Macon County, Illinois - Chapter 1: Illinois, 1876

Chapter 1: Illinois

No authentic history of the successive tribes of Indians occupying the limits of the present State of Illinois has ever been written. What we have on the subject is largely founded on tradition and conjecture. Perhaps the Algo7iquins were the first that occupied that portion of the country, as far back as we have any authentic account. The Illinois Indians^ or Illinois Confederacy^ which was of Algonquin lineage, about the middle of the seventeenth century occupied the country southwest of Lake Michigan, extending down the Illinois river, and to the mouth of the Ohio. They were known as the " Illini," or " Illinois," and it is to them wc owe the name of our State and of our principal river. The original signification of the word Illini is " real men," or "superior men," and of course is attributable to the characteristics of the Indians bearing that name. This confederation was composed of five tribes: the Tamaroas, Michagamies, Kaskaskies, Cahokies, and Peorias. Towards the close of the seventeenth century the Illinois Confederation was driven southward by a more hostile tribe from the north, and the greater portion of their territory passed into the possession of the Pottowotamies. This nation is said to have been the greatest, most warlike and hostile of modern times, and extended throughout the greater portion of Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and Indiana. The Piankashaws were in possession of the entire portion of the State along the Wabash. The Winnebagoes - "Having an ancient, fishy smell," - were occupants of the Rock River country. From tradition we learn that this tribe came from the west, and had a language entirely dissimilar to all other tribes. In 1763 the Kickapoos occwpied the country southwest of the southern extremity of Lake Michigan. At a later day they emigrated southward, and were in the possession of the territory along the Mackinaw and the Sangamon rivers. They were the immediate predecessors of the white man on the territorv of the present Macon county, and are said to have been " more civilized, industrious, energetic, and cleanly " than their neighboring tribes, but were the most implacable and inveterate haters of the white people. It was this tribe that led in the fierce charges at Tippecanoe, and was conspicuous In many of the bloody hostilities of the northwest. When they were finally overcome, they refused longer to live within the limits of the United States, and removed to Texas, then a province of Mexico. The Sacs afid Foxes lived In the northwest part of the State, in the vicinity of Rock Island. They were formerly from the neighborhood of Quebec, and were driven west by the Iroquois, and took a conspicuous part, with the Pottowotamles, in driving out, and almost exterminating, the Illinois Confederacy. It was this tribe, led by the great chief Black Hawk, that waged the war of 1S31-2, known as the Black Hawk war.*

About the middle of May, 1673, Jacques Marquette,f a Jesuit missionary. In company with M. Joliett, a Quebec merchant, left the missionary station at Mackinaw for a two-fold purpose, as expressed by Marquette : " My friend," i-eferrlng to Joliett, " is an envoy of France, to discover new countries; and I am an embassador of God, to enlighten them [the Indians] with the truths of the Gospel."J They proceeded to Green Bay, thence up the Fox river and Lake Winnebago to the Portage, where they trans-

*It is related upon the authority of a participant in this war, who still resides near Clinton, 111., that there were three men who served in the war - two in the same regiment, and another in the same brigade - that afterwards became famous in the history of the country, viz: Col. Zachary Taylor, Lieut.-Col. Jefferson Davis, and Capt. Abraham Lincoln.

ferred their canoes, a distance of three miles, across the Wisconsin, and thence down that river to the Mississippi, which they discovered on the 17th of June. Thence they sailed down the " Father of Waters," discovering the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi, which Marquette called " the most beautiful confluence of rivers in the world." Journeying southward, they discovered the mouth of the Ohio, which they mistook for the Wabash, and then to the site of the present city of Memphis, where they were met by the hostile Arkansas Indians, and barely escaped destruction. On the 17th of July, of the same year, they commenced ascending the river, and on reaching the mouth of the Illinois, they were informed by the Indians that it was much nearer for their return by that river, and they changed their course, and by so doing, traversed for the first time, by white men, that region which Marquette described as follows: " Nowhere did we see such grounds, meadows, woods, stags, buflEiiloes, deer, wildcats, bustards, swans, ducks, paroquetts, and even beavers, as on the Illinois river." M. Joliett hastened on to Canada, to make his discoveries known there and in France. This discovery and reportjl in France and Canada resulted in its settlement.

The object of Marquette's voyage seems to have been two-fold : I^'irst^the christianization of the Indians; and second^ the discovery of a northwest passage to the East Indies and China. The news of Marquette's discoveries soon reached Canada, and thence spread to France, through which, and in consequence of the interest awakened by these, and the subsequent discoveries by LaSalle and Hennepin, the early French settlements were made in Illinois, and the country passed under the national control of France. M. Joliett was mainly instrumental in bringing this newly discovered country to the attention of the world.

Between 1680 and 1690, - perhaps about the year 1688* - the first settlements in Illinois were made - or commenced rather. The first military occupation of the country was at Fort Creve-Coeur, in February, 1680; but there is no reliable information that a settlement was attempted there until sometime afterward.f The first

II By the capsizing of Joliett's canoe in Lachine Rapids, he lost all his papers relating to the voyage and discovery. ^Reynolds, f Annals of the West.

settlement in Illinois, or in the Mississippi valley, was commenced by the building of Fort St. Louis, on the Illinois river, in 1682; J but it remained in existence but a few years, so that Kaskaskia is now regarded as the first permanent settlement in Illinois. ||

Settlements were also made at Peoria and Kaskaskia, about the same time. M. Tonti was commander-in-chief of all the territory embraced between Canada and the Gulf of Mexico, and extending east and west of the Mississippi as far as his imagination or ambition pleased to allow. He spent twenty-one years in establishing forts and organizing the first settlements of Illinois. On the 14th of September, 171 3, the French government granted a monopoly of all the trade and commerce of the country to M. Crozat, a wealthy merchant of Paris, who established a trading company in Illinois, and it was by this means that the early settlements became permanent and others established. From the impetus thus given, the people began to turn their attention to agricultural and commercial pursuits. The marvelous development of the State in population, improvement and wealth would be a theme upon which we could dwell with pleasure, but space, in this connection, forbids further mention.

Its Government

In 1 717, M. Crozat, heretofore mentioned, surrendered his charter, and the Company of the West was organized, to " aid and assist" the banking system of John Law. Under this company a commandant and secretary were sent to Illinois, which constituted its first organized government. A branch of this company, called the Company of St. Philip's, was soon afterwards organized for the express purpose of working the rich silver mines supposed to be in Illinois, and Philip Francis Renault was appointed as its agent. In 1 7 19 he sailed from France with two hundred miners, laborers and mechanics, which was the greatest acquisition to Illinois yet made.§ During 1719 the Company of the West was, by royal order, united with the " Royal Company of the Indies," but the charter was not surrendered until 1732, when Illinois became a part ti^Renault purchased in the West Indies, en route to Illinois, five hundred negro slaves to work in his expected mines. This was the introduction of slavery in Illinois.

of the Royal Government of Quebec, with D' Artaquette^ as its local Governor. La Buissonierre was appointed his successor, who was succeeded by Chevalier McCarty, who remained Governor until a short time previous to the cession of New France to England, in 1763, at which time M. St. Ange de Belle Rive was appointed Governor, and remained until 1765, when Capt. Sterling took possession under the treat}^ of two years previous. Frazier, Reed, Wllkins, Rocheflave, and perhaps others, were successive Governors. On the 4th of July, 1778, Kaskaskia was captured by Col. Clark, in pursuance of a plan matured by Patrick Henry (then Governor of Virginia), Thomas Jefferson, George Wyth and George Mason, in January previous. In a short time thereafter the county of Illinois was created by the Legislature of Virginia. It included Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin' and Michigan. John Todd* was made commander of Illinois, and in 1779 he organized courts and established a government. Timothy De Mountebrun was his successor. In 17S4 Illinois was ceded to the United States by Virginia, and in 1787 Congress passed an ordinance for the government of the new territory - called the Northwest Territory - and Arthur St. Clair was appointed Governor, who continued in office until 1S02. In that year Indiana Territory was formed, which included the present terrritory of Illinois, and William H. Harrison was appointed Governor. In the General Assembly of the new territory, in 1808, Jesse B. Thomas was elected as a delegate to Congress, and was instructed to obtain a division of the territory ; and on the 23d of February, 1S09, the Territory of Illinois was established, which extended on the north to the British possessions. A territorial government was organized, and Ninian Edwards was appointed Governor (through the solicitation of Henry Clay), Nathaniel Pope, Secretary, and Jesse B, Thomas, William Sprigg, and Alexander Stuart, Judges, by President James Madison. The Governor appointed John J. Crittenden§ Attorney General, who

^JThis gallant and fearless man was, on May 20, 1736, dangerously wounded in an engagement between the French and Chickasaw Indians, near the source of the Tallahatchie river, in Mississippi, and was taken prisoner, and afterwards tortured and burned at the stake.

was in a short time succeeded by his brother, William P. Crittenden. In iSiS a petition was prepared by the territorial legislature, petitioning- Congress for admission into the Union. On April iSth the Enabling Act was approved, and in July following the Constitution was signed, and Shadrach Bond was elected Govenor; and on the 3d of December, 1S18, Illinois was admitted into the Union.