Peoria County, Illinois - Chapter 2: Early Settlements in the Northwest, 1880

Chapter 2: Early Settlements in the Northwest

Early French Settlements - Indian Tribes - Mission at Kaskaskia - Kahokia - Vincennes - Fort Ponchartrain - Fort Chartres - La Belle Reviere - La Salle - The English Claim " From Sea to Sea " - Treaty with Indians in 1684 - English Grants - French and Indians Attack Pickawillany - Treaty with the Six Nations - French and English Claims - George Washington - French and Indian War - Fall of Montreal - Treaty of Paris- - Pontiac's Conspiracy - Detroit - Pontiac's Promissory Notes - Pontiac's Death - France Cedes Louisiana to Spain - Washington Explores the Ohio Valley - Emigration - Land Companies - The Revolution - Colonel Clark - Surrender of French Posts in Illinois - Surrender of Vincennes - Gov. Hamilton Taken Prisoner - Daniel Boone - Simon Girty - Virginia's " Land Laws."

As the French were the first to explore the region known as the Northwest, so they were the first to improve the opening thus made. The earliest settlements were in that part of the country east of the Mississippi and south of the Great Lakes, occupied chiefly by the Illinois tribes of the Great Algonquin family of Indians. The Illinois were divided into the Tamaroas, Michigamies, Kahokias, Kaskaskias, and Peorias, and were sometimes designated as the Five Nations. The three last named tribes occupy the country between the Illinois and Mississippi rivers ; the Michigamies the region bordering on Lake Michigan, and the Tamaroas, a small tribe, in the same region occupied by the Kahokias, and now embraced in the counties of Jersey, Madison, and St. Clair, in the State of Illinois. The French opened the way for colonization by the establishment of missions among these tribes, their efforts in this direction having been attended with great success in Canada. A mission was founded at Kaskaskia by Father Gravier about the year 1698. This at the time of the visit of Marquette and Joliet, in 1673, was the largest and most important of the Illinois villages, and contained seventyfour lodges, or about fifteen hundred inhabitants. By the early explorers it was called by the several names of "Kaskaskia," "La Vantum," and "Great Illinois Town." Here, in 1675, Father Marquette had attempted to Christianize the Indians by establishing the mission of the Immaculate Conception. For years it was nothing more than a missionary station, occupied only by the Nations and the missionary. About the year 1700 missions were also established at Kahokia and Peoria, the latter being near the site of old Fort Crcvecoeur. Another of the early French settlements was at Vincennes on the Ouljaclie (Wiiba, now Wabash) river. Authorities disagree as to the date of this settlement, but it was proliably about 1702. For many years this was an isolated colony of French emigrants frum Canada, and several generations of tlicir descendants lived and passed away in these vast solitudes, before either they or their savage neighi)ors were disturl)ed by the encroachments of an expanding civilization. During all this time they had maintained fiiendly relations with the natives. In July, 1701, a station was established by De la Motte on the Detroit river, called Fort Poncliartrain. While these attempts to colonize the Northwest were in progress, similar efforts were being made by France in the Southwest, but without maintaining like friendly relations with the natives, for in a contlict with the Chickasaws, an entire colony at Natchez was cut off. As these settlements in the Northwest were isolated but little is known of their history prior to 1750. In this year Vivier, a missionary among the Illinois, near Fort Chartres, writes of five Fiench villages, with a population of eleven hundred wliites, three hundred blacks, and si.\ty red slaves or savages. He says there were whites, negroes and Indians, to say nothing of half-breeds. They then raised wheat, cattle, swine and horses, and sent pork, grain and flour to New Orleans. On the 7th of November, 1750, the same priest writes :

" For fifteen leagues above the moutii of the Mississippi one sees no dwellings, the ground being too low to be habitable. Thence to New Orleans the lands are only partially occupied. New Orleans contains black, white and red, not more, I think, than twelve hundred persons. To this point come all lumber, bricks, salt beef, tallow, tar, skins and bear's grease ; and above all. p(nk and flour from the Illinois. These things create some commeice, as forty vessels and more have come hither this year. Above New Orleans plantations are again met witii : the most considerable is a colony of Germans some ten leagues up the river. At Point Coupee, thirty-five leagues above the German settlement, is a fort. Along here, within five or si.x leagues, are not less than sixty habitations. Fifty leagues further up is the Natchez post, where we have a garrison. V, lio iire kept prisoners throu'_'li fear of the Chickasaws. Here and at Point Coupee they raise excellent tobacco. Another hundred leagues brings us to the Arkansas, where we have also a fort and a garrison for the benefit of the river traders. From the Arkansas to the Illinois, nearly five hundred leagues, there is not a settlement. There should be, however, a fort at the Oubache (Ohio), the only path by which the English can reach the Mississippi. In the Illinois country are numberless mines, but no one to work them as they deserve."

Tiio fame of Robert Cavelier de La Salle was not achieved alone by his explorations of (ho Valley of the Mississippi, for, in 1669, four years before the discovery of the Mis- 8is.-ippi by Manjuette and Joliet, La Salle discovered the Ohio river, or La Belle Riviere (Beautiful Iliver), as the French called it. Being conversant with several Indian dialects, he had learned from some Senecas of a river called Ohio which rose in their country and flowed a long distance to the sea. La Salle then held the belief that the river flowing to th(: west emptied into the Sea of California, and longed to engage in the enterprise of discovering a route across the continent. He obtained the approval of the Government at Quebec, but no allowance to defray the expense. He sold his property in Canada for two thousand eight hundred dollars, and with the proceeds purchased canoes and the neces.sary 8Ui)plies. With a party of twenty-four persons he embarked in seven canoes on the St. Lawrence, July 0th, 1669. Crossing over Lake Ontario, they were conducted by Indian guides to the Genesee, about where the city of Rochester, New York, is now located. 'I'he enterprise did not receive the approbation of the Indians at the Seneca village then situated on the bank of the Genesee at this point, and they refused to fnrnisli hini guidiis to conduct him further. After a month's delay he met an Indian bdlonging to the Iroquois trjbe on Lake Ontario, who conducted them to their village.

The Northwest Territory

whei-e they received a more friendly welcome. From the chief of the Iroquois at Onondaga he obtained guides who conducted the party to a liver soutli of hake Erie. Tiiis proved to be a tributary of the Oliio. Tliey descended it, and thence down the Ohio to the great falls where Louisville now stands. By virtue of this discovery the French claimed the country along the Ohio, and many years after established militaiy and trading posts at different points. One of these was Fort Du Quesne, erected in 1754, whicii was taken from tiiem by the English a few years later and called Pittsburg, in honor of Wilham Pitt, then prime minister of England.

Notwithstanding the discovery of the Oiiio by the French under La Salle as early as 1669, tiie English claimed from the Atlantic to tlie Pacific on the ground that her seacoast discoveries entitled her to the sovereignty of all the country from "sea to sea." In 1GS4, Lord Howard, Governor of Virginia, held a treaty witli Indian tribes known as tiie Nortiicrn Confederac}', to -wit: the jMoiiawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas and Senecas. The Tuscaroras being subsequently taken in, these tribes became known as the Six Nations, and the English assumed their protection. They jourchased from them large tracts of land and aimed to obtain a monopoly of the Indian trade. The English government made grants of land west of the AUeghanies, and companies were formed for their settlement. France, seeing the English obtaining a foothold by planting trading posts in the Northwest, in 1749 sent Louis Celeron with a small force of soldiers to plant in mounds at the mouth of the principal tributaries of the Ohio, plates of lead witli tlie claims of France inscribed thereon. The English, however, still continued to make explorations and establish trading posts. One of these grants of England was to a company known as the " Oiiio Company," and embraced a tract of land on the Great jMiami, described as being one hundred and fifty miles above its mouth. Ciiristoplier Gist was sent b}' this companj- in 1750 to inspect their lands and to establish a trading post. In 1752 a small part}' of French soldiers, assisted by Ottawas and Chippewas, attacked this post and captured the traders after a severe battle. The English called tliis post Pickawillany - the name being subsequently contracted to Pickaway or Piqua. Tiie location of this post was doubtless near tliat of the present town of Piqua, on the Great Miami, about seventy -eight miles north of Cincinnati. Thus on the soil of what became a part of the State of Ohio was shed the first blood between the French and English for the possession of the Northwest.

In 1744 the English had entered into a treaty with the Six Nations at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, by which they acquired certain lands described as being witiiin the " Colony of Virginia." The Indians subsequently complained of bad faith on the part of the English in failing to comply with some of the stipulations of the treaty. The Governor of Virginia aj^pointed commissioners to hear the grievances of the Indians. They met at Logstown, on the north bank of the Ohio, about seventeen miles below the present city of Pittsburg, in the Spring of 1752. Notwithstanding the complaint of the Indians that the English had failed to supply them with arms and ammunition as they had agreed, they succeeded in obtaining a confirmation of the treaty of Lancaster.

In the mean time the French were quietly preparing to maintain their claims to the country in dispute. They provided cannon and military stores in anticipation of the coming conflict. The French were notified to give up their posts, but they failed to comply. Governor Dinwiddle finally determined to learn definitely their intentions, and for this purpose selected Major George Washington, then twenty-two years of age, as a messenger. With Christopher Gist as a guide, and four attendants or servants, Washington set out through the wilderness on his perilous journey. He held a conference with the chiefs of the Six Nations at Logstown in November, 1753. He learned something of the condition of the French, but the Indians desired to remain neutral and were disposed to be non-committal. Washington proceeded to Venango, where there was a French post called Fort Machault. Here he delivered to the French Governor, Dinwid- die's letter, and received the answer ot St. Pierre, the commander of the fort, declining to give up without a struggle. Preparations for war were made in all the English colonies while the French continued to strengthen their lines of fortifications.

It will thus be seen that what is known as the French and Indian war had its origin in this dispute about the pos.session of wliiit is now one of the fairest and richest portions of our Republic. It resulted, not only in England maintaining lier right to the territor}* in dispute, but in wresting Canada from France. It wiis a war of eight years duration, commencing with the attack of tlie French and Indians on the English post at Piqua in 17.")2. and virtually ending with the fall of the city of Montreal in April, 1760. Ticonderoga. Crown Point, Niagara, and Quebec had all previously surrendered to the English, the first two without resistance. After the fall of Montreal the Governor of Canada signed a capitulation surrendering the whole of Canada to the English. One post, however, that of Detroit, still remained in possession of the French. Major Rogers was sent from Montreal to demand its surrender. Beletre, the commander of the post, at first refused, Ijut on the '29th of November, having heard of the defeat of the French arms in Canada, he also surrendered. September 20th, 17C0, the treaty of peace between France and England, known as the treaty of Paris, was made, but not ratified until February 10th, 1763. Meantime the Northwest territory was entirely under English rule and settlements began to extend. The Indians who had been the friends and allies of the French during the war were not reconciled to the English, claiming that they had not carried out their promises. Under the famous Ottawa chief, Pontiac, they united in a general conspiracy to cut off all the English posts on the frontier. The Chippewas, Ottawas, Wyandots, Mianiis, Sliawnees, Delawares and Mingoes, buried the hatchet in their local quarrels, and united to exterminate the English.

Owing to the treachery on the part of some of Pontiac's followers, he failed in the complete execution of his plans, but in Maj-, 1763, several British posts fell, and many whites were victims of the merciless tomahawk. In the arrangement among the Indians it was agreed that Pontiac's own immediate field of action was to be the garrison at Detroit. He laid siege to the post May 12tli, and continued it until October 12th. To obtain food for his warriors during this time, he issued promissory notes, drawn upon birch bark and signed with the figure of an otter. All these notes were faithfully redeemed. Being unsuccessful in reducing the garrison, the tribes generalh- sued for peace, but Pontiac remained as yet unsubdued. To Alexander Henry, an Englishman who visited Michillimacinac, the next Spring, he said : " Englishman, although you have conquered tlie French, you have not yet conquered us. We are not your slaves I These lakes, the.se woods, these mountains, were left us by our ancestors. They are our inheritance, and we will part with them to none. Your nation supposes that we, like the white people, can not live without bread, and pork and beef ; but you ought to know that He, the Great Spirit and Master of Life, has provided food for us upon these broad lakes and in these mountains."

Pontiac still entertained tlie hope that the French would renew the war, and finally conquer the English, and endeavored to incite the Indians on tiie Miami, and in other parts of the West, to continue hostilities. He applied, but unsuccessfully, to the French commander at New Orleans. Being unable to unite again those who entered so eagerly into his original conspiracy for destroying the English .>^ettiements, he went to the Iliiiiois country, where he made a stand, and had for a time tlie sympathy and co-operation of the French fur traders in that region. Soon, however, all but liis immediate followers deserted his cause, and he then reluctantly accepted peace on the terms offered by the English. From this time he had but little influence with the tribes. He was killed by an Illinois Indian, while drunk, at Kahokia, in 176'J. At the time of his death he was about fifty-seven years of age.

Louisiana from also falling into the hands of the English, France by secret treaty, in 1762, ceded it to Spain. The next year the treaty of Paris formally gave to England possession of the Northwestern Territory. The English now began to prepare for settlement and occupation of the country. In 1770 persons from Virginia and other British provinces took up the valuable lands on the Monongahela and along the Ohio to the mouth of the Little Kanawa. In October of the same year, George Washington with a party descended the Ohio from Pittsburg to the Kanawa, which last named stream they ascended about fourteen miles, and marked out several large tracts of land. Buffalo were then abundant in the Ohio valley, and several of them were shot by Washington's party. Pittsburg was then a village of twenty houses, the inhabitants being mostly Indian traders.

The British government was inclined to observe a liberal policy toward the French settlers in the West. In 1763 the king, by royal proclamation, had forbidden his subjects from making settlements beyond the sources of the rivers which fall into the Atlantic ; but his subjects in the colonies were little disposed to observe this restriction. Finally, in 1774, Governor Dunmore, of Virginia, began to encourage emigration to the West. A number of settlements were made in the Ohio valley, the settlers often coming in conflict with the Indians. Several battles were fought, ending in the battle of Kanawa, in July, when the Indians were defeated and driven across the Ohio. During the years following, up to 1776, several land companies were formed, and engaged in extensive operations. One, called the " Illinois Land Company," obtained from the Indians large tracts of land on the Mississippi river, south of the Illinois. An association, styling itself the " Wabash Land Company," obtained a deed from eleven chiefs to 37,497,600 acres of land. The War of the Revolution interfered with these and many other similar schemes of speculation. The parties interested subsequently made efforts to have these land grants sanctioned by Congress, but did not succeed.

In 1771, according to the best information we have, Kaskaskia contained eighty houses, and nearly one thousand inhabitants, white and black. Kahokia contained fifty houses, with three hundred white inhabitants, and eighty negroes. There were a few families at Prairie du Rocher, on the Mississippi river, opposite St. Louis. At Detroit, there were, in 1766, about one hundred houses. This place was founded by Antoine de la Motte Cadillac, in 1701, and is the oldest town in the Northwest.

When the War of the Revolution commenced the British held Kaskaskia, Kahokia, Vincennes, Detroit, and other important posts in the West. Col. George Rogers Clark, a master spirit of the frontier, who was familiar with all the important movements of the British in the West, and also with the disposition of the Indians, formed a plan unequaled in boldness, for subjugating these posts. He repaired to the capital of Virginia, Patrick Henry being then Governor, and presented to the authorities his plan of operations, which was approved by Governor Henry. He was accordingly furnished with two sets of instructions - one secret and the other open. His open instructions authorized him to enlist seven companies to go to Kentucky, subject to his orders, and serve three months from their arrival in the West. The secret order authorized him to arm and equip his troops at Pittsburg, and proceed to subjugate the country. Col. Clark succeeded in raising but three companies, but with these and a few private volunteers, he descended the Ohio as far as the falls, in the Spring of 1777. Here he fortified a small island, known as Corn Island, and then announced to his men their real destination. Leaving a small garrison, on the 24th of June, during a total eclipse of the sun, he moved down the river. Under a burning July sun, with his chosen band, he marched to Kaskaskia, reaching that post on the evening of July 4th. Without the loss of a man on either side the fort and village were captured. He easily induced the Indians to give their allegiance to the American cause. They accompanied him to Kahokia on the 6th, and through their influepce the inhabitants of that place surrendered without resistance.

The priest at Kaskaskia, M. Gibault, hastily joined in renderinf:^ all the aid he ctmld to forward tiie jimposes of Clark. He established a government for the colonies he had taken, and then made ready to march upon St. Vincent, or Vincennes, as it is more commonly known. But Gibault offered to go alone and induce the post on the " Oubache " to throw off the authority of England. Clark accepted the offer, and on the 14th of July Gibault started on his mission. On tiie 1st of August he returned, with intelligence of entire success, the garrison at Vincennes having taken the oath of allegiance to Virginia. Col. Clark placed garrisons at Kaskaskia, and Kaliokia, and sent orders for the erection of a fort at the Falls of the Ohio, where the City of Louisville now stands. He also sent Rocheblave, the former commander of Kaskaskia, a prisoner of war to Riclimond. The county of Illinois was established in October of the same year, by the Legislature of Virginia. John Todd was appointed Lieutenant-Colonel and acting governor. Courts were established, and the colony was provided with a government complete. The Indians acknowledged allegiance to tiie new government.

Wliile Col. Clark was arranging for the government of the Illinois colonies, the British Governor, Hamilton, was planning an expedition to move from Detroit down the Wabash to Vincennes, intending to recapture the posts which had surrendered to Clark, and thence extend his operations to Kentuckj*. He knew nothing of the capitulation of Vincennes until his arrival, when he found the fort in command of Capt. Helm, who had been sent by Col. Clark to take charge of the garrison. Hamilton demanded the surrender of the fort, and being granted the rights of a prisoner of war, Capt. Helm surrendered to a superior force. On the 2yth of January, 1779, Clark received intelligence of what had transpired at Vincennes, and of the intended operations of Hamilton. Having sufficiently garrisoned Kaskaskia and Kahokia, and dispatched a force down the Mississippi to ascend the Oiiin and operate with the land forces in that direction, on the .Oth of Felnuary he set out iiim.>L'lf with one hundred and twenty men on his hard march to Vincennes. He reached liic fort on the '22d, and was joined by the remainder of his command, which liad come by water. He immediately commenced his attack on the fort, and on the 'I.'nh Gov. Hamilton surrendered. He was sent as a prisoner of war to Virginia, where he was kept in close confinement, and thus failed to accomplish his purpose of uniting the Indian trii)es against the Americans. All the important posts in the Northwest, excei)t Detroit, were now in the hands of the Americans. Had Clark received reinforcements, wiiich had been jjromised, he would doubtless have captured Detroit also ; but Virginia and the other colonial governments at this time doubtless had all they could do to attend to the operations of the war east of the Alleghanies. The Legislature of Virginia passed resolutions complimenting Col. Clark and his men, and in 1781 he was promoted to the rank of general. Previous to this he had taken part with Steuben against Arnold, when the latter invaded Virginia, in 1780. Subsequently, Virginia gave to Gen. Clark and his men one hundred and fifty thousand acres of land', wherever they might choose to locate it, north of the Ohio. They made selection of a tract opposite the Falls of Ohio, between New Albany and Jeffei-sonvillc, Indiana. Gen. Clark died near Louisville, Kentucky, February 13, 1808.

The years 1781 and 1782 were dark years in the history of the infant settlements of the Northwest, in consequence of the many" outrages practiced by the Indians. Many deeds of cruelty weie committed under the leadei-ship of the outlaw, Simon Girty, occurring chiefly in the Ohio Valley. Several battles between the Indians and frontiersmen occurred north of the Ohio, while in Kentucky the famous Daniel Boone and his companions were engaged in protecting the frontier outposts.

In 178;j the treaty of peace, which ended the Revolutionary struggle, was concluded, and by its terms the boundaries of the West were defined as follows: On the north, to extend along the center of the (Jreat Lakes; from the western point of Lake Superior to Long Lake ; thence to the Lake of the Woods j thence to the head of the Mississippi river, down its center to the 31st parallel of latitude ; thence on that line east to the head of Appalachicola river, down its center to the junction with the Flint; thence straight to the head of St. Mary's river ; and thence down along its center to the Atlantic Ocean.

For some time after the cessation of hostilities, General Haldimand, the British commander at Detroit, refused to evacuate, on the ground, as he claimed, that his king had not ordered him to do so. It shortly, however, passed under the control of the United States, and so remained, except when held by the British, through the surrender of Gen. Hull, for a few weeks in August and September, 1812.

The war of independence had been fought and gained, and England, as we have seen, had renounced her claim to the Northwest, but the Indian title was not yet extinguished. From 1783 to 1786 various treaties were made, by which the Indians relinquished their title to extensive tracts of territory. The individual States also held claims to the territory surrendered by Great Biitain, and acts of cession were necessary to vest the title to the soil in United States ; but of this we shall treat more fully in another place. In 1779 Virginia had passed her "land laws," by which grants made to settlers were confirmed, and providing for selling the rest at forty cents per acre. Kentucky was included in the territory of Virginia until 1792. It was originally explored by Daniel Boone and his compeers about the )-ear 1769. Harrodsburg was founded in 1774, and Lexington a year or two later, when the news of the battle of Lexington was fresh in the minds of its founders.