, one of the ablest writers on the structure of Indian languages, is derived from the Delaware word Leno, and variously written Leni or mini, meaning " superior men." Its present termination is of French origin. The Algonquin lamily, so far as cranial indications, were marked by a larger intellectual lobe than their great adversaries, the Iroquois, and their whole history adds force to these indications. While not so ferocious or fiendish in their warfare, they exhibited no less bravery and skill in tlieir savage encounters, and were rewarded with no less success when circumstances admitted an equal contest. In courageous resistance to the superior numbers and arms of the and in savage strategy and diplomacy, the history of our Indian wars bears ample testimony to their high mental and physical qualities. Of the Illinois Confederation, however, this can not be said without qualification. Exposed like the rest of the Algonquin family to the powerful attacks of their ferocious enemy, though gaining some notable victories, they had been forced to leave their earlier location near Lake Michigan and settle west of the Mississi]3pi, from whence, aboi:t 1670-73, they migrated to the Illinois Iliver. Here they seem to have stood in great fear of their hereditary foe, and while proving their warlike superiority to other tribes, their only sure defense against the Iroquois ap- ])eared to be in flight. The early association of this confederacy with the whites was of an unusually peaceable and pleasant nature and did much to confirm their un warlike character. As early as 1670, the Jesuit Missionary, Marquette, stationed at the western extremity of Lake Superior, mentions the visit of members of these tribes who earnestly requested that missionaries might be sent among them. When, therefore, Joliet and Marquette, returning from their exploration of the Mississippi, found the tribes on the banks of the Illinois in 1673, they were hailed with joy by the natives, who from that day never wavered in their allegiance to the French. In 1675, Marquette returned and established the " Mission of the Immaculate Conception " at their village, located near the present site of Utica. la December of 1679, La Salle* with his little band of adventurers found here a town of 460 lodges temporarily deserted, and passing on to where the city of Peoria now is, found another village of about eighty lodges, where he landed and soon established amicable and ]3er.nanent relations. With theconsent of the tribes, La Salle soon built the fort of

Crevecoeiir, a half a league below, and then early In March of 1680, set out fur Fort Fronteuac in Western Xew York, and thence to Montreal to repair the loss of his vessel, the Griffin.

In the meanwhile the Jesuit faction, engaged in fierce competition with him in securing the peltry trade of the Indians, and jealous of La Salle's success, and the English of the Atlantic border, striving to overreach the French in securing both territory and trade,united in stirring up the Iroquois to assault La Salle's Illinois allies in his absence. "Suddenly," saysParkman, " the village was awakened from its lethargy as by the crash of a thunderbolt. A Shawanoe, lately here on a visit, had left his Illinois friends to return home. He now reajipeared, crossing the river in hot haste with the announcement that he had met on his way an army of Iroquois apjiroaching to attack them. All was jianic and confnsion. The lodges disgorged their frightened inmates; women and children screamed; startled warriors snatched their weapons. There were less than five hundred of them, for the greater part of the voung men had gone to war." Here Tonti, La Salle's able lieutenant, left in charge of the fort, found himself weakened by the early desertion of most of his force, and now an object of suspicion to his allies, in an awkward and dangerous ])redicameut. Undaunted by the untoward circumstances, he joined the Illinois, and when the Iroquois came upon the scene, in the midst of the savage melee, faced the 5S0 warriors and declared that the Illinois were under the protection of the French King and the Governor of Canada, and demanded that they should be left iu peace, backing his words with the statement that there were 1,200 of the Illinois and 00 Frenchmen across the river. These representations had the eil'ect of checking the ardor of the attacking savages, and a teni|)orar3' truce was effected. It was evident that the truce was but a ruse on the part of the Iroquois to gain an opportunity to test the truth of Tonti's statements, and no sooner liad the Illinois retired to their village on the north side of the river than numbers of the invading tribes, on the pretext of seeking food, crossed the river and gathered in increasitia: numbers about the village. The Illinois knew the design of their foe too well, and, hastily embarking, they set fire to their lodges, and retired down tiie river, when the whole band of Iroquois crossed over, and finished their work of havoc at their leisure. The Illinois, in the meanwhile, lulled into a false security, divided into small bands in search of food. One of their ti'ibes, the Tamoroas, "had the fatuity to remain near the mouth of the Illinois, where they were assailed by all the force of the Iroquois. The men fled, and very few of them were killed; but the women and children were captured to the number, it is said, of seven hundred," many of whom were put to death with hori-ible tortures. Soon after the retreat of the Illinois, the Iroquois discovered the deception of the Frenchmen, and only the wholesome fear they had of the French Governor's jiower restrained their venting their rage upon Tonti and his two or three companions. As it was, they were dismissed, and bidden to return to Canada.

and deserted, surrounded b}' the fViglitfnl evidences of savage carnaoje. Disheartened Lilt not cast down, lie at once set about rejKiiring his fortunes. Discerning at once the means and object of his enemies be set about building wp a bulwark to stay a second assault. Returnins' to Fort Miami on the St. Josepli, by tlie borders of Lake Michigan, he sought to form a defensive league among tlie Indians whom be projwsed to colonize on the site of tlic destroyed village of the Illinois. He found ready material at hand in remnants of tribes fresh from fields of King Phillip's war; he visited the Miamis and by bis wondei-fiil power won them over to bis plans; and then in the interval, before the tribes could arrange for their emigration, be launched out with a few followers and hurriedly explored the Mississippi to the Gulf. Returning to Michillimackinac in September, 10S2, where he had found Tonti in May of the previous year. La Salle, after directing his trusty beutenant to repair to the Illiiuiis, prepared to return to France for further supplies for bis proposed colony, but learning that the Iroquois were planning another incursion, he returned to the site of the destroyed Tillage and with Tonti began in December, IGS2, to build the Fort of St. Louis on the eminence which is now known in history as "starved rock." Thus the winter passed, and in the meanwhile, La Salle found emplo^'ment for bis active mind in conducting the negotiations which should result in reconciling the Illinois and the Miamis and in cementing the various tribes into a harmonious colony. The spring crowned his efforts with complete success. " La Salle looked down from bis rocks on a concourse of wild human life. Lodges of bark and rushes, or cabins of logs, were clustered on the open plain, or along the edges of the bordering forests. Squaws labored, warriors lounged in the sun, naked children who()]icd and gamboled on the grass. Beyond the river, a mile and a half on the left, the banks were studded once more with the lodges of the Illinois, who, to the number of six thousand, had returned, since their defeat, to this their favorite dwelling-place. Scattered along the valley, among the adjacent hills, or over the neighboring prairie, were the cantonments of a lialf score of other tribes, and fragments of tribes, gathered under the protecting aegis of the French, - Sbawanoes, from the Ohio, Abenakis from Maine, and Miamis from the sources of the Kankakee."* In the meanwhile, a party was sen t to Montreal to secure supplies and munitions to put the colony in a state of defense, which to the disappointment and chagrin of the sorely beset leader, he learned had been detained by his enemies, who by a change of Governors had come into official power. Devolving the coin-

*" Discovery of the Great West." Third part. Franquelin's map finished in 1684 and reproduced in part in this work, adds some further particulars which maybe of local interest. From the location of thp tribes on this map, it is ascertained that the Indian colony of La Salle, numbering, according; to his representation to the French ministiy, "about four thousand waiTiors or twenty thousand souls,'' occupied the country bordering both sides of the Illinois, from the present site of Morris to the junction of the Big Bureau Creek. Of the tribes represented, the Illinois proper numbered 1,200 warriors; the Miamis, 1,300; the Sliawanoes, 200; the Weas, .500; the Pepikokia, 160; the Kilatica, 300; Ouabona, 70; the Piankishaws, 150; in all, 3,880 warriors. This latter tribe occupied the present site of Morris village, while northeastwardly to the margin of the lake, the country was occupied by the Kickapoos, and other friendly tribes.

in and of the enterprise upon Lis faitliful lieutenant, La Salle set out in November, 16S3, for Canada and France, where he hoped to tliwart his enemies and snatch success from the very jaws of defeat. Triumphant over his enemies, lie returned to America in 1G85, and after wandering ineffectually for two years in the inliospitable wilderness of Texas, fell dead, pierced through the brain by the bullet of a treacherous desperado of his own band. It was not until the latter part of 1688, that Tonti with grief and indignation learned of the death of La Salle. In 1690, Tonti received from the French government the proprietorship of Fort St. Louis on the Illinois, M-here he continued in command until 1702, when by royal order the fort was abandoned and Tonti transferred to lower Louisiana. This fort was afterward re-occupied for a short time in 1718, by a party of traders, when it was tinally abandoned.

Hitherto, the Indians, faitliful to tlie French, found vent for tlieir savage nature in warfare upon their fellows, but events were rapidly hurrying forward the time when this state of affairs should be reversed. In turn the French power here gave way to the English, and they to the Americans; these momentous changes manifesting themselves to the Indian world in little more than the change of the national ensign on Fort Chartres. Upon the savages, however, a subtle change had been wrought. Unwillingly released from their fealty to the French, they became the fatal cats-paw of the warring whites. Incited by the French to hostilities against the English, they easily turned against the Americans under the influence of British goods and gold. Other influences were powerfully moving them to fulfill their destiny. The success of the American colonies in their war with the mother country, brought them in contact with the natives of tlie "far west." The whole Indian world viewed their conquests witli alarm, and when the restless tide of emigration reached the natural boundary of the Ohio, tribal animosities were forgotten in the united straggle to hold the insatiable palefaces at bay. In the meantime, the abandonment of Fort St. Louis followed by the removal of Kaskaskia and the erection of Fort Chartres had drawn the remnant which their savage enemies had left of the Illinois Confederation, to the southern part of the State, while their deserted lands were occupied by the Sacs and Foxes, Pottawattomies and other tribes which the success of the Americans had forced to find a new home.

The first cession of territory demanded of the tribes here was made by the treaty of Greenville, O., in 1795, consisting of " one piece of land, six miles square, at the mouth of Chicago River, emptying into the southwest end of Lake Michigan, where a fort formerly stood;" one piece 12 miles square near the mouth of the Illinois River; and one piece 6 miles square, at the old Peoria Fort and Village, near the south end of the Illinois Lake, on the said Illinois River."* In 1803 by a treaty at Vincennes the greater part of southern Illinois was ceded by the Illinois Confederation and other tribes; and by a treaty in the following year signed at St. Louis, the Sacs and Foxes ceded a great tract of country on both sides of the Mississippi, extending on tlie east bank from the niontli of the Illinois River to the head of that river, and thence to the Wisconsin River. In 1S16 a treaty was concluded with the "united tribes of Ottawas, Cliippewas and Pottawattomies," at St. Louis. The treaty recites: "Whereas, a serious dispute has for some time existed between the contracting parties relative to the right to a part of the lands ceded to the United States by the tribes of Sacs and Foxes, on the third of November, ISOi, and both parties being desirous of preserving a harmonious and friendly intercourse, and of establishing permanent peace and friendship, have for the purpose of removing all difficulties, agreed to the following terms:" etc. Tiie boundaries established by this treaty are the only ones that have found a place upon the 2:)ublished county maps of the State. The territory ceded is marked by lines drawn from a point on Luke Michigan ten miles north, and south of the mouth of Cliicago Creek, and following the general direction of the Desplaines to a point north of the Illinois on the Fox River, ten miles from its mouth, and similarly on the south on the Kankakee River. This treaty, it will be observed, ceded only that part of Grundy County north of the river. In 1818, however, the Pottawatomies ceded the larger part of their remaining possessions in Illinois, and with other territory, the balance of Grundy County. The Indians did not at once abandon the territory thus ceded, but under a provision of these treaties lived and liunted here for years, while numerous reservations in favor ot individuals and families made these relics of a peculiar race, like the dying embers

The Indians found in and about Grundy County by the first settlers, were bands of the Pottawatomie tribe, and while owninjv but little allegiance to any chief, recogtiized in Shabbona and Wanponsee the representatives of tribal authority. The band of the latter made their home at one time on the Illinois River, near the mouth of Mazon Creek, in Grundy County, but in 1824 they moved to Paw Paw Grove. Wauponsee is represented as a large, muscular man, fully six feet and three itiches in height. His head presented an unusual feature for an Indian, being entirely bald s ive a small scalp lock at the crown. In manner he was markedly reserved and gave frequent evidences of an untamed savage disposition that needed only an opportunity to lapse, into the cruel barbarity of earlier years.

He was a war-chief and claimed to be one hundred years old, though this statement was but little credited by the whites. With the rest of his nation he was engaged in the battle of Tippecanoe and other Indian demonstrations in the following years. He is credited by some as being the Wicicbaiisee who befriended the family of Kinzie after the massacre at Fort Dearborn, but while such action, inconsistent as it is with the part he would naturally take in the attack upon the retreating garrison, it is not without parallel in Indian history. However, the strong impression is that these are two individuals. He moved with his band to the government reservations in the "far West "in 1839, signalizing his departui-e with a deed of barbarous cruelty that characterizes his memory here. This occurred in October, 1839, and is described by L. W. Claypool, who had ample facilities for learning tlie truth, as follows: "James MoKeen residing on the north bank of the Kankakee River, a mile above the moutii, with a hired man, John Byei's, liad been burning logs in the afternoon. Some Indians asked the privilege of camping there for the night, which was readily granted. In the evening they gathered in to the camp to the numljcr of some iii'ty, bringing a supply of whiskey. Soon Wauponsee and his family came, having camped the night before near our place (S. W. i Sec. 20, 33, 7). My father and visited his camp, as he was leaving in the morning, and curiously observed their preparations for moving. His family consisted of one wife, of middle age - very attentive to his wants, adjusting pillows on his pack-saddle and assisting him on a stump to mouut his pony; an old squaw - a wife evidently not iu favor; a son, sixteen or eighteen years old; son-in-law with wife and two or three children ; and two slave squaws, poor, miserable, forlorn-looking wretches in every respect.

" After supper McKeen and Byers went out to the fires where the Indians were having a drunken frolic. On approaching the Indians, they found a crowd of savages about a log heap, with one of the slave squaws lying on the ground near the fire, Wauponsee stooping over her and talking in a low voice. Immediately after he gave a signal when the other slave came up, and buried a squaw-ax into the brains of the unfortunate victim. Tlie body was removed to a pile of rails lying near, and being joined by other Indians the orgie was continued far into the nigiit. In the morning the Indiaus broke camp and went

" Tlie prevailing opinion here as to the reason for the deed, was that Wauponsee, realizing the truth of the old adage, ' Dead men tell no tales,' and that as their new reservation iu the west joined that of the Winnebairos, to which tribe the squaw originally belonged, fearing that her relatives might be moved to avenge her ill treatment received at his hands, ordered her execution, and tluis ' took a bond of fate.' " AVaubonsie is said to have been killed by a party of the Sacs and Foxes for opposing them in the " Black Hawk War." " His scalp was taken oif, the body mutilated, and left on the prairie to be devoured by wolves." *

Shabbona, who shares with Shakespeare the distinction of having his name spelled in an endless number of ways, was born of Ottawa parents, on the Kankakee river in Will County, about 1775. In his youth he married the daughter of a Pottawatomie chief, who had his village on the Illinois a short distance above the mouth of the Fox liiver. Here at the deatli of Spotka, his father-in-law, he succeeded to the chieftainship of the band, which soon sought a more salubrious spot, and settled in De Kalb County, where he was found by the early settlers. Shabbona seems to have lacked none of those qualities which were required to command the respect and confidence of his band and yet he was possessed of rare discernment and decision of character, whioh led him early to see that war with the whites was hopeless, and that the only hope of the savage was to make the best terms possible with the inevitable. To this policy, he was one of the lirst of his people to give earnest support, and once |coinmitted to this line of action, he allowed no influence, however strong, to swerve him from it for a moment.

He was easily influenced by the eloqueu2e of Tecumseh, and became an ardent admirer and devoted personal attendant of that celebrated warrior. He was absent from the battle of Tippecanoe with Tecumseh, and returned only to hear of the massacre at Fort Dearborn, and to assist in the defense of Kinzie on the following night. Believing that his nation would join the British in the war of 1812, he joined his hero- warrior, and acted as aid to Tecuinseli until the latter was killed. In the general pacification of the tribes after this war, Shabbona seems to have imbibed his peace policy, to which he ever afterward adhered- Whiie not gifted as an orator, his reputation for honesty, fidelity to his nation, and good judgment, gave him a wide influence among the more warlike of his people, and in 1827, he rendered valuable service to the whites in dissuading the Pottawatomie nation from joining the Winnebago war. In 1832, when Black Hawk strove to unite the Indian nations in a combined attack upon the whites, he met a fatal obstacle in the influence of Shabbona for peace. Notwithstanding every influence and inducement brought to bear upon him, the " white man's friend " stood firm, and was largely influential in bringing the aid of the Pottawatomies to the white forces. Subsequently, when " Black Hawk was betrayed into hostilities, and the news of the Indians' first blow and success reached him, he sent his son and nephew in different directions, while he went in still another, to warn the settlers A' the impending danger, thus saving the lives of many in the isolated settlements, a service for which he suffered the loss of his son and nephew at the hand of the enraged Sacs and Foxes years afterward. In the military operations which followed with Waubonsie, "Billy Caldwell" and a considerable number of warriors, he enlisted with the army under Gen. Atkinson, who at once placed him in command of the Indian contingent. After performing valued service, he retired with his band at the close of the war, to his village in De Kalb County, where the^'' remained to the date .of their removal to the West in 1836.

In consideration of his services the national government, beside many other tokens of esteem, reserved a tract of land for his use at Shabbona's Grove, and granted him a pension of §200 per annum. In the summer of 1836, however, the Indian agent notified him tliat his band must go to the lands assigned them in the West, as none but himself and famil}- could remain on the reservation. Much as he regretted to leave the scenes of his manhood, about which gathered his dearest memories, he could not consent to a separation from his band, and so in September, the whole band came to Main Bureau Creek, and camping at the crossing of the Peoria and Galena road, they remained here about six weeks hunting and fishing. The government proposed to bear the expense of their removal as in the case of other tribes, but Shabbona rejecting this oflTer, set out one October day with his band of about one hundred and forty-two souls and one hundred and six- tj ponies, for their lands in "Western Kansas. Not long after this the government moved the Sacs and Foxes from the reservation in Iowa to lands adjoining the Pottawatomies. These tribes entertained tlie bitterest hostility against Sluibbona for the part he took in the Black Hawk War, and Neopope, a chief of these tribes, had sworn to accomplish the destruction of the "white man's friend," together with his son and nephew. In the fall of 1S37, 8!iabbona with liis son and nepliew and a few liunters went out on the plains to liunt buffalo, when without the slightest apprehension of danger they found themselves attacked by a band of the Sacs. Shabbona liis son Smoke and four hunters escaped, but knowing that a relentless Nemesis was on his track, he left his baud and returned with liis family to his reservation in De Kalb County; this consisted of 1,280 acres, most of which was fine timbered land. A clause of the treaty conveyed this, and other reservations granted them in fee simple, but the Senate struck out this clause making the property only a reservation. This fact escaped tiie notice of Shabbona, and in 1845 he sold the larger part of his land and returned to Kansas to visit his band. It was soon discovered by designing persons that this transfer was illegal, and on the strength of representations made at Washington, the authorities declared the reservation vacant and the transfer void. On his return in 1851, he found his whole property sequestered and himself homeless. This grove had been his home for nearly fifty years; here he had made the grave of his first squaw and two papooses, and here he liad expected to lay his own bones. It was natural that he should feel a deep sense of injury at this ungrateful requital of devotion to the white race; but this was a new generation, the reservation had been technically abandoned, and none were greatly wronged save the Indian, who had not yet excited the romantic or humanitarian interest of a later day, and brokenhearted he went out to a retired place to implore the Great Spirit, after the fashion of his tribe.

The case excited the interest of his early friends, who purchased a small tract of improved land, with house, out-buildings and fencing, situated on the bank of the Illinois near Seneca in Grundy County. Here he lived in a wigwam, his family occupying the house, until his death, at the age of eighty-four, on July 17, 1859. His remains were laid in lot 59, block 7, in the Morris cemetery with elaborate ceremony and grateful regard of the whole count3\ Here rest also eight of his familj', five of whom were his children or grandchildren.

Shortly after his death his family removed to their nation in the West, and while his land is held by the County Court in trust for tlie benefit of his heirs, there is no monument to mark the memory* of one whom General Cass once introduced to a distinguished audience at Washington as, " Shabbona, the greatest red man of the

*There is in the Court House at Morris, a fine life sized oil portrait of Shabbona, representing him standing and arrayed in a dress coat, presented to him at which gives him a picturesque but noble appearance. This picture is still the property of the artist, and it is to be regretted that the State or N.itional authorities do not see fit to place it in a position to which its artistic merit and the high character of the subject richly entitle it.

An Indian relic which has given rise to many conjectures, is a cedar pole about six inclies in diameter at the base, and from twenty to twenty -five feet in height standing in the center of the largest of the ancient mounds found in the village of Morris. The pole stands at the lower end of Wauponsee street, its base protected by a close fitting piece of flagging, and surrounded by an iron fence. The universal respect on the part of the citizens for this monument of tiie past is, however, its surest protection. None of the Indians with whom the early settlers came in contact could give satisfactory accounts of its erection (indeed they did notchiini to know), until the engineers who surveyed the line of the canal made some investigations in this mound. Some members of this party made some unauthorized explorations, and were rewarded by the discovery of some interesting Indian remains. The engineering party was subsequently joined by an Indian named Clark, who evidently belonged to the extinct Illinois nation, and of him Mr. A. J. Matthewson, the engineer in charge, obtained iniich valuable information, wiiich he has embodied in a letter to L. W. Claypool, of Morris. By permission, the portion bearing upon matters of interest to tliis county :s given as follows: Speaking of Clark," wlien asked, he said - ' Yes, the bones dug up at the cedar pole belonged to Nucqnette, a celebrated chief who was killed upon the ground and buried in a dug-out' - a kind of rude trough which our boys found in 1837, and from which they took the bones, a bit of red rust which had once been a knife blade, and circular ornaments in silver. His squaw, who died years after, lay beside liim, her blanket intact, with a profusion of silver brooches and silver rings with green glass sets, upon the bones of two or three fingers of each hand. The threads of the blanket would crumble upon touch, and yet the teeth and hair seemed nearly perfect. Tlie pole, a red cedar, was very old, full of curious cuts and marks, giving in a rude way, as Clark said, the exploits of Nucquette. This brute had a story of his cruelties noted upon that pole, but the poor slave of a squaw lay there without a word being said of her. She was laid in her blanket, - notliing more.

"I had found a curious mound at the west side of a small grove, north of tiie old river stage road and a little west of south from Seneca, and upon asking Clark about the stones carelessly thrown about it he said : ' Oh, yes, that was a very bad Indian ! Steal horses, etc. They killed him ; put him in this old mound by himself,' and then when any Indian passed the mound he felt bound to show his contempt for the outcast who would not, or did not take scalps - but horses (he was a horse fancier), and before reacliing the place they would ])ick up finger stones and cast them npon the mound and spit upon it, showing their utter contempt for his want of good taste while living.

"Clark said jS'ucquette was killed in battle - that tiie fight began at Blue Island. The Illinois tribe retreated, and again had a fight three miles east of Joliet, at a village on north bank of Hickory Creek, where Oakwood cemetery now is, then a retreat and a hard fight at Xettle Creek (Morris), the Indian name for which has escaped me ; tlien a retreat and pursuit as far as Starve Eock, where Clark gave a description of the siege and the daring conduct of the devoted band, rushing up to the very edge of the cliff to challenge the foe to combat. Of course, these were the acts of a few men in a desperate situation, but when relating these things the eyes of Clark, usually mild enough, would assume a ferocious appearance quite shocking. lie was evidently a friend of the weaker party. He gave also the exploits of a very few who escaped down the Illinois River in a skiff and were pui'sued for days, though finally escaping. Those left upon Starve Eock generally perished. * * *

"In regard to the cedar pole, Clark told me the tribe or some of them came at times, as late as 1837-8, to replace the white flag upon the pole, when the winds had blown it away. Our men went on the sly to dig about the cedar pole in the mound, and upon their return to camp were told decidedly to go back and fix the mound and the pole, and to leave everything as they found it or there would be trouble ; that the savages were then about, and that they would miss their top-knots by delay. I went back with them to see the order executed, and it was. We had no trouble with the Indians on account of the act."*

* Mr. Matthewson adds : " The death of Nucquette was pi'obably between 1G80 and 1700, and the cedar pole may have been placed there at that time." This date is not probably derived from the narrative of Clark. The description of the series of Indian engagements and the incident of Starve Rock corresponds with the historical account of the exterminating war waged by the Pottawatomies and their allies against the Illinois to avenge the murder of Pontiac by one df the latter nation at Cahokia in 17G9. It is possible that Nucquette fell in a series of conflicts with the Iroquois, and that Clark confused the traditions of these fights with those which terminated at Starve Rock. Even the later date gives the pole a respectable antiquity.