Piatt County, Illinois - The whole text, 1917 (part 13 of 26)

Adams and Hoe printing presses. His next move was to Marietta, Ohio, in 1884, thence by way of Cincinnati and Louisyille to St. Louis, working for a time in the office of the old *'St. Louis Republican." He soon after went to Galena and engaged in lead-mining, but later became associated with Sylvester M. Bartlett in the management of "The Northwestern (Gazette and Galena Advertiser," finally becoming sole proprietor. In 1842 he sold out the paper, but resumed his connection with it the following year, remaining until 1863, when he finally sold out. He afterwards spent some time on the Pacific slope, was for a time American Consul to the Sandwich Islands, but finally returned to Galena and, during the later years of his life, was Postmaster there, dying April 80, 1879.

HOTETy Cliarles Edward, educator, soldier and lawyer, was bom in Orange County, Vt., April 26, 1827 ; graduated at Dartmouth College in 1852, and became successively Principal of high schools at Farmington, Mass., and Peoria, HI Later, he assisted in organizing the Illinois State Normal School at Normal, of which he was President from 1857 to 1861 - being also President of the State Teachers' Association (1856), member of the State Board of Education, and, for some years, editor of "The Illinois Teacher." In August, 1861, he assisted in organizing, and was commissioned Ck)lonel of, the Thirty-third Illinois Volunteers, known as the "Normal" or "School- Masters' Regiment," from the fact that it was composed largely of teachers and young men from the State colleges. In 1862 he was promoted to the rank of Brigadier-General and, a few months later, to brevet Major-General for gallant and meritorious conduct. Leaving the military service in May, 1863, he engaged in the practice of law in Washington, D. C. Died, in Washington, Nov. 17. 1897.

HOYTLAND, George, educator and author, was bom (of Pilgrim ancestry) at Conway, Mass., July 30, 1824 After graduating from Amherst College in 1850, he devoted two years to teaching in the public schools, and three years to a tutorship in his Alma Mater, giving instruction in Latin, Greek and French. He began the study of law, but, after a year's reading, he abandoned it, removing to Chicago, where he became Assistant Principal of the city's one high school, in 1858. He became its Principal in 1860, and, in 1880, was elected Superintendent of Chicago City Schools This position he filled until August, 1891, when he resigned. He also served as Trustee of Amherst College for several years, and as a member of the Illinois State Board pf Education, Jbeing President of that body in 1883. As an author he was of some note; his work being chiefly on educational lines. He published a translation of the udEIneid adapted to the use of schools, besides translations of some of Horace's Odes and portions of the IHad and Odyssey. He was also the author of an English grammar. Died, in Chicago, Oct. 21, 1892.

HOTNEy Philip A^ lawyer and United States Commissioner, was bom in New York City, Nov. 20, 1824; came to Chicago in 1841, and, after spending eleven years alternately in Galena and Chicago, finally located permanently in Chicago, in 1852; in 1853 was elected Clerk of the Heoorder's Court of Chicago, retaining the position five years; was admitted to the bar in March, 1856, and appointed United States Commissioner the same year, remaining in office until his death, Nov. 8, 1894.* Mr. Hoyne was an officer of the Chicago Pioneers and one of the founders of the Union League Club.

HUBBARD, Gordon Saltonstall, pioneer and Indian trader, was bom at Windsor, Vt., August 22, 1802. His early youth was passed in Canada, chiefiy in the employ of the American P\Ur Company. In 1818 he first visited Fort Dearborn, and for nine years traveled back and forth in the interest of his employers. In 1827, having embarked in business on his own account, he established several trading posts in Illinois, becoming a resident of Chicago in 1882. From this time forward he became identified with the history and development of the State. He served with distinction during the Black Hawk and Winnebago Wars, was enterprising and public-spirited, and did much to promote the early development of Chicago. He was elected to the Legislature from Vermilion County in 1882, and, in 1835, was appointed by Governor Duncan one of the Commissioners of the Illinois & Michigan CanaL Died, at Chicago, Sept. 14, 1886. From the time he became a citizen of Chicago, for fifty years, no man was more active or public-spirited in promoting its commercial development and general prosperity. He was identified with almost every branch of business upon which its growth as a commercial city depended, from that of an early Indian trader to that of a real-estate operator, being manager of one of the largest packing houses of his time, as well as promoter of early railroad enterprises. A zealous Republican, he was one of the most earnest supporters of Abraham Lincoln in the campaign of 1860, was prominently identified with every local measure for the maintenanoe of the Union cause, and, for a year, held a oommission as Captain in the Eighty-eighth Itegiment Illinois Volunteers, known as the "Second Board of Trade Regiment. **

HUGHITT, Manrin, Railway President, was bom, August, 1837, and, in 1856, began his railroad experience on the Chicago & Alton Railway as Superintendent of Telegraph and Train-deq[)atcher. In 1862 he entered the service of the Illinois Central Company in a similar capacity, still later occupying the i)09itions of Assistant Superintendent and General Superintendent, remaining in the latter from 1865 to 1870, when he tesigned to become Assistant G^eneral Manager of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. PauL In 1873 he became associated with the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad, in connection with which he has held the positions of Superintendent, General Manager, Second Vice-President and President^ the last of which (1899) he still occupies.

HULETT, Alta M«^ lawyer, was bom near Bockford, IlL, June 4, 1854; early learned telega raphy and became a successful operator, but subsequently engaged in teaching and the study of law. In 1872, haying passed the required examination, she applied for admission to the bar, but was rejected on accoxmt of sex. She then, in conjunction with Mrs. Bradwell and others, interested herself in securing the passage of an act by the Legislature giving women the right that had been denied her, which having been accomplished, she went to Chicago, was admitted to the bar and began practice Died^ in California, March 27, 1877.

HUNT, Daniel D.^ legislator, was bom in Wyoming County, N. Y., Sept 19, 1835, came to De Kalb County, IlL, in 1857, and has ednce been engaged in hotel, mercantile and farming business. He was elected as a Republican Repreeentative in the Thirty-fifth General Assembly in 1886, and re-elected in 1888. Two years later he was elected to the State Senate, re-elected in 1894, and again in 1898 - ^ving him a continuous service in one or the other branch of the General Assembly of sixteen years. During the session of 1895, Senator Hunt was especially active in the legislation which resulted in the location of the Northern Illinois Normal Institute at De Kalb.

HUirr, C^rge^ lawyer and ex- Attorney-General, was bom in Knox County, Ohio, in 1841 ; . having lost i)oth parents in .childhood, came, with an uncle, to Edgar County, 111., in 1855. In July, 1861, at the age of 20, he enlisted in the Twelfth Illinois Infantry, re-enlisting as a veteran in 1864, and rising from the ranks to a captaincty. After the close of the war, he studied law, was admitted to the bar, and, locating at Paris, Edgar County, soon acquired a large practice. He was elected State Senator on the Republican ticket in 1874, and re-elected in 1878 and '82. In 1884 he received his first nomination for Attorney -General, was renominated in 1888, and elected both times, serving eight years. Among the im* portant questions with which General Hunt had to deal during his two terms were the celebrated "anarchist cases" of 1887 and of 1890-92. In the former the condemned Chicago anarchists applied through their counsel to the Supreme Court of the United States, for a writ of error to the Supreme Coiui; of Illinois to compel the latter to grant them a new trial, which was refused. . The case, on the part of the State, was conducted by General Hunt, while Gen. B. F. Butler of Massachusetts, John Randolph Tucker of Virginia, Roger A. Pryor of New York, and Messrs. W. P. Black and Solomon of Chicago appeared for the plaintiffs. Again, in 1890, Fielden and Schwab, who had been condemned to life imprisonment, attempted to secure their release - the former by an application similar to that of 1887, and the latter by appeal from a decision of Judge Gresham of the United States Circuit Court refusing a writ of habeas corpus. The final hearing of these cases was had before the Supreme Court of the United States in January, 1892, General Butler again appearing as leading counsel for the plaintiffs - but with the same res\ilt as in 1887. General Hunt's management of these cases won for him much deserved commendation both at home and abroad. Died March 17, 1901.

HUICTEB, Andrew J«y was bom in Greencastle, Ind., Dec. 17, 1881, and removed in infancy by his parents, to E^gar County, this State. His early education was received in the common schools and at Edgar Academy. He commenced his business life as a civil engineer, but, after three years spent in that profession, began the study of law and was admitted to the bar. He has since been actively engaged in practice at Paris, Edgar Coimty. From 1864 to 1868 he represented that county in the State Senate, and, in 1870, led the Democratic forlorn hope in the Fifteenth Congressional District against Greneral Jesse H Moore, and rendered a like service to his party in 1882, when Joseph G. Cannon was his Republican antagonist. In 1886 he was elected Judge of the Eklgar County Coiui;, and, in 1890, was re-elected, but resigned this office in 1892, having been elected Congressman for the State- at-large on the Democratic ticket. He was a candidate for Congress from the Nineteenth District again in 1896» and was again elected, receiving a majority of 1,200 over Hon. Benson Wood, his Republican opponent and inmiediate predecessor. HUITTEB^ (Gen.) DaTid, soldier, was born in Washington, D. C, July 21, 1802; graduated at the United States Military Academy in 1822, and assigned to the Fifth Infantry with the rank of Second Lieutenant, becoming First Lieutenant in 1828 and Captain of Dragoons in 1833. During this period he twice crossed the plains to the Rocky Mountains, but, in 1836, resigned his commission and engaged in business in Chicago, Re-entering the service as Paymaster in 1842, he was Chief Paymaster of General Wool's command in the Mexican War, and was afterwards stationed at New Orleans, Washington, Detroit, St. Louis and on the frontier. He was a personal friend of President Lincoln, whom he accompanied when the latter set out for Washington in February, 18G1, but was disabled at Buffalo, having his collar-bone dislocated by the crowd. He was appointed Colonel of the Sixth United States Cavalry, May 14, 1861, three days later commissioned Brigadier-General and, in August, made Major-GeneraL In the Manassas campaign he commanded the main column of McDowell's army and was severely wounded at Bull Run; served under Fremont in Missouri and succeeded him in command in November, 1861, remaining until March, 1862. Being transferred to the Department of the South in May following, he issued an order declaring the persons held as slaves in Georgia, Florida and South Carolina free, which order was revoked by President Lincoln ten days later. On account of the steps taken by him for the organization of colored troops, Jefferson Davis issued an order declaring him, in case of capture, subject to execution as a felon. In May, 1864, he was placed in command of the Department of the West, and, in

1865, served on various courts-martial, being President of the commission that tried Mr. Lincoln's assassins ; was brevetted Major-General in March, 1865, retired from active service July,

HURD^ Harvey B., lawyer, was bom in Fairfield County, Conn., Beb. 24, 1827. At the age of 15 he walked to Bridgeport, where he began life as ofllce-boy in "The Bridgeport Standard,*' a journal of pronounced Whig proclivities. In 1844 he came to Illinois, entering Jubilee College, but, after a brief attendance, came to Chicago in 1846. There he found temporary employment as a compositor, later conmiencing the study of law, and being admitted to the bar in 1848. A portion of the present city of Evanston is built upon a 248-acre tract owned and subdivided by Mr. Hurd and his partner. Always in sympathy with the old school and most radical type of Abolitionists, he took a deep interest in the Kansas-Missouri troubles of 1856, and became a member of the * 'National Kansas Committee" appointed by the Buffalo (N. Y.) Convention, of which body he was a member. He was chosen Secretary of the executive committee, and it is not too much to say that, largely through his earnest and poorly requited labors, Kansas was finally admitted into the Union as a free State. It was mainly through his efforts that seed for planting was gratuitously distributed among the free-soil settlers. In 1869 he was appointed a member of the Commission to revise the statutes of Illinois, a large part of the work devolving upon him in consequence of the withdrawal of his colleagues. The revision was completed in 1874, in conjunction with a Joint Committee of Revision of both Houses appointed by the Legislature of 1873. No statutory revision having been ordered by subsequent Legislatures, Mr. Hurd carried on the same character of work on independent lines, issuing new editions of the statutes from time to time, which are regarded as standard works by the bar. In 1875 he was nominated by the Republican party for a seat on the Supreme bench, but was defeated by the late Judge T. Lyle Dickey. For several years he filled a chair in the faculty of the Union College of Law. Died in his home, Evanston, 111., Jan. 20, 1906.

HUBLBUT^ Stephen A«^ soldier. Congressman and Foreign Minister, was bom at Charleston, S. C, Nov. 29, 1815, received a thorough liberal education, and was admitted to the bar in 1837. Soon afterwards he removed to Illinois, making his home at Belvidere. ' He was a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1847, in 1848 was an imsuGcessful candidate for Presidential Elector on the Whig ticket, but, on the organizatiom of the Republican party in 1856, promptly identified himself with that party and was elected to the lower branch of the General Assembly as a Republican in 1858 and again in 1860. During the War of the Rebellion he served with distinction from May, 1861, to July. 1865. He entered the service as Brigadier-Oeneral, commanding the Fourth Division of Grant's army at Pittsburg Landins:; was made a Major-General in Septem- ber, 1862, and later assigned to the command of the Sixteenth Army Corps, at Memphis, and subsequently to the command of the Department of the Gulf (1864-65). After the close of the war he served another term in the (General Assembly (1867), was chosen Presidential Elector for the State-at-large in 1868, and, in 1869, was appointed by President Grant Minister Resident to the United States of Colombia, serving until 1872. The latter year he was elected Representative to Congress, and re-elected two years later. In 1876 he was a candidate for re-election as an independent Republican, but was defeated by William Lathrop, the regular nominee. In 1881 he was appointed Minister Resident to Peru, and died at Lima, March 27, 1882.

HUTCHINSy Thomas, was bom in Monmouth, N. J., in 1780, died in Pittsburg, Pa., April 28, 1789. He was the first Government Surveyor, frequently called the "Geographer" ; was also an officer of the Sixtieth Royal (British) regiment, and assistant engineer under Bouquet. At the outbreak of the Revolution, while stationed at Fort Chartres, he resigned his commission because of his sympathy with the patriots. Three years later he was charged with being in treasonable correspondence with Franklin, and imprisoned in the Tower of London. He is said to have devised the present system of Government surveys in this country, and his services in carrying it into effect were certainly of great value. He was the author of several valuable works, the best known being a "Topographical Description of Virginia. "

HUTSONTILLEy a village of Oawford County, on the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway, and the Wabash River, 84 miles south of Paris. The district is agricultural The town has a bank, brick and tile works, and a weekly paper. Pop. (1900), 743; (1910), 722.

Illinois is the twenty-lirst State of the Federal Union in the order of its admission, the twentieth in present area and the third in point of population. A concise history of the region, of which it constituted the central portion at an early period, will be found in the following pages:

The greater part of the territory now comprised within the State of Illinois was known and attracted eager attention from the nations of the old world - especially in France, Germany and England - before the close of the third quarter of the seventeenth century. More than one hundred years before the struggle for American Independence began, or the geographical division known as the 'Territory of the Northwest" had an existence; before the names of Kentucky, Tennessee, Vermpnt or Ohio had been heard of, and while the early settlers of New England and Virginia were still struggling for a foothold among the Indian tribes on the Atlantic coast, the "Illinois CJountry'' occupied a place on the maps of North America as distinct and definite as New York or Pennsylvania. And from that time forward, until it assumed its position in the Union with the rank of a State, no other section has been the theater of more momentous and stirring events or has contributed more material, affording interest and instruction to the archaeologist, the ethnologist and the historian, than

TtfE "Illinois Country." - What was known to the early French explorers and their followers and descendants, for the ninety years -which intervened between the discoveries of Joliet and La Salle, down to the surrender of this region to the English, as the "Illinois Ck>imtry," is described with great clearness and definiteness by C!apt. Philip Pittman, an English engineer who made the first survey of the Mississippi River soon after the transfer of the French possessions east of the Mississippi to the British, and who published the result of his observations inXiondon in 1770. In this report, which is evidently a work of the highest authenticity, and is the more valuable because written at a transition period when it was of the first importance to preserve and hand down the facts of early French history to the new occupants of the soil, the boundaries of the "Illinois Country*' are defined as follow^: "The Country of the Illinois is bounded by the Mississippi on the west, by the river Illinois on the north, by the Ouabache and Miamis on the east and the Ohio on the south."

From this it would appear that the country lying between the Illinois and Ihe Mississippi Rivers to the west and northwest of the former, was not considered a part of the "Illinois Country," and this agrees generally with the records of the early French explorers, except that they regarded the region which comprehends the site of the present city of Chicago - the importance of which appears to have been appreciated from the first as a connecting link between the Lakes and the upper tributaries of the rivers falling into the Gulf of Mexico - as belonging thereto

Origin op the Name. - The "Country" appears to have derived its name from Inini, a word of Algonquin origin, signifying "the men," euphemized by the French into Illini with the suffix ois, signifying "tribe." The root of the term, applied both to the coimtry and the Indians occupying it, has been still further defined as "a perfect man" (Haines on "Indian Names"), and the derivative has been used by the French chroniclers in various forms though always with the same signification - a signification of which^ the earliest claimants of the appellation, as well as their successors of a different race, have not failed to be duly proud.

Boundaries and Area. - It is this region which gave the name to the State of which it constituted so large and important a part. Its boundaries, so far as the Wabash and the Ohio Rivers (as well as the Mississippi from the mouth ' of the Ohio to the mouth of the Illinois) are concerned, are identical with those given to* the "Illinois Country" by Pittman. The State is bounded on the north by Wisconsin; on the east by Lake Michigan, the State of Indiana and the Wabash River; southeast by the Ohio, flowiup; between it and t}ie State of Kentucky ; and west and southwest by the Mississippi, which separates it from the States of Iowa and Missouri. A peculiarity of the Act of Congress defining the boundaries of the State, is the fact that, while the jurisdiction of Illinois extends to the middle of Lake Michigan and also of the channels of the Wabash and the Mississippi, it stops at the north bank of the Ohio River; this seems to have been a sort of concession on the part of the framers of the Act to our proud neighbors of the "Dark and Bloody Ground." Geographically, the State lies between the parallels of 36'' 59' and 42*' 30' north latitude, and the meridian of- 10** 30' and W of longitude west from the city of Washington. From its extreme southern limit at the mouth of the Ohio to the Wisconsin boundary on the north, its estimated length is 385 miles, with an extreme breadth, from the Indiana State line to the Mississippi River at a point between Quincy and Warsaw, of 218 miles. Owing to the tortuous course of its river and lake boundaries, which comprise about three-fourths of the whole, its physical outline is extremely irregular. Between the limits described, it has an estimated area of 66,650 square miles, of which 650 square miles is water - ^the latter being chiefly in Lake Michigan, lliis area is more than one and one-half times that of all New England (Maine being excepted), and is greater than that of any other State east of the Mississippi, except Michigan, Georgia and Florida - Wisconsin lacking only a few hundred square miles of the same.

When these figures are taken into account some idea may be formed of the magnificence of the domain comprised within the limits of the State of Illinois - a domain larger in extent than that of England, more than one-fourth of that of all France and nearly half that of the British Islands, including S6otland and Ireland. The possibilities of such a country, possessing a soil unequaled in fertility, in proportion to its area, by any other State of the Union and with resources in agriculture, manufactures and commerce unsurpassed in any country on the face of the globe, transcend all human conception.

Streams and Nayiqation. - Lying between the Mississippi and its chief eastern tributary, the Ohio, with the Wabash on the east, and intersected from northeast to southwest by the Illinois and its niunerous affluents, and with no mountainous region within its limits, Illinois is at once one of the best watered, as well as one of the most level States in the Union. Besides the Sangamon, Kankakee, Fox and Des Plaines Rivers, chief tributaries of the Illinois, and the Kaskaskia draining the region between the Illinois and the Wabash, Rock River, in the northwestern portion of the State, is most important on account of its valuable water-power. All of these streams were regarded as navigable for some sort pf craft, during at least a portion of the year, in the early history of the ooimtry, and with the magnificent Mississippi along the whole western border, gave . to Illinois a larger extent of navigable waters than that Of any other single State. Although practical navigation, apart from the lake and by natural water courses, is now limited to the Mississippi, Illinois and Ohio - making an aggregate of about 1,000 miles - the importance of the smaller streams, when the people were dependent almost wholly upon some means of water communication for the transportation of heavy commodities as well as for travel, could not be over-estimated, and it is not without its effect upon the productiveness of the soil, now that water transportation has given place to railroads.

Topography. - In physical conformation the surface of the State presents the aspect of an inclined plane with a moderate descent in the general direction of the streams toward the south and southwest. Cairo, at the extreme southern end of the State and the point of lowest depression, has an elevation above sea-level of about SOO feet, while the altitude of Lake Michigan at Chicago is 583 feet. The greatest elevation is reached near Scale's Mound in the northwestern part of the State - 1,257 feet - while a spur from the Ozark Mountains of Missouri, projected across the southern part of the State, rises in Jackson and Union Counties to a height of over 900 feet. The eastern end of this spur, in the northeast comer of Pope County, reaches an elevation of 1,046 feet. South of this ridge, the surface of the country between the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers was originally covered with dense forests. These included some of the most valuable species of timber for lumber manufacture, such as the different varieties of oak, walnut, poplar, ash, sugar-maple and cypress, besides elm, linden, hickory, honey-locust, pecan, hack-berry, cottonwood, sycamore, sassafras, black-gum and beech. The native fruits included the persimmon, wild plum, grape and paw-paw, with various kinds of berries, such as blackberries, raspberries, strawberries (in the prairie districts) and some others. Most of the native growths of woods common to the south were found along the streamy farther north, except the cypress beech, pecan and a few others.

Pbaibies. - A peculiar feature of the country, in the middle and northern portion of the State, which excited the amazement of early explorers, was the vast extent of the prairies or natural meadows. The origin of these has been attrib* uted to various causes, such as some peculiarity of the soil, absence or excess of moisture, recent upheaval of the surface from lakes or some other bodies of water, the action of fires, etc. In many sections there appears little to distinguish the soil of the prairies from that of the adjacent woodlands, that may not be accounted for by the character of their vegetation and other causes, for the luxuriant growth of native grasses and other productions has demonstrated that they do not lack in fertility, and the readiness with which trees take root when artificially propagated and protected, has shown that there is nothing in the soil itself unfavorable to their ^t>wth Whatever may have been the original cause of the prairies, however, there is no doubt that annually recurring fires have had much to do in perpetuating their existence, and even extending their limits, as the absence of the same agent has tended to favor the encrockchments of the forests. While originally regarded as an obstacle to the occupation of the country by a dense population, there is no doubt that their existence has contributed to its rapid development when it was discovered with what ease these apparent wastes could be subdued, and how productive they were capable of becoming when once brought under cultivation.

In spite of the uniformity in altitude of the State as a whole, many sections present a variety of surface and a mingling of plain and woodland of the most pleasing character. This is especially the case in some of the prairie districts where the imdulating landscape covered with rich herbage and brilliant flowers must have presented to the first explorers a scene of ravishing beauty, which has been enhanced rather than diminished in recent times by the hand of cultivation. Along some of the streams also, especially on the upper Mississippi and Illinois, and at some points on the Ohio, is found scenery of a most picturesque variety.

Animals, etc. - From this description of the country it will be easy to infer what must have been the varieties of the animal kingdom which here found a home. These included the buffalo, various kinds of deer, the* bear, panther, fox, wolf, and wild-cat, while swans, geese and ducks covered the lakes and streams. It was a veritable paradise for game, both large and small, as well as for their native hunters. "One can scarcely travel,*' wrote one of the earliest priestly explorers, "without finding a prodigious multitude of turkeys, that keep together in flocks often to the number of ten hundred." Beaver, otter, and mink were found along the streams. Most of these, especially the larger species of game, have disappeared before the tide of civilization, but the smaller, such as quail, prairie chicken, duck and the different varieties of fish in the streams, protected by law during certain seasons of the year, continue to exist in considerable numbers.

Soil and Climate. - The capabilities of the soil in a region thus situated can be readily understood. In proportion to the extent of its surface, Illinois has a larger area of cultivable land than any other State in the Union, with a soil of superior quality, much of it unsurpassed in natural fertility. This is especially true of the * 'American Bottom," a region extending a distanoe of ninety miles along the east bank of the Mississippi, from a few miles below Alton nearly to Chester, and of an average width of five to eight miles. This was the seat of the first permanent white settlement in the Mississippi Valley, and portions of it have been under cultivation from one hundred to one hundred and fifty years without exhaustion. Other smaller areas of scarcely less fertility are found both upon the bottom-lands and in the prairies in the central portions of the State.

E^xtending through five and one-half degrees of latitude, Illinois has a great variety of climate. Though subject at times to sudden alternations of temperature, these occasions have been rare since the country has been thoroughly settled. Its mean average for a series of years has been 48** in the northern part of the State and 66° in the southern, differing little from other States upon the same latitude. The mean winter temperature has ranged from 25° in the north to 84° in the south, and the summer mean from 67° in the north to 78° in the south. The extreme winter temperature has seldom fallen below 20° below zero in the northern portion, while the highest summer temperature ranges from 95° to 102°. The average difference in temperature between the northern and southern portions of the State is about 10°, and the difference in the progress of the seasons for the same sections, from four to six weeks. Such a wide variety of climate is favorable to the production of nearly all the grains and fruits peculiar to the temperate zone.

Contest poe Occupation. - Three powers early became contestants for the supremacy on the North American Continent. The first of these was Spain, claiming possession on the ground of the discovery by Columbus; England, basing her claim upon the discoveries of the Cabots, and France, maintaining her right to a considerable peat of the continent by virtue of the discovery cmd exploration by Jacques Cartier of the Gulf and River St. Lawrence, in 1534-35, and the settlement of Quebec by Champlain seventy-four years later. The claim of Spain was general, extending to both North and South America; and, while she early established her colonies in Mexico, the West Indies and Peru, the country was too vast and her agents too busy seeking for gold to interfere materially with her competitors. The Dutch, Swedes and Germans established small, though fiourishing colonies, but they were not colonizers nor were they numerically as strong as their neighbors, and their settlements were ultimately absorbed by the latter. Both the Spaniards and the French were zealous in proselyting the aborigines, but while the former did not hesitate to torture their victims in order to extort their gold while claiming to save their souls, the latter were more gentle and beneficent in their policy, and, by their kindness, succeeded in winning and retaining the friendship of the Indians in a remarkable degree. They were traders as well as missionaries, and this fact and the readiness with which they adapted themselves to the habits of those whom they found in possession of the soil, enabled them to make the most extensive explorations in small numbers and at little cost, and even to remain for unlimited periods among their aboriginal friends. On the other hand, the English were artisans and tillers of the soil with a due proportion engaged in commerce or upon the sea; and, while they were later in planting their colonies in Virginia and New England, and less aggressive in the work of exploration, they maintained a surer foothold on the soil when they had once established themselves. To this fact is due the permanence and steady growth of the English colonies in the New World, and the virtual dominance of the Anglo-Saxon race over more than five-sevenths of the North American Continent - a result which has been illustrated in the history of every people that has made agriculture, manufactures and legitimate commerce the basis of their prosperity.

Early Explorations. - The French explorers were the first Europeans to visit the * 'Country of the niinois,*' and, for nearly a century, they and their successors and descendants held undisputed possession of the country, as well as the greater part of the Mississippi Valley. It is true that Spain put in a feeble and indefinite claim to this whole region, but she was kept too busy elsewhere to make her claim good, and, in 1763, she relinquished it entirely as to the Mississippi Valley and*west to the Pacific Ocean, in order to strengthen herself elsewhere.

There is a peculiar coincidence in the fact that, while the English colonists who settled about Massachusetts Bay named that region "New England,'' the French gave to their possessions, from the St. Lawrence to the mouth of the Mississippi, the name of "New France," ^and the Spaniards called all the region claimed by them, extending from Panama to Puget Sound, "New Spain. ' ' The boundaries of each were very indefinite and often confiicting, but were settled by the treaty of 1763.

called by the French, ''Lao des Illinois'* - entered Green Baj and visited some of the tribes of Indians in that region. In 1641 zealous missionaries had reached the Falls of St. Mary (called by the French **Sault Ste. Marie"), and, in 1658, two French fur-traders are alleged to have penetrated as far west as '*La Pointe*' on Lake Superior, where they opened up a trade with the Sioux Indians and wintered in the neighborhood of the Apostle Islands near where the towns of Ashland - and Bayfield, Wis., now stand. A few years later (1665), Fathers AUouez and Dablon, French missionaries, visited the Chippewas on the southern shore of Lake Superior, and missions were established at Qreen Bay, Ste. Marie and La Pointe. About the same time the mission of St. Ignace was established on the north shore of the Straits of Mackinaw (spelled by the French ''Michillimaoinac*'). It is also claimed that the French traveler, Radisson, during the year of 1658-59, reached the upper Mississippi, antedating the claims of Joliet and Marquette as its discoverers by fourteen years. Nicholas Perrot, an intelligent chronicler who left a manuscript account of his travels, is said to have made extensive explorations about the head of the great lakes as far south as the Fox River of Wisconsin, between 1670 and 1690, and to have held an important oonferenoe with representatives of numerous tribes of Indians at Sault Ste. Marie in June, 1671. Perrot is also said to have made the first discovery of lead mines in the West.

Up to this time, however, no white man appears to have reached the ''Illinois Country,'* though much had been heard of its beauty and its wealth in game. On May 17, 1673, Louis Joliet, an enterprising explorer who had already visited the Lake Superior region in search of copper mines, under a commission from the Qovemor of Canada, in company with Father Jacques Marquette and five voyageurs, with a meager stock of provisions and a few trinkets for trading with the natives, set out in two birch-bark canoes from St. Ignace on a tour of exploration southward. Coasting along the west shore of Lake Michigan and Green Bay and through Lake Winnebago, they reached the country of the Mascoutins on Fox River, ascended that stream to the portage to the Wisconsin, then descended the latter to the Mississippi, which they discovered on June 17. Descending the Mississippi, which they named "Rio de la Conception,'* they passed the mouth of the Des Moines, where they are supposed to have encountered the first Indians of the Illinois tribes, by whom they were hospitably entertained. Later they discovered a rude painting upon the rocks on the east side of the river, which, from the description, is supposed to have been the famous "PiasaBird,** which was still to be seen, a short distance above Alton, within the present generation. (See Piasa Bird, The Legend of.) Passing the mouth of the Missouri River and the present site of the city of St. Louis, and continuing past the mouth of the Ohio, they finally reached what Marquette called the village of the Akanseas, which has been assumed to be identical with the mouth of the Arkansas, though it has been questioned whether they proceeded so far south. Convinced that the Mississippi "had its mouth in Florida or the Gulf of Mexico,** and fearing capture by the Spaniards, they started on their return. Reaching the mouth of the Illinois, they entered that stream and ascended past the village of the Peorias and the "Illinois town of the Kaskaskias** - the latter being about where the town of Utica, La Salle County, now stands - at each of which they made a brief stay. Escorted by guides from the Kaskaskias, they crossed the portage to Lake Michigan where Chicago now stands, and returned to Green Bay, which they reached in the latter part of September. (See Jb^ie^ and Marquette.)

The next and most important expedition to Illinois - important because it led to the first permanent settlements - was undertaken by Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, in 1679. This eager and intelligent, but finally unfortunate, discoverer had spent several years in exploration in the lake region and among the streams south of the lakes and west of the Alleghenies. It has been claimed that, during this tour, he descended the Ohio to its junction with the Mississippi; also that he reached the Illinois by way of the head of Lake Michigan and the Chicago portage, and even descended the Mississippi to the 86th parallel, antedating Marquette*s first visit to that stream by two years. The chief authority for this claim is La Salle*s biographer, Pierre Margry, who bases his statement on alleged conversations with La Salle and letters of his friends. The absence of any allusion to these discoveries in La Salle's own papers, of a later date, addressed to the King, is « regarded as fatal to this claim. However this may have been, there is conclusive evidence that, during this period, he met with Joliet while the latter was returning iVom one of his trips to the Lake Superior country. With an imagination fired by what he then learned, he made a visit to liis native country, receiving a liberal grant from the French Government which enabled him to carry out his plans. With the aid of Henry de Tonty, an Italian who afterward accompanied him in his most important expeditions, and who proved a most valuable and efficient co-laborer, under the auspices of Frontenao, then Oovemor of Canada, he constructed a small vessel at the foot of Lake Erie, in which, with a company of thirty-four persons, he set sail on the seventh of August, 1679, for the West. This vessel (named the ''Griffon") is believed to have been the first sailing-vessel that ever navigated the lakes. His object was to reach the Illinois, and he carried with him material for a boat which he intended to put together on that stream. Arriving in Green Bay early in September, by way of Lake Huron and the straits of Mackinaw, he disembarked his stores, and, loading the Griffon with furs, started it on its return with instructions, after discharging its cargo at the starting point, to join him at the head of Lake Michigan. With a force of seventeen men and three missionaries in four canoes, he started southward, following the western shore of Lake Michigan past the mouth of the Chicago River, on Nov. 1, 1679, and reached the mouth of the St. Joseph River, at the southeast comer of the lake, which had been selected as a rendezvous. Here he was joined by Tonty, three weeks later, with a force of twenty Frenchmen who had come by the eastern shore, but the Griffon never was heard from again, and is supposed to have been lost on the return voyage. While waiting for Tonty he erected a fort, afterward called Fort Miami. The two parties here tmited, and, leaving four men in charge of the fort, with the remaining thirty-three, he resumed his journey on the third of December. Ascending the St. Joseph to about where South Bend, Ind., now stands, he made a portage with his canoes and stores across to the headwaters of the Elankakee, which he descended to the Illinois. On the first of January he arrived at the great Indian town of the Kaskaskias, which Marquette had left for the last time nearly five years before, but found it deserted, the Indians being absent on a hunting expedition. Proceeding down the Illinois, on Jan. 4, 1680, he passed through Peoria Lake and the next morning reached the Indian village of that name at the foot of the lake, and established friendly relations with its people. Having determined to set up his vessel here, he constructed a rude fort on the eastern bank of the river about four miles south of the village. With the exception of the cabin built for Marquette on the South Branch of the Chicago Rivei in the winter of 1674-75, this was probably the first structure erected by white men in Illinois. This received the name **Creve-CoBur - "Broken Heart" - ^which, from its subsequent history, proved exceedingly appropriate. Having dispatched Father Louis Hennepin with two companions to the Upper Mississippi, by way of the mouth of the Illinois, on an expedition which resulted in the discovery of the Falls of St. Anthony, La Salle started on his return to Canada for additional assistance and the stores which he had failed to receive in consequence of the loss of the Griffon. Soon after his departure, a majority of the men left with Tonty at Fort Creve-Coeur mutinied, and, having plundered the fort, partially destroyed it. This compelled Tonty and five companions who had remained true, to retreat to the Indian village of the Illinois near * 'Starved Rock,*' between where the cities of Ottawa and La Salle now stand, where he spent the summer awaiting the return of La Salle. In September, Tonty's Indian allies having been attacked and defeated by the Iroquois, he and his companions were again compelled to flee, reaching Green Bay the next spring, after having spent the winter among the Pottawatomies in the present State of Wisconsin.

During the next three years (1681-88) La Salle made two other visits to Illinois, encountering and partially overcoming formidable obstacles at each end of the journey. At the last visit, in company with the faithful Tonty, whom he had met at Mackinaw in the spring of 1681, after a separation of more than a year, he extended his exploration to the mouth of the Mississippi, of which he took formal possession on April 9, 1683, in the name of "Louis the Grand, King of France and Navarre." This was the first expedition of white men to pass down the river and determine the problem of its discharge into the Gulf of Mexico.

Returning to Mackinaw, and again to Illinois, in the fall of 1682, Tonty set about carrying into effect La Salle's scheme of fortifying ' 'The Rock, " to which reference has been made under the name of * 'Starved Rock. ' ' The buildings are said to have included store-houses (it was intended as a trading post), dwellings and a block-house erected on the summit of the rock, and to which the name of "Fort St. Louis" was given, while a village of confederated Indian tribes gathered about its base on the south which bore the name of La Vantum. According to the historian, Parkman, the population of this colony, in the days of its greatest prosperity, was not less thajx 20,000. Tonty retained his headquarters at Fort St. Louis for eighteen years, during which he made extensiye excursions throughout the West. The proprietorship of the fort was granted to him in 1690, but, in 1702, it was ordered by the CK)Yemor of Canada to be discontinued on the plea that the charter had been violated. It continned to be used as a trading post, however, as late as 1718, when it was raided by the Indians and burned. (See La SaUe; Tonty; Hennepin, and Starved Rock. )

Other explorers who were the contemporaries or early successors of Marquette, Joliet, La Salle, Tonty, Hennepin and their companions in the Northwest, and many of whom are known to have visited the *'Iliinois Country/* and probably all of whom did so, were Daniel Greysolon du Lhut (called by La Salle, du Luth), a cousin of Tonty, who was the first to reach the Mississippi directly fxom Lake Superior, and from whom the city of Duluth has been named; Henry Joutel, a townsman of La Salle, who was one of the survivors of the ill-fated Matagorda Bay colony; Pierre Le Sueur, the discoverer of the Minnesota River, and Baron la Hontan, who made a tour through Illinois in 1688-89, of which he published an aoooont in 1703.

(Chicago River early became a prominent point in the estinmtion of the French explorers and was a favorite line of travel in reaching the Illinois by way of the Dee Plaines, though probably sometimes confounded with other streams about the head of the lake. The Calumet and Grand Calumet, allowing easy portage to the Des Plaines, were also used, while the St. Joseph, from which portage was had into the Kankakee, seems to have been a part of the route first used by La Salle.

Abobioikbs and Early Missions. - When the early French explorers arrived in the ''Illinois Country*' they found it occupied by a number of tribes of Indians, the most numerous being the ^'Illinois," which consisted of several families or bands that spread themselves over the country on both sides of the Illinois River, extending even west of the Mississippi; the Piankeshaws on the east, extending beyond the present western boundary of Indiana, and the Miamis in the northeast, with whom a weaker tribe called the Weas were allied. The Illinois confederation included the Kaskaskias, Peorias, Cahokias, Ttoiaroas and Mitchigamies - the last being the tribe from which Lake Michigan took its name. (See lUinotB Indians, ) There seems to have been a general drift of some of the stronger tribes toward the south and east about this time, as AUouez represents that he found the Miamis and their neighbors, the Mascoutins, about Green Bay when he arrived there in 1670. At the same time, there is evidence that the Pottawatomies were located along the southern shore of Lake Superior and about the Sault Ste. Marie (now known as "The Soo'*), though within the next fifty years they had advanced southward along the western shore of Lake Michigan until they reached where Chicago now stands. Other tribes from the north were the Klckapoos, Sacs and Foxes, and Winnebagoes, while the Shawnees were a branch of a stronger tribe from the southeast. Charlevoix, who wrote an account of his visit to the ''Illinois Coimtry" in 1721, says: "Fifty years ago the Miamis were settled on the southern extremity of Lake Michigan, in a place called Chicago from the name of a small river which runs into the lake, the source of which is not far distant from that of the River Illinois.'* It does not follow necessarily that this was the Chicago River of to-day, as the name appears to have been applied somewhat indefinitely, by the early explorers, both to a region of country between the head of the lake and the Illinois River, and to more than one stream emptying into the lake in that vicinity. It has been conjectured that the river meant by Charlevoix was the Calumet, as his description would apply as well to that as to the Chicago, and there is other evidence that the Miamis, who were found about the mouth of the St. Joseph River during the eighteenth century, occupied a portion of Southern Michigan and Northern Indiana, extending as far east as the Scioto River in Ohio.

From the first, the Illinois seem to have conceived a strong liking for the French, and being pressed by the Iroquois on the east, the Sacs and Foxes, Pottawatomies and Kickapoos on the north and the Sioux on the west, by the beginning of the eighteenth century we find them, much reduced in numbers, gathered about the French settlements near the mouth of the Kaskaskia (or Okaw) River, in the western part of the present counties of Randolph, Monroe and St. Clair. In spite of the zealous efforts of the missionaries, the contact of these tribes with the whites was attended with the usual results - demoralization, degradation and gradual extermination. The latter result was hastened by the frequent attacks to which they were exposed from their more warlike enemies, so that by the latter part of the eighteenth century, they were

During the early part of the French occupation, there arose a chief named Chicagou (from whom the city of Chicago received its name) who appears, like Red Jacket, Tecimiseh and Logan, to have been a man of unusual intelligence and vigor of character, and to have exercised great influence with his people. In 1725 he was sent to Paris, where he received the attentions due to a foreign potentate, and, on his return, was given a command in an expedition against the Chickasaws, who had been making incursions from the south.

Such was the general distribution of the Indians in the northern and central portions of the State, within the first fifty years after the arrival of the French. At a later period the Kickapoos advanced farther south and occupied a considerable share of the central portion of the State, and even extended to the mouth of the Wabash. The southern part was roamed vover by bands from beyond the Ohio and the Mississippi, including the Cherokees and Chickasaws, and the Arkansas tribes, some of whom were very powerful and ranged over a vast extent of country.

The earliest civilized dwellings in Illinois, after the forts erected for purposes of defense, were undoubtedly the posts of the fur-traders and the missionary stations. Fort Miami, the first military post, established by La Salle in the winter of 1679-80, was at the mouth of the St. Joseph River within the boundaries of what is now the State of Michigan. Fort Creve-Coeur, partially erected a few months later on the east side of the Illinois a few miles below where the city of Peoria now stands, was never occupied. Mr. Charles Ballanoe, the historian of Peoria, locates this fort at the present village of Wesley, in Tazewell County, nearly opposite Lower Peoria. Fort St. Louis, built by Tonty on the summit of "Starved Rock,'' in the fall and winter of 1682, was the second erected in the ''Illinois Country," but the first occupied. It has been claimed that Marquette established a mission among the Kaskasldas, opposite "The Rock," on occasion of his first visit, in September, 1678, and that he renewed it in the spring of 1675, when he visited it for the last time. It is doubtful if this mission was more than a season of preaching to the natives, celebrating mass, administering baptism, etc. ; at least the story of an established mission has been denied. That this devoted and zealous propagandist regarded it as a mission, however, is evident from his own joumaL He gave to it the name of the "Mission of the Immaculate Conception," and, although he was compelled by failing health to abandon it almost immediately, it is claimed that it was renewed in 1677 by Father Allouez, who had been active in founding missions in the Lake Superior region, and that it was maintained until the arrival of La Salle in 1680. The hostility of La Salle to the Jesuits led to Allouez* withdrawal, but he subsequently returned and was succeeded in 1688 by Father Gravier, whose labors extended from Mackinaw to Biloxi on the Oulf of Mexico.

There is evidence that a mission had been established among the Miamis as early as 1698, under the name "Chica^," as it is mentioned by St. Cosme in the report of his visit in 1699-1700. This, for the reasons already given showing the indefinite use made of the name Chicago as applied to streams about the head of Lake Miohi* gan, probably referred to some other locality in the vicinity, and not to the site of the present city of Chicago. Even at an earlier date there appears, from a statement in Tonty's Memoirs, to have been a fort at Chicago - ^probably about the same locality as the mission. Speaking of his return from Canada to the "Illinois Country" in 1685, he says: "I embarked for the Illinois Oct. 80, 1685, but ^ being stopped by the ice, I was obliged to leave my canoe and proceed by land. After going 120 leagues, I arrived at Fort Chicagou, where M. de la Durantaye commanded."

According to the best authorities it was during the year 1700 that a mission and permanent settlement was established by Father Jacques Pinet among the Tamaroas at a village called Cahokia (or "Sainte Famille de Caoquias*'), a few miles south of the present site of the city of East St. Louis. This was the first permanent settlement by Europeans in Illinois, as that at Kaskaskia on the Illinois was broken up the same year.

A few months after the establishment of the mission at Cahokia (which received the name of "St. Sulpice"), but during the same year, the Kaskaskias, having abandoned their village on the upper Illinois, were induced to settle near the mouth of the river which bears their name, and the mission and village - the latter afterward becoming the first capital of the Territory and State of Illinois - came into being. This identity of names has led to some confusion in determining the date and place of the first permanent settlement in Illinois, the date of Marquette's first arrival at Kaskaskia on the Illinois being given by some authors as that of the settlement

Pebiod op French Occupation. - As may be readily inferred from the methods of French colonization, the first permanent settlements gathered about the missions at Cahokia and Kaskaskia, or rather were parts of them. At later periods, but during the French occupation of the country, other villages were established, the most important being St. Philip and Prairie du Rocher; all of these being located in the fertile Talley now known as the ** American Bottom,** between the older towns of Cahokia and Kaskaskia. .There were several Indian villages in the vicinity of the French settlements, and this became, for a time, the most populous locality in the Mississippi Valley and the center of an active trade carried on with the settlements near the mouth of the Mississippi. Large quantities of the products of the country, such as flour, bacon, pork, tallow, lumber, lead, peltries, and even wine, were transported in keel-boats or batteaus to New Orleans; rice, manufactured tobacco, cotton goods and such other fabrics as the simple wants of the people required, being brought back in return. These boats went in convoys of seven to twelve in number for mutual protection, three months being required to make a trip, of which two were made annually ^-one in the spring and the other in the autumn.

The French possessions in North America went under the general name of * 'New France, '* but their boundaries were never clearly defined, though an attempt was made to do so through Commissioners who met at Paris, in 1752. They were understood by the French to include the valley of the St. Lawrence, with Labrador and Nova Scotia, to the northern boundaries of the British colonies; the region of the Great Lakes; and the Valley of the Mississippi from the headwaters of the Ohio westward to the Pacific Ocean and south to the Gulf of Mexico. While these claims were contested by England on the east and Spain on the southwest, they comprehended the very heart of the North American continent, a region unsurpassed in fertility and natural resources and now the home of more than half of the entire population of the American Republic. That the French should have reluctantly yielded up so magnificent a domain is natural. And yet they did this by the treaty of 1763, surrendering the region east of the Mississippi (except a comparatively small district near the mouth of that stream) to England, and the lemainder to Spain - an evidence of the straits to

In 1712 Antoine Crozat, under royal letterspatent, obtained from Louis XIV. of France a monopoly of the commerce, with control of the country, ''from the edge of the sea (Gulf of Mexico) as far as the Illinois.** This grant having been surrendered a few years later, was renewed in 1717 to the "Company of the West," of which the celebrated John Law was the head, and under it jurisdiction was exercised over the trade of Illinois. On September 27 of the same year (1717), the "Illinois CJountry," which had been a dependency of Canada, was incorporated with Louisiana and became part of that province. Law's company received enlargefi powers under the name of the "East Indies (Company," and although it went out of existence in 1721 with the opprobrious title of the "South Sea Bubble,** leaving in its wake hundreds of ruined private fortunes in France and England, it did much to stimulate the population and development of the Mississippi Valley. During its existence (in 1718) New Orleans was founded and Fort Chartres erected, being named after the Due de Chartres, son of the Regent of France. Pierre Duque Boisbriant was the first commandant of Illinois and superintended the erection of the fort. (See Fort Chartres.)

One of the privileges granted to Law*s company was the importation of slaves ; and under it, in 1721, Philip F. Renault brought to the country five hundred slaves, besides two hundred artisans, mechanics and laborers. Two years later he received a large grant of land, and founded the village of St. Philip, a few miles north of Fort Chartres. Thus Illinois became slave territory before a white settlement of any sort existed in what afterward became the slave State of Missouri.

During 1721 the country under control of the East Indies Company was divided into nine civil and military districts, each presided over by a commandant and a judge, with a superior council at New Orleans. Of these, Illinois, the largest and, next to New Orleans, the most populous, was the seventh. It embraced over one-half the present State, with the country west of the Misssisippi, between the Arkansas and the 43d degree of latitude, to the Rocky Mountains, and included the present States of Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas and parts of Arkansas and Ck)lorado. In 1732, the Indies Company surrendered its charter, and Louisiana, including the District of Illinois,

As early as September, 1699, an attempt was made by an expedition fitted out by the English Government, imder command of Captains Barr and Clements, to take possession of the country about the mouth of the Mississippi on the ground of prior discovery; but they found the French under Bienville already in possession at Biloxi, and they sailed away without making any further effort to carry the scheme into effect. Meanwhile, in the early part of the next century, the English were successful in attaching to their interests the Iroquois, who were the deadly foes of the French, and held possession of Western New York and the region around the headwaters of the Ohio River, extending their incursions against the Indian allies of the French as far west as niinob. The real struggle for territory between the English and French began with the formation of the Ohio Land Company in 1748-49, and the grant to it by the English Government of half a million acres of land along the Ohio - River, with the exclusive right of trading with the Indian tribes in that region. Out of this grew the establishment, in the next two years, of trading posts and forts on the Miami and Alaumee in Western Ohio, followed by the protracted French and Indian War, which was prosecuted with varied fortunes until the final defeat of the French at Quebec, on the thirteenth of September, 1759, which broke their power on the American continent. Among those who took part in this struggle, was a contingent from the French garrison of Fort Chartres. Neyon de Villiers, conmiandant of the fort, was one of these, being the only survivor of seven brothers who participated in the defense of Canada. Still hopeful of saving Louisiana and Illinois, he departed with a few followers for New Orleans, but the treaty of Paris, Feb. 10, 1768, destroyed all hope, for by its terms Canada, and all other territory east of the Mississippi as far south as the northern boundary of Florida, was surrendered to Great Britain, while the remainder, including the vast territory between the Mississippi and the Rocky Mountains, was given up to Spain.

Thus, the ''Illinois Country'' fell into the hands of the British, although the actual transfer of Fort Chartres and the country dependent upon it did not take place until Oct. 10, 1765, when its veteran conmiandant, St. Ange - who had come from Vincennes to assume command on the retirement of Villiers, and who held it faithfully for the conqueror - surrendered it to Capt

Thomas Stirling as the representative of the English Government, It is worthy of note that this was the last place on the North American continent to lower the French flag.

British Occupation. - The delay of the British in taking possession of the * 'Illinois Country,'* after the defeat of the French at Quebec and the surrender of their possessions in America by the treaty of 1763, was due to its isolated position and the difficulty of reaching it with sufficient foroe to establish the British authority. The first attempt was made in the spring of 1764, when Maj. Arthur Loftus, starting from Pensacola, attempted to ascend the Mississippi wjth a force of four hundred regulars, but, being met by a superior Indian force, was compelled to retreat. In August of the same year, Capt Thomas Morris was dispatched from Western Pennsylvania with a small force "to take possession of the Illinois Country.'' This expedition got as far as Fort Miami on the Maumee, when its progress was arrested, and its conmiander narrowly escaped death. The next attempt was made in 1765, when Maj. George Croghan, a Deputy Superintendent of Indian affairs whose name has been made historical by the celebrated speech of the Indian Chief Logan, was detailed from Fort Pitt, to visit Illinois. Croghan being detained, Lieut. Alexander Frazer, who was to accompany him, proceeded alone. Frazer reached Kaskaskia, but met with so rough a reception from both the French and Indians, that he thought it advisable to leave in disguise, and escaped by descending the Mississippi to New Orleans. Croghan started on his journey on the fifteenth of May, proceeding down the Ohio, accompanied by a party of friendly Indians, but having been captured near the mouth of the Wabash, he finally returned to Detroit without reaching his destination. The first British official to reach Fort Chartres was Capt. Thomas Stirling. Descending the Ohio with a force of one hundred men, he reached Fort Chartres, Oct. 10, 1765, and received the surrender of the fort from the faithful and courteous St. Ange. It is estimated that at least one-third of the French citizens, including the more wealthy, left rather than become British subjects. Those about Fort Chartres left almost in a body. Some joined the French colonies on the lower Missi^ippi, while others, crossing the river, settled in St. (Genevieve, then in Spanish territory. Much the larger number followed St. Ange to St. Louis, which had been established as a trading post by Pierre La Clede, during the previous year, and which now received

Shadrach Bond

Gaptain Stirling was relieved of his command at Fort Chartres, Deo. 4, by Maj. Robert Farmer. Other British (Commandants at Fort Chartres were CoL Ekiward Cole, Col. John Reed, Colonel Wilkins, Capt. Hugh Lord and Francois de Rastel. Chevalier de Rocheblave. The last had been an officer in the French army, and, having resided at Kaskaskia, transferred his allegiance on occupation of the country by the British. He was the last official representative of the British Oovemment in Illinois.

The total population of the French villages in Illinois, at the time of their transfer to England, has been estimated at about 1,600, of which 700 were about Kaskaskia and 450 in the vicinity of Cahokia. Captain Pittman estimated the population of all the French villages in Illinois and on the Wabash, at the time of his visit in 1770, at about 2,000. Of St. Louis - or "Paincourt," as it was called - Captain Pittman said: ''There are about forty private houses and as many families.** Most of these, if not all, had emigrated from the French villages. In fact, although nominally in Spanish territory, it was essentially a French town, protected, as Pittman said, by ''a French garrison** consisting of "a Captain-Commandant, two Lieutenants, a Fort Major, one Sergeant, one Corporal and twenty men.**

Action op Continental Congress. - The first official notice taken of the ''Illinois Country'* by the Continental Congress, was the adoption by that body, July 13, 1775, of an act creating three Tn<li<^n Departments - a Northern, Middle and Southern. Illinois was assigned to the second, with Benjamin Franklin and James Wilson, of Pennsylvania, and Patrick Henry, of Virginia, as Commissioners. In April, 1776, Col. (George Morgan, who had been a trader at Kaskaskia, was appointed agent and successor to these Conmiissioners, with headquarters at Fort Pitt. The promulgation of the Declaration of Independence, on the Fourth of July, 1776, and the events immediately preceding and following that event, directed attention to the colonies on the Atlantic coast; yet the frontiersmen of Virginia were watching an opportunity to deliver a blow to the Qovemment of King George in a quarter where it was leKst expected, and where it was destined to have an immense influence upon the future of the new nation, as well as that of the American continent.

a native of Virginia, then scarcely twenty-five years of age, having conceived a plan of seizing the settlements in the Mississippi Valley, sent trusty spies to learn the sentiments of the people and the condition of affairs at Kaskaskia. The report brought to him gave him encouragement, and, in December of the same year, he laid before Gov. Patrick Henry, of Virginia, his plans for the reduction of the posts in Illinois. These were approved, and, on Jan. 2, 1778, Clark received authority to recruit seven companies of fifty men each for three months' service, and Governor Henry gave him $6,000 for expenses. Proceeding to Fort Pitt, he succeeded in recruiting three companies, who were directed to rendezvous at Com Island, opposite the present city of Louisville. It has been claimed that, in order to deceive the British as to his real destination, Clark authorized the announcement that the object of the expedition was to protect the settlements in Kentucky from the Indians. At Com Island another company was organized, making four in all, under the command of Captains Bowman, Montgomery, Helm and Harrod, and having embarked on keel-boats, they passed the Falls of the Ohio, June 24 Reaching the island at the mouth of the Tennessee on the 28th, he was met by a party of eight American hunters, who had left Kaskaskia a few days before, and who, joining his command, rendered good service as guides. He disembarked his force at the mouth of a small creek one mile above Fort Massac, June 29, and, directing his course across the country, on the evening of the sixth day (July 4, 1778) arrived within three miles of TTaiflrfu^lHft. The surprise of the unsuspecting citizens of Kaskaskia and its small garrison was ooinplete. His force having, under cover of darlmess, been ferried across the Kaskaskia River, about a mile above the town, one detachment surrounded the town, while the other seized the fort, capturing Rocheblave and his little command without firing a gun. The famous Indian fighter and hunter, Simon Kenton, led the way to the fort. This is supposed to have been what Captain Pittman called the * 'Jesuits' house," which had been sold by the French Government after the country was ceded to England, the Jesuit order having been suppressed. A wooden fort, erected in 1736, and known afterward by the British as Fort Gage, had stood on the bluff opposite the town, but, according to Pittman, this was burnt in 1766, and there is no evidence that it was ever rebuilt. Clark's expedition was thus far a complete success. Rocheblave, proving recalcitrant, was placed in irons and sent as a prisoner of war to Williamsburg, while his slaves were confiscated, the proceeds of their sale being divided among Clark^s troops. The inhabitants were easily conciliated, and Cahokia having been captured without bloodshed, Clark turned his attention to Vincennes. Through the influence of Pierre Gibault - ^the Vicar-Gteneral in charge at Kaskaskia - ^the people of Vincennes were induced to swear allegiance to the United States, and, although the place was afterward captured by a British force from Detroit, it was, on Feb. 24, 1779, recaptured by Colonel Clark, together with a body of prisoners but little smaller than the attacking force, and $50,000 worth of property. (See Clark, Col. George Rogers.)

Under (Government op Virginia. - Seldom in the history of the world have such important results been achieved by such insignificant instrumentalities and with so little sacrifice of life, as in this almost bloodless campaign of the youthful conqueror of Illinois. Having been won largely through Virginia enterprise and valor and by material aid furnished through Governor Henry, the Virginia House of Delegates, in October, 1778, proceeded to assert the jurisdiction of that commonwealth over the settlements of the Northwest, by organizing all the country west and north of the Ohio River into a coimty to be called '^Illinois,*' (see Illinois County), and empowering the Governor to appoint a ''County-Lieutenant or Conmiandant-in-Chief'* to exercise civil authority during the pleasure of the appointing power. Thus "Illinois County'* was older than the States of Ohio or Indiana, while Patrick Henry, the eloquent orator of the Revolution, became ex-officio its first Governor. Col. John Todd, a citizen of Kentucky; was appointed **County-Lieutenant," Dec. 12, 1778, entering upon his duties in May following. The militia was organized, Deputy-Commandants for Kaskaskia and Cahokia appointed, and the first election of civil officers ever had in Illinois, was held under Colonel Todd's direction. His record-book, now in possession of the Chicago Historical Society, shows that he was accustomed to exercise powers scarcely inferior to those of a State Executive. (See Todd, Col. John.)

In 1782 one "Thimothe Demunbrunt" subscribed himself as '*Lt. comd'g par interim, etc." - but the origin of his authority is not clearly understood. He assumed to act as Commandant until the arrival of Gov. Arthur St. Clair, first Territorial Governor of the Northwest Territory, in 1790. After the close of the Revolution, courts ceased to be held and civil affairs fell into great disorder. '*In effect, there wast neither law nor order in the 'Illinois Country' for the seven years from 1783 to 1790."

During the progress of the Revolution, there were the usual rumors and alarms in the * 'Illinois Country" peculiar to frontier life in time of war. The country, however, was singularly exempt from any serious calamity such as a general massacre. One reason for this was the friendly relations which had existed between the French and their Indian neighbors previous to the conquest, and which the new masters, after the capture of Kaskaskia, took pains to perpetuate. Several movements were projected by the British and their Indian allies about Detroit and in Can* ada, but they were kept so busy elsewhere that they had little time to put their plans into execution. One of these was a proposed movement from Pensacola against the Spanish posts on the lower Mississippi, to punish Spain for having engaged in the war of 1779, but the promptness with which the Spanish Governor of New Orleans proceeded to capture Fort Manchac, Baton Rouge and Natchez from their British possessors, convinced the latter that this was a "game at which two could play." In ignorance of these results, an expedition, 750 strong, composed largely of Indians, fitted out at Mackinaw under command of Capt. Patrick St. Clair, started in the early part of May, 1780, to co-operate with the expedition on the lower Mississippi, but intending to deal a destructive blow to the Illinois villages and the Spanish towns of St. Louis and St. Genevieve on the way. This expedition reached St. Louis, May 26, but Col. George Rogers Clark, having arrived at Cahokia with a small force twenty-four hours earlier, prepared to co-operate with the Spaniards on the western shore of the Mississippi, and the invading force confined their depredations to killing seven or eight villagers, and then beat a hasty retreat in the direction they had come. These were the last expeditions organized to regain the "Country of the Illinois" or capture Spanish posts on the Mississippi.

Expeditions Against Fort St. Joseph. - An expedition of a different sort is worthy of mention in this connection, as it originated in lUinoia This consisted of a company of seventeen men, led by one Thomas Brady, a citizen of 'Cahokia, who, marching across 'the country, in the month of October, 1780, after the retreat of Sinclair, from St. Louis, succeeded in surprising and cap turing Fort St. Joseph about where La Salle had erected Fort Miami, near the mouth of the St

Histobical Encyclopedia Of Illinois

Joseph Biver, a hundred years before. Brady and his party oaptured a few British prisoners, and a large quantity of goods. On their return, while encamped on the Calumet, they were attacked by a band of Pottawatomies. and all were killed, wounded or taken prisoners except Brady and two others, who escaped. Early in January, 1781, a party consisting of sizty-fiye whites, organized from St. Louis and Cahokia, with some 200 Indians, and headed by Don Eugenic Pourre, a Spaniard, started on a second expedition against Fort St. Joseph. By silencing the Indians, whom they met on their way, with promises of plunder, they were able to reach the fort without discovery, captured it and, raising the Spanish flag, formally took possession in the name of the King of Spain. After retaining possession for a few days, the party returned to St. Louis, but in negotiating the treaty of peace at Paris, in 1783, this incident was made the basis ot a claim put forth by Spain to ownership of the "Illinois CJountry" **by right of conquest."

The Territorial Period. - At the very outset of its existence, the new Gk>Temment of the United States was confronted with an embarrassing question which deeply affected the interests of the territory of which Illinois formed a part. This was the claim of certain States to lands lying between their western boundaries and the Mississippi Riyer. then the western boundary of the Bepublic. These claims were based either upon the terms of their original charters or upon the cession of lands by the Indians, and it was under a claim of the former character, as well as by right of conquest, that Virg^inia assumed to exercise authority over the * 'Illinois CJountry** after its capture by the Clark expedition. This construction was opposed by the States which, from their geographical position or other cause, had no claim to lands beyond their own boundaries, and the controversy was waged with considerable bitterness for several years, proving a formidable obstacle to the ratification of the Articles of Confederation. As early as 1779 the subject received the attention of Congress in the adoption of a resolution requesting the States having such claims to **forbear settling or issuing warrants for unappropriated lands or g^ranting the same during the continuance of the present (Revolutionary) War. ' ' In the following year. New York authorized her Delegates in Congress to limit its t>oundaries in such manner as they might think expedient, and to cede to the Grovemment its claim to western lands. The case was further complicated by the claims of certain land companies which had been previously organized. New York filed her cession to the General Government of lands claimed by her in October, 1782, followed by Virginia nearly a year later, and by Massachusetts and Connecticut in 1785 and 1786. Other States followed somewhat tardily, Georgia being the last, in 1802. The only claims of this character affecting lands in Illinois were those of Virginia covering the southern part of the State, and Connecticut and Massachusetts applying to the northern portion. It was from the splendid domain north and west of the Ohio thjos acquired from Virginia and other States, that the Northwest Territory was finally organized.

Ordinance of 1787. - The first step was taken in the passage by Congress, in 1784, of a resolution providing for the temporary government of the Western Territory, and this was followed three years later by the enactment of the celebrated Ordinance of 1787. While this latter document contained numerous provisions which marked a new departure in the science of free government - as, for instance, that declaring that "religion, morality and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged'' - ^its crowning feature was the sixth article, as follows: "There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said Territory, otherwise than in the punishment of crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted."

Although there has been considerable controveissy as to the authorship of the above and other provisions of this immortal docimient, it is worthy of note that substantially the same language was introduced in the resolutions of 1784, by a Delegate from a slave State - Thomas Jefferson, of Virginia - though not, at that time, adopted. Jefferson was not a member of the Congress of 1787 (being then Minister to France), and could have had nothing directly to do with the later Ordinance; yet it is evident that the principle which he had advocated finally received the approval of eight out of the thirteen States, - all that were represented in that Congress - including the slave States of Virginia, Delaware, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. (See Ordinance of 1787,)

Northwest Territory Organized. - Under the Ordinance of 1787, organizing the Northwest Territory, Gen. Arthur St. Clair, who had been a soldier of the Revolution, was appointed the first Governor on Feb. 1. 1788, with Winthrop Sargent, Secretary, and Samuel Holden Parsons,

James Mitchell Vamum and John Cleves Symmes, Judges. All*these were reappointed by President Washington in 1789. The new Territorial Gk>vemment was organized at Marietta, a settlement on the Ohio, July 15, 1788, but it was nearly two years later before Oovemor St. Clair visited Illinois, arriving at Kaskaskia, March 5, 1790. The County of St. Clair (named after him) was organized at this time, embracing all the settlements between the Wabash and the Mississippi. (See St, Clair County.) He found the inhabitants generally in a deplorable condition, neglected by the Government, the courts of justice practically abolished and many of the citizens sadly in need of the obligations due them from the Gk>vemment for supplies furnished to Colonel Clark twelve years before. After a stay of three months, the Gk)vemor returned east. In 1795, Judge Turner held the first court in St. Clair County, at Cahokia, as the county-seat, although both Cahokia and Kaskaskia had been named as county-seats by Governor St. Clair. Out of the disposition of the local authorities to retain the official records at Cahokia, and consequent disagreement over the county-seat question, at least in part, grew the order of 1795 organizing the second county (Randolph), and Kaskaskia became its county-seat. In 1796 Governor St. Clair paid a second visit to Illinois, accompanied by Judge Synmies, who held court at both county-seats. On Nov. 4, 1791, occurred the defeat of Governor St. Clair, in the western part of the present State of Ohio, by a force of Indians under command of Little Turtle, in which the whites sustained a heavy loss of both men and property - an event which had an unfa^rorable effect upon conditions throughout the Northwest Territory generally. St. Clair, having resigned his command of the army, was succeeded by Gen. Anthony Wayne, who, in a vigorous campaign, overwhelmed the Indians with defeat. This resulted in the treaty with the Western tribes at Greenville, Aug^ust 8, 1795, which was the beginning of a period of comparative peace with the Indians all over the Western Country. (See Wayne, (Oen.) Anthony.)

First Territorial Legislation. - In 1798, the Territory having gained the requisite population, an election of members of a Legislative Council and House of Representatives was held in accordance with the provisions of the Ordinance of 1787. This was the first Territorial Legislature organized in the history of the Republic. It met at Cincinnati, Feb. 4, 1799, Shadrach Bond being the Delegate from St. Clair County and John Edgar from Randolph. Gen. William Henry Harrison, who had succeeded Sargent as Secretary of the Territory, June 26, 1798, was elected Delegate to Congress, receiving a majority of one vote over Arthur St. Clair, Jr., son of the Governor.

Offlo AND Indiana Territories. - By act of Congress, May 7, 1800, the Northwest Territory was divided into Ohio and Indiana Territories ; the latter embracing the region west of (he present State of Ohio, and having its capital at "Saint Vincent" (Vincennes). May 13, William Henry Harrison, who had been the first Delegate in Congress from the Northwest Territory, was appointed Governor of Indiana Territory, which at first consisted of three counties: Eoiox, St. Clair and Randolph - ^the two latter being within the boundaries of the present State of Illinois. Their aggregate population at this time was estimated at less than 5,000. During his administration Governor Harrison concluded thirteen treaties with the Indians, of which six related to the cession of lands in Illinois. The first treaty relating to lands in Illinois was that of Greenville, concluded by General Wayne in 1795. By this the Government acquired six miles square at the mouth of the Chicago River; twelve miles square at the mouth of the Illinois; six miles square at the old Peoria fort; the post of Fort Massac; and 150,000 acres assigned to General Clark and his soldiers, besides all other lands *'in possession of the French people and all other white settlers among them, the Indian title to which had been thus extinguished.*' (See Indian Treaties; also, ChreenviUe, Treaty of .)

During the year 1808, the treaty with France for the piu'chase of Louisiana and West Florida was concluded, and on March 26, 1804, an act was passed by Congress attaching all that portion of Louisiana lying north of the thirty-third parallel of latitude and west of the Mississippi to Indiana Territory for governmental purposes. This included the present States of Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, the two Dakotas and parts of Colorado, Wyoming and Montana. This arrangement continued only until the following March, when Louisiana was placed under a separate Territorial organization.

I'or four years Indiana Territory was governed under laws framed by the Grovemor and Judges, but, the population having increased to the required number, an election was held, Sept. 11, 1804, on the proposition to advance the government to the * 'second grade'* by the election of a Territorial Legislature. The smallnessof the vote indicated the indifference of the people on the subject Out of 400 votes cast, the proposition received a majority of 188. The two Illinois counties cast a total of 142 votes, of which St. Clair furnished 81 and Randolph 61. The former gave a majority of 87 against the measure and the latter 19 in its favor, showing a net negative majority of 18. The adoption of the proposition was due, therefore, to the affirmative vote in the other counties. There were in the Territory at this time six counties; one of these (Wayne) was in Michigan, which was set off, in 1805, as a separate Territory. At the election of Delegates to a Territorial Legislature, held Jan. 8, 1805, Shadrach Bond, Sr., and William Biggs were elected for St. Clair County and George Fisher for Randolph. Bond having meanwhile become a member of the Legislative Council, Shadrach Bond, Jr., was chosen his successor. The Legislature convened at Vincennes, Feb. 7, 1805, but only to recommend a list of persons from whom it was the duty of Congress to select a Legislative Council In addition to Bond, Pierre Menard was chosen for Randolph and John Hay for St. Clair.

Illinois Territory Organized. - The Illinois counties were represented in two regular and one special session of the Territorial Legislature diu*- ing the time they were a part of Indiana Territory. By act of Congress, which became a law Feb. 8, 1809, the Territory was divided, the westem part being named Illinois.

At this point the history of Illinois, as a separate political division, begins. While its boundaries in all other directions were as now, on the north it extended to the Canada line. From what has already been said, it appears that the earliest white settlements were established by French Canadians, chiefly at Kaskaskia, Cahokia and the other villages in the southern part of the American Bottom. At the time of Clark's invasion, there were not known to have been more than two Americans among these people, except such hunters and trappers as paid them occasional visits. One of the earliest American settlers in Southern Illinois was Capt. Nathan Hull, who came from Massachusetts and settled at an early day on the Ohio, near where Gk)lconda now stands, afterward removing to the vicinity of TTfti^lrAglrift, where he died in 1806. In 1781, a company of immigrants, consisting (with one or two exceptions) of members of Clark's command in 1778, arrived with their families from Maryland and Virginia and established themselves on the American Bottom. The **New Design** settlement, on the boundary line between St. Clair and Monroe Counties, and the first distinctively American colony in the **Illinois Country," was established by this party. Some of its members afterward became prominent in the history of the Territory and the State. William Biggs, a member of the first Territorial Legislature, with others, settled in or near Kaskaskia about 1788, and William Arundel, the first American merchant at Cahokia, came there from Peoria during the same year. Gen. John Edgar, for many years a leading citizen and merchant at the capital, arrived at Kaskaskia in 1784, and William Morrison, Kaskaskia*s principal merchant, came from Philadelphia as early as 1790, followed some years afterward by several, brothers. James Lemen came before the beginning of the present century, and was the founder of a large and influential family in the vicinity of Shiloh, St. Clair County, and Rev. David Badgley headed a colony of 154 from Virginia, who arrived in 1797. Among other prominent arrivals of this period were John Rice Jones, Pierre Menard (first Lieutenant-Governor of the State), Shadrach Bond, Jr. (first (Jovemor), John Hay, John Messinger, William Kinney, Capt. Joseph Ogle; and of a later date, Nathaniel Pope (afterward Secretary of the Territory, Delegate to Congress, Justice of the United States Court and father of the late Ma j. -Gen. John Pope), Elias Kent Kane (first Secretary of State and afterward United States Senator), Daniel P. Cook (first Attorney- General and second Representative in Congress), George Forquer (at one time Secretary of State), and Dr. George Fisher - all prominent in Territorial or State history. (See biographical sketches of these early settlers imder their respective names.)

The government of the new Territory was organized by the appointment of Ninian Edwards, Governor; Nathaniel Pope, Secretary, and Alexander Stuart, Obadiah Jones and Jesse B. Thomas, Territorial Judges. (See Edwards, Ninian.) Stuart having been transferred to Missouri, Stanley Griswold was appointed in his stead. Governor Edwards arrived at Kaskaskia, the capital, in June, 1809. At that time the two counties of St. Clair and Randolph comprised the settled portion of the Territory, with a white population estimated at about 9,000. The Governor and Judges immediately proceeded to formulate a code of laws, and the appointments made by Secretary Pope, who had preceded the Governor in his arrival in the Territory, were confirmed. Benjamin H. Doyle was the first Attorney-General, but he resigned in a few months, when the place was offered to John J. Crittenden - ^the well-known United States Senator from Kentucky at the beginning of the Civil War^but by him declined. Thomas T. Crittenden was then appointed. , An incident of the year 1811 was the battle of Tippecanoe, resulting in the defeat of Tecimoseh, the great chief of the Shawnees, by Gen. William Henry Harrison. Four companies of mounted rangers were raised in Illinois this year under direction of Col. William Russell, of Kentucky, who built Camp Russell near Edwardsville the following year. They were commanded by Captains Samuel Whiteside, William B. Whiteside, James B. Moore and Jacob Short. The memorable earthquake which had its center about New Madrid, Mo., occiured in December of this year, and was quite violent in some portions of Southern Illinois. (See Earthquake of 1811, )