Madison County, Illinois - Chapter 2: Under the Fleur De Lis, 1912

Original County Boundaries - Soldiers of the Cross - An Illustrious Triumvirate - The "Frightful (Castleated) Rocks" - The Great French Discoverers - Ancient Madison County.

Push off! and sitting well in order smite The sounding furrows ; for my purpose holds To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths Of all the western stars, until I die -

To the present generation of Madison county residents, the successors of vanished races occupying a great county in the third greatest state of the Union, it seems strange to reflect that their home was once a part of the French empire on this continent, and not a small section of it, either; for when the county was first constituted by Governor Ed¬ wards, in 1812, its boundaries were as follows: "To begin on the Mississippi, to run with the second township line above Cahokia east until it strikes the dividing line between Illinois and Indiana territories ; thence with said dividing line north of the line of Upper Canada, thence west with said line to the Mississippi river, and thence down the Mississippi to the be¬ ginning." the line of Upper Canada would not strike the Mississippi, but range north of it. This fact ought to have been known to the Governor, for the reason that Capt. Zebulon Pike, in 1805, with a government expedition, had de¬ termined the source of the Mississippi and its course in Minnesota south of the Canadian line, but it is true that the Canadian boundary line was not at that time clearly defined. In addition to all of Illinois north of the south line of Madison this county thus included the State of Wisconsin, part of the upper penin¬ sula of Michigan, part of Lake Superior and a large slice of Minnesota east of the Missis¬ sippi.

This vast domain of Madison county com¬ prised some one hundred and sixty thousand square miles of territory, and its population to¬ day is approximately ten millions. In 1812, when organized, it contained the following military posts, its cordon of defense against the British and Indians in the war of 1812, viz : Prairie du Chien, Green Bay, Fort Dear¬ born (Chicago), Fort Clark (Peoria), Rock Island, Monterey, on the Illinois river; Fort Russell, a fort at mouth of the Illinois and a station four miles below Alton opposite the mouth of the Missouri. With the exception of the scattered settlements of hardy pioneers all else was a beautiful wilderness over which ranged herds of deer and numerous beasts of prey. The early French explorers also spoke of vast droves of buffalo and elk, and recorded the slaying of wild goats, but buffalo, elk and goats were extinct at the time of the organiza¬ tion of the county. Within its boundaries were waged all the battles and skirmishes with the British and Indians in the war of 1812 - that is, all that occurred within the present boundaries of Illinois.

But over all this vast domain of Madison county once floated the white lilies of France. Here were located the earliest forts, missions and stations of the first French explorers, Marquette, Joliet, the peerless La Salle, Tonty,' Hennepin and many heroic Fathers whose deeds and discoveries are recorded in the "Re¬ lations of the Jesuits." Between the years 1673 and 1812 three flags had floated over its soil. France, England and the United States had here successively unfurled their banners and claimed dominion and sovereignty while across the Mississippi waved the bold ensign of Spain, destined, like those of France and England, to be furled and disappear before the power of the great republic. While still a part of the French empire, Madison county was the highway between the two seats of French power in the new world, Quebec and New Orleans; one at the mouth of the St. Lawrence the other near the mouth of the Mississippi. First, the early French explorers from their farthest western post at Mackinac, crossed to Green Bay; thence made the port¬ age from the Fox to the Wisconsin river; thence down that stream to the Mississippi! A little later the portage from the Chicago river to the DesPlaines and to the Illinois was discovered, and still later the crossing from the foot of Lake Michigan to the Kankakee and the Illinois.

trappers, passed on their long and lonely voyages from Quebec and Montreal to the Mississippi. These expeditions, by the water route, were fraught with every peril known to life in the wilderness - skulking savages lurked in ambush at every exposed point, as they hoisted their sail to the breeze or paddled their light canoes on their weary way. Raven¬ ous beasts threatened them when they camped on land by night. They braved tempest and storm. They were scorched by the summer's sun and benumbed by the winter's cold. Their frail barks were tossed by adverse winds and often swallowed up by engulfing waves. Ceaseless vigilance was the price of safety, and they knew neither rest nor chance for recuper¬ ation. They suffered from hunger and naked¬ ness, and were strangers to all the comforts and endearments of life. But as the advance guaid of civilization they endured hardship as good soldiers bearing into an unknown land the standard of the cross and the oriflamme of France.

since the great command was given by our Lord, "Go ye forth and teach all nations," sur¬ passes in devotion and sacrifice that of the Catholic Fathers who went forth in His name to this service. They knew not fear nor shadow of turning; content for all their sacri¬ fice if they might make but a single convert from among the denizens of the forest. They gathered the youth and maidens into mission schools under the shadow of the Cross. They preached to painted warriors the gospel of peace and good will, and mediated between warring tribes. Ofttimes their gentle plead- ' mgs were in vain, their lofty courage no shield of defense, and they went to the stake with a smile on their lips and a blessing for their persecutors. They confronted danger with joyous insouciance, and welcomed death as the portal to their Father's house. And these missionaries were not alone messengers of the great salvation, but they were practical pi0- neers, loyal to their king and country, zealous in extending the dominion of their home-land beyond the seas. They were ofttimes men of gentle, or noble birth; scholars and scientists who could give a material turn to the results of their explorations. They were skilled in the crafts and arts of peace, and yet, on occa¬ sion, could handle the weapons of war.

More adventurous than the English settlers of Plymouth and Jamestown, who hung for a century on the fringe of the continent know¬ ing nothing of the wilderness beyond, the French explorers and colonists penetrated to the heart of the continent (for that is what the Mississippi valley is and will ever remain). Leaving Quebec and Montreal behind them, they followed nature's highways towards the setting sun. Philadelphia was founded in 1681, but a year earlier than that LaSalle had established a colony on the Illinois, in terri¬ tory which, in 1812, was within the bounds of Madison county. The explorers paddled their canoes up the turbulent St. Lawrence, de¬ bouched on the vast expanse of Lake Ontario, made a portage at Niagara, followed Lake Erie to Detroit; thence through the straits of Mackinac to Lake Michigan, and still west¬ ward. They sought a passage to the Pacific and ever in the sunset sky they saw a shadowy hand beckoning them onward.

As early as 1659 French traders, accom¬ panying friendly Indians, penetrated to Green Bay and the southern shore of Lake Superior, which lies within the territory included in the original domain of Madison county. Their re¬ port on their return to Quebec of the wonders and capabilities of the countries they had visited, fired the missionary zeal of Bishop Francis de Laval (a divinity school in Mon¬ treal now bears his name) and a missionary was selected by lot to visit Green Bay and es¬ tablish a mission. The lot fell upon an aged priest, Rene Musuard, who departed alone, with little preparation, "trusting," he wrote, "in the Providence that feeds the little birds in the desert and clothes the wild flowers of the forest." In October, 1660, he reached a bay on the south shore of Lake Superior and es¬ tablished a mission. Eight months later, on his way to the island of St. Michaels to estab¬ lish another mission, he was lost in the forest and never more heard of.

Then came an interregnum in missionary exploitation. The colony of New France was fighting for existence at Montreal and Que¬ bec, menaced by the hostile Iroquois, but, at last, answering the call of the Company of the Jesuits, the king reinforced the garrisons with a royal regiment. In 1665, with better condi¬ tions at Quebec, Father Allouez, undismayed by the sad fate of his predecessors, embarked on a mission to the far west, and in Septem¬ ber passed the straits through which the upper lakes rush to the Huron. Landing on the south shore, he said mass, consecrating the forests which he claimed for the Christian king. It was a meeting place of the Indian tribes, and during his long sojourn there he lighted the torch of faith for more than twenty nations. From the unexplored recesses of Lake Michigan, which the French called Lac des Illinois, came the Potawatomies, worship¬ ers of the sun, who invited him to their homes. Also came the Illinois, a hospitable race, but rent and torn by bloody wars with the Sioux on the north and west, and the Iroquois on the east. Curiosity was aroused by their tales of the noble river on which they dwelt, which flowed to the south. "They had no forests, but vast prairies on which herds of deer and buffalo grazed on the tall grasses. Their country," wrote Allouez, "is the best field for the Gospel. Had I leisure I would have gone to their dwelling place to see all the good that was told me of it." croft, "the illustrious triumvirate, Allouez, Dablon and Marquette, were engaged in estab¬ lishing the influence of France over the vast lake region, mingling happiness with misery, and winning enduring glory by their fearless perseverance." An old map, attached to the "Relations of the Jesuits" and bearing date 1670, shows the mission de St. Xavier, at the head of Green Bay, establishing the fact that, prior to that date, the territory included in the Madison county of 1812, was settled by Europeans. The "Relations" continue that the purpose of discovering the Mississippi, of which they had heard from the Indians, sprung from Marquette himself. As far back as 1669 he had resolved on attempting the dis¬ covery, but was long delayed by the necessities of his mission field. Meanwhile he selected a young Illinois Indian to instruct him in the dialect of that tribe. Marquette made known his plans to Talon, the intendant at Quebec, who favored them, and appointed Louis Joliet, a native of that city and a brave explorer, to accompany him. The intendant wished to as¬ certain whether the French, descending the great river, would bear the banner of France to the Pacific or plant it side by side with Spain on the Gulf of Mexico. A band of friendly Potawatomies, hearing of Mar¬ quette s plan, tried to dissuade him from his purpose. "Those distant nations," they said, "never spare the stranger. The great river abounds in monsters which devour men and canoes." The good Father replied: "I shall gladly lay down my life for the salvation of souls."

Early in June, 1673, the explorers departed from Green Bay, ascending the Fox river to the Portage. On the tenth of that month, leaving the Fox river, Marquette, Joliet and five Frenchmen, lifting their canoes upon their backs and guided by two Indians, crossed the divide to the Wisconsin, embarked on that broad r.iver and, in seven days' voyaging," says Marquette, "entered happily the great river with a joy that could not be expressed." This was on June 17, 1673. The starting point was in the Madison county of 1812 and the discovery of the Mississippi, at what is now Prairie du Chien, was within the same terri¬ tory. The explorers passed on their way, much impressed with the beauty and fertility of the country, the luxuriant vegetation and the abundance of deer, bufifalo and other game. They conferred with various Indian tribes, meeting with no misadventure. The Indian men met with were stark naked. At length they reached the mouth of the Illinois, during the latter part of June. Marquette, in his nar¬ rative of "Voyages and Discoveries in the Val¬ ley of the Mississippi," writes as follows of their journey, as they reached this locality: "As we coasted along rocks, frightful for their height and length, we saw two monsters painted on one of the rocks, which startled us at first, and on which the boldest Indian dare not gaze long. They are as large as a calf, with horns on the head like a deer, a frightful look, red eyes, bearded like a tiger, the face somewhat like a man's, the body covered with scales and the tail so long that it twice makes the turn of the body, passes over the head and down between the legs, ending at last in a fish's tail. Green, red and a kind of black are the colors employed. On the whole these two monsters are so well painted that we could not believe any Indian could have been the de¬ signer - as good painters would find it hard to do so well; besides they are painted so high upon the wall that it is hard to get con- \emently at them to paint them. As we were discoursing of them, sailing down a beautiful, clear, still water, we heard the noise of a rapid, into which we were about to fall. I have seen nothing more frightful : A mass of large trees, entire with branches, real floating islands, came rushing from the mouth of the river Pekatanoni (the Missouri), so impetu¬ ous that we could not without great danger expose ourselves to pass across. The agita- tion was so great that the water was all muddy and could not get clear. Pekatanoni is a con¬ siderable river, coming from the northwest, and empties into the Mississippi. Many In¬ dian towns are ranged along this river, and I hope by its means to make the discovery of the Red or California sea."

The "frightful rocks," to which the good Father alludes, were the range of bluffs ex¬ tending from Grafton to Alton; thence reced¬ ing back from the river some five or six miles and extending to the Kaskaskia river. Be¬ tween the bluff range and the river lies the farfamed American Bottom, some twenty-five miles of which, in length, lie within the pres¬ ent confines of Madison and is the garden spot of the state, no other section of the country equaling it in fertility. It received its name from the fact that the first American settlers located thereon.

Between Grafton and Elsah, and for two or three miles below, the "frightful rocks" are fashioned into many weird and fantastic shapes and forms. Stately columns and pillars stand out from the face of the cliffs, leaving caves, hollows and amphitheatres between. A side view gives the impression of the long-extended turreted walls and towers of medieval castles. They are termed the "castleated rocks," and are unsurpassed in awe-inspiring grandeur on the Mississippi; but why the Frenchmen should have looked upon them with fear is hard to explain. How the cliffs came to be thus fashioned is a question upon which geolo¬ gists differ. The material is magnesian or oolitic limestone, and the agent that fashioned them was evidently erosion, but that hardly explains the uniformity of the unique forma¬ tion.

One thing is plain : The outlet of the great lakes was once down the valley of the Illinois and the Mississippi. Some great upheaval or convulsion of nature threw up a barrier, or watershed, along the west shore of lake Michi¬ gan which turned the drainage of the lake sys¬ tem eastward, and the magnificent river which once swept down the valley of the Illinois dwindled to the present, comparatively, puny stream, leaving rich bottom lands on either side. But the Mississippi in those days was a lordly stream, at least six miles wide, opposite the present boundaries of Madison and Jersey counties. It expanded from the bluffs on the east side of the Mississippi to the bluffs on the further side of the Missouri, and that river itself emptied into the Mississippi opposite these castleated bluffs, instead of over twenty miles below, as at present. The impact of the fierce current of the Missouri, also, against these rocks may have had much to do with their fantastic fashioning.

The long strip, or peninsula, of bottom land separating the two great rivers, which run parallel for nearly thirty miles, is only from three to four miles wide and of alluvial for¬ mation. It was the former bed of the rivers. Even within the last forty years the Missouri has shifted its mouth. In Marquette's time it joined the Mississippi about where it did when Alton was first founded - that is, about four miles below the city opposite the mouth of Wood river. It now comes in ten miles be¬ low Alton. The shifting occurred in this way: The winter of 1874-75 was extremely severe. 1 he river was frozen over for nearly three months. When the ice broke up in the spring, or late winter, the gorge in the Mis¬ souri gave way first, while that in the Missis¬ sippi held firm. The fields of floating ice in the Missouri piled up against the ice in the Mississippi, which still held fast thus forming a great dam across the mouth. The water in the Missouri piled up against the ice dam and flowed backward a short distance finally reaching an old bayou. The angry waters tore through this depression to the Mississippi, six miles further down, where the ice had broken in the latter stream. The ice dam held firm long enough for the mad Missouri to cut a new channel through the bayou, where it has since remained, resuming its old business of tearing away the rich bottom lands of Madi¬ son county against which it debouches.

To resume our narrative : The pictured rocks which Marquette describes were no fig¬ ment of a Frenchman's fervid fancy, but a reality, and were visible on the face of the clifif, at Alton, a quarter of a mile from State street, as late as 1850, and the figures depicted, early settlers say, correspond, in the main, with Marquette's description of them nearly two hundred years previous. They were just a few yards beyond what is known as Lover's Leap, which still remains a landmark and around which cluster legend and story. Of which, later on.

The explorers continued their voyage and at the first headland below the Missouri they landed, erected a cross and claimed the coun¬ try for France, in the name of their king, as they had in the country of the Illinois. Day after day they followed the course of the river of mystery, ever unveiling new wonders. They passed the mouth of the Ohio, of the beautiful river." Below that point the banks were thronged with naked savages, gazing in wonder at the white strangers. Sometimes they were openly hostile, at others, easily pro¬ pitiated by presenting the calumet of peace, given to Marquette as a safeguard by the friendly Illinois. But, as they descended, the situation grew rapidly more grave and the tribes more hostile, and those who entertained them told them frightful tales of the cruelty and barbarism of the tribes further down the stream. At length they reached the mouth of the Arkansas, and the information they gained satisfied them that the river emptied into the Gulf of Mexico and not into the Pacific; and so they decided to return. Turning the prows of their canoes up stream they paddled toil¬ somely against the current, in the heat of mid¬ summer, finally reaching the mouth of the Illi¬ nois, and ascended that stream. They were enraptured with the beauty and fertility of the country, its almost tropical luxuriance of vegetation, its abundance of wild fruits, and the marvelous herds of deer and buffalo that came to the water's edge to drink. Finally, making the portage at Chicago to Lake Michi¬ gan, they reached Green Bay, their starting point, at the end of September, after a canoe voyage of over two thousand five hundred miles in which they blazed a highway for civil¬ ization to follow. They won immortal fame as the unveilers of the western wilderness and the discoverers of the Upper Mississippi, the Missouri and the Illinois rivers. These men were the discoverers of the Madison county of both 1812 and the present day, and all their voyaging, except below the present site of Venice, was within its original boundaries, while their description of the picture of the Piasa Bird on the Alton cliffs links them di¬ rectly with the Madison county of today.

Now who were these devoted men who thus fared forth into unknown lands? Parkman, in his "Discovery of the Great West," gives their biographies in brief: "Louis Joliet was the son of a wagon maker in the service of the company of One Hundred Associates, then owners of Canada. He was born at Quebec in 1645. He was educated by the Jesuits for the priesthood. Later he renounced his vocation, though retaining his partiality for the Jesuits, and became a fur trader and explorer. He was sent by Talon, the intendant, to explore the copper mines of Lake Superior, and re¬ turned with credit from the expedition. He was bold and fearless and later was recom¬ mended by Talon to Governor Frontenac as a suitable person to undertake the search for the more or less mythical river of the sunset, and he was thereupon appointed on that perilous expedition. A Jesuit priest, Jacques Mar¬ quette, then stationed at Point Ignace, was, on his own petition, chosen as his associate. Pro¬ ceeding to St. Ignace Joliet joined his compan¬ ion and they started on the expedition narra¬ ted above. On their return to Green Bay Marquette was left at that mission to recruit his strength, while Joliet proceeded on the way to Quebec to bear the report of his dis¬ covery to Count Frontenac. At the foot of the LaChine Rapids, on the St. Lawrence, just above Montreal, his canoe was upset, three of his companions were drowned and he himself narrowly escaped. All the records of the great expedition were lost, though reproduced in part by the explorers. He made his report to the governor, and thereafter lived a life of adventure, although he was later a royal pilot on the St. Lawrence and hydrographer of Quebec. He died in 1699, in apparent poverty, after having added its richest realm to the French crown.

"Marquette was born in 1637, at Laon, in France, of an ancient and honorable family. When about seventeen he joined the Jesuit order and was sent to the missions in Canada. He was a devout votary of the Virgin Mary, who was, to his mind, the object of transcen¬ dent loveliness. He was an accomplished lin¬ guist and became easily the master of six In¬ dian languages, an accomplishment of inesti¬ mable advantage to him in his explorations."

The Indian traditions describe Marquette as a very beautiful man, with a face full of kind¬ ness, and lighted up with spirituality. The only portrait of the famous explorer and mis¬ sionary which is considered as authentic is a painting now at Marquette College, in Mil¬ waukee, and owned by Father Lalumiere, one of the oldest and most prominent Jesuits in the northwest.

Following his discovery of the Mississippi, Marquette spent the winter at Green Bay re¬ cruiting his strength wasted by a chronic malady. In the autumn following he set out to establish a mission on the Illinois. Winter overtook the party after entering the Chicago river and they remained encamped on the banks of that stream until the next spring, when they proceeded on their way to the In¬ dian village of Kaskaskia on the Illinois. After preliminary missionary labors he at length summoned a great council of the tribes on the plain near the modern town of Utica. Here gathered five hundred chiefs, one thou¬ sand five hundred youths and warriors and all the women and children of the villages. "Marquette, standing in their midst, explained to them the mysteries of the faith and beseeched them to adopt it. The response to his pleading met his utmost wishes. They begged him to remain among them, but his life was ebbing away and he felt it time for him to de¬ part. A few days after Easter, 1675, he left the village escorted by a crowd of Indians who followed him to Lake Michigan, where he em¬ barked with his companions and crossed the lake on the way to St. Ignace. But his strength was failing fast and he ordered his companions to take him ashore. There they built a rude hut of bark into which the dying missionary was carried. He knew that the end was at hand. He gave directions for his burial, administered to his followers the sacrament of penitence and then passed peacefully away, thanking God that he had been permitted to die in the wilderness a minister to the faith." His death occurred on the nineteenth of May, 1675. He was buried beside the hut, on the east shore of Lake Michigan, and his follow¬ ers proceeded on their way to St. Ignace. In the spring of 1676 a band of Ottawa Indians, to whom Marquette had ministered, repaired, to his grave, exhumed the remains and then, in a procession of thirty canoes, they bore the body, chanting funeral songs, to St. Ignace. The remains were received with solemn cere¬ mony by the priests, traders and Indians of the place, and buried beneath the little chapel of the mission. The life of this discoverer of Madison county is a pathetic story of devo¬ tion, sacrifice and final glorious triumph.

In the way of European occupation the mis¬ sion to the Kaskaskias, established by Mar¬ quette in the winter of 1674-5, was succeeded in 1680, by the founding of Fort Creve Coeur by the chivalric LaSalle, the discoverer of the mouth of the Mississippi and the most dis¬ tinguished of western explorers. Then fol¬ lowed the establishment of Fort St. Louis by Tonty, LaSalle's devoted associate and an al¬ most equally great explorer. The scene then is a shifting one, but the best authority indi¬ cates that the missions on the Illinois were maintained until 1699, when the Kaskaskia tribe, fearing another invasion by their ancient foes, the Iroquois, migrated en masse to south¬ ern Illinois, locating at the present site of Kaskaskia. The devoted priests, James Gravier and Jaques Marest, came with them, ac¬ companied by the traders, trappers and the white attaches of the mission, and thus estab¬ lished what is claimed to be the first perma¬ nent European settlement in the Mississippi valley. But this claim is disputed, there being almost equally good authority for the claim that LaSalle, on his return from the lower Mississippi, in 1683, established the mission at Cahokia which subsequently developed into a flourishing settlement. But as Cahokia was never included within the bounds of Madison county, its future does not concern this narra¬ tive.

Our aim has been to show that the discovery of the great west was made within the original bounds of the county of Madison; that its first record in history is contained in the Journal of Father Marquette, and its first location geo¬ graphically expressed is on his map of the Mississippi valley. The bluffs from the mouth of the Illinois to Alton are depicted on this map and designated "Figure des Monts," referring to the pictograph of the so-called Piasa Bird. Thus recorded history takes us back to 1673, a period antedating by two hundren and thirty-nine years the centennial anni¬ versary of the organization of the county. The French domination in the Illinois country con¬ tinued for ninety-two years, counting from the year when Joliet and Marquette took posses¬ sion of the country in the name of their king, but its actual occupancy by colonists would be some ten years less. The list of baptisms of children found in the records of the church at Kaskaskia, goes back to March 20, 1695, but that entry was evidently made when the mis¬ sion was located on the Illinois. The missions on the Illinois seem to have become extinct after the migration of the Kaskaskias to southern Illinois.

In 1759, the seven years' war between France and England having also spread to their American colonies, the defeat of Mont¬ calm by General Wolfe, on the Plains of Abra¬ ham, at Quebec, overthrew the power of France in the new world. The treaty of Paris of February 10, 1763, which followed the war, provided for the cession to England of all the vast territory claimed by France east of the Mississippi and from the frozen sea to the gulf. But it was not until 1765 that Major Farmer, with the Thirty-fourth British Regi¬ ment, arrived at Fort Chartres, now in Ran¬ dolph county, and unfurled the banner of St. George from its ramparts, taking formal pos¬ session in the name of his king. Although missions, trading stations and forts were es¬ tablished by the French during their long oc¬ cupancy there only remained, when the fleur de lis was lowered, a line of five French vil¬ lages extending along or near the Mississippi, consisting of Cahokia, St. Philipe, Prairie du Rocher, Fort Chartres and Kaskaskia. Of these Kaskaskia was the largest, but the popu¬ lation of all five did not exceed three thousand souls. Fort Chartres was the most magnifi¬ cent fortification in the new world and cost millions of livres. The Illinois colony, though founded from Quebec was, in 1717, attached to the province of Louisiana and was gov- erned by commandants sent up from New Or¬ leans. The French in Illinois were not colo¬ nists in the true sense of the term; they were hunters, traders, trappers and voyageurs, brave and adventurous, but not taking root in the soil in the same sense as the Anglo-Sax¬ ons. A life of toil, felling of forests, tilling fields and doing the rough work of isolated pioneers did not suit their temperament, and they did as little of it as possible, imitating the care-free life of the Indians about them, with whom they fraternize'd. While living to be gay and happy, they were also deeply religious, and devoted to the forms and ceremonies of a church that appealed strongly to their emo¬ tional natures. They lacked initiative; pre¬ ferred being ruled by their officials to assert¬ ing individual independence. They were sub¬ servient to law and held their priestly Fathers in awe and reverence, consulting them and be¬ ing guided by them not only in spiritual but in temporal matters.