Massac County, Illinois - Chapter 2: Fort Massac and Concurrent Events, 1900

IN the reign of Francis T. of Prance, the French navigators began to interest themselves in the New ^A'orld. Juan Verrazano, a Florentine, sailed from France in 1524, and sighted land in the latitude of North Carolina. He sailed south some distance and then, turning north, explored the eastern coast of the continent for 600 leagues, ^1 and named it New France, in honor of his royal

Ten years afterwards, Jaques Cartier, a bold navigator of Brittany, sailed from St. Malo, 1.534, reached the eastern shore of Newfoundland, and sailed nearly around that island. He discovered and named the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and entered the Bay of Chaleurs.

This was the beginning of the French occujjancy of North America. The discoveries made by Cartier and companions turned the attention of France to the valley of the St. Lawrence and its capabilities, and established her claim to the country according to the equities then prevailing among the maritime powers of the old world.

Samuel de Champlain was a prominent figure among the early list of navigators and explorers who loft their impress upon the New World. July 3, 1608, he landed a company of adventurers at Quebec, and explored the country which he called New Prance. In 1615, he brought from France three priests and a lay brother of the order of Eecollet - the first of priestly orders that set foot in the New World.

The French gradually extended their occupation throughout the country now known as Canada, and to the Northern lakes and the head waters of the Mississippi river.

By the treaty of Utrecht of April 11, 1713, France restored to England Hudson's Bay, ceded Newfoundland and a large portion of Acadia, and renounced all claims to the country of the Iroquois, reserving to herself the valleys of the St. Lawrence and Mississippi and the region of the upper lakes.

De Soto was the first white man to view the Mississippi river, 1511. He crossed the river at a point a short distance below the present city of Memphis, continued his explorations until June 5th, 1542, when he died, and was buried in the "great river" at a point below the mouth of the Arkansas. His three hundred followers were scattered, manj' disappeared, others appeared in Mexico, while tradition states that one band found a temporary restiug place on the banks of the Ohio river, just above the ruins of old Fort Massac. Spanish relics have been found around a ruin, that tradition still marks as a temporary fort, used by De Soto's men to protect themselves from the Indians.

One hundred years after De Soto's discovery of the "Grimt Elver" the first Canadian envoys met the Indians of the northwest at the Falls of St. Mary, but it was not until nineteen years afterwards that the first mission was established in that region. Menard, who founded this first mission, perished in the woods a few months afterwards, and in 1665, Father Claude Allonez built the earliest of the permanent habitations of white men among the Indians of the Northwest. Tn 1668, Claude Dablon and James Marquette founded the mission at St. Mary's Falls; in 1670, Nicholas Perrot, explored Lake Michigan as far as Chicago: in 1671, formal possession of the Northwest was taken by French offloers in the presence of the surrounding tribes of Indians. Marquette, by this time had gathered a little flock of listeners around him at Point St. Ignatius, om the mainland, north of the island of Mackinac. He had heard of the "Great. Eiver" of the west, and of the untutored tribes of men who lived along its banks, and he wished to go and seek them out and preach to them. His heart was filled with joy when he reoeived permission from Talon to carry out this great desire. As companions. Talon sent to him from Quebec, Monsieur Joliet and five boatmen. Upon the 13th of May, Wi~, this little band of seven Frenchmen left Michillimacinac in two bark canoes, lightly laden with stores, to tempt the unknown and go, they knew not whither. They finally reached, through the aid of friendly Indians, the ^Visconsin river, and fioated down its sand-barred stream, past vineclad isles and pleasant slopes, boT-dered with alternate groves and meadows, until the 17th day of June, 1673, when they entered the Mississippi river, as ^larquette writes, "with joy, that 1 cannot exju'ess."

They beheld deer and buffaloes; and great fish, one of which came near wrecking their canoe; the swan, and birds of many kinds and hues; but no men. On the 21st of June. they observed fO'Oti:)rints of men along the western bank of the river, and a little path leading into a pleasant meadow. Leaving their canoes, Joliet and Marquette boldly advanced upon this path, and soon came to an Indian village, where they were well received by four old men, who presented them the pipe of peace, and told thi-m, that this was a village of the "Illinois." They were feasted on fish, dog and buffalo, spent a pleasant night among the true and genuine native Ulinoisans, and next morning were escorted to their canoes by six hundred people.

The Indians warned them, before they departed, of a terrible demon in the river further down, who would devour them, but they made their escape, and duly passed his lair without accident. This dejnou was a pillar of rocks, now known as Grand Tower, in Jackson county, Illinois. They reached the Onaboskigon, or Ohio, an important stream which failed to impress Marquette with its immensitj', and finally peached the mouth of the Arkansas, (Akamscas.) Here they had trouble with the Indians, but "Grod touched their hearts," says the pious Marquette, an^ they were allowed to proceed to the village of Akamscas, where they were received and feasted bountifully on dog meat and other luxuries. Here we mast leave Pierre Marquette, or rather, after stating that he returned to the Illinois, and on the 18th of May, 1075, died, alone in the sublime wilderness, on the shores of Lake Michigan, near the mouth of the Marquette^ - a river named in his honor.

The next great French explorers are Robert de La Salle and Louis Hennepin, whose names we may read on the map of Illinois. To La Salle belongs the honor of discovering the Ohioi river. Marquette had heard of the Hohio, but died before he could visit it. About the fall and winter of 1(569-70, La Salle entered the Allegheny river, following its course in his frail boat, passed down the Ohio as far as the Falls at Louisville, and according to the authority of Pierre Margery, a recent French writer, descended to the Mississippi. This is doubted by some. It is well known, howevei-, that he was the discoverer of the Ohio river, and the pioneer of Illinois history. He and his boon companion, Chevalier Tonti, an Italian, continued their explorations together, and, finally, landed at the mouth of the' Mississippi river. On the 9th of April, 1082, with great formality they took possession of that river and all its tributaries, and the country drained by all of them, in the name of the great Louis XIX, King of France and Navarre, and named the country Louisiana in honor of that monarch. La Salle lost his life by the treachery of some of his men, on the 20th of March, 1087, while engaged in a final expedition to reach the Illinois country, and establish a colony there. He had already located and comi^leted Fort St. Louis, on the Illinois river, near the present site of IJtica, La Salle county, Illinois, during the winter of 1682-3.

Before this, Marquette, in 1673, had visited a village of Peoria Indians, and, also, a village of Kachkaskias, further up, on the Illinois river, and La Salle, in March, 1680, had built Fort Creve Coeur - or the Fort of the Eroken Heart, long thought to have been named by La Salle, from depression of spirits, the results of difficulties thrown in his way by the Canadian authorities, preventing him from the free pursuit of his long cherished plans of discovery.

It may be well to mention that Marquette, the pious, died preaching the gospel to the Indians, on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan, May 18, 1675.

We ha\'e now traced the salient points in the discovery of the northern lakes, rivers St. Lawrence, Mississippi, Ohio and Illinois, and embracing a greater portion of that territorj' drained by them. Especial reference is made to what was known as the "territory of Illinois," long subject to the French in Canada.

The French continued to occupy Fort St. Louis on the Illinois river, until 1690-1, when the Count de Ponchertrain, French minister of the colonies, disbanded the garrison, which returned to Canada. The fort was not again occupied as a military' post, but became a fur-trading station until suppressed by a royal decree of the King of France in 1699; but a provision was made in favor of Henri de Tonti and La Forrest, his lieutenant, but in 1702, a provincial order was made from the Commandant at Quebec, ordering La Forrest to remove to Canada, and Tonti on the Mississippi, and the establishment at Fort St. Louis was permanently discontinued. This was the last of the chivalrous Tonti in Illinois. He disappeared from history somewhere in lower Louisiana. In 1718, the fort was temporarily occupied by some French traders, but in 1721, when Charlevoix passed by, he only found the remains of its palisades and rude buildings.

The foundation of Kaskaskia, the oldest town founded by white men in the state, has been variously ascribed to members of La Salle's party on returning from the mouth of the Mississippi in 1682; to Father Jaques Gravier, about 1685; to Heni-i de Tonti in 1686, and to others at different dates. It is probable that numbers of these parties visited the location - they certainly passed near it, but the antiquarian, in his search after the archaic, frequently draws strongly on his imagination, as to the proper date of the founding of Kaskaskia. Father Marquette, in 1673, when on his voyage of discovery down the Mississippi, stopped at a village of Kaskaskias, on the Upper Illinois river, and, at their request, returned thither in 1G75, founding a mission among them, called "the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin." Father Claude Allonez was appointed to succeed him, after Marquette's death, by the Superior General of the Jesuits, at Quebec. He called this village Kachkachkia, but as the C in French nearly always has the sound of S, the name has been by later writers, spelled according to its orthoepy. Father Allonez clung to this Illinois mission until he died in 1690, and was succeeded by Sebastian Basics, in 1692, the latter remaining in charge until 1693, when he was recalled to his former station, among the Abenakis, on the Kennebec river, in Maine. Father Jaques Gi-avier received this mission from Rasles and remained until 1697 when he was recalled to Mackinac. Gravier was succeeded in 1697 by Fathers Julian Binneteau and Jaques, or (Franceis) Piuet. In December, 1699, Binneteau, while with the Indians, on their annual hunt, died of a fever, and his remains were left to bleach along the track of the buffalo.

In 1698, Gabriel IMarest, and it was under his guidance, in the year 1700, that the mission to the Kaskaskias was removed from the Illinois river tO' the Mississippi. The intention was to journey to the French establishment, founded by D'lberville on the lower Mississipi)i. The Indians with Marest, who was sick, halted be! ween the Kaskaskia and Mississippi rivers, and thus, doubtless, providence, through the sickness of Marest, laid the foundation of the permanent settlement of Kaskaskia, and the future greatness of Illinois and the Northwest. But for this settlement George Roger Clark would never have undertaken (1778) his expedition to the lUi" nois, and the whole Northwest, not being in occupancy of the colonial forces, as was the case with Canada, would have been set off to England at the Treaty of Peace after the Revolutiouary War. Father Marest remained at his new mission, and was buried there. To' him and James Gravier should be

In 1707, Father Marest was joined at Kaskaskia by Father Jean Memaet, who had, undoubtedly before that time, founded a mission at what is now old Fort Massac, under the Qame of Assumption. This was the same year that Kaskaskia was founded by Fathers Marest aad G-ravier. At this point the locality of Massac begins to assume a clearer outline, under the light of history. Hitherto it has been the purpose of the writer to give the outlines of the advent of the white settler into the state of Illinois. This history has been brought down to the year 1700. Louis XIV - Le Grande Monarque - ruled in France, and claimed vast possessions in America - claims which were wrested from France, at a later period in the history of the Illinois country, a name of French derivation - ''Illini," the name of the Indians that inhabited this section with the French affix, "ois," meaning the people or country of the Illini.

The Wabash river had at au eaiJy day attracted the attention of the adventurous pioneers of the wilderness. The head waters of this stream, called by the Frenx;h Ouabache, on account of their contiguity to the Great northern lakes and the French possessions in Canada, furnished an accessible passage into the interior, the southwest, which was not neglected by the explorers, who risked their lives freely for the sake of making new discoveries.

As early as 1719, De Vincennes established or aided in establishing, on the Wabash, the post named for him and Fort Ouatanon, higher up the river, had also been established by the French. There is a claim that these settlements bear a more ancient date, but, in view of the fact that the record bearing on the Wabash settlements must include the lower Ohio river to its mouth, which bore, also, the nr.me of Wabash, it is probable that the mission, called Assumption, at the present site of "Old Fort Massac" has been credited by historians as having been at the present Vincennes.

Juchei'iiu, a Canadian officer, assisted by the Jesuit Missionary, Mermet, before the close of the year 1702, made an attempt to establisli a post on the Ohio, near the mouth of that river, and some have erroneously claimed that this post was established at Vincennes. La Harpe, and after him, Charlevoix, fix the position of the post at, or near, the month of the Ohio (Ouabache), which discharges itself into the Mississippi river. But other authorities, notably Dr. John G. Shea, in his Jesuit Missions in America, give us such details as lead to the conclusion that this post was founded by Jucherau at the present site of "Fort Massac," as a trading post, and that Mermet, his Jesuit associate, also established along with the post, a branch mission which he called "Assumption," from which he taught or instructed the Southern Indians, living on the Cherokee (Tennessee) and Shawnee (Cumberland) rivers. In the early maps these rivers - last named - are dotted with the sites of Indian villages, especially Cherokees, Choctaws and Chickasaws. The post at Massac was a coigne of vantage, easily accessible by three great waterways and their tributaries to the very persons they desired to trade with and bring over to the Catholic Christian faith.

It may be interesting, at this point, to mention the different names by which, in those early days, the Ohio river was known; and the reader will, no doubt, pardon the digression from the main subject. First we have the modern name, Ohio, then the French name La Belle Reviere, followed by the Indian names (Ohio is really an Indian word), Allegheny, Olighisipon, Ohiopehen, Ohiophaune, Ohiopeckhaune, meaning the beautiful river, very white stream, the very deep white river, the shining river, the white shining river, and the deep broken shining river. This river, so famous since the dawn of its history, drains through its northern and southern affluents 190,464 square miles of territory.

This post and mission, founded by Juchereau and Father Mermet, on the Ouabache (Ohio) was undoubtedly at the present site of old Fort Massac. The neighboring Indians (Mascoutins) soon gathered about this post for the purpose of exchanging their furs and peltry for such goods as the French traders had to offer, including iron tomahawks, knives and axes, thus arming the sa\ages, but, no doubt unintentionally, for the future butcheries of the white settlers and of each other. Juchereau, it appears, did a mox-e prosperous business than Father Mermet, and it is sad to relate that the Indians about this location were incorrigible, and failed to respond to the zealous and well meant instructions of the pious Father.

It seems that Southern Illinois, or the territory now known by that name, was a happy hunting ground for the Indians; especially was it prolific in buffaloes, and their peltry furnished the most important article of barter in the exteusire transactions between the Indians and the French traders.

La Harpe and Charlevoix tell us that the French in 1700, establishing a trading post, near the mouth of the Ohio, on the site of Fort Massac, in Massac county, Illinois, for the IJurpO'Se of securing buffalo hides. The neighboring Mascoutius were not long in finding this out, and an active trade soon began, which gathered other Indians from a greater distance, who sought the trading post for the purpose of barter. This collection of Indians could not escape the vigilance of the ever active Jesuit Father Mermet, who saw in it that special providence that permits not the fall of a sparrow unnoticed. The French traders desired their priest, and invited Father Mermet to visit the place and engage in mission work, which he readily did, it being in every way suited to his views, and in accord with his purposes and desires in visiting the wilds of North America and enduring the ha.rdships of the wilderness. This co-operative union of the mission with the trading post endured only for four or five years, or until about 1705, when it was broken up on account of a quarrel among the Indians themselves, in which, unfor-tunately, the French, in trying to keep the peace, became involved to the extent that their lives were endangered, and they fled for safety, leaving behind all their stores of trade and barter, together with thirteen thousand buffalo hides which they had collected for shipment to Canada and from thence to France.

the mission and village of the Immaculate Conception at Kaskaskia, of which Fathers Marest and Gravier were the founders, Father Mermet followed Juchoreau down the Wabash to Massac, remained here, as above shown, until forced to leave, when he repaired to Kaskaskia and joined Father Marest, about 1707. It must be borne in mind that Massac - the modern name is used to avoid tautology - was a trading post for about two years before it was a mission; so it was in 1707 that Mermet retired from Massac to Kaskaskia.

It thus appears as a matter of history that the first religious discourse ever preached on the Ohio river was preached at old Fort Massac, about 1702, or one hundred and ninetyseven years ago, by the learned Mermet, and, he being the first preacher of any Christian church who discoursed the Gospel of Christ in this part of the present state of Illinois, it is natural that the reader should desire to know more about him. History informs us, that "in 1701, Father Marest was joined at Kaskaskia, by Father Jean Mermet, who had previously attempted a mission among the Mascoutins on the lower Ohio (Massac) and had also labored at the great village of the Illinois (Peoria)." Mr. Bancroft, the historian, gives us the following in regard to this, the first of the pioneers of Massac county: "The gentle virtues and fervid eloquence of Mermet made him the soul of the Mission of Kaskaskia." (This was after he had been forced to retire from Massac.)

Father Mermet continued to labor at Kaskaskia until his death in 1718, and his remains now rest with the forefathers of that historic village.

There has been some dispute as to the location of this trading post and mission at Massac, owing to the confusion caused by the early French writers calling the lower Ohio river - from the mouth of the Wabash to the Mississippi, the W^abash. They knew nothing of the upper Ohio, and gave to that part of this river with which they were acquainted - the lower Ohio - ^the name of their favorite stream, the Wabash. Charlevoix says that the mission and trading post was "at the mouth of the Wabash which discharges itself into the Mississippi." La Harpe and Le Sueur, from personal knowl- edge tell us that a mission was formed among the Mascootins on the lower Ohio (Massac) near the mouth of the Ohio. The latter gives an account of its origin, and the former narrates an account of its trade and final abandonment. Thus it will be seen by eA-en the cursory student of history that the first white men to visit this region were French.

The settlements in Illinois, of which the settlement at Massac was a part, were prosperous. The French settlers imbibed a love of the chase from the friendly Illinois Indians, and, in turn, taught the Indians how to cultivate wheat and make flour bread.

As early as 1712, the French began to intermarry with the friendly Illinois Indians, and gradually the relations between them became so attached that a Frenchman could travel anywhere among the Indians with perfect safety. Father Marest, writing from Kaskaskia, towards the close of 1712, describes the Illinois Indians as "much less barbarous than the other Indians." The introduction of Christianity and the civilizing agencj^ of ''flour bread" had greatly improved these Indians, and lessened their natural ferocity of disposition.

During 1718 and 1719, the French settlements in this countrj' were increased by emigration from Canada and from France by way of Xew Orleans, and M' de Boisbriant was commissioned by the French government to build Fort Chartres, one of the best and most thoroughly equipped forts, when completed to be found in America. This fort was built for the use of the "Mississippi Company" then being formed by John Law and others, an association over which men and women went wild, and which, after it had ruined thousands and bankrupted France, surrendered its charter in 1732.

The French by this time had established ''missions," supported by "forts," from Canada to New Orleans. Metal plates with fleurs de luce, the lilies of Finance stamped upon them, were sunk in the ground, along the rivers, at points where they were unable to leave garrisons, and carvings on trees were made all declaring that the French had taken possession of the country. Within this century some of them have been discovered, along the Ohio river and elsewhere, sad mem-

Glials of the thirst for empire and dominion; of hopes, that like "Dead Sea Fruits," had allui'ed only to fly from the grasp of the discoverers, and melt, to ashes ere they had been fairly in possession.

The English, our ancestors, had, in the meanwhile, been encroaching on the east, or Atlantic slopes. They were formidable rivals of the French in trading with the Indians, if not in preaching to them. Wars were engendered between the rival nations, fierce, cruel and bloody, but the reader must search the history of the United States for information in regard to these wars.

May 10, 1763, the forces of Prance, from New Orleans to Detroit, were summoned and led by D' Artaguette, Governor of Ilinois, in an expedition against the Chickasaws. These Indians were the friends and allies of the English traders and by their constant interference with the French traders on the Mississippi, excited the latter to an attempt to punish them. The attack was made some time later, at or near the present city of Vicksburg, and, while, at first success, in two attacks, attended the French arms, in attacking a third and more formidable position, the gallant D' Artaguette fell, dangerously wounded, and the Illinois Indians, seeing their trusted leader fall, instantly took to flight, leaving the brave Canadian Vincennes, and Father Senat, a Jesuit who attended the expedition, prisoners, in the hands of the enemy. The Jesuit could have escaped, but refused to do so; and, without a thought for his personal safety, preferred to remain to offer the consolation of his religion to his dying commander. Devoted priest; even after the lapse of one hundred and thirty-three years, we offer to his memory the feeble tribute of a line.

The Ohickasaw® received the prisoners into their wigwams and feasted them bountifully for awhile, but on the 27th day of May, Bienville arrived from the South, and attempted to retrieve the fortunes of his brother. He was too late, the Indians instructed by the English traders, had fortified their position, and Bienville was driven back, and forced to an inglorious retreat. The Indians then brought forth their captives, and celebrated their victories in songs and dances

In 1739, a renewal of the war was attempted, and four thousand men were quartered at Foit Assumption, the present site of Memphis. This force was wasted by sickness until the summer of 1740, when the Chickasaws demanded, through messengers, peace with the French, which was gladly granted, and the troops withdrawn.

During the next ten years the settlers of Illinois enjoyed a decade of peace and prosperity. They lived on terms of social and religious friendship with the surrounding Indians.

In the summer of 1750, Vivier, a missionary writing from Fort Chartres says: "We have here whites, negroes and Indians, to say nothing of cross breeds, there are five French villages, and three villages of the natives, within a space of twenty-one leagues (6.3 miles), situated between the Mississippi and another river called the (Kaskaskia). In the five French villages there are, perhaps, 1,100 whites, 300 blacks, and some 60 red slaves or savages. The three Illinois towns (Indians) do not contain more than 800 souls, all told. Most of the French till the soil; they raise wheat, cattle, pigs, and horses, and live like princes. Three times as much is produced as can be consumed; and great quantities of grain and flour are sent to New Orleans."

These early settlers were united in thought and heart and mind for two purposes - the common defense, and social intercourse. If the head of a family were sick, his field was not allowed to grow up in weeds, but was thoroughly cutivated for him, without a thought of charging him for it. At the close of the day the weary toiler was met at the door of his humble dwelling, and his return was welcomed by a conjugal kiss by the good wife, and after this, before he entered his abode, a like salutation was claimed by all the children and happily bestowed upon them.

But the recent conflict with the English soon brought evil days to these peaceful dwellers in Illinois. France claimed all the country watered by the Mississippi river and its tributaries - England claimed from the Atlantic to the

Pacific ocean, on the ground that the discovery and possession of the sea coast entitled her to the possession of the country. War soon followed these rival claims, but for a long time Illinois, by its remoteness, escaped the harassments of the conflict. In 1752, the French burnt down the first English trading post established on this side of the Alleghenies, and thus the war began, for the particulars of which we refer the reader, as before stated, to the pages of our country's history. Braddock was defeated in 1755, near Fort Du Quesne. Who does not remember the part our Washington took in that battle? Washington, who had some experience, fighting the Indians, asked of Braddock, a British General, to be allowed to fight the Indians in their own way. The Indians were fighting for the French. Braddock's reply is familiar to most sphool boys:

The British general fell a victim to his own folly, but the young Virginian lived forty-four years longer, during which he founded for us our Republic.

One after another, the French forts fell into the hands of the English. Louisburg yielded to Boscawen, Frontenac was taken by Bradstreet, and, in 1758, Gen. Forbes began his march, with ten thousand men, from Carlisle, Pa., against Fort Du Quesne, now Pittsburg. The French and Indian garrison, not able to withstand so great a force, blew up the fort, the Indians dispersed, and the French having constructed a sufficient number of rafts, loaded all the munitions of war and stores that they could carry upon the rafts, and fell back, down the river, on these rafts, to place themselves in communication with the French line of Forts on the Mississippi. On their way towards New Orleans, they passed the mouths of the Shawnee (Cumberland) and Cherokee (Tennessee) rivers, and landed at the point now known as Fort Massac. They were well acquainted with this country, many of them, notably St. Ange de Belle Rive and his followers, having gone from Illinois to Fort Du Quesne to help in the defense of that place. It was only 120 miles by land to Kaskaskia and but a little further to Fort Chai-tres, and they determined, upon, the elevated embanknjent that ovc^rlooked the mouth of the Cherokee river, ten miles above, and commanded a view of the "Beautiful river," eighteen miles below, to erect a fort, and make a final stand against their English foes. The stand was final and from the day - the sad day (to them) - Avhen by order of their superiors, the French garrison at Massac retired to Fort Chartres, no French soldier has trod this classic shore. Having determined to erect this fort, the work, as historians relate, was speedily accomplished under the direction of a young engineer, M. Massac, who gave to the new fort his own name - a name which it has borne from 1758 to the present time - Fort Massac. This point, as has been elsewhere observed, was as early as 1700 to 1705, a trading station under Juchereau, and a mission under Mermet. Hence grounds had been broken, the trees cleared away, and much work had been accomplished, renderi/ig less arduous the erection of the Fort by Colonel Massac. The origin of this name, in the lapse of time has become involved in traditions, which almost obscure the true history of the place. There is a story extant of a massacre of the garrison by Indians, who appeared on the Kentuckj' shore dressed in bearskins, thus beguiling the garrison into a bear hunt, when the Indian warriors, waiting until most of the soldiers had gone over the river, in their boats to kill the bears, and the rest, without arms, were watching the sport from the high bank, rushed upon them, took the fort, and massacred the garrison. This story forms a beautiful tradition, and it is unfortunate that it cannot be satisfactorily verified. It rests upon generally accepted tradition. Against this origin, appears the fact, that it scarcely could have been the French thus massacred, for the reason that the French and Indians were devoted allies and on but few occasions, was war waged between them. Especially is this true of the Illinois Indians, and the French. The only hostilities of consequence between the French and Indians was the conflict of ten or more years before, when the brave D' Ai-taguette lost his life in an attack upon tlie Chickasaw villages, in Mississippi. The stratagem of the "bear skins" reads like one of

As before stated, it seems almost incredible that the garrison of French at Fort Massac were massacred by the Indians; for at the time of which we write, before and afterwards, the Indians, especially the Illinois Indians, were faithful and devoted friends of the French; yet as stated, authorities conflict greatly as to the true origin of the name.

Nicolet, in his report to congress, page 79, says: "It (the Fort) was not named Massac, or Massacre, but Marsiac," while it is stated by the author of "Boriquet's Expedition in 17(54, that the fort was called "'Massiac, or Assumption," and the time of its erection was fixed a year earlier - 1757. This may be accounted for on the hypothesis that the French, foreseeing the inevitable abandonment of Fort Du Quesne, had sent a small detachment to locate a fort at, or near the mouth of the Ohio, so as to place the garrison in communication with the line of forts on the Mississippi river; and with that reverence for Roman Catholic festivals for which the French of that day were remarkable, the new location, for want of a better name, was styled "Assumption" - a very common name for French outposts of those days, not to say a very appropriate one.

Colonel George Rogers Clark, when he landed his expedition against Kaskaskia, tlien lield by the English, in the mouth of Massac Creek, in July, 1778, called it "Fort Massick, or Massacre." Clark was remarkable, even then, for his butchery of the "King's English."

Moses, in his historj' of Illinois, note at bottom of page 148,, says this fort was "erected by Lieutenant Massac, in October, 1758, after the evacuation of Fort Du Quesne by the French,'' and says that iTiis was "the last fort built by the French in the Western country, and gives Monette's "^'alley of the Mississippi, Vol. I., p. 317 for authority. But Moses continues: "This statement and the name of such an officer has not been verified. It is more probable that the Fort waa named after M. de Massiac, the French minister of Marine at this time.

In part we can verify the above. Several years ago, whiha under President Harrison, \Miitelaw Reid was minister to France, the writer made inquiry of the French government, through him, as to the personal history of M. Massac, and learned that no record of this real or suppositious officer existed in the military archives of Paris, although it is the universal practice to keep such record. This only makes the matter more obscure without lessening our faith in the hero of the Fort, M. Massac. It seems impossible that the French War Department could have kept track of all its heroes and pioneer soldiers, inasmuch as many of them earned their titles far away from their native land, in the wilderness of the great West and ]S[or-thwest.

As has been seen the French were forced to evacuate Fort Du Quesne, and, on the 24th of October, 1758, they bade a long farewell to the scene of their triumph over Gen. Braddock. Probably the first detachment of the retiring forces had already reached and begun Fort Massac on the old site of Mermet's and Juchereau's efforts. At all events, in passing down the Ohio river, M. Aubry, the commander, made a halt thirty-six miles, as it was then estimated from the mouth of the Ohio, and on the site of this trading post, fortlet and mission, erected a fort, and left one hundred men to garrison it, and retired with the rest to Fort Chartres. The new fort was called Fort Massac, in compliment to M. Massac or Marsiac, the officer who first commanded there, or who, as others state, laid it off and directed its construction. This was the last fort erected by the French on the Ohio, and it was occupied by them until the evacuation of the country under the stipulations of the treaty of Paris of February 10th, 1763.

time and fiction. Dr. Lewis C. Beck, in his Gazetteer of Illinois and Missouri, page 114, describing the place, says: "A fort was first built here by the French when in possession of this country. The Indians, who were then at war with them, laid a curious strategem to take it, which answered their purpose. A number of ttem appeared in the day time on the opposite side of the river, each of whom was covered with a bear skin, and walked on all fours. Supposing them to be bears, a party of the French crossed the river in pursuit of them. The remainder of the troops left their quarters, and resorted to the bank of the river in front to obsene the sport. In the meantime, a large body of warriors, who were concealed in the woods near by, came silently up behind the fort and entered it without opposition, and very few of the Frenchmen escaped the carnage. They afterwards built another fort on the grounds and called it Massac, or Massacre, in memory of the disastrous event. This romantic story is repeated by Judge Hall in his "Sketches of the West," and by other Western writers.

Ex-Governor Reynolds, in his ''Own Times," second edition, page 16, writes more specifically of the fort, as follows: "Fort Massac was first established by the French about 1711, and was also a missionary station. It was only a small fort until the war commenced in 1755 between the English and the French. In 175G (1758) the fort was enlarged and made a respectable fortress, considering the wilderness it was in. It was at this place that the Christian missionaries first instructed the Southern Indians in the Gospel precepts, and it was here also that the French soldiers made a resolute stand against the enemy."

Fort Massac was subsequently sustained by the United States government as a military post, and a few families resided in the vicinity until after the war of 1812-14. During this latter period of its history it was sometimes called the "Old Cherokee Fort," from the river of that name, now known as the Tennessee. In fact, from its i)roximity to the mouth of that river and the Shawnee (Cumberland) both of which streams were dotted with Indian villages, it was a favored locality for missionary work among the Indians.

In 1855, Keynolds visited the place, which he thus describes: "The outside walls were one hundred and thirty-five feet square, and at each angle strong bastions were erected, with earth between the wood; a large well was sunk in the fortress ; and the whole appeared to have been strong and substantial in its day. Three or four acres of graveled walks were made on the north of the fort, on which the soldiers paraded. These walks are made in exact angles and are beautifully graveled Avith pebbles from the river. The site is one of the most beautiful on La Belle Kiviere, and commands a view that is charming."

The French were vanquished by the English in the war, and peace was made by the Treaty of Paris, Februai'y lOtb, 1763, the French surrendering all their American possessions east of the Mississippi river.

But the French garrison held Massac until directed to give it up, by a special order of April 21st, 1764. After that, the French held the fort another j'ear, finally surrendering to Captain Stirling of the British army, in 1765.

Fort Massac was not again occupied by troops until trouble arose with Spain, about 1796, when it was repaired and occupied under the special orders of Washington, who 'had been made Commander-in-Chief of the United States army.

It was used during the French crisis, under Genet's ministry. Mad Anthony AVayne and General Wilkinson, commanders-in-chief of the anny, occupied the fort, and for periods of time made it their headquarters. Aaron Burr made it one of the points where he directed his southern conspiracy, and it was here that he formed his "entangling alliance" with General Wilkinson. It was the scene of many intrigues in those pioneer days, between Spanish, French and ambitious Americans, male and female.