ILLINOIS £JLj Copyright N^. COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. ILLINOIS HISTORY STORIES FOR THE USE OF SEVENTH AND EIGHTH GRADE PUPILS IN THE SCHOOLS OF ILLINOIS W. H. CAMPBELL mm PUBLISHED BY THE FIELDING BALL PUBLISHING COMPANY CHICAGO, ILLINOIS r?^"^ C^'2' '^UBRARY of OONiiRSSS Two Copies riecew^J APR 18 1908 Copyright, Mabch, 1908 BY THE FIELDING BALL PUBLISHING COMPANY Chicago, Illinois CONTENTS. CHAPTER. PAGE I. The Physiography of the State 9 II. The Early Inhabitants 22 III. The Coming of the French — Marquette and JoHet 29 IV. The Story of LaSalle 40 V. French Occupation of the Mississippi Valley. . 51 VI. The Transfer of the Valley From the French to the English 61 VII. The Northwest Territory Passes to the United States — Story by George Rogers Clark .... 70 VIII. From the Revolution to Statehood (1783- 1818)— The Fort Dearborn Massacre 81 IX. Acquiring Title to the Soil 94 X. The State Constitutions 98 XI. Constitutional Boundary and Divisions 102' XII. The Capitals of Illinois 109 XIII. Evolution of the Illinois School Law 112 XIV. Slavery in Illinois 116 XV. The Black Hawk War 121 XVI. The Mormons in Illinois 133 XVII. The Illinois and Michigan Canal 140 XVIII. The Advent of the Railroads 145 XIX. State Educational, Charitable and Penal Insti- tutions 149 XX. Some of the Men Who Made the State 152 XXL The Making of Chicago 163 XXII. A Land Flowing With Milk and Honey 183 KXIII. A Chronological Index 188 XXIV. A Word in Conclusion 190 PREFACE. The stories about Illinois grouped together in this little booklet were used by the author in several classes before he had any thought of putting them into print. At the suggestion of a number of teachers who, doubtless with more good will than critical judgment, believed they might be as acceptable to other pupils as they had proven in the classes observed, the task of preparing them for the printer was undertaken and completed. The work has been done in the midst of a multitude of other duties which forbade more than an hour or two of continuous attention. A book produced under such cir- cumstances must show many marks of haste, lack of close connection in places, unfortunate choice of phraseology and, perhaps, some mistakes in statements of facts. The above explanation is our apology for these faults. It is hoped that the book may be useful as supplementary reading matter in the seventh and eighth grades of the grammar schools, and may also be an aid and incentive in the hands of the teachers of the lower grades for doing some oral teaching in the most interesting study of our own state geography and history. In the preparation of this book thousands of pages have been read covering all the accessible sources of informa- tion upon the Illinois country. It would be easy to compile a much larger book and any one else would doubtless make a different selection of topics, but it seemed to the writer 5 that for the purposes intended the subjects selected cover the ground briefly and completely and emphasize the im- portant epochs in the history of the state. For the facts contained in these pages we are "debtor both to the Greeks and to the barbarians ;" to the cultured essays and papers of such men as Mason, Caton and Parrish, and to the rude stories told by the frontiersmen who oc- cupied the prairies and timbered valleys of LaSalle County, where as a child we became familiar with the endless reaches of waving grass and corn and listened with open- eyed wonder to the fireside stories of early deeds of daring and privation. We are particularly indebted to Secretary of State James A. Rose for permission to reproduce for these pages some of the maps which appeared in the Blue Book, prepared under his supervision and through which many of our dates and facts have been verified. We also wish to acknowledge our indebtedness to Mr. C. E. Sieben- thal of the U. S. Geological Survey, from photographs of whose relief casts of the Chicago plain the two maps were reproduced. The map illustrating the route of Black Hawk was reproduced, with permission from McClure's Magazine, illustrating Tarbell's Life of Lincoln. In parting with the copyright of the book the author has agreed with the purchasers thereof to make all necessary corrections and revisions that may be suggested for future editions. It will be considered a favor if our friends who read or use the book will call attention to such errors or essential omissions as may chance to occur to them. The preparation and arrangement of these stories has been a source of great pleasure, and their presentation to the classes where they have been tested has been among the most enjoyable experiences we have had in the class room. Believing that the stories of heroism and consecration to duty that gather about the prairies and river valleys of Illinois are as interesting and as worthy a place in the pupils' book of remembrance as are the more distant and 6 vague stories of foreign lands and Atlantic coast coloniza- tions, we send this little book out without any great antici- pations yet with the hope that it may find a place and wel- come awaiting it in the schools of the state. W. H. Campbell. D. S. Wentworth School, yoth and Sangamon Sts., Chi- cago, III., March, ipo8. SKETCHES OF ILLINOIS HISTORY CHAPTER I THE PHYSIOGRAPHY OF THE STATE When we speak of a man, of what is it that we think ? Is it of his body and head and hands and feet ? Or is it of his mind and power to think and say? Or is it of his dispo- sition and habits and social Hfe? Now it may be of any one of these or of all combined in the one person. We recognize the many manifestations in the same individual. But under all the manifestations, giving to them definiteness and meaning, is the physical man. So intimate is the rela- tion between mind and body that whatever affects one re- acts upon the other. We expect to find a strong vigorous mind in a strong vigorous body. Habits of life that tend to weaken or destroy muscle and nerve tissue leave their impress upon the mental activities. Somehow our mental and spiritual forces are interwoven with the flesh and blood and nerves of the body. So true is this that when a man's thoughts are being presented to us we would like to see the man. It is not enough to hear the words; we want to see the form, we want to hear the utterance. What is true of the term "man" is equally true of the word "state." What is a state? Is it a certain number of 9 square miles of hill and valley and plain? The state of Illinois elected a governor. What elected him? The hills and valleys? "What constitutes a state? Not high raised battlement or labored mound, Thick wall or moated gate; Not cities fair with spires and turrets crowned. No: — Men, high-minded men. With powers as far above dull brutes endued, In forest, brake or den. As beasts excel cold rocks and brambles rude — Men who their duties know. Know too their rights, and knowing, dare maintain." The people, in their collective capacity, make the state. Then again we think of the state as a hive of industry, — its shuttles flying, its locomotives whistling and puffing, its mills blacking the heavens with their smoke, its cattle, its coal, its grain entrained for distant points, — and it is the industrial manifestations only that we see. Yet it is true that no matter whether it be the people in their sovereign capacity speaking through their laws and suffrages, or whether it be the courts speaking in the name of the sov- ereign people, or whether it be the industrial and commer- cial spirit, or whether it be its historic past, — under it all giving definiteness and comprehension is the physical make- up of the state, — the hills and valleys shut in by certain well defined and legalized limits. All the life of the state is so interwoven with the natural features that we must come back to them for our final anchoring place, — for our reason why. The physiography of any country eventually affects the character of the people. Sublimity and beauty of scenery inspires to full expansion of lungs and to force of circula- tion. Dullness and monotony cramps and stunts. The an- cient Greeks among their hills and near the boundless sea, and the Swiss amid their towering mountains, are fair illus- trations of the effect of nature upon a people. lO If this be true, it is well worth our while to study the physical make-up of our state and to become somewhat ac- quainted with its general characteristics and sources of strength before attempting to go into the incidental stories and narratives that have woven themselves around these hills and valleys of Illinois. One of the most marked physiographic facts that presents itself when we come to study the maps and the charts is the comparatively low altitude of Illinois. Its average height above the sea is six hundred thirty-two feet. That of In- diana is seven hundred feet; of Missouri, eight hundred feet; of Michigan, nine hundred feet; of Wisconsin, one thousand fifty feet; of Iowa, one thousand one hundred feet. If we erect proportional lines to indicate this we shall have a series somewhat as follows : ^^4444 1 1 i i 1 i 1 1 1 t 4 1 • ! J ! 1 ToVa"Vr8TMrrTiTriTd.i?rch. r-^. X / V .'T When the tops of these lines are connected we see what a basin Illinois seems to form among the adjoining states. What would be the natural inference from this lay of the land? The rivers from all sides are directed toward this state. Of the boundary line, five hundred fifty miles of it is made by the Mississippi, three hundred miles by the Ohio and Wabash and sixty miles by Lake Michigan. Not only does the state have a long extent of water boundary, but it has numerous rivers within its own terri- tory. The following outline will show at a glance the prin- cipal streams with their outlets : II 'st. Lawrence— Lake Michigan. | CaSt Drainage System. Mississippi. Apple. Plum. {Pecatonica. Kisliwaukee. Green. Edwards. Henderson. Des Plaines. Kankakee. Fox. Illinois, -l Vermilion. Spoon. Mackinaw. Sangamon. Kaskaskia. Big Muddy. ( Cache. Ohio. < Saline. f Wabash. r Little Wabash. \ Embarrass. This outline at once suggests that the state is well watered and well drained. A region of country so intersected by streams, with their many tributaries, can have no place for arid sections. It suggests also that there must be a number of natural valleys and divides. A glance at a relief map of the state shows this to be true. During the early geological periods the various forma- tions of rock were laid down and in the many changes that occurred were partly washed away. In the process of formation these layers of primitive rocks were slightly wrin- kled by pressure and in places lifted up a little above the average level of the surrounding section. As we cross the state in different directions we find the outcroppings of these partially eroded formations obtruding from the drift and soil which cover most of the surface of the state. On the Rock river, near Oregon, we find an outcropping of the St. Peter's sandstone, which gives to that region a most picturesque and attractive scenery. There is probably no section of the state in which the natural scenery is more inviting than in the neighborhood of Oregon. On the Illi- nois river, around Ottawa, there is another outcropping of 12 this same sandstone, giving another region of unusual va- riety and beauty. Starved Rock, Deer Park, and the many beautiful canons of LaSalle county are all formed in the St. Peter's sandstone group. At Joliet and near Rock Is- land and in Calhoun county, and in several other localities, we find decided exposures of the Niagara limestone group. In other places we find the sub-carboniferous and the car- boniferous, bearing coal, exposed to view. In all parts of the state if borings are sunk deep enough the primary rock may be found. Why are not these rock formations exposed in all parts of the state ? Why is it that in most places, in digging for water, we have to bore through many feet of sand, gravel and boulders before coming to the bed rock? In many places this layer on top of the main rock is thirty feet deep ; in some places it is from one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet deep. How did all this come about? This intro- duces us to another phase of the physical make-up of the state. Long after the primary rock formations had been laid down, after they had many times been lifted above the waters and sunk again, after the lower Silurian limestone around Galena had been filled with lead, and the fields cov- ering the central parts of the state had been stored with sufficient coal to keep all the fires of the world burning for centuries, there came a great change over the face of the earth. No man knows exactly how or why it came about, but it grew very cold. For hundreds of years the plants and animals that had flourished where we now live were frozen out. Nothing could grow in all this northern region of the world. A cold barren reach of ice and snow grad- ually covered the land. It grew heavier and thicker, col- lecting upon the high lands of Canada and the regions to the north as it now collects upon the highest parts of the Alps in Europe, or of the coast range in our own Alaska. These great fields of ice, as' they grew larger and heavier, 13 began to move slowly towards the lower lands. As they moved down they pushed all obstructions before them. A grove of trees was less than a cobweb in their path. A projection of rock sticking up from the surface a hundred feet or more would be ground into fragments and carried along with the great ice mass moving toward the south. This great ice plow not only swept the surface bare as it went, but it dug into the earth, carving out holes hundreds of feet deep and thousands of miles in area. The rocks it carried along were rolled over and over again under the great ice mass until they were ground into huge marbles or boulders. But this ice march could not go on forever. There must come a place where the heat of the sun was sufficient to melt the front edge of this ice field. In Illinois this place was reached about sixty miles north of Cairo. Here the ice began to melt, and the dirt and gravel and sand it had ground up and carried along were dropped upon the old primary rock formations. Where the glacier stopped, all along its front end, a ridge of gravel and clay was built up and left. It is there today, so we can stand upon it and compare it with the land north and south of it, and know for ourselves that we are standing upon soil brought down by this great ice wagon from the north. Not only once, but twice and three times, perhaps oftener, did this happen, except that each time the front edge of the ice river stopped sooner than the time before. So over the northern part of the state three, at least, of these great glaciers swept, cover- ing the old rock in places very deep. This is why we have to dig through sand and gravel and boulders so many feet before striking the solid rock. This is why boulders, almost round, from six inches to five feet in diameter, can be found scattered over the surface of the state. This is why, chiefly, that we have Lake Michigan and all the other northern lakes. The great holes scooped out by the moving ice fields 14 were filled with water, when the glaciers melted, and there they are to this day. The loads of dirt carried were in some cases dropped in the beds of old rivers, filling them up so completely and solidly that when the glaciers were gone things had been so changed that the rivers had to dig out new channels. This was true of the Mississippi river near Rock Island and for forty or more miles below that point. This was true of the Illinois river near Hennepin. Many other cases can be shown where this happened. In places these terminal mo- raines formed basins, the dirt being piled up on all sides, thus shutting in thousands of acres of land. These areas could not get good drainage and became the swamp lands that our farmers are still draining with tile. In some of these basins the best kind of soil has been deposited by growth and decay and the small streams seeping into them until now, when drained by the farmer, they are the richest lands to be had. There are farmers in northern Illinois who are reaping sixty and seventy bushels per acre from fields in which they went duck hunting or swimming when they were boys. It is now time for us to look at a map of the state upon which these moraines are located. We see that the first moraine extends westward from near the point where the Wabash river leaves the Illinois state boundary. This moraine has been called the Shelbyville moraine. You notice the Embarrass river has cut through it in order to reach its natural outlet. The second moraine is shaped something like an elbow, reaching from the eastern part of the state a few miles north of the Shelbyville moraine bending to the north at about the forty-first degree of latitude, and ending in the state of Wisconsin. This is known as the Champaign moraine. This is by far the largest and most prominent one in the state. You notice how the Illinois river has cut its way across this moraine. The third follows Lake Michi- gan and is located only a few miles to the west of its south- 15 ern part. This is called the Valparaiso moraine; the Des plaines river had to cut its way across it. Should we take the Illinois Central railroad at Chicago and travel to Cairo, we would cross the Valparaiso moraine, then the valley drained by the Kankakee and Vermilion rivers, then the Champaign moraine, then, following the ridge that divides > the Embarrass from the Kaskaskia, we would enter the basin of the Big Muddy river, and in this basin would come to and cross that southern uplift known as the Ozark High- lands. South of these highlands there is no drift. This Ozark ridge of hills is not more than ten or twelve miles wide, but reaches across the state from Shawneetown on i6 the Ohio to Grand Tower on the Mississippi. In places the elevations reach an altitude of seven or eight hundred feet, and in one place to one thousand forty-seven feet. One other little -section of the state seems to have been left untouched by the great ice rivers. This is the extreme northwestern part of the state, a little corner comprising Jo Daviess county. Here we have the highest point of land in the state, Charles Mound, which rises to an altitude of twelve hundred fifty-seven feet. A study of this map will show us that there are seven distinct drainage basins in the state. These are drained respectively by the Rock River, the Illinois river, the Kas- kaskia river, the Big Muddy river, the Embarrass river, the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, and Lake Michigan. Perhaps the smallest of all these areas is that drained by the lake. In the ice age the waters from the lake region poured out through the Illinois valley to the Mississippi, and thence to the Gulf. But as the height of the waters sank, the little elevation to the west cut the waters of the lake off in that direction and forced them to find an outlet by way of the north. The Chicago drainage channel has opened up this old waterway, giving the waters of Lake Michigan an outlet to the Gulf. In the places where the drift material was not deposited, the old rock formations are at the top, making rugged scenery and furnishing picturesque building sites. In many such places even the abutments for bridges can be spared, as the natural formation gives ample support. We find the drift in other sections piled up in great mounds, as if done by hand. Joliet Mound, near Joliet, was a good example of this until the Rock Island railway company decided a few years ago that the material was needed for ballast. Where this drift covers the state, canal digging and railroad build- ing can be done with comparative ease. There seems to have been considerable regularity in the deposition of the drift. It did not all drop down in a heap, but the heavier 17 parts settled down first, then the Hghter were deposited layer after layer, something as the leaves of a book. In an early day the waters of Lake Michigan filled all the plain where the city of Chicago is now built, reaching to the edge of the Valparaiso moraine. In the midst of these ancient waters. Stony Island and Blue Island were spots of dry land, — oases in the desert of waters. As the waters receded, the lake shrunk toward its present outline, and room was made for the building of the great city of the West. i8 ^^^"H, « o « » "-t There are vast regions of Illinois almost as level as a floor. There are thousands of acres from which the first farmers did not have to cut a tree nor dig a stump before putting the plow to work. The natural drainage with the wonderfully rich soil marks out these great reaches of prairie land as one of the best agricultural regions of the earth. An immense population could be supported from the fields of this state. We will look at another map before passing from this part of our subject. The storm maps of the United States show 19 that most of the storms, the winds, the rains, the changes of temperature, follow three well-defined routes. One of these clings to the Atlantic seaboard. Another, beginning in the southwest, crosses the country diagonally to Maine. This route crosses Illinois along the Kaskaskia valley. The third begins in the Pacific ocean, or in the mountain regions of our Northwest, and crosses the country in an easternly direction to Maine. This route crosses Illinois in the lati- tude of Chicago. You notice that there is no state except Illinois that is crossed by two of these storm routes until we reach New England. This will help us to understand why Illinois has such a variety of weather and perhaps more sudden changes of temperature than any other state in the Union. We should examine, also, two other charts, one showing the average temperature and the other the average rainfall for the state. In all such charts the same temperature is represented by very crooked lines. The altitude, the con- formation of the drainage basins, the forests and prairies and the amount of rainfall all have an influence upon the 20 temperature. Hardly any two places are exactly alike in these respects, so we should not expect to find many places alike in temperature records. In the extreme north part of the state the average temperature is forty-six degrees, while in the extreme south it is fifty-eight degrees. This is a difference of twelve degrees and means a difference of about three weeks in the season. On the chart showing the average rainfall we will see that there is quite a variation, reaching all the way from twenty- eight to forty-five inches per year. The average for the state is about thirty-eight inches. Now, we have attempted to get before us the physical outlook of the state, showing how it was made, of what its bone and muscle consist, whence its soil came, how its mois- ture and drainage are provided, and the consequent possi- bilities of this region for civilization and culture. We have seen what nature has done for this region. What has man done to perfect her work ? 21 CHAPTER II THE EARLY INHABITANTS This was a beautiful prairie land reaching far and far away beyond the power of the eye to see. Miles and miles of it were almost as level as a floor. The drainage was nearly perfect. There was enough of timber to give variety to the landscape and to furnish the necessary building material for a moderate population of simple people. The soil left by the glaciers and added to by the natural growth of vegetation was as rich as a garden. Surely such a field as this was destined to a history of stirring events and of industrial life. What people first owned these lands, and how came they to leave them, and by whom were they succeeded? The native inhabitants were Indians. When Columbus added the western world to the geography of the middle ages, in 1492, he found a land that was beyond value in its resources and in its possibilities; but the people acquired with the land were of little value to the world's history. They have been the means of putting to shame the records of Spanish, Eng- lish and American explorers, colonists, and statesmen whose hands have been drenched in the blood of innocent savages, and whose treaties have been violated with impunity because made with these helpless children of the forest. But they have been a hopeless problem in all efforts to civilize them. They have not the inherited instincts of the white man, and do not want to live as the white man lives. They were in 22 possession of these boundless plains and interminable woods from Maine to California and from the Gulf of Mexico to the frozen regions of Alaska. They had their own institu- tions, their own manner of life, and their own religious beliefs and superstitions, as simple as the life they lived. They had their families, their tribes and their great clans, distinguished one from the other, as were the nations of Europe, by differences of dialect, language and customs. There is no satisfactory evidence that any race of people preceded the Indians in the occupation of this country. Some years ago the scientists thought there had been an older race of people, whom they called Mound Builders, who had erected great mounds in many sections of the country. These mounds still exist, such of them as have not been destroyed, most of them in river valleys not far removed from the streams. This one fact suggests a possible explana- tion of their origin, — they may have been devised for the purpose of protecting the people from the great overflows of the rivers, which were probably much greater than now. We have seen one of these mounds some twelve miles or more from the usual channel of the Mississippi river in Mis- souri, built upon with corn cribs, barns, sheds and dwelling- house, the only spot above water for a distance of five miles in any direction. The farmer had taken advantage of one of the old Indian mounds for the same purpose for which the Indians had erected it, — to keep himself above the Mis- sissippi overflow in the month of February. Many of these mounds have been found to contain skeletons, pottery and various other things, and from the remains found scattered about, a sort of culture, religious and industrial, has been supposed and defended. Nothing, however, has been found and nothing proven that might not apply to the Indian tribes as they were in the olden times. A glance at a map will help us to understand that at the time of the earliest white occupation of the country. North America was peopled by three great classes or grades of 23 Indians. To the extreme north' and west, beyond the Rocky mountains, were the savage nations. These lived wholly on the results of the chase and the streams, with what fruits and roots they could gather. They made no pretense at culti- vating the ground, nor did they have any of the conveniences of life. To the east of the Rocky mountains, extending to the Atlantic and to the Gulf of Mexico, were the barbarous tribes. These depended not alone upon the hunt and the streams, but made some rude attempts at cultivation. They grew fields of corn and beans and tobacco. They gathered their harvests and stored the grain for winter use. They 24 used the bow and arrow pointed with flint, or hurled the spear, similarly pointed, in the chase or in war. For pastime they danced around their camp-fires, or their young men ran races or played at games of ball on the open fields. These were the Indians with whom the English and French had to do in this country. To the southwest and extreme south, reaching through Mexico and Central America, were the half-civilized races. These had a much higher degree of civilization. They had a system of counting and writing. They kept records of events and had a rude astronomy. They were skilled builders in stone, and some of their struc- tures are the wonder of antiquarians today. These were the races with whom the Spaniards came in contact in Mexico and whose land they overran and whose civilization they destroyed without appreciating it. We see, then, that the Indians who occupied the country where we live were of the barbarous races. These Indians belonged chiefly to three great families or clans. These were the Iroquois, whose principal lands were in New York ; the Algonquins, who covered an immense territory reaching from Labrador to the Mississippi, completely surrounding the Iroquois ; and the Sioux, the latter living chiefly west of the Mississippi. Each of these families was divided up into a number of tribes. In Illinois we have for the most part the tribes of the Illinois, the Miamis, Pottawattomies, Kicka- poos and Winnebagoes. All these except the Winnebagoes belonged to the great Algonquin family. The Winnebagoes were of the Sioux family. Of all the Indians in North America, the Algonquins were the most amenable to civiliza- tion. The Sioux were the most warlike and unapproachable. They have always been a proud, warring people. Sitting Bull, who lead his braves to the massacre of General Custer's little army a few years ago, was a Sioux Chief. A couple of maps showing the arrangement of the Indian tribes of Illinois in 1700 and again in 1760 will illustrate how they shifted from place to place and how the tribes 25 seemed to shrink as war and the exigencies of protection and food came upon them. Notice the territory of the IlHnois tribe in the two maps. The Sioux sometimes crossed the river and made war upon the more peaceable Algonquins on the IlHnois side. The warlike Iroquois from near Lake Ontario often took the warpath and, trailing the forests for more than five hundred miles, slaughtered the tribes in the valley of the Illinois and laid their fields waste, leaving their villages but smoking ruins. It was a cruel way of life, but it was all they knew. To this life they had been born, and their fathers for genera- tions had known nothing better, nor did they wish for any 26 other. They were willing to live their rude lives, much of the time in hunger and cold, and to die under the scalping- knife or under the dreadful torture of the stake. In these valleys of the Rock river, the Illinois, the Kaskaskia, the Big Muddy, the Embarrass, and in the Chicago plain, the smoke from hundreds of little Indian villages rose to the clouds, and along these streams the rude savage caught his fish or his game, and here the squaws tilled the fields of squash and Indian corn. Here they chased the buffalo and the deer, and after the successful big hunt in the autumn they had their dances and feasts lasting for days at a time. Here their children grew to manhood and womanhood, their 27 sons and daughters were married and given in marriage. The cradle and the grave were there as they are with us, to mark the two most eventful epochs in a human life. The Indian had his way of looking at it as we have ours. Thus the Indians of Illinois had been living for hundreds of years, and thus they were living in 1673, when the first glimmer of a new day and a different form of life fell across their valley and gave promise of marvelous changes. The palefaces reached the Illinois country, and with their coming history really begins. Whence came the first white men to these valleys ? Who were they and why did they come ? 28 CHAPTER III THE COMING OF THE FRENCH — MARQUETTE AND JOLIET During the years 1 541 -1543 four historic events were taking place in different parts of North America which we may link together for the sake of memory help. DeSoto was wandering across the southern wilderness, battling with wild beasts and still wilder men, probably penetrating as far as the present boundary of Kansas, finding in all his journeyings nothing so wonderful as his burying-place — the Mississippi river. Coronado, coming up from the north- western part of Mexico, was searching for the marvelous city of Quivera, which existed only in diseased imagina- tions. In his dreary wanderings he came within a few hundred miles, perhaps within a few days' march, of De Soto's men. On the Pacific coast, Cabrillo, a third Span- iard, had discovered the shore line of the present California, and, wintering in the harbor of San Diego, had died there. Away off to the northeast, Cartier, sailing up the St. Law- rence river to the present site of Montreal, attempted to plant a colony. Cartier failed in this attempt, but the French had entered upon the plan of colonizing, and they are to be dealt with in our history as an active force for a period of a little more than two hundred years. In 1608 a permanent settlement was made at Quebec. After three-quarters of a century, the French were at last firmly planted upon the soil of the New World. In 161 1 29 they established themselves at Montreal. Within the next sixty years they went up the Ottawa river, crossed by port- age to the Georgian Bay, and then to the Sault Ste. Marie rapids, where in 1641 they established a mission among the Indians and a post for the fur traders. Then they went on to the west, establishing another post at Pointe es Sprite, near the southwestern extremity of Lake Superior, in 1665. Other posts were established at Mackinac in 1669, at St. Xavier, on Green Bay in 1669, and at Frontenac in 1673. Dot- ting these places on our map, we shall see that the French during these years were exploring the region of the Great Lakes and were making the natural waterways the means of communication and travel. It is at this point that we in the Illinois country come into intimate touch with these exploring French. It will be interesting to follow with our map and pencil the development of the posts and forts established during the next three-quarters of a century. In 1679 we find Ft. Miami at the mouth of the St. Joseph river on Lake Michi- gan; in 1670, Ft. Crevecoeur where Peoria now stands; in 1682', Ft. St. Louis near the present town of Utica, Illinois ; in 1695, Kaskaskia; in 1717, New Orleans; in 1735, Vin- cennes; in 1753, Le Boeuf, Venango, Ft. Duquesne, and other establishments in the neighborhood of the Great Lakes. (See map, page y2.) We have not named all the places where these enter- prising Frenchmen pushed their way among the Indians, erecting their chapels, setting up their crucifixes, and build- ing huts for the accommodation of the traders. It must not be supposed for a moment that these settlements stand for the same thing that the Pilgrim or Puritan settlements of New England stand for, or those of Virginia and Carolina. Far from it. Yet they were way-stations in the great valley of the Mississippi, planted upon all the routes of travel, and here were the lilies of France giving notice to all the world that Frenchmen had taken possession of this valley and 30 claimed it as their own by right of original discovery and exploration. The most prominent and the most lovable character con- nected with the explorations of the Middle West was the heroic Father Marquette. His is one of the lives untouched by selfishness and untainted by greed, that stands out like a great promontory in the sea of passion and cruelty and scheming that swept over the New World during the first centuries of its history. He was molded of the material of which martyrs are made. He never desired ease or fame. He loved humanity and wild nature. He lived as he had hoped to live, and finally died as he had prayed to die, far from the habitations of men, in the midst of the intermi- nable forests beside the waterways leading to the Great Lakes, his face turned toward heaven, and only a few faith- ful converts to mark his passing. Father Marquette was born near Paris, in France, in 1637. He came of a warlike family among the wealthy and noble of his time. He chose the priesthood for his profes- sion and was educated in the schools of the Jesuits, a strict religious society belonging to the priesthood of the Catholic church and devoted to the spread of their faith in all parts of the world. This society was organized about 1535, and from that day to this, wherever the Church has needed a man to take desperate chances, — on the frontier, in the wil- derness, in battle, in slavery, beside the king's throne, or at the martyr's stake, — she had but to suggest, and there were men of this order waiting to do or die. Father Marquette belonged to this order and at the age of twenty-nine was set apart for missionary work in the wilderness of the New World. In September, 1666, he reached Quebec. Here he reported to his superior and thanked God that he was at last so near the field of work which he had been desiring for years. But much was needed by the young man before he was fully equipped for his work. In a few days he was sent 31 up to Three Rivers, about seventy-five miles above Quebec, where he wsls placed under the instructions of an expe- rienced teacher and missionary. Here he remained for three years, getting ready. He had to learn Indian languages and dialects; he had to learn how to provide himself with food in the wilderness, how to make rude huts and shelters, how to cook his own food, how to paddle canoes and swim swollen streams, and how to make his own clothing out of such material as the forest furnished. There was much besides books for this young priest to study, and he gave himself unflinchingly to the work. In the summer of 1668, Father Marquette was ready to go farther toward the frontier to make proof of the spirit that was in him. He set out with a small party for the sta- tion at Sault Ste. Marie, near the mouth of Lake Superior. Here there was a mission, as we have noted on our map. This seems to have been the most important station west of Montreal. They went up the Ottawa river by canoe until opposite Georgian Bay, and carried their canoes across the portage to the bay, and then paddled along the shores of the lake until they reached the mission at the Sault. This jour- ney of nearly nine hundred miles probably occupied most of the summer of 1668. A year later, September, 1669, we find Marquette again on the move. This time he was sent to take charge of the mission at Pointe es Sprite, or La Pointe, near the southwestern extremity of Lake Superior. In about two years after his arrival at this place, the Indian tribes with whom he had labored Vv^ere obliged to abandon their homes and flee from the invasion of warring tribes with whom they had become involved in quarrels. The mission was abandoned and, with the Indians, Marquette turned eastward and located on the island of Mackinac near where the waters of Superior find their entrance to Lake Huron. Here a mission station had already been estab- lished ; a short time afterwards it was removed to the main- land on the north shore and was called St. Ignace. The 32 thousands of tourists and visitors who every summer visit these straits and wander over the ground made memorable by the labors of these early missionaries, try to dream over the records suggested by the scanty markings and monu- ments, wondering what manner of men these must have been. On December 8, Marquette, here at the mission of St. Ignace, received the most joyful message he had heard since landing in the New World. Upon that day, just as winter was closing in, a lone traveler drew his birch-bark canoe up on the beach beside the mission station, and, meeting the priest, placed in his hands a message from the governor of Canada. This traveler was Joliet, and this day the names of Marquette and Joliet were to be joined for register and transmission side by side to coming generations. Joliet was the son of a wagon-maker. He had been born and reared in Canada. He had studied for the priesthood, but after a time had given up this plan for the more adven- turous and fascinating life of an explorer. He was an unusually bright and capable man. His ability won the esteem and regard of all with whom he came in contact. He was brave, fearless, energetic, resourceful, — an ideal man for explorations among the wild men of an unbroken wil- derness. For years the governor of Canada had been hearing rumors of a great river to the south and west of the lakes, and he was desirous of knowing more about it. It was uncertain whether this river emptied into the Pacific or into the Atlantic. The country to the east of it was known as the Illinois country because the Illinois Indians were living along this river. It came about that, acting under orders of the French king, who was anxious to discover this unknown river, the governor of Canada sought to find some one who could lead an expedition into the wilderness for this purpose. He selected Joliet, the son of the wagon-maker. It was important to have in every exploring party a priest. 33 This was important for several reasons. The church and the state were acting together as one in this work of opening up the New World. The priest was usually familiar with the Indian languages and dialects, and could thus act as an interpreter; he was known by this dress among all the tribes of the great valley, because where he had not been his fame had preceded him, and the "black robes" were known as the medicine men of the palefaces. Joliet had known Marquette in the early days at Montreal and at Three Rivers, and the two had formed a liking for each other. It was greatly to his delight that Father Marquette was named to accompany him on this trip. It was this commission that Joliet placed in the hands of the priest on that eighth day of December, 1672. Mar- quette had for years been looking with longing eyes toward the Illinois country. He had prayed that it might be per- mitted him to go forth as a pioneer missionary among these people, carrying them the gospel, living and dying among them. Upon this night his prayer was answered, and Mar- quette was happy. He had never been a rugged man. He had the physique of a scholar and a civilian rather than that of an explorer, and so it came about that the life to which this message consigned him was to lead to an early grave as the result of exposure and over-exertion. All winter Marquette and Joliet were making their prepa- rations for the journey. They gathered all the information they could about the country, its people, its languages and its streams. On the seventeenth of May, 1673, a little group of people gathered on the beach at St. Ignace to see the two depart. They took with them five oarsmen to propel their boats. With Joliet in one boat and Marquette in the other, after the prayers and blessings of the priest on shore, the boats were pushed out and the eventful voyage was begun. They followed the west shore of Lake Michigan to Green Bay. Entering this, they proceeded to the mission station 34 of St. Xavier. Here they rested a while with the priests and people of this mission ; then, pushing on, they proceeded to the head of Green Bay, then up the Fox river to Winnebago lake; then, branching off to the west, they followed the Fox river until they came to the large Indian village of the Mascoutees. They had heard much of this village, and it was here they expected to receive information concerning the peoples and the lands they were to visit. They found the savages friendly and ready with information giving definite location to the great river which flowed away to the south, they knew not how far, but stated that it was beset with great monsters and that its banks were inhabited by blood- thirsty tribes that would permit none to pass. They tried to persuade the adventurers to return the way they came, but, failing in this, they readily supplied guides to show them the way over the portage to a river which they said would flow into the great river. A short journey brought them to the river sought; it was what is now known as the Wisconsin. Here they held a religious service, then embarked, and in a few days, — on June 17, — they floated out through the mouth of the Wisconsin upon the bosom of the great river, the Mississippi. Perhaps these were the first Europeans since the days of DeSoto (1541) that had looked upon the waters of the great river. The discovery of DeSoto had been forgotten, so we may well Say these men were the discoverers of the river, coming upon it at the mouth of the Wisconsin. We cannot follow all the known details of this journey, but on the twenty-fifth of June they saw tracks on the west bank of the river. Joliet and Marquette landed, and after following the tracks for five or six miles across a beautiful prairie, they came to an Indian village. Calling aloud for some one to come out, they were answered by a swarm of savages who sent four of their old men to meet them bear- ing calumets, or peace-pipes. Marquette asked them who they were. They replied that they were Illini, which in their language means "men." By this name they were ever 35 after known, and the name has come down to our state, and many times, under a more cultured civiHzation, the palefaces have acted less like men than did these primitive red men of the prairies. Leaving this village, Marquette and Joliet proceeded on their journey, with many interesting incidents, until they had gone as far as the mouth of the Arkansas river. Here, fearing that the tribes along the shore might do them harm, and finding that some of them had firearms, and believing that they had determined the course and outlet of the great river, they decided to return. On their upward journey, when they reached the mouth of the Illinois river they decided to ascend it and attempt to get back to the lakes in that way. Marquette wrote that in all their wander- ings they had seen nothing like this valley of the Illinois "as to its fertility of soil, its prairie and its woods; its cattle, elk, deer and bustards, ducks and beavers." After more than two hundred years, we who live upon the produce of that valley agree most fully with his estimate of its riches. Below Ottawa, near the present site of Utica, they found a village of Kaskaskia Indians. They spent some time here and were furnished with guides to conduct them by the best route to the lake. They ascended the Illinois, then the Des- plaines, until they came to the divide which separates the Desplaines valley from the lake, and, carrying their canoes over the ridge, were again able to paddle upon either the Chicago or the Calumet river — we are not sure which — to Lake Michigan. The travelers at once pushed for the north along the western shore of the lake, past the present sites of Evanston, Racine, Milwaukee, and on and on until they reached Green Bay and, at the end of September, pulled their worn canoes up at the mission of St. Xavier after an absence of little more than four months. What a journey they had made ! What a record to carry back to the governor of Canada and to send home to the French king! Joliet could not go back to Canada during the winter, so he worked on his report. Marquette also 36 wrote out a report of their expedition. By the irony of fate, the next spring, when he had reached within a few miles of Montreal, Joliet was capsized in his canoe, his crew were all drowned, and he barely escaped with his life, while his precious manuscripts were lost forever. So no written report of the itinerary could be made by him, and it was not until some years after that the report made by Marquette was obtained and published in France. Joliet does not seem to have been rewarded in any adequate way by the French for his wonderful achievement, and in history to this day his name is regarded as second to that of Marquette in the discoveries and explorations in which they shared. So this man, burning for fame and public recognition, was passed by, while the humble priest, who desired neither fame nor recognition, became the chief authority in this world-wide story. With the fortune of Joliet we have nothing more to do, but we shall follow Marquette a little longer. When they left the Kaskaskia Indians on the Illinois river. Father Marquette had promised them that he would return to them to teach them the gospel. He was very anxious to return as soon as possible. But the exposure on the trip had so broken his health that it was impossible for him to start at once upon another journey. Spring came, and he hoped that with the warmer weather he would grow stronger, but the days of summer came and went, finding him still at the little mission station at Green Bay. But in the autumn he thought he had sufficiently recovered to undertake the jour- ney. So in October, with two Frenchmen for companions and guides, he set out upon the trip. They slowly pulled their canoe along the shore, the priest walking much of the time, to vary the monotony and to relieve his sickness, which returned upon him and seemed worse in the cramped posi- tion in the boat. Finally, upon the fourth of December they pulled into the Chicago river, which was frozen to the depth of half a foot. Here Marquette was so much worse it was 37 impossible to go farther. Making a rude sledge, his com- panions, aided by some friendly Pottawattomies, drew him over the ice to a place about five miles from the shore of the lake, and here, building a rude hut for shelter, they decided to winter. So here, upon the very site of our Chicago, out somewhere on the west branch of our river, this great man, heroic in his courage and faith, passed the dreary winter of 1674-5, far from his home and far from even the rude conveniences of life, yet happy and serene, waiting for what might yet be in store for him to do or endure. When spring came Marquette was better and they proceeded slowly upon their way. They spent eleven days in reaching the Kas- kaskia village. The people here received him with every demonstration of joy. He taught them for a few days, establishing among them the mission of the Immaculate Conception, then calling them all together in the open air upon the plain, he preached to them his farewell sermon and gave them his parting advice and blessing. He felt that he had only a few weeks longer to live, and wished, if he might, to reach St. Ignace in time to die. Many of the Kaskaskia Indians accompanied him almost to the lake, showing him every token of love possible to their rude natures. Crossing the portage to the Chicago river, they entered the lake, and, in order to reach St. Ignace, they wound around the southern end of the lake and up its eastern shore. The journey was slow. Father Marquette was daily growing weaker. Near the spot where the city of Ludington, Michigan, now stands, they pulled their boats to shore. It was the good father's last landing. About mid- night, sheltered by a rude hut of bark, gently talking and praying with the men who had been his companions, he quietly passed away. It was May 18, 1675. The next spring, some Indians, to whom Marquette had preached the gospel way over on the west end of Lake Superior, came to his grave in the woods and, disinterring the body, cleaned the bones after the Indian fashion, and reverently carried 38 them to the mission of St. Ignace, where they found resting- place in the httle chapel. We have spent so much time upon this narrative because it seems that here v^e have a character that measured up to the full height of a type among the missionary explorers who opened up the interior of this country to civilization and settlement. No one, young or old, can study the life 6f Marquette without profit, and to us who live in the valley of the fertile rivers and along the great lake which his canoe threaded in his weary journeys, his name and life should be household themes. 39 CHAPTER IV THE STORY OF LASALLE Father Marquette died on the eighteenth of June, 1673. His bones had been lying for four summers under the Httle chapel where his loving followers had placed them in 1676, when one bright autumn morning the people of St. Ignace were startled by the appearance of a ship with sails ap- proaching the beach. Savages, missionaries and traders gazed in astonishment at it as it swept proudly up to a place of anchorage. Then a discharge of cannon from her sides sent the frightened savages off on a run for shelter from this new engine of destruction which thus announced the advent of a floating fortress upon the Great Lakes. On board this ship were two of the most remarkable men ever sent from France to the New World. These men were LaSalle and his Italian-born lieutenant, Henri de Tonti. It would be too long a story to tell of all of LaSalle's experiences in Canada and around the lakes and rivers east of Michigan. Let it suffice to say that he came to Canada in 1666, the same year as Marquette. He had been educated for the priesthood but had chosen to turn aside for the life of an explorer and trader. He had probably discovered the Ohio river, and had possibly gone as far as Michigan, and perhaps had been on the Illinois river before we meet him on this September morning casting anchor on the beach at St. Ignace. He was one of the most unfortunate men in 40 all history. From the time we are first introduced to him until the day of his death his ill-fortune seldom varied. In all his career, from 1666, when he first landed in Canada, until 1687, when he was assassinated by a faith- less follower in the swamps of Texas, we read of a con- tinuous series of disasters. He seems to have been gifted with the fatal quality of making enemies of all with whom he came in contact, except the wild Indians of the forest. Even the rosy, fat priest. Father Hennepin, whom he brought with him on this expedition, turned against him, lied about him when living and attempted to steal his laurels when dead. His brother, another priest, annoyed him, obstructed him, followed him from place to place, and in the last scene of his career was little better than an accom- plice in his death. Yet, in spite of financial disasters, of the desertion by friends, of losses by fires and flood, of wander- ings through trackless forests and amid freezing swamps for days together; in spite of sickness and of enemies, of betrayals and shipwreck, this remarkable man persevered in his original purpose until he had threaded this vast country from the St. Lawrence to the mouth of the Mississippi back and forth several times, handing down to the future a record of endurance and heroism which his own times could neither understand nor appreciate. So far as is known, the only two human beings who were true to him in life and in death were his trusty lieutenant, the Italian Tonti, and his faithful Mohegan hunter, Nika. At Niagara, just above the falls, LaSalle had built his ship, the Griffin, of forty tons' burden, and provided her with five cannon. He intended to use her to aid in carrying on a trade in furs along the Lakes and to convey the supplies he might need from Canada to the foot of Lake Michigan. The great enterprise he had on his mind was to follow the Mississippi to its mouth, then to establish a line of forts and settlements from the Lakes to the Gulf, gathering the Indians into a great confederacy for trade. It was a great 41 scheme. If the jealousies of white men had been no more bitter than the enmities of the red men, he might have accompHshed his purpose within a few years. The Griffin had brought her first load successfully to St. Ignace. Here she took on what furs the agent of LaSalle had stored at that place, thence proceeded to Green Bay, where she received sufficient furs to load her. At this place LaSalle turned her over to the pilot to be taken back to Niagara, where she was to be unloaded, and, taking on new supplies, was to meet him at the foot of Lake Michigan. On the eighteenth of September, 1679, the Griffin turned to the east on her homeward trip. LaSalle never saw her more. Whether wrecked in a storm, sunk by accident or design, the prey of the elements or of his enemies, LaSalle never knew. Her valuable cargo was lost. With the things they had taken from the Griffin for use in their trip, they loaded their canoes and, dividing into two parties, started down the lake. LaSalle was to go by the western shore of Lake Michigan, along the same route taken some years before by Marquette, while Tonti with most of the men was to go by the eastern shore. They were to meet at a point designated near the foot of the lake. LaSalle journeyed down the lake, passed the Chicago river, and, skirting the shore-line at the end of the lake, arrived at the mouth of the St. Joseph river. Here he should have met Tonti, but it was twenty days before Tonti arrived after a very difficult journey down the lake. While waiting, LaSalle built a fort, called Fort Miami, at the mouth of the St. Joseph. This was to be his way-station between the Illinois country and the head of the Great Lakes. They waited here long enough for the Griffin to put in an appear- ance, but as she did not come, LaSalle determined to pro- ceed as they were. Going up the St. Joseph river until they came to the bend, they shouldered their freight and their canoes, and in this way crossed the portage to the 42 sources of the Kankakee river. There were thirty-three in the party at this time. It was on the third day of December, 1679, that they set out for the IlHnois from Fort Miami. After reaching the stream of the Kankakee their journey was not very difficult. The country through which they passed was attractive and pleasant, but at this time of the year game was scarce, so they suffered for food part of the time. In a few days they were floating between the bluffs at the present site of Ottawa, where the Fox river empties into the Illinois. Soon they came to the beautiful plain where Utica now stands, bordered on the south by high bluffs, the most notable point of which was the great rocky bluff known to us as Starved Rock. Here, spread out on the plain, was an Indian village. Hennepin says he counted four hundred and sixty lodges. They were made long like covered baggage-wagons, each one of them housing several fami- lies. A framework of poles was covered by woven mats, and the interior was divided into parts for the different families by stretching mats across from side to side. An open place in the center was left for the common fire, and a hole in the roof permitted a part of the smoke to escape. When LaSalle and his party landed at this village, during Christmas week of 1679, not a sign of life could be seen. There were the houses and all the indications of a populous town, but the people were not to be found. They had gone, as was their custom,, upon their annual hunting expedition. LaSalle was in need of food, and was much disappointed at not finding the Indians. They hunted about until they dis- covered the place where the Indians had buried their corn. LaSalle took what he needed, leaving in its place hatchets, beads and other things to pay for the corn. They then pushed on down the river. On the first of January they reached Peoria lake. Along this lake he met some of the Indians belonging to the village beside the rock. He explained what he had done in taking the corn, and satisfied 43 their demands. He gained permission from the Indians to build a fort and a ship on the river, but they were not very friendly, and, fearing to remain among them, LaSalle took his men a little below the lake, and there on the bank of the river selected a spot on a slight elevation upon which to erect his fort. This fort, built of logs and surrounded by a palisade, he called Crevecoeur, the fort of the broken heart. He had given up all hope of hearing from his ship, the Griffin. He learned through a messenger that his creditors were seizing his property in Canada, and his men about him were growing discontented and sullen. It was a dark time, and Crevecoeur was a fitting name for the fort, the first built on the soil of Illinois. It was better named than he even then dreamed. Six of his men had already deserted. He began building a large boat, expecting to sail it down to the Mississippi and thence to the Gulf. This kept his people busy. He decided to return to Canada for additional supplies. In the meantime he decided to send Father Hennepin upon an exploring expedition down to the mouth of the Illinois and thence up the Mississippi. The adventures of Hennepin were thrilling and entertaining. Had he been honest, his name might have come down to us only second to that of his great leader in the expedition. It was the third of March, 1680, when LaSalle started on that long journey of fifteen hundred miles through the path- less wilderness with no one to guide him. With his Indian hunter and four Frenchmen, the journey was begun. The river was frozen, so most of the way they had to carry their canoes or drag them over the snow. At the village by the Rock he found the people still absent, but he examined the location of the Rock and at the first opportunity sent word back to Tonti to occupy the place and build a fort on its top. On March 23 they reached the mouth of the Calumet river, and on the 24th the mouth of the St. Joseph, where he found two men awaiting him in the fort. Here he learned 44 of the total disappearance of the Griffin. He sent these two men on to Tonti with word to fortify the Rock while he pushed on to Canada. On this trip many times they were forced to wade through snow waist-deep for days together. Sometimes they were obliged to sleep for several nights in succession upon the open prairie with nothing with which to build a fire. Their clothes, wet with rain and snow, if taken off for the night, froze stiff so they could not put them on in the morning. Yet in sixty-five days from starting they drew up at Fort Frontenac. We shall not pursue the details of LaSalle's experiences with his creditors nor his efforts to get money and supplies. It was enough that he succeeded, and on the tenth of August, with twenty-five men, started back for the Illinois country to join Tonti. This time he went by the way of Georgian Bay and the Straits of Mackinac. When he reached his fort at the mouth of the St. Joseph he found it destroyed. He heard rumors of a war party of Iroquois Indians. He hastened on to find Tonti, fearing he might have met with disaster. They made their way down the Illinois river as rapidly as they could. Where it had been so quiet on their previous trip they now found a multitude of Hving creatures. The prairies were filled with herds of buffaloes. Wild game was abundant on every hand. They came to the Rock, but LaSalle looked in vain for some sign of a palisade or other indication of Tonti's work. They came to the village of the Illinois ; here destruction of the worst type presented itself. Every hut had disappeared. Nothing but the blackened and burned remnants of the poles of the four hundred and sixty huts remained to tell that a great village had been there only a few weeks before. Worse than that, they found the ground covered with the bodies of the dead. Even the graves had been broken open, and the bones had been scattered about and the skulls set up on stakes. They looked in vain for signs of Frenchmen 45 among the dead. Leaving three men hid with most of their suppHes, LaSalle, with the rest of his party, pushed down the river. They found that the IlHnois had retreated down the west side of the river, while their enemies, the Iroquois, had followed on the opposite bank. Their camps had been made opposite each other as the retreat progressed. They came to the Fort Crevecoeur. It also was in ruins. There were no signs to tell them what had become of Tonti. They continued their way down the river. Near its mouth they found that the Illinois had abandoned their women and had fled. The Iroquois had captured something like a thousand women and children. Many of them they had tied to the stake and killed with horrible torture. Some of them they had eaten. The awful scenes were on every hand. LaSalle continued until, on the sixth day of December, 1680, they floated out into the Mississippi. This was the first LaSalle had seen of the great river of which he had dreamed by day and night through so many weary months. But he could not stop now. He must needs return at once; the ruins behind him must be repaired, and the lost Tonti must be sought. On the eleventh of December he was back at the ruined village beside the Rock. Here they found the three men they had left with the supplies, and, collecting a quan- tity of half-burned corn from the ruins of the village, they started on their return up the river. On the sixth of January they reached the junction of the Kankakee with the Illinois, and here LaSalle discovered in the woods a piece of tree that had been cut with a saw. He was delighted, as he understood from this that Tonti must have passed this way and was probably safe. The river was frozen, so they left their canoes and proceeded on foot toward St. Joseph. It was very cold. Snow fell nineteen days in succession as they waded across one hundred and twenty miles of open prairie. They were half starved and almost worn out when at last they reached Fort Miami, where they found one of LaSalle's lieutenants with twelve men who had reached this place and 46 were awaiting some word from him before advancing. They had repaired the fort and had gathered plenty of fuel and provisions, but they had heard no word from Tonti. What had become of Tonti? When LaSalle left him the previous March his men at once became mutinous. They had lost faith in the success of LaSalle, and did not believe they would ever get pay for the time they had put in with him. Some of them deserted, while others were surly and discontented. Then came the word from LaSalle to fortify the Rock. Tonti set out to do this with part of the men, leaving the others at the fort. No sooner was he gone than part of the men deliberately dismantled the fort, threw the forge and tools into the river, destroyed everything they could, and left the place. The three or four trusty men left hurried up the river to inform Tonti. Tonti made a trip down the river, recovered the forge and part of the tools, and carried them back to the village by the Rock. To avoid all suspicion on the part of the Indians, Tonti took up his residence in a hut in the midst of the savages. Here he brought all that was left of their supplies, and here, with his half dozen companions, lived with the Indians during the summer. Early in the fall, without warning or suspicion, an alarmed scout brought word to the village that the Iroquois were coming, only a day's march away; and, what was worse, he reported that they were led by Frenchmen and that one of the leaders was LaSalle. Tonti did all that he could to convince them that it could not be true, and offered to go out with them to fight the Iroquois. The angry Indians sacked his hut, took all his supplies, including the forge and tools, and threw them into the river. By great tact and courage, Tonti saved the lives of his party. But the Iroquois were at hand ; the attack was made. Tonti rushed in between the contending hosts and tried to bring about a cessation of the fight. After a parley with the Iroquois an agreement was reached ; but when the Iroquois 47 found what an easy victory they might win, they were very angry, and broke the treaty, telling Tonti and his compan- ions to leave the country at once. Tonti could do no more for his friends, the Illinois Indians; they were doomed to certain defeat; so, stealing quietly away with a canoe, they set off up the river to find LaSalle. Unfortunately, they went by the way of the Chicago river and Green Bay, while LaSalle was on the opposite side of the lake. Months after- ward they met at Michillimackinac. It would seem that LaSalle was ruined and that he would give up in despair. But he was not thus made. His courage was beyond measure. On December 21, 168 1, we find LaSalle and Tonti with a party of twenty-three Frenchmen and about a score of Indians once again starting from Fort Miami for the Illinois country. He had been carrying on negotiations with the various Illinois tribes, trying to persuade them to settle again at the old village, while he should fortify the Rock and act as their protector against the Iroquois Indians. He was now starting out to fulfill his part of the agreement. It was the dead of winter, and their canoes and luggage and the sick had to be placed on sledges and dragged over the snow. Thus they crossed the site of Chicago and the divide between the lake and the Desplaines river. They reached the site of the Illinois village, but found it still deserted. They proceeded on down the river, past Fort Crevecoeur and on to the Mississippi, and then on and on, and still on, until on the ninth of April, 1682, their boats passed out of the river into the surging waters of the Gulf of Mexico. LaSalle had attained the long-desired dream. He had fol- lowed the great river, of which all Europe had heard so many rumors, to its mouth. He divided his party into three sections, and each taking a different branch, all came together at the mouth of the river, proving that it emptied into the gulf by at least three channels. Here LaSalle with great ceremony took possession of the country drained by 48 the great river and all its tributaries in the name of King Louis of France, and named the valley Louisiana. Then began the journey back up the river, leaving behind them a post upon which had been nailed the arms of France pounded out of an old copper kettle. On the way, LaSalle became sick from a fever and had to stay for months at an extemporized fort, Prud Homme, near the present site of Natchez. He sent Tonti on to go to Canada to report the result of his venture and to see that an account was sent to the king. In December of the same year, 1682, LaSalle and Tonti were at the village of the Illinois. Here they carried out the original purpose of fortifying the Rock. They brought all the supplies they had or could gather to the Rock, erected a fort on its top, and surrounded it with a palisade. The Indians, gathering confidence because of the fort, began to collect at the village again, until in the shadow of the Rock, now named Fort St. Louis, it was estimated that over twenty thousand Indians had their tents pitched. Here was the best fortified place established by LaSalle in the present state of Illinois. Here we might leave him, for in the spring of 1683 he left Fort St. Louis, intending to go to Canada, and thence to France to interest the king in his projects. He never saw his Fort St. Louis again. LaSalle made his way to France, persuaded the king to approve and aid him in his plans, and finally, in July, 1684, left France, with four ships and ample supplies, intending to enter the mouth of the Mississippi, establish a colony, and then ascend to Fort St. Louis of the Illinois. His usual bad luck followed him. The leaders quarreled. The vessels missed the mouth of the river. They landed four hundred miles west of the river. Three of the ships were wrecked, the fourth finally returned to France, leaving LaSalle with about a hundred of his colonists in an unknown country, which has since proved to have been the coast of the present state of Texas. Here they suffered and many of 49 them died from fevers and other diseases, LaSalle vainly trying to find the river. Finally, about the first of January, 1687, LaSalle deter- mined to make a desperate attempt to reach the river, then proceed to Canada and send v^ord to France, that help might be sent to the lost colony. With a small party he set out and had proceeded as far as the Trinity river, when dissen- sions broke out among the members of the party, and LaSalle v^^as v^aylaid and treacherously shot to death. There died with him in as foul a manner his faithful Indian hunter, Nika, his nephew, and another companion. A few of his party reached the Illinois, went on to Canada and returned to France. Of the remnant of the colony left in Texas, not one escaped to tell the tale of their sufferings and disasters. Months afterwards, Tonti, not knowing his leader was dead, set out to seek him in the wilds of Texas and came upon the ruins of the place that had sheltered them. All had been killed by Indians. Thus ends the story of LaSalle so far as the country con- nected with Illinois has to do. He was a brave, patient, much suffering man. He opened the way for the French settlers to enter the Mississippi valley both by way of the north and of the south. He deserved a title of nobility and great wealth from his country ; instead, he was denied even a grave after his death at the hands of villainous assassins beside the murky river in the dreary wilderness near the Gulf. SO CHAPTER V FRENCH OCCUPATION OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY LaSalle was assassinated in the southern wilderness early in 1687. Tonti held his post on the Rock, called Fort St. Louis, protecting the Indian tribes that had been induced to settle in the neighborhood, and waiting for reinforce- ments from the home country. The reinforcements never came. France was not a successful colonizing country. The king and the French cabinet did not realize until it was for- ever too late the value of their interests in the New World. When Father Marquette visited the Kaskaskia Indians prior to his death, he established among them the "Mission of the Immaculate Conception." This mission was con- tinued until the French power disappeared from the Mississippi valley. In 1698 the French king sent out a colony under one d'lberville, a Canadian, who had promised to take posses- sion of the mouth of the Mississippi and colonize it. Iber- ville arrived in the Gulf near the mouth of the Mississippi in the month of February or March, 1698. While exploring the inlets and trying to determine the best place for a settle- ment, one of his men found an Indian chief with a blue cloak and what he called a ''wonderful medicine," a piece of speaking-bark. The man traded a hatchet for it and found that it was a letter from Tonti to LaSalle, written thirteen years before. When LaSalle was struggling in the mazes 51 of the Texas swamps, striving in vain to rediscover the great river, Tonti, hearing that he had left France with his colony, went down the river to meet him. He went to the mouth of the river and sought for days to locate him, then gave up the effort. But he gave an Indian chief a cloak and wrote a letter to LaSalle, leaving it with the Indian to be delivered should he chance to meet the white man. After thirteen years the letter was placed in the hands of a Frenchman, but the one for whom it was intended and to whom it would have meant so much had been silenced forever. Iberville finally decided to establish himself at the place now called Biloxi. In April, 1699, they built a fort at this place. Iberville soon after returned to France, and the control of the colony fell into the hands of his younger brother, Bienville. On one of his exploring expeditions Bienville found some Indians, Chickasaws, who had been trading with the English, and with the help of Englishmen had fought a battle with some other Indians. This was startling news to the French. It is worth noting in our outline of the early occupation of the country. It tells us that at that early day the English settlers were finding their way through and around the southern Alleghanies. You remember that Joliet reported that in his explorations in 1673 he had met some Indians with either English or Span- ish arms in their hands. The French soon had occasion to meet some of these pioneer English. In 1700 three things happened which we shall do well to make a note of. First, a member of the colony at Biloxi, a man by the name of La Sueur, with a two-masted vessel sailed up the Mississippi from the Gulf to Lake Pepin. There he built a fort, killed four hundred buffalo, traded with the Indians and carried back to Biloxi a boat-load of blue mud, believing it to contain valuable ore. This was the first boat of any size to ascend the river. Second, Bien- ville moved his settlement from Biloxi to the present site of Mobile. Third, that year Tonti, discouraged with his work 52 at the Rock and threatened by hostile tribes, persuaded the Kaskaskia Indians to move down the Mississippi where the French might still protect them. The Indians moved, but upon reaching the land near the mouth of the Kaskaskia river and finding it a goodly land and unoccupied, they de- cided to pitch their tents there instead of following Tonti to the gulf. This explains the change in our Indian map, where we found the Illinois Indians crowded upon a small territory along the Kaskaskia. Tonti went on down the river and joined the colony of Bienville at Mobile. It is said that he died there of yellow fever the next year. In 1792 one Juchereau, a trader from Montreal, estab- lished a trading post just above the present site of Cairo. In the course of a few years he built a tannery there and dressed buffalo hides and shipped them down the Mississippi river, as well as up the Ohio toward Montreal. Finally with thirty thousand buffalo skins on hand he became frightened and ran away, leaving this vast stock of skins to spoil. Ex- ploring parties went up the Missouri river and the Ar- kansas and wandered over the intervening territory in search for precious metals. This was not the order of people of which profitable col- onies are made. In 171 2 the king, disgusted with the efforts to colonize under the Royal patronage, turned the whole matter over to Anthony Crozat, a wealthy French merchant, who undertook to make settlements on business principles and to manage the colony for fifteen years. It was his pur- pose to search for mines and to protect the French posses- sions from the Spanish and English. The story of the colony from 1712 to 1717 is a repetition of failures, of vicious and dishonest conduct, and of treacherous dealings with Indians and whites alike. In 1717 Crozat gave up the task. It was too much for him to manage according to business prin- ciples. We come now to one of those remarkable speculative phe- nomena that have visited from time to time every civilized 53 community in the history of the world. The outlines of the story are well worth a little time and attention. John Law, a renegade from England, who had been tried, convicted and sentenced to be hung, escaped and made his way to France. He was versatile in expedients and a fas- cinating talker. He was a gambler, and it is said intro- duced the game of faro upon the continent of Europe. But in time he established, as the result of his gambling, a bank in the city of Paris. He at once became a leading financial adviser of the King Regent. (Louis XV. was then a child about six years of age.) Louis XIV. had died, leaving the government in debt about sixteen million dollars. Law came forward with a scheme for raising this money. He recommended the issuing of paper money based upon the real estate of the nation. One million dollars of paper was to be issued for every two million dollars worth of real estate. Soon there was an abundance of money. Prices at once rose and a general prosperity beamed upon the land. Law became famous as a financier. In September, 1717, he brought into the market his great scheme. This was known as the Mississippi Company. Its object was to colonize the Mississippi valley and exploit it for its precious metals and diamonds. A great commerce was to be carried on between this country and Europe. Pamphlets were distributed telling of all the wonders of this far-away land. No western town boomer of the nine- teenth century ever dared to lie with the brazen effrontery shown by these circulars of John Law. It was even said the country grew flowers in whose cups the dewdrops of the night would crystallize into diamonds. Gold was to be found in abundance in every stream. The sediment in the waters of the Mississippi contained enough to make every man, woman and child rich. Bars of gold, said to have been thus collected, and diamonds said to have been formed in the flowers, were placed on exhibition in the shop win- dows. Then the stock of the company was placed on sale. 54 Men and women fought with each other for places in the lines where they might buy the stock. Thousands of people flocked to the ships eager to be transported to the new field of wealth. When the tide of those who were anxious to cross over the ocean began to wane, the prisons were opened and the streets were swept of their riffraff to be sent out to colonize the valley of paradise and coin wealth for themselves and for the lucky holders of stock at home. Of such material were the French possessions in the lower Mississippi peo- pled. In 171 8, Bienville established a colony at the present site of New Orleans and laid out the beginnings of the most important city in the southern part of the valley. In the five years from 171 7 to 1722 the Mississippi Company sent out seven thousand settlers and seven hundred slaves to Louisiana. Then the bubble burst. Ruin came upon thou- sands of homes in Europe. Millions upon millions of dol- lars were lost, and John Law fled for his life from France with nothing left of his great fortune. The thousands who had fought for places in the lines to buy stock and who deified Law were almost beggared in the overwhelming collapse, and of course they charged up all their grievances against Law. In the great valley of the Mississippi prosperity came out of the misfortunes of Europe. The people were here, and they had been convinced, after years of fruitless search- ing and suffering, that there were no diamonds in the petals of the flowers and there was no gold in the sediment of the Mississippi. They had learned, however, that there were riches to be earned by cultivating the soil, and that any one with reasonable industry could become an independent householder in this country. So the army of immigrants that had come from all the diverse elements of French life set themselves to work to organize a form of society that might be permanent and agreeable. In the early immigration there were many more men than women, and to sup- 55 ply the deficiency shiploads of young women were brought over to be bought for wives. In this way began many of the "first families" of Louisiana. Many a proud dame of the South can trace her ancestry back to the time when a Mississippi colony immigrant met a young adven- turess on the levee of the new city of New Orleans and there began family life. During all this time what was going on further up the river? It is in this up-river country that we are chiefly interested. We have stated that in 1718 Bienville had es- tablished a permanent colony at New Orleans. Two years later one of his lieutenants, Major Pierre Boisbriant, led a colony of over a hundred people up the river to some six- teen miles above Kaskaskia and there built a fort, calling it Fort Chartres. Chartres landing is still pointed out on the river where this fort was built. In 1 721 Kaskaskia had risen to the dignity of a parish. In 1722 the first land war- rant known to the real estate records of Illinois was issued by Boisbriant. In 172 1 Francois Renault, who in 1720 brought the first negro slaves to Illinois, took two hundred miners and five hundred slaves to the point where Galena now stands and began operating the lead mines at that place. These mines are still furnishing profitable employ- ment to hundreds of men. In the same year, 1721, a college and a monastery were established at Kaskaskia, and about the same time Fort Chartres became the head of the political and social life of the upper part of the valley. Cahokia, Prairie du Rocher and St. Phillippe were laid out in the near vicinity of Fort Chartres. If we look across the state we shall find that, after the Illinois Indians with Tonti had departed from Fort St. Louis, the portage by way of Chicago had become dangerous and was not much used by the traders between Canada and the valley settlements. Instead of that they came by way of Lake Erie, then up the Maumee river, and made a port- age to the headwaters of the Wabash, thence down the Ohio. 56 This meant the building of forts along this route. The portage from the Maumee began where Fort Wayne now stands. The post on the upper Wabash was called Fort Ouatanon. LaFayette, Indiana, now stands on this spot. In 171 5 a boat-load of fifteen thousand skins was collected on the Wabash and successfully taken down the river to New Orleans. A fort and trading-post was established at Vincennes in 1722, the very year in which John Law's bub- ble broke over France. Slowly but steadily the French had extended their settle- ments and trading-posts from the days of the early mission stations on the Great Lakes until the middle of the eighteenth century. A new era in the history of the valley was about to be ushered in. Before taking it up we shall briefly recall the position of the French and quote something of their manner of life. Between 1673, the days of Marquette, and 1750, when the barrier of the Alleghanies was about to give way, pre- cipitating a flood of Anglo-Saxon home makers upon the valley, we have found forts or settlements or trading places established at various places along the northern lakes, at Miami (the St. Joseph river), at Fort St. Louis, at Peoria, at Kaskaskia, Cahokia, Fort Chartres and other settlements near the mouth of the Kaskaskia; at Galena, at Cairo, and at many places down the river extending to New Orleans, then out on the gulf to Biloxi and Mobile ; at Niagara, at Fort Le Boeuf and a few other places leading into the Ohio valley. But notwithstanding all this array of settlements, it is necessary to repeat a caution, made some time ago, that these colonies did not mean anything like what the colonies on the Atlantic seaboard meant. After seventy-five years of colonization in the most fruitful valley in all the world, in a valley which is capable of furnishing food for twenty million of people, we find the total French population never to have exceeded at any one time ten thousand souls from the lakes to the gulf. This is surely a meager showing, and 57 when we further consider that this population in such a land was frequently dependent upon the home country for food to eat we are tempted to question whether after all they were of any more service to the world at large than the tribes of Indians they were attempting to displace. French writers of the period give us some glimpses of the manner of life among the people of these early settlements, which are entertaining and form a good background for the permanent setting of our story. We can quote but a few samples. From a letter written by an Ursuline nun at New Orleans to her father in 1727 : "I can hardly realize that I am on the banks of the Missis- sippi because there is here, in certain things, as much mag- nificence as in France. Gold and velvet stuffs are commonly used, although they cost three times as much as in Rouen. Corn-bread costs ten cents a pound, eggs fifty cents a dozen, milk fifteen cents a measure. We have pineapples — most excellent fruit — peas and wild beans, watermelons and potatoes, an abundance of figs, and pecans, walnuts and hickory nuts. There are also pumpkins. As to meat, we live on wild venison, wild geese and turkey, hares, chickens, ducks, teal, partridges and other game. The rivers abound in monstrously large fish. We eat bread made of half wheat and half rice. The dish most in favor is rice boiled in milk and what is known as sagamite, which consists of Indian corn pounded in a mortar and boiled in water and butter." One might think from this letter that in such a country a colony must thrive and at least be able to care for itself. Yet in 1709 in that very region provisions became so scarce that the whole colony was obliged to live on acorns and Bienville was obliged to disperse his soldiers and send them out among the Indians to get a living. 58 The following is from Monette: "The French on the Illinois were remarkable for their easy amalgamation with the red race in manners and customs. Their villages sprang up in long narrow streets. The houses were so close that the people could carry on conversations from their balco- nies." Each homestead was surrounded by its own rude picket fence. The houses were generally one story high, surrounded by sheds or galleries. The walls were con- structed of a rude framework, having upright corner posts and studs connected by numerous cross-ties. The spaces between were filled by straw and clay and plastered by hand with clay. 'The chimney was made in the same manner and of similar materials. There were four corner posts slanting toward the top and the cross pieces were filled in with clay." "A large field near by was fenced off for the common use." * * * "The season for plowing, harvesting, etc., was regulated by special enactments or by public ordinance, and took place at the same time in the several villages." * * * ''Even the form and manner of dooryards was regulated by public enactment." "The winter dress of the man was generally a coarse blanket capote, drawn over shirt and long vest which served both as a cloak and a hat, for the hood attached to the collar could be drawn over the head when it was cold. In summer the head was generally enveloped in a blue hand- kerchief in the form of a turban." "At the close of each year it was the custom of the young men to disguise themselves in old clothes, visit the several houses of the village, and engage in friendly dances with the inmates. This was understood as being an invitation for all the family to meet in a general ball, in which to watch the birth of the New Year. Large crowds assembled, carry- ing their own refreshments, and a merry time was the result. Another custom was general on January 6. By lot, four kings were chosen, each of whom selected for himself a 59 queen. These together perfected arrangements for an en- tertainment known as a king-ball. Towards the close of the first dance the old queens selected new kings, whom they kissed as the formality of introduction into the office. In a similar manner these kings chose new queens, and thus the gay time continued during the entire carnival, up to the week preceding Lent." "Separated by an immense wilderness from all civilized society, these voluntary exiles yet retained all the suavity and politeness of their race. It is a remarkable fact that the roughest hunter or boatman among them could, at any time, appear in a ball-room, or at a council fire, with the carriage and behavior of a well-bred gentleman. At the same time the French women were remarkable for the sprightliness of their conversation, and the grace and elegance of their manners." As late as 1750 a missionary at Kaskaskia wrote as fol- lows: "We have here whites, negroes and Indians, to say nothing of the cross-breeds. There are five French villages, and three of the natives, within a space of twenty-one leagues, situated between the Mississippi and another river called the Kaskaskia. In the five French villages there are, perhaps, eleven hundred whites, three hundred blacks, and some sixty red slaves, or savages. The three Indian towns do not contain more than eight hundred souls all told." 60 CHAPTER VI THE TRANSFER OF THE VALLEY FROM THE FRENCH TO THE ENGLISH In 1673 Marquette and Joliet found Indians near the mouth of the Arkansas river with guns in their hands. In 1700 Bienville found Indians who had been engaged in a fight with English as allies. These were indications of a coming struggle. The French did what they could in their poor way to get ready for it. Among other things we learned that they located a great many emigrants in the Illinois country. Five villages sprang up around the Kaskaskia mission. In 1720 Boisbriant led a colony of six hundred to the site of Chartres and there erected a fort. This fort became the strongest post on the Mississippi; perhaps it was the best built and best fortified place in America south of Canada. The fort was built at first with stone foundations, then ex- tended upward with palisades set in the stone-work. It en- closed about four acres of ground and became the strong- hold of the French in all that region. It was in the days of the Mississippi Company and things were being done on a lavish scale. Later than this, in 1750, when it seemed that a test of strength might soon come, Colonel McKarty was commissioned to rebuild this fort, making it still stronger. Over a million dollars was spent upon the works and their defenses. Wealthy people, as well as the vagabond classes, were 61 coming to the valley of the Mississippi, and fashionable and richly dressed mothers and daughters of French officers, soldiers and speculators were numerous, and set up a social life in harmony with their surroundings and inclinations. Gay companies of ladies and gentlemen rode to and fro among the villages stretched along the river bottoms, visit- ing, gossiping, arranging for parties and dances and out- ings, as if there were no work to be done any where in all their world. Dinners and balls and hunting parties were as common around old Fort Chartres as they were in Paris. French houses were built more and more imposing and commodious. The farms were chiefly tended by slaves and the Indians who were probably pressed into the service, as the Indian did not like farming any better than the French- man. No one pretended to live on the farm, but all lived in villages, giving opportunity for a social life. They had in the western colonies nothing of the sober and solemn traits found in the New England settlements, but every vil- lage had its frequent dances and outings. The French are a gay people. They went to church in the morning on the Sabbath as regularly as did the Puritan, but in the afternoon, when the church service was over and dinner was eaten, they went to their dancing or hunting or card playing. It was a gay life they lived, and nowhere were the character- istics of the French people better illustrated than in these settlements along the Mississippi around Kaskaskia in the Illinois country. Across the country on the Wabash was Fort Vincennes; and a little further to the north, at the portage from the Maumee, was the Fort Ouatanon. The people across the Alleghanies were noting all these things. They were begin- ning to cross over the mountains and the time was at hand to decide whether the discovery by Cabot and the treaty with the Iroquois were to stand for more than the discoveries by Marquette and Joliet and LaSalle and the settlements made by their countrymen. The English and the French e>2 could not both abide in this valley, large as it was, and be at peace. The French were the aggressors in the actual conflict, hiring Indians to invade the frontier settlements in the New England colonies, paying for the scalps that were brought into the forts. They hoped to terrify the English and force them to abandon their outlying settlements and give up their fur trade with the Indians. The French cared little for settlements and farms, but they wanted the fur trade with the Indians to continue. The English, on the other hand, did not care so much for the trade, but they wanted to settle and open farms and clear the ground of useless timber. Of course where the English settled the hunting and trading were at an end. In 1748 the English decided that, instead of withdrawing, they were ready to push out across the mountains in earnest. The Ohio land company was formed, the king having prom- ised five hundred thousand acres of land in the Ohio country to the company upon certain conditions. The Washingtons were active directors and large stock- holders in this enterprise. They sent agents into the country across the mountains to inspect the land and select places favorable for settlements. Of course they found the French there ; then came the message from the Governor of Virginia to the commandant at Fort Venango, on the head waters of the Alleghany river, asking him by what right he was there and warning him to leave. You know how the history in- troduces this subject with George Washington in the fore- ground. Then came Fort Duquesne, then Braddock, then the French and Indian War in all its bitterness. There were all the campaigns against Duquesne, Niagara (LaSalle's old fort), Louisburg, Ticonderoga, Crown Point and Quebec, and all the side issues of Indian massacres. Your United States history tells you of Wolfe's victory on the plains of Abraham and how the French hero, Montcalm, died thank- ing God that he could not live to see the fort surrendered, while Wolfe was dying thanking God that the French were 63 running and he had won the victory. That was a great vic- tory indeed. It ended the war in America, for soon Mont- real was surrendered, then the French quit fighting, and in 1763 a treaty of peace was signed in Paris. France had been most terribly worsted both in the New World and in the old, being forced to pay an enormous price for her defeat. All of her possessions east of the Mississippi river, including Canada, were given over to the British. By a secret treaty made with Spain, she gave all of her possessions west of the river and the Island of Orleans, including the city of New Orleans, to Spain. So when the war was ended, France did not have a foot of territory in all this great land. The lakes and rivers and forests which her heroic Frontenacs, Mar- quettes, LaSalles, Bienvilles and thousands of other daring Frenchmen had discovered and fortified and settled, after a fashion, passed forever from her grasp. From the Atlantic to the great river, England was now supreme. Legally, her colonists could go anywhere in all that region and make their homes. But when they tried to do this they found that there were still dangers and death in the way. The Indians must still be dealt with, and the English were not as skillful as the French in dealing with the Indian. It is a dark and bloody story, telling often of cruelty and treachery on the part of the English and of the awful penalty exacted by the merciless red man. It was during this period, between the French and Indian war and the beginning of the Revolution, that Pontiac, the great Indian chief, attempted to organize all the tribes from the lakes to the gulf into one great confederacy to wipe the English entirely out of the valley. The French encouraged the enterprise, and, while it did not succeed, it cost thousands of lives and much suffering. It has been estimated that in all the wars that have been carried on with the Indians from the beginning until now, five white men have been slain to every Indian. So far as we can read now, looking back over the past, every outbreak, every war with the 64 Indians, every massacre, was the outcome of some wrong committed by the whites against the red men. But all this your usual text-book in history will tell you ; we are chiefly interested in the things that happened in the Illinois country. The towns of Kaskaskia and Cahokia and the Fort Char- tres now belonged by treaty to the English. What hap- pened there? The war did not reach them, except that it is worth telling that it was a Captain Villiers who took a company of men from Fort Chartres in the Illinois country and, making his way up the Ohio and across the Mononga- hela and across a part of the Alleghanies, reached Fort Necessity and there forced Major George Washington from Virginia to surrender. When the news of this victory reached Fort Chartres they fired their guns and waved their flags and had dinners and dances without number. They did more than that. They loaded nine tons of flour on flat- boats and started them up the Ohio to feed the soldiers gathering at Fort Duquesne. So during the years of this war the French people in the Illinois country sent bread- stuffs and lead for bullets to the French soldiers in the field. You remember that Fort Chartres had been rebuilt before this time. It was now a solid stone fortification eighteen feet high, with forty-eight loop holes, through which guns or cannons might be fired. Soldiers' quarters, store-houses, powder magazines and other necessary buildings were erected within the enclosure. "Now," said they, **let Eng- land and Virginia come and take it if they can." But never a gun was fired against this mighty fortress. It stood in the wind and weather until the Mississippi river, which it was built to defend, gradually ate the foundations out from under it, and this pride of the Illinois French people was swallowed up in the muddy waters of the great river during a flood in 1772, three years before the beginning of the Revolution. For two years after the close of the French and Indian War the English did not reach Fort Chartres to take pos- 6s session. The war with Pontiac kept them busy. He stood across the path fighting over again the battle of his French friends. During these two years there was Httle govern- ment in the Illinois villages, for after the treaty of peace the French governor left the fort with quite a large body of followers and made his way across the river to the Span- ish settlement at St. Louis. They preferred to be Spanish rather than English subjects. Pontiac, driven from the North after repeated defeats, took up his abode among the villages of Illinois. Finally, on October lo, 1765, a British company of about one hundred and twenty Highlanders reached Fort Chartres and there without opposition took possession of it. The lilies of France were lowered and for the first time on Illinois soil the flag of England was flung to the breeze. There was no disposition to molest the French settlers in the Illinois country. They were as- sured that they might continue on in their work and wor- ship with full liberty of conscience and with a full recog- nition of all their civil rights. The English troops were withdrawn within a month, departing by the way of New Orleans for Philadelphia. No more British soldiers were sent into the Illinois coun- try. The civil government was administered by governors appointed by the English. Several of these governors were Frenchmen who had given their oaths of allegiance to England, and, being familiar with the people and their insti- tutions, carried on the government very much as it had been carried on under the French rule. In 1763, after the treaty of peace with France, but before the English had reached Fort Chartres, while Pontiac's war was in progress, and probably as a bribe to the Indians for ending the war, King George issued a proclamation dividing the territory of the British crown in America into five parts. There was East Florida, covering about the same area as is covered by the state of Florida now ; West Florida, taking a strip between the thirty-first parallel and 66 the gulf, extending from East Florida to the Mississippi river. We are not much interested in either of these divi- sions at the present time. To the north was the province of Quebec, which included both sides of the St. Lawrence river as far as to the Ottawa river, and extending from the present boundary of the United States to about half way to Hudson Bay. Then there was the division occupied by the thirteen colonies, and the fifth division, to be known as the Indian Territory, from the Mississippi river to the boundary of the colonies. This is the division in which we are interested. The early charters of the colonies called for all the land from "sea to sea," which came to be inter- preted, when the country was better known, as meaning from the Atlantic to the Mississippi. This proclamation of 1763 therefore was cutting off from the colonies a part of what they thought of right belonged to them. But to make the matter as bad as it could be, the proclamation stated that no one should be permitted to make treaties with the Indians or to buy lands from them except in the name of the king, nor should any of the colonists presume to settle on any of the lands included within the Indian territory. The line between the Indian territory and the colonies was drawn down the divide of the Alleghany mountains. It began approximately with Lake Ontario, then ran south- ward along the ridge of the divide to the source of the Chattahooche river, thence along this river to the gulf. This would shut up the colonies to the limits they were trying to break through when the French and Indian war began. In fact it was to prevent just such limitations that the Ohio Company was formed and that George Washington had made his journey to Fort Venango, that Braddock had been sent upon his fatal expedition and that the colonists had given of their means and blood to drive the French from the valley. Here was one of the very first grievances that led to the War of the Revolution. This was a much more serious matter than the payment of a few pounds on tea 67 or stamped paper. The people of the colonies did not obey the proclamation, nor could they see how it could be obeyed if they were to continue to grow. Treaties continued to be made with the Indians. The chiefs of the Illinois made a grant of nearly all the lands now comprising the state of Illinois to a little group of people. After the Revolution the United States refused to ratify these treaties, although emi- nent English judges held that they were valid. In 1768 a court of justice was organized at Fort Chartres for the Illinois country. It consisted of seven judges and held its first session December 9, 1768. This was the first experience the French people had ever had with the jury system. Heretofore they had been governed arbitrarily by the governor, or the notary and the priest. They could not understand how a dozen farmers or blacksmiths or traders could interpret the laws or administer justice. They com- plained bitterly of the change and many of them withdrew to the Spanish side of the river. Finally, to satisfy the de- mands of this Illinois settlement of French people, a change was made in the boundaries. This change occurred in 1774, in what is known as the Quebec act. The Illinois country, including approximately all the country north of the Ohio river, was made a part of the Quebec territory, and the French system of laws was applied to all that territory. To the thirteen colonies this was an added insult. It roused their passions and called forth their denunciations as much as any single act ever passed by the British parliament. In the Declaration of Independence we read : *'For abol- ishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring province, establishing therein an arbitrary government and enlarging its boundaries so as to render it at once an ex- ample and a fit instrument for introducing the same abso- lute rule into these colonies." But this rule continued until the reorganization after the close of the Revolution. We can well understand how it happened with all the troubles about the Indian tribes, about the questions of 68 jurisdiction and the system of laws to be applied, about the questions of law as to whether deeds and grants and treaties made contrary to the proclamation of 1763 would be sus- tained when they came to a judicial investigation, that the Illinois country from 1763 to 1780 made little or no progress. Indeed there were fewer people in the Illinois country at the close of the Revolution than there were fifteen years before. But while the Illinois country during these years was making little gains in population, the country south of the Ohio, in the present states of Tennessee and Kentucky, was being peopled by a hardy race of pioneers. In the advance guard of the white invasion of that region was Daniel Boone, who as a young man had served as a teamster in Braddock's campaign. His story is one of the most interesting in our border annals. Kentucky was Virginia country, while Tennessee belonged to North Carolina. When the Declaration of Independence was signed there were probably three or four thousand people living within the borders of the present Kentucky, and perhaps a few more than that within the present limits of Tennessee. These border settlements had much to do with the next step in the history of our Illinois country. 69 CHAPTER VII THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY PASSES TO THE UNITED STATES Before taking up the subject directly we shall review briefly what we know of the early events connected with our Illi- nois history. We learned that in 1673 Joliet and Marquette, on their return trip from the Mississippi, turned into the Illinois river and followed it to the portage of the Desplaines, and then crossed over to Lake Michigan on their way to Green Bay. We know that on this trip they found a village of Indians, whom they called Kaskaskia Indians, near the present site of Utica. Father Marquette promised to return to them to preach the gospel. He did return the following year, after spending a whole winter, sick, in a poor hovel on the ground where a part of Chicago now stands, per- haps about five miles from the lake on the south branch of the river. The Chicago and Alton railroad has erected a stone monument of boulders to mark the vicinity of this winter camp. In 1907 the Chicago Association of Com- merce erected a mahogany cross to mark the supposed spot on the bank of the river, just south of Blue Island avenue. The monument of mahogany, fourteen feet high and twelve inches thick, was donated by Mr. Cameron L. Wiley. Father Marquette reached the Kaskaskia village on the Illinois and preached to the Indians. He established what he called a mission (a church) among them, calling it the 70 Mission of the Immaculate Conception. This mission was continued by one priest or another so long as the French held possession of the Illinois country, although it was after a time moved further south. This was the last visit of Marquette to the Illinois (1675). In 1679 came LaSalle and Tonti. LaSalle in his different trips crossed the state at least six times by way of the Illinois river, sometimes going by way of the Chicago river portage, sometimes by the Calumet, and sometimes by way of the Kankakee portage from the St. Joseph river. La- Salle built Fort Crevecoeur, near the present site of Peoria. It never was anything but a stockade and temporary stop- ping place, while the French occupied the country. He built and fortified Fort St. Louis on top of Starved Rock. Here Tonti held possession for some fifteen years, in close friendship with the Indians gathered around the rock. In 1700 Cahokia, a little below the present site of St. Louis, on the Illinois side of the river, was occupied by French priests and traders and at once became the nucleus of a French village. The same year Kaskaskia was settled by the French and Indians. We remember that it was at this time that Tonti wearied with waiting at the rock, per- suaded the Indians to move southward toward the French settlements. He got them as far as the present site of Kas- kaskia, named after them, and here they settled. In 1720 Fort Chartres was established by a colony of men led by one, Boisbriant, from the Biloxi or New Orleans colony. Two or three other villages were settled on this same penin- sula, lying between the Mississippi river and the Kaskaskia. They contained the larger part of the French population south of Canada and north of New Orleans. We recall that as early as 1702 Juchereau established a trading station and built a tannery near the site of the present Cairo, and that in 1 72 1 Renault took two hundred miners and five hundred slaves to the site of Galena and began operating the lead mines. The line of travel between Canada and the lower 71 Mississippi changed after Tonti abandoned the fort on the rock, the trail leading by the way of Lake Erie and the Maumee river, where the portage was short, to the upper waters of the Wabash. So a fort, Ouatanon, on the present site of Lafayette on the Wabash, was built. As early as 171 5 great cargoes of buffalo hides were shipped down the Wabash to New Orleans. In 1722-, the year the Mississippi bubble broke, a fort and settlement were established on the present site of Vincennes. 72 Then came the French and Indian War of 1754-1763. While this was in progress the French settlements in the Illinois country sent flour and lead to the French troops by way of the Ohio river. After the treaty of peace in 1763, came Pontiac's war, which made it impossible for the British government to take possession of its Illinois territory, so the French flag waved over Fort Chartres and a French officer was in charge until one day in October, 1765, a Scotch Highland company marched into the fort and the French flag was taken down and the British flag was hoisted in its place. Then we remember that following the treaty of peace the British king issued a proclamation making all the coun- try bounded by the Alleghany mountains, the Ohio and Mis- sissippi rivers and the lakes, an Indian territory, and for- bade any of the Atlantic colonies to send settlers into the territory. Then in 1774 this territory was added to the province of Quebec and the system of French laws was put into operation within its boundaries. We know that the King's proclamation did not keep such men as Daniel Boone and Kenton and McAfee, and hundreds of their kind, from crossing the mountains and making settlements in the western country. So by April 17, 1775, when the battle of Lexington was fought, there were two or three thousand settlers in the present territory of Tennessee and Kentucky. On the very day the news of the battle of Lex- ington reached the settlers in Kentucky a crowd of them were gathered together finishing a fort. The news of the battle so pleased them that they decided to call their new fort Fort Lexington. It stood on the site of the present city of Lexington, Kentucky. Among those who had gone back and forth along the mountain and river trails from Virginia to the Ohio and Kentucky country was a young man by the name of George Rogers Clark. He was a rover from boyhood. Like Wash- ington, he learned enough of mathematics to become a 73 surveyor, and he went into Kentucky, and perhaps into Tennessee, to follow his vocation. But he was warHke and loved the sound of fife and drum. There was frequent fighting along the border line, and George Rogers Clark was mixed up in several Indian skirmishes. Doubtless he would have added to his reputation more by staying out of some of these Indian raids than by taking part in them. But 1777 came. Burgoyne had surrendered his army at Saratoga. The French king had given his consent to an open alliance with the colonists and sent ships and men to aid them. Things began to look very bright to the Ameri- cans. George Rogers Clark knew that all the great country from the Ohio to the lakes and to the Mississippi was held by a few British troops stationed at Detroit, and a very few more, chiefly French militia, stationed at Kaskaskia and Vincennes. Patrick Henry was governor of Virginia. He was a close personal friend of George Rogers Clark. To him the young man went and proposed a plan for capturing all the Illinois country from the British before they could know what was going on. He wanted a permit to gather men and some supplies for such an expedition. Governor Henry agreed with him as to the desirability of the enterprise, but the state was so poor it could give him no supplies, and men were so badly needed for the army of Washington that he could not give him a permit to recruit a company for this expedition on the frontier. After weeks of persua- sion and argument, Clark finally secured from the governor an order for five hundred pounds of powder and permission to recruit a body of men west of the Blue Ridge mountains. It was a difficult task, but Clark was not easily discouraged. He finally found himself at Fort Washington, the present site of Cincinnati, Ohio, with a small body of recruits. He proceeded down the river as far as the present city of Lx)uisville ; after hearing the complaints of some of his men, none of whom knew upon what errand they were bound, 74 and letting all who wished return to their homes, he floated down the Ohio until he came to an old deserted fort called Fort Massac, about three miles below the present town of Metropolis, Illinois. Here he landed his force of a little less than two hundred men. Clark did not dare follow the Ohio and the Mississippi around to Kaskaskia lest the Eng- lish should discover him. His success depended upon his ability to surprise the garrison. At this time there were about two thousand people living at Kaskaskia. There was no English garrison there, but a body of French militia under command of one, Rocheblave, a Frenchman who had given his allegiance to the British. On the thirtieth of June, 1778, almost a year from the time Clark had begun to plan for this expedition, he left his flatboats on the Ohio and started for a trip across the country. The distance was ninety miles in a straight line. The way was partly through the woods and partly across the open prairie. A hunter whom they met agreed to guide them. After losing the way occasionally they reached the Kaskaskia river above the town about four o'clock on the afternoon of July 4. Here n they hid in the bushes until dark. Then they picked up some canoes and ferried themselves across the stream. Clark divided his men into three parts. Two were to enter the town from different directions while the third, under Clark, was to attack the fort and capture it with its garrison. All were to keep out of sight as far as possible until Clark should give the word that the garrison was cap- tured. They found the commandant, Phillipe Rocheblave, in bed asleep. When he waked, Clark was beside him and he was a prisoner in the hands of the Americans. Then the other companies marched through the streets of the town, firing their guns and yelling like Indians to frighten the inhabitants and make them believe that a large army had attacked them. Word was sent to the people that they must stay in their houses or they would be shot. They expected to be shot at any rate. The French people of Kaskaskia, and the Indians in that region as well, had long been familiar with the reputation of the Kentucky frontiers- men. They were called the Long Knives, and it was be- lieved that they gave no quarter, but killed and scalped all alike — men, women and children — whenever they went upon the warpath. So the poor simple French people thought their hour had come, and the Kentuckians did not try to relieve their fears that night. The town was taken. The commandant was a prisoner. He was defiant and saucy and insulting. Clark put hand-cuffs on him and in a few days sent him to Virginia as a prisoner. His slaves were con- fiscated and sold for two thousand five hundred dollars and the money was divided out among Clark's men. When the morning came. Father Gibault, the priest, with several of the old men of the village, called upon Clark to ask that before they were all separated one from another they might be permitted to gather in the little chapel and hold a service and bid each other good-bye. Then Clark looked astonished and asked what kind of men they sup- posed him and his soldiers to be. He told them that they 76 were not butchers nor savages. It was not their business to kill innocent men, women and children. They might go to their church or to their places of business just as they had always done. All he wanted was that they should give in their oath of allegiance to the government of Virginia. When the people learned this they were so overjoyed they wept on each other's shoulders, and they thought Clark was the best and most generous man they had ever heard of. The church bell was rung and the people flocked to the little church where the good news was published, and then they all took the oath of allegiance to Virginia, under whose authority Clark was acting. A detachment of Clark's men, with a number of recruits from the French at Kaskaskia were sent at once to Cahokia, and that town was surrendered without opposition, and the people took the oath of allegiance. So all the river towns which had cost the French so much money and sacrifice to establish, and which the British had won by treaty at the close of the French and Indian War, passed without a shot or the loss of a life into the hands of the Virginians, never to be held again by a foreign government. A few days later Clark sent the priest. Father Gibault, with a few Kaskaskia citizens, to Fort Vincennes to per- suade the people of that place to surrender the town to the Americans. The fort was defended at that time by French militia, no British soldiers being there. The errand was successful. The French, after hearing what had happened at Kaskaskia, very readily agreed to become American citi- zens. Clark afterward sent one of his officers. Captain Helm, with one other American, to take charge of the fort and administer its aflFairs in the name of Virginia. From the Ohio to the lakes the British did not have a set- tlement left. Word was soon carried to Detroit, to the great surprise and chagrin of General Hamilton, the com- mander there. He at once organized parties of Indians and sent them out to attack any of Clark's men wherever they 77 could find them. In the meantime he began organizing a force to retake the country from the Americans. Early in the winter he started from Detroit with his force. It was cold and he made slow progress. It was seventy-five days before he reached Vincennes. When they heard of his ap- proach all the French deserted Captain Helm, refusing to fight against the British. When Hamilton appeared before the fort he did not know how many men were within. He demanded that the fort be surrendered. Helm had charged a cannon with shot and it commanded the gate-way to the fort. He threatened to defend the place to the last, but in view of scarcity of provisions he consented to surrender, provided he might be allowed the honors of war. To this Hamilton readily agreed. So the American colors were taken down. The British were drawn up in two lines to receive the surrendered garrison when, to their surprise, the captain and one man marched out with flying colors. It must have made even the chagrined British laugh. Clark, at Kaskaskia, did not learn of what had happened at Vincennes until some time in January. He was in a perilous situation. He well knew that as soon as the weather permitted Hamilton would attack him and he could not resist him with the few men he had. (About half of Clark's men had returned to their Kentucky homes after things had been settled in the Illinois villages.) There was no time to lose if Clark would hold the territory he had cap- tured. He decided at once what he should do. He sent spies to Vincennes to learn the real situation there. Then he recruited all the French young men he could to fill up his ranks. Clark had become very popular in the meantime on account of the way he had dealt with the Indians. The French had come to believe him invincible. They were sure he must succeed in anything he undertook. So he had little trouble in getting quite a number of Frenchmen to enlist with him. On the twenty-ninth of January, Colonel Francis Vigo, a 78 Spanish merchant of St. Louis, who had become a great friend to Clark, returning from a trading trip to Vincennes, told Clark that all the British except about eighty men had returned to Detroit and that Hamilton was busy getting ready for a campaign in the spring. The time to act had come. The state of Virginia had not sent Clark a dollar nor a man. But Colonel Vigo had loaned him twenty thousand dollars. With this sum he met the necessary expenses of his expedition, and on the seventh of February, with his little force of one hundred and forty men, most of them French volunteers, started upon his ad- venturous march to Vincennes. The distance was not great, only about two hundred thirty miles. In warm weather, when the fields were full of game and the prairie trails were dry, it would have been a light matter for Clark's little army to have made this march. But they had no tents. Every foot of the prairie trail was water-soaked and muddy. The streams were flooded by the early spring freshets. Much of the distance they had to wade in the chill, icy water, sometimes waist deep. In crossing the Embarrass river and the small streams they sometimes were obliged to wade for miles with the water up to their shoulders, carrying their guns and powder over their heads. Their food gave out. Game was scarce and hard to kill. As they approached Vincennes they were afraid to shoot lest they announce their coming to the British. They reached the fort about dark on the twenty-second of February, and at once began an attack. The French in- habitants were glad to see them and furnished them with food and ammunition. General Hamilton, surprised and chagrined, refused to surrender. The attack upon the fort, with occasional parleys, was continued until the twenty-fifth, when the fort was turned over to Clark and his victorious followers. The stores captured with the fort were valued at about fifty thousand dollars, and in addition to this a boat- load of supplies on the way from Detroit was captured, add- 79 ing about forty thousand dollars worth more of supplies for division among the little band, that was almost shoeless and coatless after its fearful march through the swamps of the Wabash river bottoms. It was an heroic thing to do and bravely did the dauntless leader perform his part. Few marches in our history are so well calculated to stir the blood of patriotism as the details of this final move in the conquest of the Mississippi valley. The importance of this campaign of George Rogers Clark, including the conquest of the Illinois country, cannot be over-estimated. Had the country between the Ohio and the Mississippi been in the possession of the British when the treaty of 1783 was made it would undoubtedly have re- mained theirs, as did Canada. Conquest and possession made it as much United States territory as that beyond the Alleghany mountains. It is greatly to be regretted that the record of such a man as George Rogers Clark cannot be glory covered to the end. But such was not to be the case. The state of Virginia did not realize how great things their heroic soldier of fortune had accomplished. His request for further commissions was refused; his debts contracted in the name of his state were neglected. Hurt to the quick, and heartsore, the hero of Kaskaskia and Vincennes, while yet in years but a young man, retired to comparative privacy in the vicinity of Louis- ville, Kentucky, and there, in 18 18, after severe sufferings from rheumatism and paralysis, the after effects of the ex- posures he had endured, he passed away and was buried at Locust Grove near that city. 80 CHAPTER VIII FROM THE REVOLUTION TO STATEHOOD (1783 TO 1818) George Rogers Clark had taken the fortified posts of the British within the IlHnois territory. In all the region from the lakes to the Ohio river there was not a fort the British could claim. When the commissioners came to form the treaty of Paris in 1783, the fact that the Americans had conquered and taken possession of this region was sufficient to turn the scale in favor of permanent possession. So it came about that all the country below the lakes to the Span- ish possessions on the south became the undisputed prop- erty of the United Colonies. It was the Virginia colony that had claimed, under her ''from sea to sea" charter, all the Illinois country. It was the governor of Virginia, Patrick Henry, that had author- ized George Rogers Clark to take possession of the country. It was in the name of Virginia that Clark had acted, and to Virginia he made his report. Virginia was not slow in following up the advantage gained by her adventurous soldiers. Kaskaskia was taken in July, 1778. In October of that year The Assembly of Virginia made provisions for a form of temporary govern- ment for the Illinois country. On the fifteenth of the fol- lowing June, John Todd, one of Clark's colonels, issued a proclamation at Kaskaskia, organizing the country into a county of Virginia to be known as Illinois county. This 81 county included all of the Northwest to which Virginia had any semblance of a claim ; Todd remained as governor until August i8, 1882, when he was killed at the battle of Blue Lick Springs in Kentucky. He was succeeded by Timothy Montbrun, a Frenchman. As the treaty of peace signed in 1783 set at rest all doubts as to the possession of the country, it ceased to be so im- portant a subject as it had been. There was enough to occupy the attention of the young nation nearer the center of population. The French in the valley had about all taken the oath of allegiance to the American government and seemed happy and contented. In 1 781 a party of American settlers crossed the Alle- ghanies, descended the Ohio in a flatboat called 'The Ark," and with great labor forced it up the Mississippi to a point within the present limits of Monroe county. Here they landed and established the first permanent American settle- ment in the present limits of Illinois. They called their settlement New Design. It was only a small colony, but it was the advance guard of a different class of settlers from that the Mississippi valley had heretofore known. They had come to make farms, to cultivate the soil, to establish per- manent homes and to possess the land for industrial pur- poses. It was a long hard struggle, into the particulars of which we cannot go at present. On March i, 1784, the state of Virginia ceded all her possessions west of the Ohio to the general government. The other colonies soon did the same. In this way the new government came into possession of a vast tract of land which could be divided up and sold to settlers. In May, 1785, Congress passed an act providing for the survey of all this vast region. Here began that elaborate system of sur- veys which has been in use ever since, and which has given to this country the best, the simplest and the most complete system known to the world. In 1787 the famous Ordinance for the government of the 82 83 territory northwest of the Ohio was passed by Congress. The same year General Arthur St. Clair was made governor of all the territory. In 1788 he reached Marietta, the oldest American settlement in Ohio. In 1790 he, with the judges of the superior court, descended the Ohio river in flatboats to the present site of Cincinnati. Here they laid out a county large enough to include all the settlements in that neighbor- hood and called it Hamilton county. They proceeded down the river and up the Mississippi to Kaskaskia, and there laid out two counties, to include all the settlements in that part of the territory. The boundary line of one began near the present town of Tazewell, on the Illinois river, ran straight to the site of Fort Massac, then followed the Ohio, Mississippi and Illinois to the place of beginning. This county was called St. Clair. All to the east of this and south of the Illinois was known as Knox county. A court was established at Cahokia and the forms of federal gov- ernment begun. In 1795 the settlements in the Illinois coun- try and the commencement of the courts justified the estab- lishing of another county. A line was drawn a little south of the settlement of New Design, east and west from the Mississippi, to the Knox county line, and all south of that line was called Randolph county. These county lines were frequently changed. We may pause here to take note of an interesting inci- dent in the early history of Cohokia that has but recently come to light. It is claimed that here in this little French village close by the Mississippi, began the public schools of Illinois. The old court house, used by the judges under St. Clair, stood for years, undisturbed. Recently it was bought by an association of citizens of Chicago and removed to Wooded Island in Jackson Park, where it stands, a relic of the past, to remind us of the primitive simplicity of those times. An old document was found bearing date May 6, 1794, addressed to the judges of the court. It is written in French, which when translated reads as follows : 84 MAP or ILLINOIS SHOWING COUNTY BOUNDARIES 1809. ( ILLINOIS TY.) 85 "To the Gentlemen, the Judges of the Honorable Court of Cahokia: "The inhabitants of the parish of the Holy Family of Cahokia have the honor to express to you at their assembly that they have the desire to establish a school in the said parish (or town) for the instruction of their children. "As they are obliged to do many necessary public works in the parish, they cannot at once undertake the construction of a building necessary to hold the said school, so these rep- resentatives ask you gentlemen that you allow them to hold the said school in your audience room of the courthouse until they construct a building which will oblige all the inhabitants whose children have their instruction in the school and in which case, should there arise any defacement of the said audience room, they will leave it in the best condition which you judge necessary and proper. "That is why they supplicate you to accord them this request as being necessary for the public good. In this cause they submit themselves to your good will and have the honor to be, very respectfully, "Your very humble and very obedient servants, "LOUIS SEBRUN, "LOUIS GRAND. "Cahokia, 6 May, 1794.' This, according to the historians, was the first request for a public school in Illinois after the revolutionary war when, under one of our first laws, one section in each township was set aside for school purposes. With the erection in Jackson park of the old courthouse in which the first Illinois schools were held, Chicago now possesses the only original historic public building west of Boston or north of New Orleans. The structure was the seat of local government at Cahokia, in what is the oldest county in the state. The little building is constructed of square black walnut logs, about ten inches square on the ends 86 87 and one story high. The logs are set up on end in the style of the construction of the French period. The overhanging roof makes the top of the porch, which extends all around it. At the end is a chimney and fireplace, with the old hand- wrought andirons. In May, 1800, the Northwest territory was divided. The part containing the present states of Indiana, Michigan, Wis- consin and Illinois was set off and called Indiana Territory. William Henry Harrison was made governor of this terri- tory. The capital of the new territory was fixed at Vin- cennes. In 1805 this territory was again divided. The part known as Michigan was cut off and named Michigan terri- tory. In 1809 another division was made. At this time In- diana was set off by itself much as it is at present, while all of Illinois, Wisconsin and the peninsular part of Michigan was organized into the Illinois territory. Ninian Edwards was appointed governor and the seat of government was fixed at Kaskaskia. In 1812 a territorial legislature was elected by the people. Three new counties were established — Madison, Gallatin and Johnson. This made five counties in Illinois. Then came the war of 1812 with the British. In this war Illinois had some slight part. The most tragic event, and the only one with which we shall attempt to deal, is the massacre at Fort Dearborn, which occurred on the fifteenth of August, 181 2. Indian raids and massacres had deter- mined the government to erect a line of forts all along the western frontier to protect the settlers. Detroit was to the north of this line. In 1795 General Wayne defeated the Indians at the Falls of the Maumee river, and a fort called Fort Wayne was established at this point. Friction had existed between the English and the Ameri- cans from the close of the Revolution. Bad faith was charged on both sides. The English in Canada had en- couraged the organization of the Indians against the Ameri- cans to the south, and it is said had paid them for scalps 88 taken by their raiding parties. All along the border line and reaching down to the Ohio river there were frequent massacres of white settlers. It is impossible for us to realize the horror of one of these Indian surprises and the devastation left behind one of their raids. It is one of the most astounding paradoxes of human nature that in spite of massacres and outrages, in field and in home, the population increased. As the impending struggle between the states and the English government drew near the Indians became more aggressive and their confederacies became stronger and more compact. When the declaration of war was made, in June, 1812, the news was at once spread by fleet-footed messengers among all the western tribes, and they believed the time had come when, with British bayonets and Indian scalping knives, the whites were to be driven from the hunting grounds of their fathers. General Hull was sent to Fort Detroit to hold the place against the British. The Illinois country was included in his command. At Chicago, Fort Dearborn had been built in 1803 and was held by a small garrison under Captain Heald. Finding that the forest paths were beset and guarded by bands of Indians, General Hull sent word to Captain Heald that if he could not hold the fort until aid could reach him he should withdraw his garrison and proceed at once to Fort Wayne. The message reached Fort Dearborn on the ninth of August. Large forces of Indians were al- ready gathering about the place and Captain Heald decided to abandon the place. His subordinate officers protested, but he insisted and fixed upon the fifteenth as the time for their departure. On the evening of the twelfth Captain Heald held a con- ference with the Indians outside the fort. He agreed to leave the fort with all his men and to turn over to them all the supplies, including the ammunition, provided they should 89 give him a safe escort to Fort Wayne. The garrison ob- jected to giving the powder and ball to the Indians who might use them in an attack. Finally the powder was thrown into a well and the liquor was emptied into the river. The Indians learned of this fact and, believing themselves de- ceived and cheated, considered that they were freed from all obligations to furnish a safe escort. On the night of the fourteenth John Kinzie brought his family into the fort for protection, and the few other set- tlers in the neighborhood did the same. Wagons were loaded with the things needed for the trip, and twenty-five rounds of ammunition were dealt out to each man. At nine o'clock on the morning of the fifteenth of August the little cavalcade filed out from the doomed fortress and began its march along the sandy shore of the river. The Chicago river at that time had its mouth much farther south than at the present. It emptied into the lake near the pres- ent end of Madison street. The whole company consisted of sixty-six soldiers of the garrison. Captain Wells, of Fort Wayne, with thirty friendly Miami Indians, and about thirty settlers, women and children. When the company reached the place which is now the foot of Eighteenth street they were attacked by an over- whelming force of Indians that had been slowly gathering about them. The friendly Miamis fled at the first attack. The soldiers of the garrison and the settlers fought bravely, but in twenty minutes the struggle was over. About fifteen Indians were killed. Of the white dead there were twenty- six soldiers, twelve settlers, two women and twelve children left on the field. The others, consisting of Captain and Mrs. Heald, Mrs. Helm, twenty-five soldiers, and eleven women and children were prisoners. More than half of them were wounded. Most of the wounded were killed that night by the merciless savages. The story of the survivors of this massacre is thrilling. They were scattered from the banks of the Wabash to 90 Mackinac. Most of them were eventually ransomed and returned to the white settlements. At the foot of Eighteenth street, near the spot where this awful massacre occurred, stands today a group of bronze figures upon a massive granite pedestal. It represents the saving of Mrs. Helm by Black Partridge, a friendly Indian chief, during the heat of the struggle. It stands there to remind us of the agonies, worse than death, through which our frontier forefathers passed as they laid deep and strong the foundations of civilization in this western country. From this time to the close of the war in 1814, parties of soldiers were going to and fro in the state, seeking out hos- tile Indians, burning their villages and destroying their crops, but there was nothing approaching a battle and little that deserved the name of warfare. As stated above, in 18 12 the state entered upon its second stage of territorial government. A legislature, consisting of five members of the legislative council and seven members of the house, was elected by the inhabitants of the five counties. This general assembly held its first session at Kaskaskia in November and December of 1812. It reen- acted many of the old territorial laws and elected Shadrach Bond to be the territorial delegate to Congress. During his term as delegate Bond secured the passage by Congress of the first preemption law. This law provided that when a settler had made improvements upon a piece of land be- longing to the government he could not be displaced by an- other purchaser until he had been given a chance to buy the land from the government. Population increased very rapidly from 1812 to 1818. Many soldiers from Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee, who came into the state to protect the settlers during the war, were so well pleased with the country that they came back with their families and became permanent residents. Be- fore 1818 ten new counties were formed, making fifteen in 91 ILLINOIS SHOWING COUNTY BOUNDARIES 1818. (lULINOISTV.) 92 all, and the total population had increased to about forty thousand. Early in 1818 a petition was presented to Congress through Nathaniel Pope, then the Illinois delegate, asking an act to enable the territory of Illinois to form a state gov- ernment. Such an- act was passed April 18, fixing the boundaries of the state and the provisions under which it might be admitted to the Union. After much tribulation and no little scheming the conditions were complied with to the satisfaction of Congress, and the bill which made Illinois a state received the signature of President Monroe on the fourth of December, iSiB. 93 CHAPTER IX ACQUIRING TITLE TO THE SOIL It will be useful for us to review briefly the various claims to the soil of our state and the steps by which it was finally vested in the people of Illinois. Omitting all consideration of the original occupants, the Indians, we learn that in 1497 one, John Cabot, and his son Sebastian made certain "voyages of discovery" under the patronage of the English king, Henry VII. In one of these voyages it is claimed that the shore of the continent was coasted from Labrador to the Carolinas, and upon this claim was based the right of England to occupy and dispose of the lands within these latitudes and extending as far west as the western sea — wheresoever that might be. Other na- tions did not seem to seriously question this claim, and upon it rests the original title of England to American soil. "In the year of our Lord 1497 John Cabot, a Venetian, and his sonne Sebastian, — discovered that land which no man before that time had attempted, on the 24th of June (July) about five of the clock, early in the morning." — Voyages of the English Nation to America, Vol. i, p. 24 — Hakluyt. The English king in time gave charters to various com- panies for the settlement of these lands. In 1606, a charter, known as the Virginia charter, was given, with very indefi- nite boundary lines between the thirty-fourth and thirty- 94 fifth degrees north latitude. In 1609 this charter was modi- fied, locating the lands of Virginia between lines two hun- dred miles north and two hundred miles south of Old Point Comfort. If lines be drawn east and west as here indicated, they will follow very closely the thirty-fourth and fortieth parallels. By this arrangement, all the central and southern parts of the present Illinois fell within the Virginia limits. Following the original north by northwest line named in the 1606 charter, which Virginia continued to claim, all of the Illinois country fell within the Virginia grant. In 1 62 1 a charter was given the Massachusetts colony which conveyed territory ''from sea to sea" between the fortieth and forty-eighth degrees of latitude. In 1662 a charter was given to Connecticut conveying territory as wide as the present state and reaching from "sea to sea." These various charters were frequently modified, and, as can be easily seen, the grants of land overlapped each other. The truth is, the king and his councillors who gave the charters, and the grantees who were bargaining for them, were all alike ignorant of the geography of the country which they were dividing up. It was all a terra incognita to them, and the most vague and indefinite notions prevailed as to the location and extent of the New World. As the result of these various charters, a strip of country across the extreme northern part of the present state of Illinois was claimed as belonging by the charter of 1621 to Massachusetts. Just to the south of this was a strip claimed by Connecticut under the charter of 1662, while the rest of the state was conceded to belong to Virginia. Long after these charters were granted, the French came up the valley of the St. Lawrence, across the Great Lakes and down the Mississippi valley, making theirs by posses- sion the lands which the colonists held only by charter. This invasion and possession lasted from 1673, when Mar- quette and Joliet, as the representatives of the French king, 95 crossed this country, until 1763, when, as the result of unsuccessful war, France ceded all of her possessions on the American continent to Great Britain. England does not seem in any way to have recognized the old charter rights of the colonies to these lands west of the Alleghanies after this war, but proceeded to treat them as she did the lands to the north of the Lakes. The revolution came, and in the midst of the strife and turmoil George Rogers Clark appeared and, in the name of Virginia, captured the Illinois country from the British in that famous Kaskaskia and Vincennes campaign of 1778-9. At once the title of Virginia to the Illinois country was revived, and it was at once organized into a county of Virginia, and this was its legal status from 1778 to 1787. In March, 1784, Virginia made a conditional cession of all her lands west and northwest of the Ohio to the United States government. In April, 1785, Massachusetts joined her in this cession. In September, 1786, Connecticut gave up her claims. Thus the territory embraced in the present state of Illinois passed into the hands of the United States. Then followed the great ordinance of 1787 for the govern- ment of this territory northwest of the Ohio river. Under this ordinance a government was organized and carried on from 1790 to 1809. During this latter period the name Illi- nois was not used to designate the territory. (It was known as Indiana territory.) But in 1809 the boundaries were changed, a territorial government was established over the Illinois country, and the name Illinois was restored. In 1812 the first territorial legislature was elected, consisting of twelve members in all. In April, 18 18, the enabling act was passed, and in December of the same year Illinois be- came a full-fledged state, one of the sovereign members of the Union. A brief outline of these various changes may help us to associate them more readily. 96 The Various Claimants to the Illinois Country. 1. The English, — ^by Cabot's discovery, 1497. 2. The Colonies by original charters — Virginia, 1609. Massachusetts, 1621. Connecticut, 1662. 3. The French, by exploration and occupation, 1673-1763. 4. The English, by treaty of Paris, 1763. 5. Virginia, by conquest of George Rogers Clark, 1778-9. (Ceded to the United States by treaty of 1783.) 6. The United States, by cession — Virginia, 1784. Massachusetts, 1785. Connecticut, 1786. (Governed under the Ordinance, 1787- 1 809.) 7. Illinois Territory, 1809- 18 18. (Name Illinois suppressed from 1787 to 1809.) 8. State of Illinois from December 4, 1818. 97 CHAPTER X THE STATE CONSTITUTIONS Illinois is now being governed under the provisions of its third constitution. The first dated from the admission as a state in 1818, the second from 1848, and the third from 1870. There is a general feeling that a fourth constitution is greatly needed owing to the rapid development and mar- velous changes of the past forty years, but the political managers upon one side and the people upon the other, through fear of objectionable features that might find place in a new constitution, have prevented its enactment. Under the ordinance of 1787 it was provided that the Northwest Territory should be divided up into not less than three states, and that to secure admission by any one of these states a population of not less than sixty thousand should be shown. When the petition from Illinois was received by Congress, an amendment was made accepting forty thousand as the requisite number. Our territorial delegate in Congress, Mr. Nathaniel Pope, succeeded also in having the northern boundary moved from a line running directly west from the most southern point of Lake Michigan to the parallel forty-two degrees and thirty minutes north latitude, thus giving the state sixty miles of lake shore and securing Chicago harbor for Illinois instead of for Wisconsin. We are under a great debt of gratitude to Mr. Pope for his wise and statesman-like management in bringing the new state into the Union. Mr. Pope secured also another amendment to the Ordi- nance. It was provided that five per cent of the money received from the sale of public lands in the states should be devoted to public works, such as building roads and digging canals. This was amended so that three-fifths of this money could be set aside for public school purposes, one-sixth of which should be given over for the benefit of a college or university. This was the foundation for our state fund for the public schools and for our great and growing university at Champaign. The convention for framing the first constitution met at Kaskaskia, August 3, 1818, and completed its work on the twenty-sixth of the same month. As stated else- where, there were then fifteen counties in the state. St. Clair, Madison and Gallatin sent three delegate's each to this convention, the others two each, making a total of thirty- three delegates. One delegate died during the meeting, leaving but thirty-two in actual attendance. This constitution of 18 18 was never submitted to the people for approval or rejection. It was comparatively a brief document, occupying but nine pages in the statute book, as against twenty-three pages of the present constitu- tion. It shows very litle confidence in the vox populi. As little as possible was left to popular vote for decision. The provisions were copied chiefly from the constitutions of Kentucky, New York, Ohio and Indiana. The only officers the people were permitted to elect were the governor, lieu- tenant governor, sheriff and coroner. All other officers were appointed by or with the advice of the legislature. Com- paring this with the provisions of the present constitution, we see that great advance has been made in trusting the people to manage their own affairs. Local self-government has undergone a rapid and radical change in the last three- quarters of a century. L OF C 99 One thing this constitution did which was an advance upon all previous organic enactments — it abolished imprison- ment for debt. Article VIII, section 15, reads: "No person shall be imprisoned for debt unless upon refusal to deliver up his estate for the benefit of his creditors." If such a provision had existed in the constitution of Penn- sylvania, Robert Morris, .the financial patriot of the Revo- lution, had not been forced to spend four years of his old age in prison. This constitution gave great latitude to the legislature in pledging the credit of the state ; this was the most serious weakness of the document. It led to financial embarrass- ment, bringing the state to the verge of bankruptcy. The present constitution has erected effectual safeguards against this tendency to contract debts. Next after the latitude allowed the legislature to abuse the credit of the state, the provision that gave rise to the most serious complications was that of Article VI, in refer- ence to slavery. It is ambiguous and capable of being so construed as to permit slavery as effectually as it existed in Kentucky. This brought on the bitter contest of 1823-4, in which the anti-slavery party won and slavery came to an end in the state so far as any countenance from the law was concerned. When the slavery question was settled in 1824 the attacks upon the constitution ceased and for eighteen years little was said about a new constitution. In 1840-41 the legis- lature provided for the calling of a constitutional convention, but it failed of approval by the people, and nothing was done. In 1844-45 the matter was again taken up, and this time secured approval. The convention, consisting of as many delegates as there were members entitled to the general assembly, met at Springfield, June 7, 1847, and completed its work by the thirty-first of August; this con- stitution was ratified by the people March 6, 1848, and went into effect on the first day of April of that year. 100 The marked change observed in comparing the constitu- tions of 1818 and 1848 is along the Hne of popular govern- ment, — the placing of greater power in the hands of the people. The powers of the legislature were curtailed both in the expending of moneys and in the appointment of officers. This constitution, in length, stands about midway between that of 18 18 and 1870, occupying about fourteen pages on the statute book. It was only a few years until the people and the press began to discover weaknesses and limitations in the new constitution that were detrimental to the best interests and the growth of the state. A demand went up for a new constituion, and in 1862 a convention was called; but it was in the storm and stress of the civil war, and it is not to be wondered at that the people refused to approve a document wrought out at such a time. However, the need of a better constitution was evident to all, and in 1869, under more favorable conditions, a second convention was assembled at Springfield. This resulted in the present constitution, which was approved by the people July 2, 1870, and went into effect on the eighth of August of the same year. As it stands today, this is perhaps one of the best state constitutions in the Union. The state, however, in its rapid development has outgrown many of the provisions, and frequent patching by way of amendment has been resorted to that it may continue to serve its original purpose. The space limitations of this booklet precludes the possi- bility of printing in this place a copy of the constitution of the state, but it should be in the hands of each teacher and pupil who reads this chapter, and the main provisions should be outlined and discussed at some length. Familiarity with the fundamental provisions of government, either state or national, is well worth the time and effort necessary to secure it. lOI CHAPTER XI CONSTITUTIONAL BOUNDARY AND DIVISIONS On the eighteenth of April, 1818, Congress passed an "enabHng act" giving the people of Illinois permission to form a constitution and prepare for admission to the Union as a state. This enabling act defined the boundaries which the proposed state must accept. This boundary line is re- peated in the constitution of the state. It read as follows : ''Beginning at the mouth of the Wabash river, thence up the same and with the line of Indiana to the northwest corner of said state ; thence east with the line of said state to the middle of Lake Michigan, thence north along the middle of said lake to north latitude forty-two degrees and thirty minutes, thence west to the middle of the Mississippi river, and thence down along the middle of said river to its confluence with the Ohio, and thence up the latter river along its northwestern shore to the place of beginning." This constitutes the official boundary of the state, found not on the maps nor in the geographies, but in the consti- tution of the state and the enactments of Congress. This territory, covering about fifty-six thousand four hundred square miles, has been divided up into counties. There have been many changes in county lines since General St. Clair came with his staff down the Ohio river on a flat- boat and organized the first county of the state. The records show twenty-seven readjustments in all, St. Clair, 102 MAP or ILLINOIS SHOWING PRESENt COUNTY BOUNDARIES ANO DATE OF ORGANIZATION OF EACH COUNTY 1905. 103 in 1790, being the first, and Ford county, in 1859, being the last. There will probably be few changes in county lines in the future. There are now one hunr'red and two counties in the state. The constitution of the United States says that the repre- sentatives in Congress shall be apportioned among the states in the ratio of their population. This made necessary a general census. The constitution also provides for the time of taking this census. It is taken every ten years. The representation from any state may be changed every ten years, either to fewer or more members. Illinois has steadily increased her numbers, until now she has twenty-five; con- sequently the state is divided into twenty-five congressional districts, each of which elects a representative to Congress every two years. (Stat, p. 815.) The state has a legislature copied after that of the national Congress, consisting of a senate and a house of representa- tives. The state constitution provides for the number of members in each house. (Art. IV, Sec. 6.) There are one-half as many senators as there are counties, and three times as many representatives as there are senators. This gives to the state legislature fifty-one senators and one hun- dred and fifty-three representatives. The districts from which these members of the state legislature are elected are also subject to change as the population changes. (Stat., p. 817.) The party in power at the time of redistricting always tries to so divide the state that as many as possible of the districts may be represented by its members. At the present time, Cook and Lake counties have ten of the congressmen out of a possible twenty-five, and Cook has nineteen of the state senators out of a possible fifty-one, with fifty-seven members of the assembly out of a total of one hundred and fifty-three. In order to carry on the judicial work of the state it is necessary to have judic'al districts and circuits. The judicial department is modeled after that of the national judicial 104 ' HILILIIHdDIIS CONMCSSKMAL IPPORTlOmiCIlT ^ 105 system. The state constitution (Art. VI) provides that "the judicial powers, except as in this article is otherwise pro- vided, shall be vested in one supreme court, circuit courts, county courts, justices of the peace, police magistrates, and such courts as may be created by law in and for cities and incorporated towns." Provision is then made for dividing the state into seven judicial districts, each of which may elect one judge of the supreme court to serve nine years. The districts can be changed by the state legislature, but only at the session next preceding the election of judges. Cook county is in the seventh district. There are circuit court divisions based upon population. The constitution forbids more than one for one hundred thousand of the population. There are at present seventeen such circuits not counting Cook county. In judicial matters Cook county has had special provision made because of the great population massed in the city of Chicago. The county constitutes one judicial circuit, and there are also superior and criminal courts established by the constitution, and the legislature is forbidden to include this county in the re- districting of the state into circuits. The constitution also provides for appellate court districts, the judges of which courts shall be the same as the judges of the circuit courts, and no extra compensation is allowed for this service. There are four such districts in the state, of which Cook county constitutes the first. In addition to the supreme, circuit and appellate courts as given, each county elects its own county judge, and if there are over fifty thousand inhabitants the legislature may pro- vide for the election of a probate judge also. As a matter of convenient reference, the following table has been arranged, giving the counties of the state in alpha- betical order and indicating the various divisions of the state to which each belongs : 1 06 Illinois Electoral Districts. County seat. o m t o a 5, II Judicial Dis. County. .2 1 Qi 6 a a 36 50 47 8 30 37 36 12 30 24 40 34 42 42 34 * 48 40 35 28 34 41 22 48 42 40 26 50 43 48 38 20 51 32 48 33 37 20 44 46 46 38 12 51 14 20 14 43 8 39 48 35 16 28 15 25 22 12 20 16 20 13 20 19 21 18 24 23 19 * 23 18 12 19 19 11 18 24 23 23 17 25 15 24 20 12 24 14 24 14 15 18 25 23 23 20 13 24 11 18 12 15 10 12 23 13 17 17 8 1 3 17 8 13 8 15 8 6 4 5 4 4 5 * 2 5 16 6 6 16 5 2 4 4 11 2 9 2 7 13 2 9 2 9 14 12 1 4 2 7 15 1 16 12 16 9 17 13 2 15 11 11 3 4 4 2 3 2 3 2 3 3 3 3 4 4 3 * 4 3 2 3 3 2 3 4 4 4 3 4 3 4 3 2 4 3 4 2 2 2 4 4 4 3 2 4 2 2 2 2 2 2 4 2 2 3 4 Alexander Cairo 1 Greenville Belvidere Mount Sterling... Princeton Hardin ?, Boone ,..•., 6 4 Tlnrpan . ..... 5 Calhoun ?, Carroll Mount Carroll Virginia 6 Cass 4 Champaign Christian 3 Taylorville Marshall Louisville Carlyle ?. Clark ?, Clay ?, Clinton 1 Coles Charleston Chicago Robinson Toledo 3 Cook * Crawford ?. CnnihprlniKl 9, DeKalb Sycamore Clinton 6 DeWitt S Tlnnp'IflS! Tuscola 3 DuPage Wheaton Paris 7 Edgar 3 Albion 1 Effingham Effingham . Vandalia Paxton ?. Fayette 2 Ford 3 Franklin Benton 1 Fulton Lewistown Shawneetown Carrollton Morris 4 Gallatin 1 Greene 2 5 Hamilton McLeansboro Carthage Elizabethtown . . . Oquawka Cambridge Watseka Murphysboro .... Newton 1 Hancock 4 Hardin 1 Henderson 4 Henry 5 Iroquois 3 Jackson 1 Jasper 9. Jefiferson Mount Vernon. . . . Jerseyville Galena 1 Jersey ?. Jo Daviess 6 Vienna 1 Kane Geneva (\ Kankakee Kankakee Yorkville Galesburg Waukegan Ottawa 7 Kendall 6 Knox 5 Lake 7 LaSalle 5 Lawrence Lawrenceville Dixon ?, Lee 6 Livingston Logan Pontiac 3 Lincoln 3 * Senatorial, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19, 21, 23, 25, 27, 29, 31. Congressional, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. Judicial circuit, not numbered. Appellate, 1. Supreme, 7. 107 COUNTT. County seat. .X 3 Judicial Dis. Macon .... Macoupin . Madison . . Marion . . . Marshall . . Mason .... Massac . . . McDonough McHenry . . McLean . . . Menard . . . Mercer .... Monroe . . . Montgomery Morgan . . . Moultrie . . Ogle Peoria .... Perry Piatt Pike Pope Pulaslti . . . Putnam . . . Randolph . . Richland . . Rock Island Saline Sangamon . Schuyler , . Scott Shelby Stark St. Clair... Stephenson Tazewell . . Union Vermilion . Wabash . . . Warren . . . Washington Wayne .... White Whiteside . Will Williamson Winnebago Woodford . Decatur Carlinville . . Edwardsville Salem Lacon Havana .... Metropolis . . Macomb Woodstock . . Bloomington . Petersburg . . Aledo Waterloo .... Hillsboro . . . Jacksonville . Sullivan Oregon Peoria Pinckneyville Monticello . . Pittsfleld Golconda .... Mound City.. Hennepin . . . Chester Olney Rock Island. . Harrisburg . . Springfleld . . Rushville . . . Winchester .. Shelbyville . . Toulon Belleville Freeport Pekin Jonesboro . . . Danville .... Mount Carmel Monmouth . . Nashville . . . Fairfield Carmi Morrison .... Joliet Marion Rockford Eureka 28 19 6 3 38 21 7 3 47 22 3 4 42 23 4 4 16 16 10 2 30 20 8 3 51 24 1 4 32 14 9 3 8 11 17 2 26 17 11 3 30 20 4 3 33 14 14 2 44 22 3 4 38 21 4 3 45 20 7 3 24 19 6 3 10 13 15 2 18 16 10 2 44 25 3 4 24 19 6 3 36 20 8 3 51 24 1 4 50 25 1 4 16 16 10 2 44 25 3 4 46 23 2 4 33 14 14 2 51 24 1 4 45 21 7 3 30 15 8 3 36 20 7 3 40 19 4 3 37 16 10 2 49 22 3 4 12 13 15 2 30 16 10 3 50 25 1 4 22 18 5 3 48 23 2 4 22 14 9 2 44 22 3 4 46 24 2 4 48 24 2 4 35 13 14 2 41 11 12 2 50 25 1 4 10 12 17 2 16 17 11 2 io8 CHAPTER XII THE CAPITALS OF ILLINOIS In the story of the occupation and settlement of IlHnois by the French we found that the interests of the colonists gathered about a few settlements on the peninsula reaching from the mouth of the Kaskaskia river northward to a point nearly opposite the present city of St. Louis. Here, in Kaskaskia, St. Phillipe, Chartres, Cahokia, and Prairie du Rocher, the people gathered in greatest numbers; here their schools and churches were established, and here they were wont to turn for their laws and judicial proceedings. When the country passed into the hands of the English, these centers of population, of which Kaskaskia was the chief, were still recognized as the official centers of govern- ment. After 1787, when the American settlers began making homes in the great Northwest, they were not so particular about clinging to the rivers and water-courses as the French had been ; so settlements sprang up in all parts of the waste of prairies and wilderness of woods. In 1772, when Fort Chartres was destroyed by the Missis- sippi floods, the English moved their seat of government for the Illinois country to Kaskaskia. After George Rogers Clark had taken possession of the country in the name of Virginia, Colonel John Todd set up a temporary govern- ment at Kaskaskia. This settlement continued to be the chief town of the Illinois country until 1800, when, under 109 Governor William Henry Harrison, Illinois became a part of the Indiana territory, and the seat of government was fixed at Vincennes. But in 1809, when Illinois territory was organized, Kaskaskia again became the seat of govern- ment. It was here in 181 2 that the first territorial legis- lature of Illinois met, and it was here also that the conven- tion of 1818 met to frame the constitution for the new state. This constitution provided that the seat of govern- ment should be at Kaskaskia until the general assembly should otherwise provide. There was no capitol building at Kaskaskia. Temporary provision had to be made for the accommodation of the assemblies called to meet there. The first legislature which convened at Kaskaskia on November 25, 18 12, met in a rough building of uncut limestone, with steep roof and unpainted boards, located in the center of a square. It is claimed by some that this building was the one occupied by the Commandant Rocheblave when George Rogers Clark captured the place in 1778. The first floor, a low, gloomy room, was fitted up for the House, and a small chamber above was arranged for the Senate. All the twelve mem- bers, it is said, boarded at one house and lodged in one room. The first session of the legislature under the constitution of 1818 appointed a committee of five members to locate a place for a new capital, with the provision that the new location should remain the capital for at least twenty years. The present site of Vandalia was selected, and in 1820 the records, documents and archives of the state government were removed to that place in a small wagon. The first state house consisted of a small two-story wooden structure, the lower floor of which was for the accommodation of the house, while the upper floor, divided into two rooms, was for the senate and state officers. In December, 1823, this building was totally destroyed by fire, not a scrap of furniture being saved from the flames. At no once a subscription was circulated to obtain funds for erecting a new building, and within three days sufficient funds were obtained to start another building. This build- ing, costing about fifteen thousand dollars, stood until 1836, when it was torn down to make place for a more com- modious brick structure, which still stands, doing service as Fayette County's courthouse. Before the twenty-year period had expired, a number of cities were urging their claim to be made the capital of the state. Alton, Vandalia, Springfield, Peoria and many others took active part in securing petitions and votes in favor of their claims. The legislature was slow to act, but finally in the session of 1837, by the persistent and diplomatic pressure of some eight or nine men, of whom Abraham Lincoln was one, Springfield was chosen. Money was appropriated by the legislature for a new building, and a similar amount, with grounds, was donated by the city. The first legislature to assemble in Springfield was that of the second session of the eleventh general assembly. It met on the ninth of December, 1839. The building was not completed, and the different departments of the legislature were accommodated in the various churches of the city. The building when completed cost about $250,000^ and for years was the wonder of the country round about. But twenty years of growth demanded a greater building. The state had outgrown its capitol. The legislature of 1865 raised the question of a new building, and at once an agitation sprang up for a change of location. Peoria was the only dangerous rival to the capital city. After a heated campaign, the matter was finally settled by a vote of one hundred to seventy- four in the legislature, June 7, 1871. This probably settled the question of location for all time to come. The new building is a magnificent structure costing about four million dollars, and was completed in 1887. Ill CHAPTER XIII EVOLUTION OF THE ILLINOIS SCHOOL LAW In the ordinance of 1787, Article III, it is declared 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." In the enabling act, passed by Congress, April 18, 1818, we find (Sec. 6, Prop, i): "The section numbered 16 in every township * * * shall be granted to the state for the use of the inhabitants of such township for the use of schools." Proposition 3 of the same section provides that three per cent of the proceeds of all public lands sold in the state "shall be appropriated by the legislature of the state for the encouragement of learning, of which one-sixth part shall be exclusively bestowed upon a college or university." Here we have the beginnings of our public school system. It was born with the state. The same act that created the state provided the means and made it obligatory upon the legislature to organize a system of education. These provi- sions and the obligations attaching thereto were accepted by the convention at Kaskaskia, August 16, 18 18. It seems strange that the constitution drawn up by the same Kaskaskia convention should contain no reference whatever to the subject of schools or of school education. 112 The constitution of 1848 contained no more than a brief passing reference or two on the subject of school taxation. But the constitution of 1870 contains ample recognition of the subject. Article VIII opens with this section: 'The general assembly shall provide a thorough and efficient system of free schools whereby all children of this state may receive a good common school education." Then follow the provisions concerning the administration of this consti- tutional obligation. While the early state constitutions were strangely silent upon the subject, the legislatures were not altogether in- active. The first effort to frame a school law was made in 1825. Doubtless the members of the legislature thought they were inaugurating and setting in operation a most liberal and comprehensive plan for the education of the youth of the state. Unfortunately, the most comprehensive part of the plan was placed in the preamble. Nearly all of the provisions of the law had to do solely with the adminis- tration of the funds provided by the general government through its land grants. The law did not prescribe the studies that were to be taught, nor did it indicate the manner of licensing the teachers nor the qualifications they should possess. The most limited powers for local taxation were provided, and the taxes were to be ''levied either in cash or good merchantable produce at cash prices." Even this provision was made valueless by the next legislature, which enacted that no person might be "taxed for the support of any free school unless his or her free-will had first been obtained in writing." There was some patching of the provisions by various legislatures until 1845, when the whole school legislation was revised and previous acts not reincorporated were repealed. In this revision it was specifically stated that the schools must be taught in the English language and from text-books printed in English. It also specified the subjects, "3 "orthography, reading in English, penmanship, arithmetic, EngHsh grammar, modern geography, and the history of the United States." More patching was done by the succeeding legislatures until 1849, after the new constitution had gone into effect, when a new revision of the school law was made. Then again in 1857 another revision was made, which is the fullest in detail of any attempt up to that time. In 1865 a revision was made again, in an attempt to meet the exigen- cies of the growing school system of the state. After the adoption of the last constitution in 1870, a new and more complete school law was enacted. This law was repeatedly amended until 1889, when it was thoroughly revised and recast to the form in which we now have it. Of course many amendments have been made since 1889, and, without doubt, the interests of the schools of the state would be subserved by a general revision, simplification and codification of the school laws now in force. To this task let us hope the educational commission provided by the legislature of 1907 will set itself with broad-minded and earnest endeavor. The above is a brief outline of the manner in which our school law has grown at the hands of the legislators. It does not hint at the great struggles, the anxious days and nights, the pleadings and petitionings, the speeches and let- ters, the heart burnings and sacrifices of the friends of the public school system in their effort to wring from the politi- cal office-holders of the state, step by step, a worthy and creditable system of public schools. The heroic struggle waged by such men as John M. Peck, J. B. Turner, Ninian W. Edwards, W. F. Arney, Charles E. Hovey, James H. Blodgett, Samuel Willard, Newton Bateman, W. M. Powell and Richard Edwards, B. G. Roots, and a host of others too numerous to mention, in their efforts to arouse the conscience of the state and to secure enactments by the 114 legislatures, is worthy a place beside the story of our other heroes who made possible our greatness and maintained our honor upon other fields. A copy of the latest school law should be at hand for reference by all who read this section. An outline of the general provisions should be made so that discussions of the subject may be intelligible. 115 CHAPTER XIV SLAVERY IN ILLINOIS We remember (Chapt. V) that in 1720 one Francois Renault took a gang of black slaves up the Mississippi. He bought these slaves at St. Domingo on his way over to this country. He came up as far as the Kaskaskia country, where he established himself. The following year, with a part of his slaves and some white miners, he went up to the present site of Galena and opened lead mines. The mining ventures were not satisfactory, and, after a few years, Renault, discouraged, returned to France, but his cargo of slaves was sold and distributed among the planters of the Illinois country. This was the beginning of slavery in Illinois, — just a hundred years later than its introduction into the Virginia colony. From that time until i860 the question of slavery did not cease to agitate the people of Illinois. France had given the colonists legal permission to hold slaves, and when, in 1763, England, by treaty, came into possession of the country, the French inhabitants were guaranteed their right and title to their slave property. When the United States took over this territory from Vir- ginia in 1785, it was supposed that this same protection was given in the deed by which Virginia ceded her interests in the lands. But when in 1787, the great ordinance was framed, this stipulation was ignored, and it was enacted 116 that "There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servi- tude in said territory otherwise than in the punishment of crime." But the slaves were here, and the ordinance did not remove them. The whole territory in 1800 had about one hundred and thirty slaves. In 18 10 the IlHnois country alone had about one hundred and seventy, and in 1820 the number seems to have increased to about one thousand — this, however, probably included what were known as ''indentured servants." The early settlements in Illinois were in the southern part of the state. They were made by people from slave-holding states, and it was very natural that the institution of slavery should find strong defense among them. Here and there ' were men of anti-slavery principles who insisted upon the enforcement of the provisions of the ordinance, but such were in the minority and could do little against the great mass of settlers and the interested slave-holding population along the border. It was impossible to enforce the law, although numerous subterfuges and evasions were made necessary in order to protect the increasing slave property. In 1803 a law was passed in the territorial legislature permitting persons to hold indentured servants and requir- ing the children of such servants to serve their masters until they were twenty-eight or thirty years of age. The slaves were taken before a notary and made oath that they had voluntarily entered into an agreement, as an indentured servant, with the master, and the shackles of slavery were, as effectually fastened upon them as if they were in Ken- tucky. The law gave the master thirty days in which to remove any servant who should decline to be a voluntary slave, and of course any such were hurried across the river and sold on legal slave territory. The laws enacted against the black man in these years were barbarous and degrading. No free negro could live in the state unless he could show a certificate of freedom 117 witnessed by some court. Any black man without such certificate could be arrested and sold as a runaway slave. Any servant found ten miles from home without a written permit could be whipped. A long list of such provisions, all repugnant to the letter and spirit of the ordinance which gave the legislature its existence, were passed by the terri- torial legislatures, all calculated to fasten slavery upon the state and to make it almost impossible for the contagious sentiment of freedom to spread, either among the whites or the blacks. There were stirring events in those days — from 1800 to 1825 — in all the southern half of the state when this struggle for slavery or freedom was in progress. We cannot narrate incidents nor give in detail the stories that grew up in this connection, although many of them are intensely interesting. When Illinois became a state, in 18 18, she was obliged to repudiate slavery in her constitution. But this did not drive it out. We remember that the central part of the state was being filled with settlers at this time. The new counties were extending toward the north, and many of the people came from states where slavery did not exist, and sentiment against the institution was being cultivated by constant agitation. It was apparent to all that a bitter struggle was at hand to determine whether freedom or slavery should prevail in the state. In 1822 the contest for governor was waged upon the slavery issue. Edward Coles, the anti-slavery candidate, was elected; but there were two opposing candidates, both of whom favored slavery, and together they received more than half the votes. The legislature was overwhelmingly pro-slavery. Governor Coles at once forced the issue upon the legis- lature by recommending the immediate emancipation of all slaves in the state. The opposition, in their anger and sup- posed strength, determined to have an amendment made 118 to the constitution legalizing slavery in the state. Here, then, the issue was fairly stated in a call for a constitutional convention, and the appeal was made to the ballot box. The campaign of 1824 was perhaps the bitterest political battle ever fought in the state. Men, women and children took part in the agitations and discussions. Every man that had a right to vote was sought out and almost forced to go to the polls. The election proved a decided victory for the anti-slavery party. The cause of slavery in the state was dead. The opposition submitted to the will of the majority, and soon good-feeling prevailed where the strug- gle had been most bitter, and never again was an effort made to legalize slavery in Illinois. Illinois was redeemed from the curse of a slave state, but that did not remove the vexed question from the minds of her people. Just across the Ohio lay Kentucky, a slave state, and just beyond the Mississippi was Missouri, — ^both of them within swimming distance of free territory. Human nature cannot be put in bonds to legal enactments even when the laws are felt to be righteous; and when they are felt to be unrighteous, any expedient but open rebellion will often be used to evade them and do what is felt to be justice. Slavery is one of those questions that arouse the passions and stir the blood of all who listen to its story. It seems that the further removed the listener is from the field of actual contact, the more he is aroused and the more violent is his denunciation. Thousands of slaves escaped across the rivers into Illinois, and here they generally found champions and aids. White men organized societies with secret passwords and means of transportation for hurrying all such across the state to the Canadian frontier, which, could they but reach, guar- anteed freedom. Many and bitter were the contests on Illinois soil over these runaway slaves; but the "under- ground railroad," the secret routes of travel for the escaping 119 slave, continued to do an extensive business, and many a black man and woman traveled to liberty. There were men who dared to risk their property and their lives in speaking and writing against slavery in those days, and every man who did this whether in Boston or in Illinois, was in danger of mobs and ropes and bullets. Graves were opened and closed over many an advocate for freedom long before the lines of blue and gray faced each' other upon southern battlefields. The most prominent victim to the rage of the slave- holding sentiment furnished by Illinois was Elijah P. Love- joy, who, after suffering various personal abuses and mobbings, after having four printing presses destroyed because he insisted upon publishing a paper in which he opposed the holding of slaves, was shot and killed at Alton on the night of November 7, 1837. Love joy was killed by a mob. No one was ever punished for the crime, but it seemed to startle the state and to bring before all rational people the supreme importance of pro- tecting the right to a free expression of opinion on the part of the citizens of the state. This did not end mob violence, but from this time on it was less and less dangerous to stand in defense of freedom, until the bloody civil war came, bearing on its forefront the great emancipator, Abraham Lincoln, — also a citizen of Illinois, — under whose leadership slavery passed forever from the history of the United States. 120 CHAPTER XV THE BLACK HAWK WAR From the day when Joliet and Marquette stood at the out- skirts of the Indian village shouting for the inhabitants to come out and tell who they were, until 1832, this Illinois country had been the home of the red men. Long before that, they had roamed at will over these vast prairies, chas- ing the buffalo and the deer, setting their traps in the forests, catching fish from the streams, and gathering their harvests of corn and beans from the fertile hillsides. A hundred and fifty years had come and gone, bringing mar- velous changes in their wake. The curling smoke from Indian wigwams along the Wabash, the Ohio, the Embar- rass, the Illinois, had grown fainter and fainter, until it had entirely disappeared. Westward the white army of invasion had pushed its way until the Indian had been thrust beyond the great Father of Waters. In his slow but sullen retreat he had learned of the customs and vices of the men who came with the woodman's ax, the shovel and the plow. He made better wigwams and huts; he planted more and hunted less; he wore more clothes but drank more whisky and used more powder and ball. He had suffered much from slaughter, from burnings and devastations, from out- rages in cold blood and in anger, from treachery and deceit. The white man had been his evil angel, and, like some Nemesis, still pursued him, crying for blood and land. 121 The red man had repaid the debt of ingratitude, treachery and blood with interest. For every wigwam left tenantless, five scalps of white men had been nailed to the tent poles of the savages. For every village of huts burned or field of beans destroyed, a white man's house had gone up in flames and his children had gone fatherless to bed. It was a long, bloody tragedy, and the time has come when we shall lift the curtain for the last act so far as Illinois is concerned. Our state has had an honorable career. She can point to a proud record and a long list of worthy men and women whom neither hunger nor cold, flood nor drouth, suffering nor death, could quail or turn aside from the one great work of mapping out an inheritance for their successors in this beautiful valley of the great river. But in recounting all the deeds of daring and danger, in unrolling the tablets of honor and greatness, let none point to the story of the Black Hawk War. Black Hawk was an Indian leader. He was not a ruling chief according to Indian custom, but was a head man in time of war. He had many of the characteristics of leader- ship and some of the marks of great generalship. He was crafty, daring, independent and brave. Above all, he was proud, and gloried in the savagery of his race, hating the white man and all his customs and civilization. He belonged to the tribe of Sacs. This tribe had originally lived in the region of Lake Ontario, but had been crowded westward and still farther west until they located on the Rock river, in Illinois, near its juncture with the Mississippi. At some time in the history of the tribe it had come in contact with the tribe of Fox Indians, and, both belonging to north- eastern tribes and both being pressed by the enemy and in enforced retreat, they coalesced, forming a confederated tribe known as the Sacs and Foxes. At the time we come to know them in this story, Keokuk was the rightful chief of the tribe. Sometime soon after Tonti had left the Rock, these 122 Indians had come into possession of the country around the mouth of the Rock river, and even claimed the country as far west as the middle of the present state of Iowa. Their chief village and headquarters was near Rock Island on the banks of the Rock river. Here they had lived for years, and here they had erected a good class of houses to the number of five hundred, capable of sheltering several thousand people. Around this village they had cleared some seven hundred acres of ground, and upon it they cultivated their yearly crops of corn and beans. One of the most attractive spots today along this most beautiful river in Illinois is the height of land known as Black Hawk's watch-tower. A summer hotel has been placed on this eminence, and here the resorter can stand on the white man's porch and look up and down the river, with all its broad and shimmering valley as it reaches away for miles through distant fields and meadows, and reflect that here the Indian stood, looking out over the same natural scenery, seeing the fires and homesteads of the hated enemies of his race growing ever nearer and nearer. Here he could stand and watch his squaws planting their seed or gathering their harvests, see his young men practicing games of the chase or of war, or bathing in the silver stream that flowed at his feet; see on the adjacent hillside the silent graves of his fathers where for generations they had been laid to rest. No generous soul can stand on this spot and recall the story of Black Hawk without a tinge of shame creeping over his face as he looks and remembers. It was here, probably, that Black Hawk was born in 1767, and here he grew to manhood. He was born after the French and Indian War, under the regime of the British, and to them he was always loyal, and perhaps from them he received the fatal sugges- tions that lead to his downfall. After the Revolutionary War our government was very active in making treaties with the Indian tribes in the process of getting peaceable possession of their lands, that they 123 might be sold to settlers. In this way most of the lands in Ohio, Indiana and Illinois had been turned over to the whites, and the Indians had moved on to the westward. The wave of immigration and settlement had passed the Illinois river, and there was a demand for more of the Indian lands. In 1804, William Henry Harrison was governor of Indiana territory, of which Illinois was at that time a part. He convened the Indian chiefs at St. Louis, five chiefs repre- senting the Fox and Sacs and the Winnebagoes, it is said, and there entered into a treaty with them by which they agreed to cede to the United States all the lands between the Illinois river and the Mississippi, and also a large body of land lying in Wisconsin. In all, this treaty covered about fifteen million acres of land, a princely kingdom, and for it the United States was to take these tribes into its friend- ship and to make to the Sacs and Foxes an annual payment of one thousand dollars in goods. It can be seen that Governor Harrison valued friendship pretty high. Black Hawk took no part in this transaction, and he declared that the chiefs were made drunk and persuaded to sign the treaty. This treaty provided that the tribes might retain possession of the lands until they were actually sold, and that in the meantime no citizens of the United States were to be allowed to make settlements upon the lands. Upon the breaking out of the War of 1812, the Sacs and Foxes offered their services to the United States, but were refused, and they then gave their aid to the British. At the close of the war a new treaty was made with the Indians, but Black Hawk did not sign this treaty either. In 1827 the Winnebagoes made an outbreak upon the settlers and were put down by military force, and several of the leaders were executed. Black Hawk was believed to have been in part responsible for this outbreak, and was kept a prisoner for some time, but was finally released. Some three years later than this, in 1830, another treaty was made with the Indians at Prairie du Chien. The Sacs and Foxes were 124 represented at this gathering by Keokuk, their chief. He signed the treaty for his tribe. In this treaty Black Hawk again took no part. This treaty ceded all the lands east of the Mississippi to the United States, and Keokuk agreed to remove his people to the west side of the river. This he succeeded in doing except so far as Black Hawk's following was concerned. In the spring of 1831, when Black Hawk and his band of men and women, after a winter of hunting, returned to their village on the Rock river, they found it occupied by the whites, and it was said that the very ground on which stood the Hawk's cabin had been bought by a fur-trader. War seemed certain, but by some diplomacy upon the part of a few white men an agreement was reached by which both whites and Indians were to remain in the village and the lands were to be divided between them for cultivation. Of course trouble broke out. The whites complained of abuses by the Indians, and the Indians made counter claims of destroyed crops, burned cabins and indignities offered to Indian men and women. It is very probable that the Indians were the greater sufferers, but, be that as it may, a call was sent to the governor asking for state aid to repel the Indians, who were represented as being upon the verge of a general outbreak. Governor Reynolds at once responded by calling out the militia and also sending word to General Gaines, in charge of the United States garrison, asking for cooperation. On the seventh of June a conference was held at Fort Armstrong, on Rock island, between Governor Reynolds and General Gaines on the part of the whites, and some twenty or more Indians, including Keokuk and Black Hawk. An agreement was dravv^n up and signed by both sides. In this agreement the Indians promised to remove to the west side of the river and to remain there and to keep in control the unruly members of their tribe. Rations were distributed among the Indians, who were in an almost starv- ing condition, then they all withdrew to the west side of the 125 river, and the war scare was over. The militia was dis- banded and with the governor returned to their homes. Black Hawk had gone to the west side of the river with his people, but he was discontented and went with the feel- ings of a man who is acting under compulsion, suffering from a wrong. In April of the following year (1832), gathering his people about him to the number of several hundred, he recrossed the river. He passed by the village which had been his home for so many years, and proceeded on up the Rock river. General Atkinson, who was in command of the garrison at Fort Armstrong, sent word to him that he was violating his treaty and ordered him to return. The Hawk replied that he was on his way to the home of the Winnebagoes, who had invited him to come among them to raise a crop. Doubtless, Black Hawk knew that he was breaking his treaty obligations by crossing the river. Doubtless he also reasoned that so long as he refrained from committing any outrages or in any way disturbing the whites, he would be permitted to go his way undisturbed. When he reached a town of the Winnebagoes, about forty miles up the Rock river, he became convinced that this tribe did not intend to give him any aid, but would simply use him and his people for their own advantage in dealing with the whites. He decided to return to his quarters beyond the Mississippi, when, to his surprise, he learned that the whites had called out their army, declared war against him, and were on his track. Angered and desperate, he decided to continue on his way up the river. He proceeded to the neighborhood of Dixon and here made a temporary halt. When Black Hawk crossed the Mississippi, the whole border region sent forth the cry of alarm. The savages were loose and on the warpath. The governor of the state was appealed to for immediate assistance, and he promptly re- plied. Early in May, about two thousand militiamen from the state and about five hundred regulars under General 126 Atkinson were assembled at Fort Armstrong, ready for an advance movement. Black Hawk had followed the Rock river, and up this stream. Governor Reynolds with his two thousand militiamen on land, and General Atkinson with his five hundred regulars and the provisions, by boat, started out on the ninth of May. Those of us who have lived in this region about the first of May can imagine the time this force of raw recruits had plowing through the mud and enduring the endless rains that are sure accompaniments of this season. Black Hawk kept in advance. The army reached Dixon's ford in about three days, and here they learned that Black Hawk's band had separated in order to hunt for food. At this place the army was increased by some three or four hundred men under Major Stillman and Major Bailey, who had recruited these men along the frontier to help put down the Indians. These two undisciplined and rude companies of frontiersmen insisted upon being allowed to scout the country in the effort to find the Hawk and bring him to a stand. This they were given permission to do, so on the thirteenth of May they started out from Dixon and marched to the northeast nearly thirty miles, reaching a small stream on the evening of the fourteenth, and here they decided to camp, not suspecting any Indians in the neighborhood. Scarcely were they dismounted when their attention was called to three Indians bearing a white flag. It is said, and let us hope it is true, that many of Stillman's men had been drinking and were too drunken to know what they were doing. Be that as it may, a shout went up, and, mounting in hot haste, the savages were charged and driven with lashings and beatings into the camp. Soon five more Indians were seen upon a hill, and chase was again given and two of these were killed, while the other three escaped to Black Hawk's camp, two or three miles away, where they reported to their chief that they alone of all his truce party were left alive. What had happened was this: When Black Hawk ob- 127 served the advance of the white men he supposed that they v^^ere being led by General Atkinson, with whom he was well acquainted. He decided to ask for a parley. So he sent two of his men forward with a flag of truce, and in order to know just what might befall them he had sent five braves to watch them from a distance. It was these truce parties that Stillman's drunken soldiers had seen and chased, shoot- ing them to death. When Black Hawk learned how his overtures for a parley had been received, he was filled with indignation and wrath. Gathering his few braves about him, mounted on ponies, he set out to meet the enemy. As they reached the open fields they beheld Stillman's men, three hundred strong, rushing toward them. They retired behind a fringe of trees and waited the coming of their white foe. As the militia approached, beholding the Indians, they came to a sudden stand. But Black Hawk, uttering the war-whoop, dashed out upon them with his little com- pany numbering not more than fifty. Without firing a shot, the frontiersmen wheeled their horses and dashed away, with the Indians in full pursuit. At dark the Indians called a halt, but all night long the frightened militia kept on through swamps and creeks until they dashed into Dixon, twenty-five miles away, and spread the report that the whole Indian force, thousands strong, were sweeping the country behind them. Many of them did not stop even here, but hurried on, not dismounting until they reached their homes and were safe in the arms of their families. The whites had eleven men killed in this encounter. The next day the entire army of twenty-five hundred men marched to the scene of the conflict, where they found and buried the eleven men lost in Stillman's rout. The defeat of Stillman's party completely demoralized the militia force. The men demanded that they be discharged and permitted to go home. The governor at once called for a new levy of two thousand volunteers, and, marching the demoralized militia to Ottawa, he discharged them. 128 General Atkinson with the regulars went to Dixon to await the coming together of the new recruits. The effect of Stillman's blunder was to expose the entire Illinois frontier to the merciless warfare of the savage. Black Hawk felt that he had been mistreated in his attempt to conduct an honorable armistice and arrange for terms of return to the west side of the river. His band and all they could incite to take part with them were turned loose to burn and plunder wherever they could find a white man or a white man's settlement. So the border line, from Galena by the way of Princeton, Peru and Ottawa, with their outlying settlements, was made the scene of carnage and bloodshed. A number of settlers were killed in open conflict or from ambush, and several skirmishes occurred between forces of the white men and the Indians; but about the twenty-second of June, Black Hawk, after a defeat at Kellogg's grove, retreated toward the north. He was followed by General Atkinson with the whole American force, amounting to about four thousand men. Black Hawk took refuge among the hills of Wisconsin, and the discour- aged white troops were divided into several groups and placed where they might protect the frontier. One detach- ment of these troops under General Henry learned that Black Hawk was stationed on the Rock river toward the north. They immediately started in pursuit with about one thousand men. Black Hawk retreated to the Wisconsin river. He passed by the site of the present Madison and, pushing on, was overtaken on the bluffs of the Wisconsin about twenty-five miles beyond. Here he made a stand and a severe battle was fought. More than one hundred and fifty Indians fell in this slaughter, while but one white man was lost. Black Hawk crossed the river and started for the Mississippi, hoping to reach it and to cross before his enemy could overtake him. The Indian band was reduced to the verge of starvation. They peeled the bark from the trees for food as they went. Many of their 129 LAKE ) 'The black line Indicates the route Lincoin is supposed to have followed with the army as far as Whitewater, where he was dismissed. When the ariny sUrted from near Otta- wa, after the 20th of June, to follow the Indians up Rock River, Lincoln's battalion Vvas «ent towards the northwest, and joined the main army near Lake Koshkonong early in July Soon after he went to Wh;tewater, where, about [Uie middle of the month, his battalion was dis- Mnded, and he returned by foot and canoe to new Salem. The dotted line shows the route he is supposed to have taken. The towns named on the map are those with which Lincoln was ;COQaected cjiher \a bis legal or his political Kfe. MAP OF ILLINOIS AND PART OF laCHIfljlB TERBITOSr 6H0WINQ LINCOLN'S SUPPOSED LINEOpI MARCH IN SLACK HAWK WAR ecAti or mm 130 wounded and starved fell out of the ranks and died along the trail. By such signs they marked the line of their retreat from the Wisconsin to the banks of the Mississippi. Behind them was the relentless army of destruction. About the first of August the Indian refugees reached the bluffs of the Mississippi, near the mouth of the Bad Axe river. Here they could find no boats, and only two canoes could be mustered for the whole band. Making a raft, it was loaded with women, children and old men, and launched for the opposite shore, but in midstream it was capsized and most of the occupants were drowned. In the midst of these futile efforts to escape, the army of General Henry appeared upon the scene on August 2. All the forces of the whites had been reunited and were engaged in the pursuit. On the day previous, as the Indians were trying to cross the river, a supply boat, the Warrior, engaged to carry supplies for the forces along the river, appeared, and Black Hawk asked that a boat be sent ashore to receive his people, as he wished to surrender. But instead of complying, the boat answered with discharges of grape and canister, mow- ing down the savages as they were huddled in groups on the shore. The discharge was answered by a fire of mus- ketry, and for a few minutes the duel continued, when the boat steamed away, with one man wounded, but leaving over a score of Indians dead upon the shore. Little need be said of what followed after the white army of pursuit came upon the disheartened and starving Indians upon the morning of the second of August. The massacre was begun and carried forward as rapidly as possible. The steamboat Warrior returned to add its fire to the attack of the land force and to prevent any from swimming across the river. In three hours it was all over. One hundred and fifty Indians were killed in the fight, fully as many were drowned in efforts to cross the river; only fifty were taken prisoners. Black Hawk's band was anni- hilated, and few were the messengers left to carry the tale 131 to the huts of the Sacs and Foxes in their new homes to the west of the Mississippi. Black Hawk succeeded in escaping with a few of his braves. He took refuge with his friends, the Winnebagoes. But he was too dangerous a guest to be kept in hiding, so the Winnebagoes gave him up to the United States forces and he was taken away to prison. He was taken to Fortress Monroe, and then to some of the principal cities of the East, to show him how hopeless was the red man's struggle against the white in- vader; then he was returned to Fort Armstrong, where he was turned over to Chief Keokuk, who became responsible for his future good behavior. He was held by the United States government to be guilty of nothing worthy of death, as he had conducted honorable warfare in his struggle for life. Black Hawk died in Davis county, Iowa, on the third of October, 1838, supposed to have been seventy-one years of age. Thus lived, struggled, and perished one of the best speci- mens of Indian manhood that had come in contact with the white settlements. He saw the degradation of his race and read their certain doom in the approaching settlements of the whites. His proud spirit rebelled against the fate marked out for him and his people. Outraged in his sense of savage justice, he swore eternal hatred against the sup- planters of his race, and in his poor savage way made blunders and committed crimes in no sense worse or more barbarous than were those committed against him and his by the paleface foe. Driven from his home, in the des- peration of hunger and humiliation he dug up the hatchet, and ended as many another struggling for freedom has ended, by digging the graves of his people. 132 CHAPTER XVI THE MORMONS IN ILLINOIS About forty-five miles above Quincy, and nine miles below Fort Madison, the Mississippi makes a bend or elbow, forming a blunt promontory. This promontory slopes grad- ually upward from the river, which bounds it on three sides, thus forming one of the most beautiful, pleasing and advan- tageous sites for a town that can well be imagined. A gentleman by the name of Isaac Gallard had owned this tract of land and had made some improvements upon it for a country home. He decided to establish a trading station on the river, and for this purpose laid off town lots and named the place Commerce. The town did not grow rapidly, and up to 1840 there were not more than about twenty houses. In the autumn of 1839 some strangers appeared at Com- merce and purchased from the owners the town site and the adjoining lands. These men were the agents of the Mormon church, that had recently come into prominence. The founder of this church organization was Joseph Smith, a native of Vermont, but from early childhood resi- dent with his parents near Palmyra, New York. It is not easy to sift the real truth from the mass of contradictory evidence produced by his detractors and his supporters. But, apparently, Joseph's parents were poor, ignorant, superstitious and indolent. The morals of the family were 133 not reputed to be of the best. Joseph received Httle school- ing, but, in spite of all the claims by friend and foe, of his utter ignorance, we are satisfied from the work he did that he had a mind that was keen, shrewd and imaginative. He was bold, fearless and shameless throughout his whole career. About 1827, Joseph claimed to have found in a hill near Palmyra a set of golden plates upon which was written a history of an extinct people and a divine revelation. The writing was claimed to be in a late Egyptian character, and two stones were found with the plates, by looking through which Joseph was enabled to read and translate the writing. The Lord had told him where to dig for the plates and how to use them. With a few associates, who claimed to have seen the plates, he proceeded to translate the inscriptions and to publish the same as the Book of Mormon. The translation was completed by the year 1830, and in April of that year he seems to have gathered about him all whom he had up to that time induced to join him, and organized them into a church. The Book of Mormon was supple- mented from time to time by direct revelation to the Prophet Joseph, as he had need, concerning the most trivial as well as the most important affairs. It is marvelous that in this age and in such a community a doctrine based upon credulity and lust could find a soil for growth and that it could so extend its influence that within twenty years it could claim six hundred thousand deluded followers, gathered from all parts of Europe and America. Joseph Smith moved to Kirtland^ near Cleveland, Ohio. From this place they sent out missionaries to preach their gospel and make new converts and form new settlements. Joseph received a revelation that their Zion with its temple was to be in Missouri, and thither a number of them went, buying up a tract of land in Jackson county and selecting a temple site at what is now called Independence. The 134 stranger there is still shown the "temple site" upon which many Mormons believe their final temple is to be builded when the triumphant saints shall be gathered to the Zion foretold by their Prophet Joseph. Joseph, with his brother Hyrum, the patriarch and high- priest of the church, were forced to leave Kirtland wear- ing a coat of tar and feathers, because of business and social irregularities, and they joined the hosts gathered in Missouri. But their vrays were not the ways of the land, and war, open and merciless, was waged by the people of Jackson and Clay counties against the newcomers. With mob violence, clash of arms, destruction of property, and shedding of blood, the contest was carried on until at last the Mormons were forced to sell out their possessions for what they could get and leave the state. It was to provide for this migration that the advance agents of the church, looking for a location, had selected and bought the site at Commerce in the autumn of 1839. The name was changed to Nauvoo, meaning the blessed, and early in the spring of 1840, large delegations of Mor- mons began to arrive. Within four years the population of the town grew to over fifteen thousand souls. When the ''saints" (the name they chose for themselves) reached Nauvoo, their leader, Joseph Smith, and his brother were prisoners in Missouri. By some means they managed to elude their guards and, escaping from the state, reached their haven at Nauvoo. Here every device known to craft and diplomacy was used to secure the Mormon population absolute freedom from arrest or gentile interference. The democrats and whigs were at that time struggling for political control of the state, and both desired the Mormon vote. It was easy, therefore, for the city of Nauvoo to obtain almost anything desired in the way of special legis- lation. The session of the legislature of 1840-41 granted a sweeping charter which in some particulars placed the authority of the city government above that of the state 135 legislature. It provided for the organization of the Nauvoo legion to act as a part of the state militia, with arms fur- nished by the state, and granted a charter for a university. Out of these plenary powers grew the difficulties that lead to the expulsion of the Mormons from the state, although it must needs have been that under any provisions whatever difficulties could not be avoided. The clannish spirit and theocratic organization of the saints made it im- possible for them to live peaceably with their neighbors at any time or in any place. In 1844 came the beginning of the end of Mormon prac- tice and prosperity in Illinois. Nauvoo at that time was a thriving city. Every known industry was being carried on and never was a people more industrious. New acces- sions of numbers with a considerable sprinkling of wealth was constantly arriving from Europe and the eastern states. The well organized missionary enterprises of the church gave abundant evidence of the wisdom with which they had been planned by the prophet. But, like Babylon of old, in the height of its glory and promise, this new made city upon the hills overlooking the great river, was doomed to desolation and its inhabitants destined to drink to the very dregs the cup of want and suffering. The officials of Missouri made several efforts to get pos- session of the fugitives who had fled from justice in that state. But Joseph, the prophet, sometimes by force, some- times by fraud and sometimes by the interference of the courts evaded extradition to the soil of Missouri. The Nauvoo legion, consisting of four thousand well drilled and equipped soldiers, all of the Mormon faith and pledged to do the will of the prophet, excited the fear and distrust of the surrounding people. Many robberies and murders had been committed on both sides of the river and incriminating evidence pointed towards Nauvoo. Retaliation was prac- ticed upon the Mormons living in other parts of the coun- try. Several thousands of them lived outside the limits of 136 Nauvoo. About 1842 the revelation concerning polygamy seems to have made its appearance among the leaders, and a knowledge of its practice was gradually rumored about the country. Stories of dreadful immorality excited the gentile population and caused a disaffection in the ranks of the saints. Everything was ready for an explosion and only waited for an occasion. What was intended as a means for removing the tension proved to be the spark leading to the powder magazine. Governor Ford decided to visit Hancock county in person to investigate the complaints and endeavor to pour oil upon the troubled waters. Whether wisely or not, some of the militia of the adjoining counties was called out to guar- antee peace and quiet. The prophet Joseph, hearing of this, at once declared Nauvoo under martial law and called out the Nauvoo legion of four thousand militiamen. War was in the air and passion was stirred to its tensest point on both sides. But the leaders seemed to realize the serious- ness of the crisis and used great caution. Smith finally surrendered the arms of the state and agreed to surrender himself and his brother to the courts. In a few days they did this, going unguarded to Carthage, the county seat, and givmg themselves up. They were placed in the Carthage jail to await a hearing. The militia, except a few men retained as guards, was disbanded, and the governor thought the storm was over. He assured the Mormons that they were safe in their persons and property, and himself pro- ceeded to Nauvoo to investigate upon the ground some of the charges made. While the governor was absent in Nauvoo, upon the afternoon of June 24, 1844, a mob of fifty men made an attack upon the Carthage jail, killed both Joseph and Hyrum Smith, and wounded one of the two Mormon elders who were at that time visiting with them in the jail. The excitement among the gentiles was intense. The mob scattered and fled. It was expected that the Mormon legion would at once sweep the county in venge- 137 ance. But the Mormons seemed stunned and made no at- tempt to retaliate. They proceeded sadly to Carthage for their dead, and, carrying them back to their city, gave them honorable burial. It could not be otherwise than that a state of war, bitter and merciless, should be carried on from this time forth between the Mormons and their gentile neighbors. Which was most to blame cannot be well determined. Hundreds of houses went up in flames and many lives were sacrificed in open warfare or more dreaded assassination. The people in the surrounding counties were aroused and gave notice in most positive terms that the Mormons must cross the river and leave the state. So riotous were the disorders of the following year that the state militia was called out to preserve the peace, and finally the Mormons, seeing no alternative, agreed to leave the state if given a reasonable time in which to dispose of their property and make the needed preparation. All the winter of 1845-6, every house in Nauvoo was a workshop. The temple, not yet complete, resounded with the sounds of hammers and saws. It is said that twelve thousand wagons were made during those months. Before spring, Brigham Young, who had been chosen head of the church in place of Joseph Smith, hearing that federal offi- cers were on their trail for various offenses, decided to hasten their departure. On the fifteenth of February, in the dead of winter, the vanguard of that migrating city, to the number of two thousand, set out, crossing the Mis- sissippi on the ice. About the middle of May a second detachment followed. Those who still remained around their desolate homes, trying to sell what little remained at any price that would enable them to provide for the journey before them, were assaulted, mobbed and goaded to des- peration by the surrounding gentile population. The people claimed to fear that the remnant of the Mor- mons did not intend to leave the place. This remnant was 138 forced to gather together in haste what they could and flee for their Hves to the Iowa side of the river. The pioneers of the vanguard reached Salt Lake in July, 1847, ^ y^^^ ^^^ 3. half after starting. The other detach- ments were scattered from the deserts of Utah to the Mis- sissippi river, — a struggling, suffering mass, enduring heat and cold, thirst and hunger, disease and nakedness, death, in all its terrible forms, marking their road across the west- ern wilderness and mountains with the graves of their loved ones, in obedience to a faith the most degrading and servile in the history of this country. Perhaps never since the dark ages has there been such a remarkable migration of a nation in the face of difficulties as this movement of the Mormons to Salt Lake. It is a fascinating episode in the history of political and social institutions as well as in the history of religions, but, having seen the Mormons across the river, free from the state of Illinois, we must refer you to other sources for a study of their peculiar institutions and the sacrifices they were called upon to make for them. 139 CHAPTER XVII THE ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN CANAL The one great problem which an advancing civiHzation must meet and solve is that of transportation. Without readiness of communication there can be little growth or development. The fringe of frontier settlements will remain stationary for years unless means of passmg to and fro can be provided for those who live upon the outskirts or who wish to pass from the more thickly settled regions toward the frontier. We read that when Washington was inaugurated the means of transportation were so poor that the members of Congress could not reach New York in time for the ceremony on the fourth of March and it had to be postponed until the thirtieth of April. The roads were swampy and for hundreds of miles the statesmen had to ride through forests and across mountains, swimming rivers and threading ravines for weeks in order to reach the seat of government. If the country was to develop it must be provided with better means of communication. The histo- rian accounts for the great advance of the Greek people over other peoples of their times by pointing to their in- dented shores and calling attention to the fact that no Greek lived more than forty miles from the sea. They became a commercial people, going and coming between all the ports of the Mediterranean. Communication was easy and 140 Greek thought was accelerated and brightened by this con- stant activity between distant parts. About the time this country began to feel the need of some better means of communication, an English company had devised the scheme of building canals, and one was opened in England about 1760. Our fathers proposed to adopt this scheme, especially as they figured out that a horse could draw upon a canal about thirty times as much as it could draw in a wagon upon a good road. Their ideas still clung to the Atlantic seaboard, and in those days the domi- nating idea was one of fear of war and foreign invasion. So it came about that the first thoughts of canal-building were confined to the making of a line of coast canals not far from the Atlantic, so that trade might be carried on in case of a blockade or the coast might be defended by boats protected from the exposure and dangers of the ocean. This canal system was to reach from Boston Bay to Buz- zard's Bay, then by way of the Long Island Sound to New York, then on by way of the inland rivers and bays to the Carolinas. The first and only part of this scheme ever really completed was the Dismal Swamp section in Virginia, which was opened in 1794. The possibilities of canal transportation, however, were demonstrated, and the canal fever began to rise in the pulse of the nation. All sorts of projects, some wise and many unwise, took possession of the different settlements, all struggling for trade and means of communication. A good passageway between the East and the West was absolutely necessary if the western lands were to be success- fully cultivated. The Alleghanies stood as an insurmount- able barrier to the canal projects. But it finally came to be realized that the Hudson river had cut the northern mountain ridge in twain and from the Atlantic to Troy there was navigation by boat. To the west of Troy, stretching way off to the lake, was a vast reach of comparatively level land. Why not join the river and the lakes? — then the 141 way would be opened to the very heart of the great West. It was a big undertaking, biit a great man was in position to sieze the opportunity, and he did it. DeWitt CUnton, the governor of New York, fathered the project, and spared no sacrifice nor energy nor money until a cask of water had been carried by boat from Lake Erie to the harbor at New York and there poured into the ocean, with great ceremony, celebrating the wedding of the inland lakes with the sea. This was a great day for New York, — for all this country, — and Governor Clinton was the hero of the continent. This successful inauguration of canal-building occurred in 1825. It gave a great impetus to similar enterprises all over the country. Ohio, Indiana and Michigan all took up the work and thousands of miles of canals were built, adding to the development of these states. Of course the demand for canals soon reached Illinois, then just beginning to see her great possibilities and to feel how sorely she was tram- meled by lack of public highways. The one great monu- ment to this sublime devotion to an industrial purpose still standing, in doubtful honor, is the Illinois and Michigan canal. This canal was to connect Lake Michigan with the Mis- sissippi river, beginning at Chicago and following the Des- plaines and Illinois rivers as far as LaSalle, and there con- necting with the Illinois, which was capable of completing the navigable connection with the Mississippi. The canal itself is ninety-six miles long, six feet deep, and sixty feet wide at the water line. Before Illinois became a state, the attention of Congress had been called to the desirability of building such a canal in order to connect the Lakes and the Gulf, but nothing had been done. After the admission to the Union, the state took the matter up and years of discussion and effort were spent in trying to bring about the consummation of ' the scheme. In 1822, Congress granted a right of way 142 for the building of the canal, and the state legislature appropriated money for survey and charts. It was esti- mated that the canal would cost about six hundred thousand dollars, a large sum for those days. But the young state shouldered the responsibility and went at the work with western enthusiasm. In 1827, Congress donated about two hundred and twenty-five thousand acres of land lying along the route of the canal, to aid in its construction. Actual work upon the digging began in 1836. With this beginning of canal-building commenced also the growth and importance of Chicago. The canal lands turned the village into a thriving real estate center. No one can tell the nervous energy, the disheartening rebuffs, the discour- agements, the sacrifices of the brave and heroic frontiers- men from 1823, when the first board of commissioners was appointed, to 1836, when the work was actually begun. Thirteen years of waiting! And who could adequately tell the heart-breakings, the trials, the bitter disappointments that followed along with the history of that canal until water was finally turned into it in 1848? Twelve years more added to the thirteen, — a quarter of a century getting ninety-six miles of canal in operation ! Instead of costing six hundred thousand dollars, as estimated, it cost over six million dollars, — ten times the estimate. But it was a great investment. It was worth to the state all it cost. It at once began returning princely revenues to the state treasury, as well as adding to the increase of population by immigra- tion. Up to 1879 the canal had cost about six and a half million dollars and had returned, for lands and earnings, eight million nine hundred thousand dollars. Could it have been completed a decade sooner it would have added mill- ions to the wealth of the state before the locomotive began hurrying across the prairies shrieking its "haw, haw" at the slow-moving canal-boat. Two other canal projects should be glanced at in this connection. The Illinois and Mississippi canal, which is 143 generally known in the state as the Hennepin canal, was projected to connect the upper Mississippi and the Illinois rivers. As far back as 1871 the preliminary surveys were made for this canal, and thereafter it became an important element in the politics of the western part of the state. Work was begun upon the building of the canal in 1892, and water was turned into it in 1907. Whether it will ever return an equivalent for the eight million or more dollars that have been expended in its construction is a question for the next few years to answer. The Chicago drainage canal is the most expensive of canal-building and engineering projects undertaken in this country. The immediate purpose of this canal was not to furnish transportation but to furnish an outlet for the sewage of the city of Chicago. The canal connects with the Chicago river within the city, and empties itself into the Desplaines at or near Joliet. The total length is about forty miles. The work of digging this canal was begun in September, 1892, and water was turned into it on the second of January, 1900. The channel is about one hundred and fifty feet wide at the bottom — its width varies some- what in different sections — and about twenty-two feet in depth. It is supposed to give free passage to three hundred thousand cubic feet of water per minute. The entire cost of the structure has been approximately forty million dol- lars. The funds for this astonishing enterprise, the great- est perhaps in all the world for caring for the sewage of a city, have been supplied by taxation upon what is known as the Chicago Sanitary District, authorized by the legislature and lying wholly within Cook county. 144 CHAPTER XVIII THE ADVENT OF THE RAILROADS In i8i2, when war was raging along the frontier, and later, in 1814, when the awful massacre occurred at Fort Dear- born, there was no way to travel from one point to another except by wagon, horse, or on foot. Had there been rail- way communication with Fort Wayne there had been no occasion for the bronze monument now standing at the foot of Eighteenth street. In 1832, when the Black Hawk War was on. General Winfield Scott was ordered from Fortress Monroe on the Atlantic seaboard to the scene of action with a body of United States regulars. He was eighteen days making the journey. What with the slow methods of transportation and what with the delays caused by the outbreak of cholera among his troops he did not reach the seat of war until hostilities were all over, so he played no part in the conflict. How things have changed within these years covering scarcely the life of one generation ! Should an outbreak against law and order occur now at Cairo, within twenty-four hours ten thousand troopers could be in charge of that city, coming from Chicago, Freeport, Rockford, or from the garrison at Fort Sheridan. Instead of sending messengers on foot or horseback across the country, the tidings would be flashed in a minute to the uttermost parts of the earth. The railroads brought a new kind of life into the world. 145 Wherever they have gone, old things have passed away and all things have become new. It is sometimes doubted whether the new is any better than the old. Indeed, many are inclined to believe that the changes wrought have been for the worse and are able to produce very strong argu- ments for their side of the question ; but, be that as it may, we know that the old order has passed away ; it has gone forever, and we must adapt ourselves to the ever-changing conditions of the present if we would not waste our lives in useless fault-findings. In the very year DeWitt Clinton opened the Erie canal, the first railroad was operated in the United States. And curious to state, it was used for the purpose of removing the dirt from the canal being dug between the Delaware and the Chesapeake. In 1831 a road began operations between Albany and Schenectady in New York. These were little more than tramways and might be used by horse power as well as by steam power. In 1829 the first road built for steam only was opened in South Carolina between Charles- ton and Columbia. When the Illinois and Michigan canal project was under discussion it was proposed at one time to substitute a railroad for the canal, and the legislature gave its permission. But it was not done, and the first railroad actually to go into operation was in 1837, when a little road was built in St. Clair county for the purpose of shipping coal into St. Louis. This road used horse power instead of steam. From 1832 until 1840 a wave of enthusiasm for public improvements swept over the state of Illinois. The credit of the state was pledged to the building and equipping of roads to such an extent that it was brought to the verge of bankruptcy. Into the details of these troubles we cannot enter. It was a stormy time, and only by the greatest good fortune did the state escape financial ruin. As early as 1831, propositions for the building of a north and south line of road through the state were discussed. 146 A charter was finally granted, in 1836, to a company to build the road. It was a great undertaking in those days. There were no rolling-mills in this country and all the rails had to be bought in England, costing about fifty dollars a ton. The work was new and cost more in every depart- ment than the estimators supposed. Several companies that undertook the work failed one after the other. Even the state attempted to build the road, but failed, as had the others. So the years from 1836 to 185 1 passed in failures and disappointment. The United States government gave to the states of Illinois, Mississippi and Alabama a large body of the public lands to aid them in building a railroad from the Lakes to the Gulf. The total grant of land amounted to about two and a half million acres. This grant gave a new impetus to the project of constructing the road, and a new company was formed. The state legislature of 185 1 granted a charter to the company. Under the provisions of the charter the state provided that a certain part of the income of the road (seven per cent) should go to the state. This provision is incorporated in the constitution of 1870 and is one source of the income of the state. Since 1855 this railroad company has paid into the treasury of the state over twenty-five million dollars. In May, 1853, the first section of this road was put into operation. This was a stretch of sixty-one miles from LaSalle to Bloomington. In July, 1854, one hundred and twenty-eight miles of the branch from Chicago to Urbana were completed and cars were running. Before the close of the year 1854 trains were running from Freeport to Galena. This road has continued to grow and to extend its lines in every direction until its mileage runs up into the thousands. When the charter for the Illinois Central was given there was not a Hne of chartered road crossing its right of way any place from north to south. Yet this was not the first road to begin actual operations. The first road in the state upon which an engine was used as motive power was the Great Northern Cross Railroad, which was chartered to extend from Springfield to Quincy. It was completed be- tween Jacksonville and Meredosia, a distance of twenty- five miles, and in 1842 began operations with a locomotive engine. It was one of the state roads. It was a failure. After expending over a million dollars upon it, the state sold it out at auction for about twenty thousand dollars. It would be useless as well as tiresome to try to enumer- ate the lines of railroads now operating in the state. Let it suffice to say that there are over twenty thousand miles of trackage in the state, and this leads all the states in the Union with the exception of Pennsylvania and Texas. There is scarcely a hamlet in the state through which from two to twenty trains a day do not pass, carrying passengers, freight and mail. The railroad has been the harbinger of a higher type of civilization and the distributer of the varied products of our great country, bringing the oranges of California and Florida to our Illinois tables and carrying our corn, oats and potatoes to the markets of New York and to the ship- ping points for the Old World. We sometimes think that the railroads are tyrannical and oppressive and lawless, yet when we compare what they have done for us with what evils they inflict upon us, there are none who do not admit that we have received a great balance of profit. 148 CHAPTER XIX STATE EDUCATIONAL^ CHARITABLE AND PENAL INSTITUTIONS The enabling act of April, 1818, under which Illinois be- came a state, suggested that provision be made for a system of free schools and for a state university, and suggested that certain lands be donated for the establishment of a fund for this purpose (Sec. 6). This was the beginning, or rather the foundation, of our present public school system with all its accompaniments of state university, normal schools and other educational institutions. Under the suggestion of this act of Congress, and in obedience to the growth of an enlightened sentiment, schools have been established from time to time to meet the varied demands of the population. There are six state educational institutions open to stu- dents of the state free of tuition. These are the State University at Urbana, opened in 1868, with Dr. John M. Gregory as its president; the State Normal School at Nor- mal, established in 1857; the Southern Illinois Normal, lo- cated at Carbondale in 1874; the Northern Illinois Normal, located at De Kalb in 1895; the Eastern Illinois Normal, located at Charleston in 1895, and the Western Illinois Nor- mal, located at Macomb in 1899. All these institutions are related to the district and township schools of the state. The ideal system consists of having the state university the head and capstone of the entire system, so that from the 149 kindergarten room of the most rustic district in the state to the university graduation there may be steady and regu- lar gradation. It is so provided that the Hne of march begun in the country or village or city district school may be continued under the flag and to the drum beat of state protection until all has been done for the youth of the state that can be done to prepare them for an honorable and efficient service in the active duties of life. Semi-Educational Institutions. All children of the state do not come to the schools strong in body and mind. Some are born defective in organs of sense and some defective in mental powers. Others there are who through misfortune or disease become dependent because of similar defects. Under the older civilizations such as these received little care from the state or from any one else. They were the outcasts of society and the festering sores in every community life. Only in compara- tively recent years has anything been done to really help these unfortunates or to give them any recognition as hav- ing a right to a place on the earth. In our times schools are built for those who can be taught, and asylums for those needing constant care and attention. Illinois has not been behind any other state in providing for this unfortunate class of her citizens. There are now seventeen institutions in the state under the direction of the state board of charities, in which about fourteen thousand people, young and old, are taken care of. The secretary of state gives the following list of institutions and inmates for 1906: Six hospitals for the insane 8,541 Asylum for Criminal Insane 198 Institution for the Deaf 435 Institution for the Blind 208 Asylum for Feeble-Minded Children 1,482 Soldiers ' Home 1,709 Soldiers ' Orphans ' Home 310 Soldiers ' Widows ' Home 73 Eye and Ear Infirmary 186 State Training School for Girls \ 314 St. Charles Boys ' Home 217 Industrial Home for the Blind 74 13,747 The Penal and Reformatory Institutions. As early as 1827 the need of a state institution for the incarceration of criminals was recognized. An appropria- tion vv^as made for the erection of a building for this pur- pose. It was located at Alton and at first contained only twenty-five cells. This was the state prison until 1857, when an act was passed for the building of a new and larger prison at Joliet. This new structure was opened in 1858, although it was not then completed, and indeed has been in almost constant course of extension ever since. In 1877 there were over nineteen hundred prisoners at Joliet and the legislature provided for a second penitentiary to be lo- cated at Chester, near the mouth of the Kaskaskia river, and only five miles distant from the old town of Kaskaskia, of which we have had so much to do in these stories. This prison was opened for the reception of prisoners in 1878, when a number were transferred from the overcrowded quarters at JoHet. In addition to these prisons, there is the state reform school located at Pontiac. This school was established in 1867. This school was intended to give a chance for edu- cation and reformation for young men for whom there seemed some hope of reforming and winning back to use- ful citizenship. The age limit has been raised until now boys from ten to twenty-one years of age are sent there. There are at this time approximately eleven hundred in- mates. i=;i CHAPTER XX SOME OF THE MEN WHO MADE THE STATE The greatness of a state may be read in the biographies of its citizens. If the average of the citizenship is high, no state can be insignificant. If it be low, the whole civic structure shows the effect. For this reason we have taken great pains and have gone to great expense to establish and foster a system of public schools wherein every boy and girl may imbibe the fundamental notions of good citizen- ship. Every boy and girl in the land should take pride in these institutions and should strive to make them somewhat better than they are. In this chapter we shall give brief notes upon the lives of some of the great men of the state. We shall not name a fourth part of those who are worthy of mention, nor shall we be able to give more than a few facts concerning the lives of those whom we do mention. George Rogers Clark wrested the Illinois country from the British by his heroic capture of the settlements at Kas- kaskia, Cahokia and Vincennes. He was born in Albemarle county, Virginia, in November, 1752. He became a farmer and later took up the work of surveying. He fought in some of the Indian skirmishes along the Virginia and Ohio borders. The great act of his life was the organizing and leading of the force that invaded the Illinois country in 1778. After the close of the Revolution he did some fight- 152 ing against the Indians, but soon retired to Louisville, Ken- tucky, where he lived until his death, which occurred Feb- ruary 1 8, 1818, the very year that Illinois became a state, with Kaskaskia as its capital. Arthur St. Clair, first governor of the Northwest ter- ritory, of which Illinois formed a part (1789-1802), was born in Scotland, coming to this country as a young man of about twenty-three. He served under Washington in the Revolutionary War. He made his home in Pennsylva- nia and represented that state in the Continental Congress. In 1802 President Jefferson removed him from the gover- norship of the Northwest territory, after which he retired to private life. He died at Greensburg, Pennsylvania, in Au- gust, 1818, the same year that Illinois became a state. Shadrach Bond was the first territorial delegate of Illi- nois to the United States Congress (1812-1814). He was instrumental in securing a preemption law, the first in the United States. He was the first governor of Illinois, serv- ing from 18 1 8 to 1822. He died at Kaskaskia in 1832. Nathaniel Pope was our territorial delegate in Con- gress when Illinois asked for the enabling act which made it possible for her to become a state. To Mr. Pope's far- sighted statesmanship and skill in presenting his views be- fore the congressional committee are we indebted to the fact that the site of Chicago is in the state of Illinois and not in Wisconsin. Had Mr. Pope been blind to the occa- sion, we should have had neither the Chicago river nor the shore of Lake Michigan within our boundaries. The orig- inal description of our territory cut us off with a line run- ning directly west from the southern extremity of Lake Michigan. Mr. Pope succeeded in getting the line estab- lished at forty-two degrees and thirty minutes of north latitude, where it was effectually maintained. When Illi- nois was made a state Mr. Pope was made United States judge of the district, which then included the whole of the 153 state. He held this office until the time of his death in January, 1850. Edward Coles succeeded Bond as governor of Illinois. He was a Virginian, but removed to Illinois in 1819 with all his belongings. Among these belongings were twenty- six slaves. When he reached Illinois he told the slaves that they were all free and gave to each head of a family one hundred sixty acres of land. In 1822 he was elected gover- nor upon an anti-slavery ticket. He was very active and influential in the slavery struggle at that time before the people of the state. He gave his entire salary to the cause and had the satisfaction of knowing that the cause of slavery had been killed in the state. In 1833 he removed from Illinois to Philadelphia, where he died in 1868, having had the great pleasure of seeing slavery destroyed in the entire United States. Morris Birkbeck should be mentioned in connection with the slavery struggle of Illinois. He was the warm friend and aid of Governor Coles in the contest. Birkbeck was a well-to-do Englishman who came to this country in 1817. He came to Illinois and bought a large tract of land in what is now Edwards county. He was followed by a large colony whom he had persuaded to come to America, and they founded the town of New Albion. He was an able and active writer and speaker, urging the great possibilities of Illinois and the importance of prohibiting slavery within the state. Mr. Birkbeck lost his life by accidental drowning in 1825. NiNiAN Edwards was governor of Illinois from 1826 to 1830. He had come to Illinois from the state of Kentucky, where he had studied law and had succeeded so well that he was made chief justice of the court of appeals. In 1809, when Illinois became an independent territory, Presi- dent Madison appointed Edwards as the first territorial governor. He served until Illinois became a state. At the close of his term as governor in 1830 he retired to his home 154 at Belleville, where he died in 1833 from an attack of cholera. John Reynolds succeeded Edwards as governor of Illi- nois in 1830. He was a typical backwoods character, al- though said to have received some college training in Ten- nessee. He was governor of the state during the Black Hawk disturbances and led the state militia in person. He wrote a number of books, chiefly historical, the best known of which is "My Life and Times." He died in 1865. Elijah Parish Lovejoy, the martyr to the cause of abo- lition, was a son of Maine. He came to the West in 1827, settling in St. Louis. He was educated for the ministry in the Presbyterian church, but much of his time was given to journalism. In St. Louis he started the Observer, a re- ligious weekly newspaper. His editorials upon the subject of slavery were displeasing to a large part of the com- munity, and, under threats from the pro-slavery party, he decided to leave the state. He carried his press and printing outfit to Alton in Illinois. Before the press could be set up, even as it lay upon the wharf, it was attacked by a mob and partially destroyed ; the mob was said to have fol- lowed the editor from St. Louis. This was in July, 1836. The citizens of Alton deprecated this action and a sub- scription was raised to purchase a new press. But there was to be no compromise. Press after press was destroyed until four were ruined. The life of Lovejoy was made al- most unendurable, but still he stood for what he claimed as his rights as an American citizen and refused to be co- erced by the mobs that hounded him. When it became known that a fourth press had been ordered and was on its way to the city an indignation meet- ing was called by the pro slavery citizens of Alton. At this meeting, held November 3, Lovejoy appeared and after listening to the speeches made against him delivered the following manly and pathetic appeal: "Mr. Chairman, it is not true as has been charged upon 155 me that I hold in contempt the feelings and sentiments of this community in reference to the question which is now agitating it. But, sir, while I value the good opin- ion of my fellow citizens as highly as anyone, I may be permitted to say that I am governed by higher con- siderations than either the favor or the fear of man. I plant myself down upon my unquestionable right, and the question to be decided is whether I shall be pro- tected in the enjoyments of these rights — that is the question, sir, whether my property shall be protected, whether I shall be suffered to go home to my family at night without being assailed, threatened with tar and feathers and assassination — whether my afflicted wife, whose life has been in jeopardy from continual alarm and excitement, shall night after night be driven from a sick bed into the garret to save herself from brick bats and violence of the mob. That, sir, is the question ! I know, sir, that you can tar and feather me, hang me, or put me in the Mississippi without the least difficulty. But what then? Where shall I go? I have concluded, after con- sulting with my friends, and earnestly seeking counsel of God, to remain in Alton, and here ihsist on protection in the exercise of my rights. If the civil authorities refuse to protect me, I must look to God, and if I die, I am determined to make my grave in Alton." When, after several days of intense excitement, the fourth press reached Alton on the morning of November 7, 1837, a plot was at once entered into by his enemies to destroy this press also. It was removed to a warehouse, and here, in the night of the seventh of November, as he and some of his friends tried to defend his property from violence, he was shot down by the mob and killed. It was a tragic episode, carried out through the more than two years during which Love joy stood for the rights of free speech as well as for the rights of man. His death had more to do with the growth of abolition sentiment in Illinois than any other one thing. He was regarded as a martyr, and as such his influence and sentiments were felt far and near. For those 156 who want an example of a brave man standing almost alone against great odds, simply for the sake of the right as he recognized it, when he might have found safety and ease elsewhere, our history furnishes few parallels to that of E. P. Lovejoy. Stephen Arnold Douglas was born in Vermont in 1813 and came to Illinois in 1833. He studied law at Winchester, Illinois, and after service in several official positions be- came justice of the Supreme Court of the state in 1842. He was elected to Congress in 1842, 1844 ^^^ 1846, serving two terms, when he was chosen to the United States Senate in 1846. He was reelected twice, the second time in 1849 after the famous debates with Abraham Lincoln. Douglas was looking forward to a probable election to the office of president of the United States, but his debates with Lincoln, while for the time successful, seemed to effectually separate him from his democratic friends in the south. When the time came for nominating standard bearers for the demo- cratic party Douglas found himself in control of only a minority of the forces. The convention broke up into fac- tions and instead of presenting a united front there were several candidates, against whom was opposed the rail- splitter of the Sangamon, and Douglas was badly beaten. It was a severe blow to his pride and he probably never recovered from it. Although opposed to Lincoln in the great battle for the presidency, there were none who stood more loyally by the administration of the great president than did Stephen A. Douglas. He was a patriot as well as a party man, and not for a moment did he hesitate when the time came to give his voice and influence for the union cause. He died in Chicago, June 3, 1861, before the war had scarcely begun. In Woodland park, Chicago, stands the Douglas monu- ment, by Leonard Volk, consisting of a granite base, sur- mounted by a bronze figure of the distinguished senator, while at the four corners of the sarcophagus-like base are 157 bronze allegorical figures representing Illinois, History, Jus- tice and Eloquence. The shaft is something over loo feet in height and was erected by the state at a cost of $100,000. Abraham Lincoln, the ''First American" for whom Na- ture made a new mold, using clay out of the great West, was born in Hardin county, Kentucky, February 12, 1809. In 1830, with his father he came to Illinois, settling in Macon county. While a boy and young man he spent his life as did most of the youth in this frontier country. Abe was more industrious and more far-seeing than most of his associates, and blessed with rugged health and great phys- ical endurance, was prepared to follow the life of farm- hand, flatboatman, rail-splitter, store-keeper or any other occupation that might offer. He had very little opportunity for sdiooling or self-education. What little he had was used wisely and persistently. He would walk miles to bor- row books and would spend many of his sleeping hours in reading them. No one can read his speeches without being amazed not only with the extent of reading they exhibit, but the thoroughness with which he had digested the themes of the authors. For one who had so few opportunities to get books this is remarkable. Lincoln was a soldier in the Black Hawk War, as were Jefferson Davis, Major Ander- son, of Fort Sumter fame, and many others who afterwards became noted leaders. Lincoln studied law in his odd hours and was admitted to the bar in 1836. He was a member of the state legislature for several years. He served upon the delegation that was charged with securing the location of the capitol building at Springfield. He was a member of Congress from 1847 to 1849. In 1855 ^e was a candidate for election to the United States senate, but was beaten. In 1847 he was one of the leading spirits in the formation of the republican party in the state of Illinois, the conven- tion meeting at Bloomington. In 1858 he was nominated by his party for the United States senate. Out of this nom- ination grew the notable debates between Lincoln and Doug- 158 las. Lincoln was beaten for the senate, but his reputation was made, and in i860 he was nominated for the office of president of the United States and elected. The rest of his public life is written in the history of the Civil War, which began with the beginning of his administration and was about at its close when he was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth, a half-crazed actor, on the fifteenth of April, 1865. Lincoln was shot in Ford's theater on the evening of April 15, died the following morning, and, after a na- tional funeral the like of which had never been known in this country, his body was laid to rest in the city where he had made his home, the capital of his state. At the corner of Lake and Market streets, on the building occupied by Reid, Murdoch & Co., a memorial tablet marks the site of the temporary wigwam in which Abraham Lin- coln was nominated for the presidency. May 18, i860. The tablet was placed by the Chicago Centennial association at the celebration of Chicago's hundredth anniversary, Sept. 26 to Oct. 2, 1903. A month after the assassination of Lincoln an association was formed for the purpose of erecting a national monu- ment. There was a hearty response to the appeal and ground was broken for the monument in September, 1869, and it was dedicated in October, 1874. It stands upon an eminence in Oak Ridge cemetery, Springfield. The base is seventy-two and a half feet from east to west and one hun- dred nineteen and a half feet from north to south, rising by gradations to a height of twenty-eight feet and four inches from the ground. Surmounting this is an obelisk rising ninety-two feet higher. The total height from the ground to the top of the obelisk is one hundred twenty feet and four inches. In 1899, owing to signs of weak- ness in the monument, the legislature appropriated $100,000 for repairs and the entire structure was gone over and strengthened. At the , suggestion of Robert T. Lincoln, the Board of 159 Control had a cemented vault made beneath the floor of the catacomb, and in this vault the body of President Lin- coln was placed Sept. 2.6, 1901. Joel Matteson was governor of Illinois from 1853 to 1857. He was born in New York in 1808. After some ex- perience in other parts of the country he came to Illinois in 1834, making his home at Joliet, in Will county, where he engaged in manufacturing. Under the administration of Governor Matteson, and largely through his influence, the school law of 1855, the basis of our present law, was passed by the legislature. After the close of his term as governor, he removed to Chicago where he made his home until the time of his death, January 31, 1873. NiNiAN W. Edwards^ a son of Governor Edwards, de- serves a conspicuous place in the history of the state. When, upon the recommendation of Governor Matteson, the legis- lature provided for the enactment of a school law and for the establishing of the oflice of superintendent of schools, Ninian Edwards was the man selected for that office. So it fell into his hands, by virtue of that appointment and the act of the legislature, to draft a school law for the state. No one doubts the honesty of purpose and great de- votion with which he set to work upon that task, and the law produced and enacted stands today as the best monu- ment to the ability and broad views of education possessed by its compiler. From the appointment of Ninian Edwards to the office of state superintendent may be said to date the beginning of free schools in the state of Illinois. Ninian Edwards was born in Frankfort, Kentucky, in 1809, and died at his home in Springfield, September 2, 1889. Richard Yates was the governor of Illinois in the Civil War times. It was a trying position, as a large element of the population, especially in the southern part of the state, was bitterly opposed to the war. The legislature was badly divided, and only by the most positive spirit of loyalty to Union principles was a serious division of sentiment pre- 160 vented. Yates was known as one of the great war govern- ors. He deserved all praise for the courage and straight- forward manner in which he dealt with the questions of the war. Under the impetus and enthusiasm created by this fearless governor, Illinois came forward with nearly two hundred fifty thousand boys in blue, and their part in the war was one of honor to themselves and of glory to the state. Yates was born in Warsaw, Kentucky, in 1815. In 183 1 the family removed to Illinois, making their home at Spring- field. He studied law, served in the state legislature and in Congress. He aided in the organization of the repub- lican party in Illinois, and at the same time Lincoln was elected president, Yates was elected to the governorship of Illinois. After his term of office had expired he was elected to the United States senate, where he served from 1865 to 1871. He died in St. Louis, suddenly, while passing through the city on a business trip under the appointment of Presi- dent Grant, November 27, 1873. U. S. Grant came to the state in middle life. He was thirty-eight years of age when he made his home in Ga- lena. He was born at Point Pleasant, Clermont county, Ohio, April 2^, 1S22. He graduated from the West Point Academy and entered the army. He served in the Mexican War and afterward retiring from the army he settled at St. Louis, removing from there to Illinois in i860. At the breaking out of the Civil War he at once oflFered his serv- ices to the government and was soon placed in charge of the Union forces at Cairo. From the day in February, 1862, when he led his troops against the enemy's camp at Belmont, until his death in the cottage at Mount McGregor, in July, 1885, his story is in large part the story of the Civil War and the reconstruction of the southern states after the close of the war. 161 space forbids that we should thus go on through' the whole list of those worthy a place upon the honorable es- cutcheon of the state, else would we tell of Logan, one of our great volunteer leaders ; of Oglesby and Palmer, strong in statecraft and faithful to civic duty ; of Hovey and Bate- man and Edwards and Hewitt and a great multitude of others who have made our educational sky glitter with stars as does the blue canopy at night. We should name Riggs and Walker and Cartwright and Peck and Finley, and thou- sands of their co-laborers and successors, who made reli- gious life a necessity and saved the pioneer settlements from paganism. We would go even further back than this and tell of the heroic souls who planted their cabins over against the hunting grounds of the savage, and, taking their lives in their hands, by sacrifice and self-denial, by sufferings oft beyond description, and with death often by violence, some- times at the stake and sometimes with lingering illness far from medical aid or skillful nursing, made this land possible for our twentieth century civilization and comforts. It was such as these that laid the foundations of the prosperity and greatness of our state, and of these we are in no sense worthy unless we shall add to the inheritance something from our own lives and industry that shall redound to the honor of our state. 162 CHAPTER XXI THE MAKING OF CHICAGO Beside the lake, covering and spreading all about the spot where Marquette spent the long wearisome winter of 1674-5, has grown up a great city giving homes to two millions of people. Instead of the frail canoes paddling along the shore or pushing up the rivers we have great ships made of steel and carrying thousands of tons of freight coming and going every day in the year. The war-whoop of the Indian no longer echoes across the sands of the lake shore and his wigwam no longer adds picturesqueness and sol- emnity to the scene. Instead of these we have the shriek- ing of thousands of steam whistles, the rumbling of unnum- bered wheels along steel rails or over granite stones and the atmosphere is laden with belching volumes of black and heavy smoke from countless factory and office chimneys. In digging for foundations in the city of London work- men have turned up implements and household utensils used by Englishmen five hundred years ago ; still below that they have found the armour and spears and coins of the Norman French who came into the country with William the Conqueror nearly nine hundred years ago; still below that they have discovered the stone foundations and shields and bridle-bits and coins left by the Romans who lived in the city eighteen hundred years ago ; and yet beneath that have been found the simple tools and household articles 163 of the ancient Britons who founded die city of London before Julius Caesar was born, perhaps, before the city of Rome was built upon her seven hills. The same might be said of many other cities where mul- titudes of men have gathered like hives of bees. We walk the streets of Boston and see the buildings in which Otis and Hancock and Adams thrilled their audiences by fiery denunciations of English oppressions; we see the very church steeple which flashed the light that started Paul Revere on his midnight ride. The men who builded and lived and loved and died in these structures and walked these streets in sunlight by day and in darkness by night have become as historic and as distant as are the pyramids of Egypt. With every great city we associate the notion of age, of time, of past generations. But here beside the lake has grown up a phenomenon in the history of cities. There are men among us who can remember when the waste of sands from Beverley hills to North Shore drive was broken by not more than a score of rude buildings. There are many among us who can remember when the total population could be written down in three figures, — and now it takes seven. For rap- idity of growth, for solidity of structure, for its imperial command of trade and commerce it stands alone, unique and unchallenged among all the cities of the world. It is fitting that it should be so. It is the great city of the Illinois country and Illinois is our state. The biography of a city should be as interesting and instructive as the biography of a man and it will do us good to spend a little time trying to image, as, best we can, the gradual development of this, our Chicago. There are many theories as to the origin of the name Chicago. The one that has been generally accepted is that it is an Indian word, signifying a bad smell. As applied to this region, it is supposed to have referred to the wild onions which grew rankly all over the marshy plain. By 164 other authorities the name is said to have been derived from an Indian word meaning strong or mighty. The Indians are said to have applied the name to the Mississippi, to thunder and to the voice of the Great Manitou. Father Hen- nepin used the name to designate the IlHnois river. LaSalle gave the name to the Desplaines and also to the Calumet. He speaks of the "Chicagou Portage." The name came at last to designate both the plain and the river long before Fort Dearborn came to be built. After the successful campaign of General Anthony Wayne against the Indians of Ohio, Indiana, Michigan and Illinois in 1794-5, the different tribes were forced to cede parts of their lands to the United States. The Pottawatomies, who occupied the country bordering upon the lake in Illinois, gave up "one piece of land, six miles square, at the mouth of the Chicago river emptying into Lake Mich- igan, where a fort formerly stood." This was practically the site of the present Chicago, and thus it was that the real estate trade for the ground upon which we have builded our city was conducted, and thus the title to our city lots was obtained from the Indians. In 1803, the secretary of war ordered a company of soldiers to move from Detroit to the mouth of the Chicago river and there establish and occupy a fort. The following year Fort Dearborn was completed and was occupied by two companies of soldiers. The story of the fort is briefly told upon a bronze tablet built into the walls of the Hoyt building at the foot of Michigan avenue in the following inscription: 'This building occupies the site of old Fort Dearborn, which extended a little across Michigan avenue, and some- what into the river as it now is. The fort was built in 1803-4, forming our outmost defense. By order of Gen. Hull, it was evacuated Aug. 15, 18 12, after its stores and provisions had been distributed among the Indians. Very soon after, the Indians attacked and massacred about fifty 165 of the troops and a number of citizens, including women and children, and next day burned the fort. In 1816 it was rebuilt, but after the Black Hawk war it went into gradual disuse, and in May, 1837, was abandoned by the army, but was occupied by various government offices till 1857, when it was taken down excepting a single building which stood upon this site till the great fire of Oct. 9, 1871. At the suggestion of the Chicago Historical society this tablet was erected by W. M. Hoyt, November, 1880." Around this fort gathered a few fur traders with their families. John Kinzie, the first permanent white settler, came in 1804. With him came his wife, his nephew, Robert Forsythe, his nine year old stepdaughter, Margaret Mc- Killup, and the little John Kinzie, who was conveyed in a birch-bark cradle swung from the shoulders of ''Black Jim," a negro slave. In 1805 came Charles Jouett; then there were the families of Charles Lee, Mr. Burns and Mr. White. This was the population of Chicago in 1806. In 1804, Ellen Marion Kinzie was born, — the first white child born in Chicago. The stories of fun and frolic, of joy and laughter, of births and deaths which come down to us from those days of pioneer life, in the midst of swamps and sands beside our beautiful lake, seem like fairy lore of far off lands. Yet they were the lives and loves of those who might have talked with our fathers, giving them from experience the tales of Indian life and bloody massacres. The fort was rebuilt in 181 6, as told on our tablet, and settlers again gathered about it, gradually increasing in number. James Galloway arrived overland from Ohio in 1824. The story of his journey was a nine days' wonder. At Sandusky he had put a gun, tomahawk, steel traps, blan- kets, bacon and corn meal in a wagon. He shot game to eat on the way, and sold the peltries in Fort Wayne. From there he crossed Indiana and Michigan to St. Joseph, 166 and followed the Indian trail around the end of the lake. He toiled through the sand dunes where Michigan City now stands, and got stuck in the mud of the Calumet marsh. He went on nearly loo miles west of Chicago to the grand rapids of the Illinois river and, on the site of Marseilles, staked out a claim in the military road strip. The next year he went back to Ohio for his family, bringing them around by the Great Lakes. It was recognized that Chicago was the natural transfer point between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi valley. President Monroe was deluged with petitions, even so early as that, asking for the opening of roads and canals to con- nect these great waterways. The southern part of the state was settled more rapidly than the northern part, as has been shown by the maps of a preceding chapter. It was not until 1823 that this region came under the civil rule of the state as a district "attached to Fulton County." The first election was held that year in the Indian agency house. That same year the entire prop- erty of Chicago was assessed at $2.50. In 1830, Chicago really began to take on signs of life and growth. The Illinois and Michigan canal had been chartered and large tracts of land had been donated by the government to aid in the construction. Chicago was described at that time as "a village of fifteen houses and a fort, located on Section 9, Township 39, Range 14." This was the terminus of the canal, and town lots were laid off and offered for sale. Then business began. Lots sold as high as $75 each. In 183 1 Cook County was organized. In 1832 the taxes of Chicago amounted to $150 and the village trustees erected the first public building, a cattle yard for stray cattle, at a cost of twelve dollars. The Black Hawk war and the cholera came like a frost upon the budding prosperity of the young city. But it soon recovered and in 1833 the population had grown to 167 fifty families. In 1905 four of the pioneer settlers who came to Chicago in 1833-4 met at a reunion. How strange it must have seemed to them to look out upon the miles and miles of brick and stone buildings and reflect that when they came here to settle there were only fifty houses ! Before the close of 1834 the population had grown to about 2,000. The real estate boom was making the town. The chief part of the lots auctioned off that year be- longed to the school section, Number 16, which is in the heart of Chicago. Most of these lots sold for about $6.72 per acre, bringing a total of about $38,000 to the school fund. Fortunately for us who now live in Chicago most of the lots were sold on time and many of them were not paid for and came back to the school board. There was a regular craze for lots. Prices rose so rapidly that no one could keep track of them. The lot upon which the Northwestern University building is now located, at Lake and Dearborn streets, was sold in 1829 by raffle at twenty-five cents a chance. In 1830 it was traded for an Indian pony. In 1831 it was rated as worth $1.25. In 1832 it was traded for a pair of boots. In 1833 it was traded for a barrel of whisky, worth $25. In 1834 it was traded for a yoke of steers and a barrel of flour. In 1835 it was sold for $500 cash. In 1836 it was sold for $5,000 and the purchaser refused to part with it. In 1836 Harriet Martineau visited Chicago and wrote as follows of it : 'T never saw a busier place. It was but a squalid town of insignificant houses that sat jauntily in the muck of the prairie, but the streets were as crowded as London. Land sales were held on every block, and everybody hurried from one to another, fearing to miss the bargains. A negro dressed in scarlet, bearing a red flag and riding a white horse with scarlet housings, dashed through the town and announced the times of sale. Crowds flocked around him. The gentlemen of our party were hailed from the shop doors 168 with offers of farms, land lots, water lots, town sites, timber claims. The immediate occasion of excitement was the sale of $2,000,000 worth of lots along the projected canal. Wild land along that undug ditch was selling for more than the finest land in the valley of the Mohawk, where an inestimable amount of traffic was then being carried on. These speculators in Chicago were not sharpers or gam- blers, but hard-headed business men. It was remarkable to find such an assemblage of cultivated, refined and wealthy people living in the rudest houses on the edge of that wild prairie." In March, 1837, the city was given a charter and W. B. Ogden was elected to be the first mayor. The population that year was given as 4,149. The Indians had departed. They had signed away their title to the lands and agreed to go to the west of the Mis- sissippi. In 1835 they held their last war dance and built their last council-fire in Chicago. Judge J. D. Caton, who at the time was a young lawyer in the village, wrote the fol- lowing account of this last scene : "It was in August, 1835, that the Pottawatomies danced their last war dance in Chicago. Certain risks were taken in permitting them to dance, but the officer in command at the fort feared also to refuse them. The garrison was under arms on the parade ground at Michigan avenue and the river, ostensibly to do the braves honor, but in reality to be in readiness for trouble should sorrow, excitement and bad whisky prove too much for the Indian's self-control. "The braves assembled at the bark council house after hours in their tepees spent in making their savage toilets. All were naked except for a strip of cloth about the loins, but their bodies were covered with elaborate designs in brilliant paints. Foreheads, cheeks and noses were lined with curved stripes of vermilion edged with black points, that gave a diabolical expression to their faces. The long, coarse, black hair was gathered into scalp-locks and dec- 169 orated with colored hawk and eagle feathers extending down the back to the ground. The braves were armed with war clubs and tomahawks and were led by musicians who kept up a hideous, rythmic din by beating on hollow vessels with sticks. "They advanced, not by marching, but by a continuous dance. Proceeding westward along the north bank of the river they crossed the eighty-foot slough at Market street and the North Branch, on swaying foot bridges, thence along the west bank to Lake street, where a log bridge spanned the South Branch. They were now just below the windows of the Sauganash House, which stood on the southeast corner of Lake and Market, where the Republican Wigwam was afterwards built and where Lincoln was nom- inated for the presidency twenty-five years later. "The dance, which never stopped, consisted of jerks, leaps and unnatural distortions, all performed with light- ning-like swiftness, and wildcat grace and ferocity. There were 800 braves in that raging river of dusky, painted fiends which poured over the bridge and flowed down Lake street to the fort. They were frothing at the mouth ; many had been wounded by flying tomahawks and war clubs, and blood mingled with dust, paint and sweat, but the victims were unconscious of their hurts. Ladies at the windows fainted as the savages closed around the hotel to perform extra exploits. What if this sham rage should turn into a real attack! How easy it would have been for these Indians to have committed another massacre in the helpless town !" But no serious results followed. The next day the sav- ages sadly turned away from the Chicago plain and began their march to their new home in the far away Missouri country. The time of city building had now come and the newly elected officers in 1837 began taking an inventory of affairs 170 and proposing plans for the improvement of local condi- tions. To provide for the troops of children that were already filling the streets, a school system was established. The state legislature granted power to the city council to estab- lish and maintain common schools and this, beginning in 1837, has grown until the present city council makes pro- vision for about 280,000 children in its buildings and passes appropriations for the payment of nearly 6,000 teachers. The Civil War affected Chicago as it affected all the cities of the north. From her homes went out thousands of brave men, many of whom never came back. The mothers and wives and sisters of the city formed relief bands and sewing societies, gathering supplies of medicines, bandages, and clothing for our boys at the front. All this is told in the history books and we do not need to repeat it here. When the war was over, when our great commander. Gen- eral Grant, had urged, "Let us have peace," and the daunt- less leader of the gray. General Robert E. Lee, had dis- banded and sent to their homes the shattered ranks of the Confederacy, men everywhere rejoiced and Chicago began a new era of growth and development. In the midst of the growing prosperity of the city there came the greatest calamity that can befall any populous community. In a few hours the streets which had been filled with trade and traffic were strewn with ruins and debris; the miles of stores and office buildings which were the pride of all the citizens were smoldering heaps of ashes. A great fire, borne upon the wings of the wind, swept the city from near Twelfth and Clinton streets to Fullerton avenue, taking everything between the rivers and the lake. It began upon the night of October 8, 1871, it is said, by the overturning of a lamp in a cow-shed. It was Sunday evening and the city was unprepared for the emergency. All night long, all day long, and yet another night and a day the red flames shot up so high they were 171 visible to a distance of one hundred fifty miles and the stifling smoke drove the panic stricken and homeless people from one refuge to another. The fire department was assisted by the fire departments from other cities, some of them coming from as far away as the city of Cleveland, Ohio, but all could do nothing against the destroying demon of flame. It burned itself out, then as if satisfied, died away and disappeared. Behind was left two thousand acres of desolate, smoking ruins and more than seventy thousand people whose homes had gone up in the fire and smoke. It was a terrific blow coming with the suddenness of assassination and the city by the lake staggered under the blow. Nearly $200,000,000 of her gathered wealth, about a third of all the estimated wealth of the city, had disap- peared, and her business had been wiped out. But, rousing from the catastrophe, she put forth new strength, as one rousing from a sleep, and with the aid of all the world that laid its contributions at her door in a noble spirit of philan- thropy, upon a scale never known before, she began build- ing larger and better than ever before. No one who walks today from the Rock Island depot to Lincoln Park, through the region of large buildings tower- ing to the height of fourteen, twenty and even thirty stories, would dream that here for the distance of four miles the fire had left not a building standing and foundations had to be laid anew for every structure. It is a magnificent monument to the endurance and persistence of man and a fine illustration of that Chicago spirit which says "I will." One of the first and most serious problems that confronted the new city council in 1837 was the providing for a whole- some and sufficient supply of fresh water. Perhaps a short sketch of the inauguration and development of the water system of the city may be interesting in this place. THE CHICAGO WATER SYSTEM was begun in 1834, when the village board paid $95.50 for digging a well for the 172 use of the public. This well was sunk at what is now the corner of Cass and Michigan streets. The supply from the well was not as good as from the lake. Water was hauled by wagon or barrel and sold from house to house or each one provided his own means of transportation. In 1836 the state legislature incorporated the Chicago Hydraulic Com- pany for the purpose of supplying to the people a whole- some and plentiful supply of fresh water. This Hydraulic company began furnishing water to the city in 1840. It built a tank 25 by 25 by 8 feet at the corner of Lake and Michigan streets. The top of the tank was about eighty feet above the level of the lake. A twenty-five horse power engine was installed and the tank was connected with the lake by a pipe which extended one hundred fifty feet from the shore. About two miles of wooden pipe was laid for distribution. This did not supply more than about one- fifth of the people. Most of the town was still served by the water wagon. The population was increasing very rapidly and the need of an adequate supply began to be severely felt. In 1852 the city took over the franchises of the Hydraulic company and laid plans for a better system of water works, but it was not until 1854 that the new system was put into operation. By the plan of 1854 a pumping station was erected at Chicago avenue (the present pumping location), and a pipe thirty inches in diameter was extended a short distance from the shore. Three stand-pipes were erected, one at LaSalle and Adams streets, one at Morgan and Monroe and the third at Chicago avenue and Sedgwick street. These stand-pipes were connected with the pumping sta- tion by iron pipes. The first iron pipes for distribution purposes were laid in 1852; the population at that time was about 30,000. These three reservoirs were in use, in whole or in part, until 1876. In 1858 two new reservoirs were built, holding about half a million gallons each. At the close of 1862 there were one hundred five miles 173 of iron water pipe in use. The population was then about 115,000. In 1863 the legislature gave permission, and Congress approved it, to build tunnels, or to use such other means as might be necessary, for obtaining water from the lake. Under this permission the first tunnel under the lake was begun, in March, 1864, and completed in just three years. A crib was erected two miles from the shore northeast from the Chicago avenue pumping station and a tunnel, five feet in diameter, connected these two points. The iron distributing pipe had grown by this time to one hundred seventy-five miles. In 1872 a second tunnel was run from the two-mile crib, forty-six feet south of the first tunnel and parallel with it, to the shore connecting with the Chicago avenue station and thence extending to Twenty-second street and Ashland avenue. The distance is 31,419 feet and the tunnel is seven feet in diameter. This tunnel was completed in 1874, mak- ing a connection in all with four hundred sixteen miles of iron service pipe for a population of over 300,000 people. From 1876 to 1880 brick tunnels were built under the river at various points and thirty-six inch mains run through them to connect the various stations. In 1886-7 a third tunnel was built extending from the Chicago avenue station to the breakwater where a crib was erected for the pur- pose of relieving the two-mile crib when endangered by ice. This tunnel has not been used much because it is too near the shore. A fourth tunnel and a third crib were built in 1888-92. It reaches out four miles into the lake to the east of Twelfth street; it is from six to eight feet in diameter and extends under the lake to the distance of 34,339 feet, connecting with the Park Row pumping station. From this station two land tunnels extend, one, seven feet in diameter, running to Peck court, thence northwest to Desplaines street, thence to Harrison street pumping station. A second runs to the 174 Fourteenth street pumping station. Various other short connecting tunnels were built. In 1889, by annexation, Hyde Park and the town of Lake became a part of the city with their water system. This consisted of a tunnel reaching about a mile out into the lake to a crib, and a pumping station at Sixty-eighth street. The city extended this lake tunnel to the distance of two miles and erected a new crib and extended the land tunnels so that most of the city south of Thirty-ninth street is sup- plied through this Sixty-eighth street crib. At the same time Lake View became a part of the city with an unfinished tunnel on hand. This tunnel was completed by the city extending to a distance of two miles from the shoie and a new crib was erected. Other annexations brought the towns of Washington Heights, Norwood Park, Rogers Park and Cicero into the city. The last two are still supplied by a system operated by a private corporation. Washington Heights is supplied by a pumping station which draws its water from an artesian well, 1,350 feet deep. Norwood Park is also sup- plied from a well 1,600 feet deep. In 1896-99 a still greater supply of water was demanded and a new tunnel and crib were built. This is known as the Carter Harrison crib. The lake tunnel reaching this crib starts at Oak street shaft and extends 14,033 feet from the shore. It is ten feet in diameter. From the shaft one land tunnel, ten feet in diameter, extends to Green and Grand avenue, 8,666 feet. From here one branch runs to Central Park avenue and Fillmore street, a distance of 19,856 feet; a second branch runs to Springfield avenue and Bloomingdale road, 22,184 feet. The last sections of these tunnels were completed in 1900. Besides these various tunnels connecting with the lake cribs there are seventeen tunnels under the rivers. In 1904 there were nineteen hundred seventy-eight miles of water mains and thirty-seven miles of lake tunnels, with five cribs 175 and ten pumping stations. The entire system is estimated to have cost the city about $36,003,000. The end is not yet. As we write these pages scores of men are at work, night and day, extending the tunnels both under land and water trying to solve more completely the same problem that faced our fathers in 1837. THE CHICAGO SEWERAGE SYSTEM. When a tol- erable supply of water was furnished only one side of the problem had been attacked. Another and in some ways a much more serious question concerned the disposal of the waste matter, — the slops and garbage, — the sewage of the city. We shall be interested then in the manner in which this problem was attacked and has been pushed forward toward its final solution. No systematic efforts were made to care for the sewage of Chicago until 1855. We remember that the city took over the franchises of the Hydraulic Water company in 1852 and began furnishing water under the new city system in 1854. Up to this time the sewage had been disposed of in the primitive fashion of dumping it out into the street, into gutters or the rivers, or into cesspools or wherever and by whatever means it might be put out of the way. Some effort had been made in the business parts of the city to place wooden box-pipes under ground for the pur- pose of conveying the sewage to the river, but it was a very inadequate system and very limited in its application. But with the coming of a large population and with the advent of a modernized water system there became apparent a need for a better system of taking care of the waste. The epidemics of cholera and fevers that swept the city of a large part of its population at various times as well as the frightfully high death rate made some plan imperative. In February, 1855, the legislature, at the request of citi- zens of Chicago, created a board of sewerage commissioners. This board went to work at once, but much time was needed for investigation and surveying and study. Mr. Chesb rough, 176 an engineer from Boston, was employed as the official en- gineer. In our later developments of the sewerage and drainage system we are carrying out the suggestions and recommendations of Mr. Chesbrough. He was counted the leading sanitary engineer in the United States. It has been worth millions of dollars to Chicago to have had such a man at the head of her sewer system in its beginnings. The plan adopted was to fill the streets in many parts of the city, raising the houses to street grade, in order that sewers might be built and covered. In many places even then the sewers were exposed above ground for many blocks. Sewers, about five feet in diameter, were to be built of brick, in most cases on every other street, leading from the main streets to the river. Into these large sewers smaller ones, made of tile, were to lead from side streets, houses, etc. It was the plan that all the sewers should empty into the rivers. Until the extensive annexations began there were not more than about four sewers in all the city that emptied into the lake. It was not long until it began to be apparent to Mr. Chesbrough that trouble was in store for the city because of the extreme pollution of the rivers. From the very first he had recommended as the only adequate and lasting system of sewerage the cutting of a canal through the divide to the Desplaines river. But the expense involved made this an impossible proposition. A plan for cleansing the river was then recommended. It was proposed to erect pumping stations and build conduits from the lake to the branches of the rivers and by pumping great quantities of fresh water into the rivers to force the sewage out into the lake, thus cleansing the rivers. This plan was put into operation on the North Side and was kept up until very recent years. It helped to cleanse the river, but, of course, it carried the pollution out into the lake. In 1848 the Illinois and Michigan canal was completed. It was only a shallow ditch, four feet of water, but it reached from Bridgeport 177 to the Illinois river at LaSalle. The builders of the canal had great difficulty to get sufficient water to fill the canal and keep it full. To assist in this pumps were erected at Bridgeport and water was pumped out of the river for the canal. This was a decided advantage for the city, but it was only a partial relief, as the amount pumped was at no time sufficient to keep the river clear and many months of the year the pumps were not working at all because the canal was not in use. In 1862 the effect of the sewage upon the drinking water began to be generally noticed and it became a matter of great importance to find a remedy. You remember that it was at this time that the first tunnel was considered. The first tunnel under the lake was com- pleted in 1867, the second in 1872'. The city also joined with the state in an effort to deepen the Illinois and Mich- igan canal, hoping that some relief might be found in that quarter. The canal was dug deeper at an expense of nearly $3,000,000 and larger pumps were installed at Bridgeport and they were kept pumping all the time for the rielief of the river. In spite of it all the river was rank and smelled to heaven. In this connection it is worth noting that from a very early day a great effort was made to get the national gov- ernment to build a ship canal from the lake to the Mississippi deep enough to permit war vessels to come from the gulf to the lake. Chicago was intensely interested in this scheme. But those of us who have read the history of the political parties and factions of the times know how bitterly the sub- ject of internal improvements was fought. Upon this ground over and over again the bill for a ship canal was beaten. As early as 1847 a great national convention was held in Chicago to consider the matter of national aid to canals. Chicago at that time had a population of only about 16,000 people, yet she accommodated a convention of 20,000 and made holiday for them with processions and skyrockets and receptions. It was a great gathering. Nineteen states ,178 had delegates at this convention. Among these delegates were such men as Horace Greely, Thurlow Weed, Thomas Corwin, Schuyler Colfax and Abraham Lincoln. But it was of no avail ; Congress turned a deaf ear to all such internal improvements. From 1855 until 1862 about 55 miles of sewers had been laid. From that time the growth has been steady and large, providing now more than 1,700 miles, of which more than six hundred miles are of brick. Owing to the lay of the land it is impossible to construct sewers for any great distance and have the water carried forward by gravity. The necessary fall soon sinks the sewer too deep in the ground for operation. To overcome this pumping stations have been erected at convenient places and the sewage has been lifted from one level to another and then carried forward again. The drainage channel connecting Lake Michigan with the Desplaines river was made for the immediate purpose of providing for the disposal of the Chicago sewage. It is hoped that at some future time it may be one section of a great ship waterway from the lakes to the gulf. This channel was authorized by the legislature in 1889 and the Sanitary District was organized with a total area of one hundred eighty-five square miles. The board of nine trus- tees are elected by the people of the district and are given power to levy taxes upon the district to meet the expenses of construction. Work was commenced in September, 1892, and the water from the lake was turned into the canal on the second of January, 1900, when, for the first time since the closing of the great ice age, the waters of the lakes found their way to the gulf. The cost of the canal, which is one of the most notable engineering feats in the history of this continent, has been about $50,000,000. It cuts through the divide of solid limestone and drift that formed the ancient barrier between the lake and the Desplaines valley. Across 179 this divide Marquette and LaSalle and the wandering fur traders carried their canoes, writing down in their diaries that a canal should be cut connecting the Chicago and the Desplaines river. The ideals that one man sees dimly in visions others coming after must make real as ever, thus, * * * * "Through the ages one increasing purpose runs, And the thoughts of men are widened by the process of the suns." Chicago is working away as rapidly as possible to com- plete a system of intercepting sewers which shall eventually carry all the sewage of this great city out toward the Mississippi, being purified and made harmless by the mil- lions of gallons of pure water flowing through the lake. THE ELEVATED ROADS. When the World's Fair was located at Chicago it was seen that the transportation facilities were not sufficient to accommodate the people who would come to the city. The railroad and street car lines at once made provision for extending their service. But the innovation introduced was the South Side L, reaching from the business part of the city to the Fair Grounds. This roadway is elevated upon steel supports so as to be far above the traffic of the streets carried on below. It did splendid service with its little dummy locomotives for years, when finally the steam power was changed for electric power. Since the inauguration of the South Side L other companies have been formed and similar roads have been constructed reaching to the extreme west and north sides of the city. THE CHICAGO SUBWAY. Not only overhead, but underground as well, have lines of transportation been sought to relieve the crowded condition of the streets. Some five or six years ago permission was given to the Illinois Telephone Company to construct tunnels or subways under the streets of the city through which telephone, telegraph and service pipes might be carried and also to serve as a means of transporting freight. Up to the present time there have i8o been completed and put into operation over forty miles of this underground railroad. It has entrances leading from nearly every large business block in the heart of the city and daily thousands of tons of freight are moved to and fro under ground all unknown by the pedestrians above. These tunnels are from nine to fourteen feet in diameter and the cars and motors are made to correspond with these dimensions. We have wandered far away from the auction grounds, where lots were being sold at %6.y2 per acre, but at no time have we gone beyond the city and its growth. Of course with the growth in numbers must have come growth in territory. There have been fifteen different extensions of territory since the first city charter was received in 1837. Some of these have been made by city ordinance and some by votes of the people both of the city and territory to be annexed. The area has grown until the city is now twenty-six miles from north to south and about nine miles from east to west, covering a total area of one hundred ninety miles. Within this area dwell and work side by side the rich and the poor, the young and old, the learned and the unlearned. Here, crowded close together, yet scarcely seeing each other, are prodigality upon one hand and naked- ness upon the other; those who turn with weariness from loaded tables and those whose pinched faces and emaciated limbs tell the story of hunger and want and exposure. Here are the joyous and gay so full of laughter that they cannot see the sad and decrepit who try to creep away to hide their misery in dark corners. Over against the great array of churches and charitable institutions scattering their sun- shine and inspiring hope, hang the great clouds of crime covering the abodes of meanness and hatred and sin. Yet it is a great city bearing upon its forefront the in- vincible motto, *T will." There is no undertaking too vast for its consideration, no worthy enterprise which it will not dare attempt. The great waves of prosperity that 181 have come upon it have seemed to create within it a spirit of selfishness and heartlessness. But this is after all only apparent. Let any great demand stir its depths and no city in all the world will respond more gloriously to the call of duty and sacrifice than our own Chicago. 182 CHAPTER XXII A LAND FLOWING WITH MILK AND HONEY When Joliet and Marquette pushed their canoes up the IlHnois river on their return voyage from the Mississippi we remember that the Good Father wrote in his diary that they had seen nothing equal to the valley of the Illinois, "as to its fertility of soil, its prairie and its woods ; its cattle, elk, deer and bustards, ducks and beavers." These were only a part of nature's blessings bestowed upon this favored region. Since the coming of the white man the gifts of nature have been utilized and the great industrial forces have been marshaled to compete for the markets of the world. The primary and essential industry in all times must be agriculture. Bread and meat are necessary for existence. The farmer is the one upon whose broad shoulders rests the whole superstructure of civilization. Of about 33,000,000 acres of land in Illinois there are about 28,000,000 acres, 85 per cent, in actual cultivation. The census tables of 1900 show that Illinois ranked first among all the states in the value of her crops. Wheat, oats, corn, hay, rye, barley, and the smaller fruits and vegetables are grown in all parts of the state, while in apple orchards the state ranks third. When we get below the hoe and the plow we find the great underlying strata of coal covering an area of about 183 37>ooo square miles. Out of one hundred two counties in the state coal is found in fifty-four. There are almost one thousand mines in active operation and the annual product reaches the enormous sum of about 40,000,000 tons. We have coal enough under our feet to keep all the furnaces of the world going for generations. The coming of the railroads alone made possible the development of the farms and the opening of coal mines. Without means for transportation the most prodigal returns from the soil and the output of the mines would be of little value. To these great networks of steel rails with their puffing, rumbling trains of freight cars we must give much of the credit for the prosperity and comforts we enjoy. The railroad corporations have not been slow upon their part to see the opportunities for getting wealth by moving and distributing the products of the state. We have had the story of the long struggle which brought the first roads into use. Since that the number has increased until it is difficult to enumerate them. Chicago has become the great- est railroad center in the world. The total miles of railroad tracks now in use in the state is approximately 20,000, with yearly increases. The wages paid to employes upon these roads reach the startling sum of about $74,000,000 a year. The number of people employed by these roads in the state (116,000) surpasses the muster roll in many European armies. In manufacturing industries Illinois has developed so rapidly that she is in a fair way within a very few years to take her place at the head of all the states. She now leads in the manufacture of agricultural implements, steam cars, distilled liquors, watches, the meat packing products and several minor articles. In the manufacture of fur- niture, clothing and soaps only one state surpasses us. In the production of steel and iron only Pennsylvania and Ohio lead us. Besides these great industries there are num- berless smaller, but important plants from which come 184 train loads of wagons, carriages, buckets, locomotives, flour, chemicals, leather and other products. It is a busy state and the smoke of one factory may be seen from the windows of another in continuous succession from Waukegan to Cairo. With all this development of factory life has come a great increase in the number of people that have made their homes in the large towns and cities. When our present constitution went into effect the population of Illinois was about two and a half millions. It is now about five millions. Then about one-seventh of the total population was gathered in Cook County; now about two-fifths is in Cook County. All the languages of the earth may be heard in this great cosmopolitan city by the lake. More than seventy-five per cent of the children of Chicago have foreign born fathers and mothers. Greece and Italy, Russia, China and Japan, Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands, Germany and Ireland have emptied out from their crowded borders the shiploads of restless humanity that have sought shelter, employment and homes in this great city. The press and the school have striven hard to keep pace with the growing population and the rapid industrial devel- opments. There are published in the state nearly eighteen hundred papers and magazines reaching an aggregate of over 10,000,000 copies per issue. What a world of — knowledge ! The public schools have increased until they enroll a million pupils with twenty-eight thousand teachers, with an increasing roster every year. The total expenditure for all these schools is about $23,000,000 per year. Besides the public schools there are over sixty incorporated schools and colleges and thousands of private schools, unnumbered and unrecorded, all working at the selfsame problem, — the spreading of greater intelligence and a better morality among the people of the state. Surely this is a state of which one may be proud. It 185 is well worth while to be one of the 5,000,000 citizens of Illinois. It is an inheritance worth fighting for, worth dying for. So thought our fathers, who came from their homes in great companies and regiments, every county furnishing its contingent, to follow Grant through swamp and forest in the Mississippi campaign, to march with Sherman to the sea, to lay their broken bodies in the valleys or upon the hillsides of the sunny south that we, their children, might have a country, one and undivided. And so their sons would do today did an occasion call for a similar sacrifice. ILLINOIS By thy rivers, gently flowing, Illinois, Illinois, O'er thy prairies, verdant growing, lUinois, Illinois, Comes an echo on the breeze, Rustling through the leafy trees, And its mellow tones are these, Illinois, Illinois, And its mellow tones are these, Illinois, Illinois. O'er wilderness of prairies, Illinois, Illinois, Straight thy way and never varies, Illinois, Illinois, Till upon the inland sea Stands thy great commercial tree. Turning all the world to thee, Illinois, Illinois, Turning all the world to thee, Illinois, Illinois. 186 When you heard your country calling, Illinois, Illinois, When the shot and shell were falling, Illinois, Illinois, When the Southern host withdrew, Pitting Gray against the Blue, There were none more brave than you, Illinois, Illinois, There were none more brave than you, Illinois, Illinois. Not without thy wondrous story, Illinois, Illinois, Can be writ the Nation's glory, Illinois, Illinois, On the record of the years, Abr'am Lincoln's name appears. Grant and Logan and our tears, Illinois, Illinois, Grant and Logan and our tears, Illinois, Illinois. 187 CHAPTER XXIIL CHRONOLOGICAL INDEX 1666 — Marquette arrives at Quebec. 1669 — Marquette on Lake Superior. 1672 — ^Joliet reaches St. Ignace. 1673 — Joliet and Marquette on the Mississippi and Illinois rivers. 1674-5 — Marquette spends winter on Chicago river, 1675 — Marquette establishes the Mission of the Immaculate Con- ception among the Kaskaskias. 1675 — Marquette dies on the shore of Lake Michigan. 1678 — La Salle at Niagara. 1679 — La Salle on the St. Joseph river. 1680 — La Salle on the Illinois with Tonti. 1682 — La Salle reaches the mouth of the Mississippi. 1683— La Salle in France. 1684 — La Salle sails for the mouth of the Mississippi. 1687 — La Salle assassinated in Texas. 1699— Iberville on the Gulf. 1700 — Tonti and the Kaskaskia Indians leave ''The Eock.'* 1704 — Bienville governor of Louisiana. 1710 — Vincennes established. 1712 — Crozat receives a grant of Louisiana. 1717 — Law's Mississippi scheme formed. 1718 — New Orleans laid out. 1718— Ft. Chartres built. 1720 — Eenault brings five hundred slaves to Illinois. 1722 — The Mississippi bubble bursts. 1748 — The Ohio Company formed. 1753 — Washington sent to warn the French. 1754 — French and Indian war begins. 1754 — Washington surrenders Ft. Necessity. 1756— Ft. Chartres rebuilt. 1758 — Ft. Massac established by the French. 1763 — The French claims ceded to the English. 1765 — The English take possession of Illinois. 1772 — Ft. Chartres destroyed by the Mississippi. 1774 — The Quebec bill passed. 1775 — The Eevolutionary War begins. 1778-9 — George Eogers Clark conquers the Illinois country. i88 1782 — New Design settled by Americans. 1783 — All the territory to the Mississippi becomes the property of the United States. 1784-6 — Virginia, Massachusetts and Connecticut cede their west- ern territory to the government. 1787 — The Ordinance for the Northwest Territory. 1790 — St. Clair county organized. 1804 — Ft. Dearborn, Chicago, established. 1809 — Illinois territory organized ; Ninian Edwards, Governor. 1812 — Ft. Dearborn massacre (August 15). 1812 — First territorial legislature meets at Kaskaskia. 1812 — Organized counties increased to five. 1812 — Shadrach Bond elected as delegate to Congress. 1813 — Preemption act for Illinois passed by Congress. 1818 — Enabling act passed for Illinois. 1818 — Shadrach Bond elected to be the first governor. 1818 — Illinois formally admitted to statehood (December 3). 1820 — Eemoval of state offices to Vandalia. 1822-4— Slavery agitation. 1825 — The first attempt at a school law. 1827 — Congress makes a grant of land for the Illinois and Michi- gan canal. 1832— The Black Hawk War. 1833 — Chicago incorporated. 1837 — Springfield becomes the state capital. 1837 — Elijah P. Lovejoy assassinated. 1839 — Northern Cross Railroad built by the state. 1840 — The Mormons come to the state. 1844 — Joseph Smith killed in Carthage jail. 1846 — The Mormons expelled from the state. 1846 — Abraham Lincoln elected to Congress. 1848 — Illinois and Michigan canal completed. 1848 — The second State Constitution adopted. 1850 — Congressional land grant for the Illinos Central Eailroad. 1854 — State legislature establishes the office of State Superintend- ent of Public Instruction. 1855 — Education law passed; basis of the present law. 1857 — Building of the penitentiary at Joliet. 1857 — State Normal University established. 1858 — The Lincoln-Douglas debates. 1860 — Lincoln nominated for the presidency at Chicago. 1861 — U. S. Grant takes command at Cairo (September 4). 1865 — Lincoln buried at Springfield (May 5). 1867 — Illinois University established. 1868 — U. S. Grant nominated at Chicago. 1870 — The third State Constitution adopted. 1873 — Women allowed to hold office under the school law and to vote for school officers. 1889 — Establishment of Chicago Sanitary District. 1900 — Chicago Drainage canal opened (January 2). 1901 — The new apportionment gives Illinois twenty-five congress- men. 189 CHAPTER XXIV. A WORD IN CONCLUSION We have come to the end of our stories. In the preceding pages we have had before us in outline the history of IIH- nois from the time when the Indian and buffalo roamed over its prairies and plashed through its streams unseen and unknown by the white man, until it has taken its place as third in population in the great sisterhood of states. We have seen Chicago, the camping place of the fur-trader, the lonely winter home of the dying missionary, the scene of a bloody massacre when not more than a half dozen roofs rose above its sand hills, grow into a mighty city, second in population and industrial enterprises among all the cities of the Union. We have watched the counties come one by one, until they increased from the single district outlined by St. Clair to one hundred two counties, all rich and pros- perous. We have watched the changes in laws and the growth of constitutions from the time when English laws and English juries first made their appearance in the valley of the Mis- sissippi until we find ourselves living under one of the best constitutions and in one of the best governed common- wealths in America. We have had a few glimpses of the trials and privations of the early settlers who first plowed our prairie lands, drained our swamps and felled our forests, and, knowing 190 something of these, we have come to appreciate more highly the opportunities and comforts that surround us. Our stories were nearly told before we found a railroad in the Illinois country, but when we look at a map of the state now we see Chicago, Peoria, Decatur, Danville, Free- port, and many other cities, appearing as hubs in wheels surrounded by radiating spokes which reach out and out, covering the entire surface of the state with a network of iron rails. Illinois is not old in years, yet when she came into the family in i8i8 there were no sewing machines to make her garments; there were no mowing machines to reap her harvests; there were no matches to light her candles, nor kerosene to fill her lamps. The telegraph, the electric light, the telephone, the typewriter and the steam locomotive were as undreamed of as are the mysteries of the unknown future today. How did our fathers Hve in those days? We can never know in full, but, seeing dimly through the occasional rec- ords left behind, we can imagine that their lives were strong and vigorous, not all filled with sorrow and tears, but having in them much of joy and sweetness. They lived up to their opportunities, setting an example which challenges us to our utmost endeavor to measure up to the standard they have left. Should these stories inspire some of the boys and girls who read them to seek for fuller sources of information, to strive for a high type of usefulness in the city and the state, to a larger view of life and a desire for a noble manhood or womanhood, no matter v/hat the station may be, the purpose of their writing will be fully justified. 191 APR 18 1808 Oeacidified using the Bookkeeper process. Neutralizing Agent: Magnesium Oxide Treatment Date: AUG BRKEEPER PRESERVATION TECHNOLOGIES, LP. 111 Thomson Park Drive Cranberry Township, PA 16066 (724)779-2111 / ubrar;<; o.coS%|«