LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN $977.37 D14C 111. Hist. Surv. 1682. COMBINED HISTORY EDWARDS, LAWRENCE WABASH / COUNTIES, ILLINOIS. WITH ILLUSTRATIONS DESCRIPTIVE OF THEIR SCENERY ir llroramenl l^n anh PUBLISHED BY J. L. McDONOTJGH & CO., PHILADELPHIA. CORRESPONDING OFFICE, EDWARDSVILLE, ILL. 1883. *< PREFACE. \HE publishers desire to return their sin- cere thanks to those who have aided in making this ^vork thorough and com- \ plete. For the incidents relative to the early settle- ment of these counties, we are indebted to a few early pioneers, who have seen a wild frontier country develop into a wealthy and populous com- munity; especially are we under obligations to the writings of George Flower and Morris Birkbeck, whose graphic articles shed much light on the early settlements in this section of the state. For other facts we are under obligations to a class of intelligent men, who, amid the ordinary pur- suits of life, have taken pains to thoroughly in- form themselves in regard to the past history and resources of their county. Among those who have specially contributed to the history of Ed- wards county are: Charles Churchill, Alexander Stewart, Jesse Emmersott, John Woods, John Tribe, Philander Gould, Ansel A. Gould, George Lapp, Enoch Greathouse, Benjamin Ulm, Francis Great- house, Thomas Coad, George Michcls, Elisha Chism, and Dr. F. B. Thompson. The gentlemen who have assisted us in Law- rence county are :J W. Crews, David D. Lantcr- man, J. M, Miller, Samuel Sumner, A. I. Judy, George Me Cleave, Dr. W. M. Garrard, Richard King, Francis Tongas, Renick Heath and William Laws. In the preparation of the history of Wabash coun- ty we have been materially assisted by Judge Robert Bell, James M. Sharp, Judge E. B. Green, Dr. Jacob Schneck, Joseph Compton, Dr. James Harvey, John Dyar, E B. Keen, Thompson Blackford, Henry Lov- ellette, Dr. A. J. Mclntosh, J. J. Smith, Win. Ulm, Thomas A'. Armstrong, Ira Keen, John Kigg, D. L. Tillon, A. B. Cory, J. Zimmerman, Mrs. Elizabeth Litherland, John } \ 'ood and John Higgins. To the county officials of the respective counties we extend our thanks for the many courtesies extended, during the compilation of this work. Among the chapters most fruitful in interest to a great number of our readers, will be found those which treat of the early history of the churches. Many persons are now living whose fathers and grandfathers, in the humble log cabin, which was then the only house of worship, assisted in founding organizations which have been of the greatest good to subsequent generations. To the clergymen of the different denominations, and to many of the older members of these societies, we are indebted for much valuable information. The editors of the several newspapers have also rendered assistance in that prompt and cheerfid manner so characteristic of the journalistic profession. We have endeavored, with all diligence and care- fulness, to make the best of the material at our command. We have confined ourselves, as nearly as possible, to the original data furnished. The sub- ject matter has been carefully classified, and will be a great help to the public as a book of reference con- cerning the past history of the county. The facts were gathered from many different sources, and de- pend largely, not on exact written records, but on the uncertain and conflicting recollections of different individuals! We have tried to preserve the inci- dents of pioneer history, to accurately present the natural features and material resources of this por- tion of the state, and to gather the facts likely to be of most interest to our present readers, and of greatest importance to coming generations. If our readers will take into consideration the diffi- culties of the task, we feel assured of a favorable verdict on our undertaking. THE PUBLISHERS. 206789 TABLE OF CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. A BRIEF SKETCH OF THE NORTH-WEST TERRITORY. PAGE Geographical Position, 9 ; Early Explora- tions, 9 ; Discovery of the Ohio, 15 ; English Explorations and Settle- ments, 16; American Settlements, 22; Division of the North- West Territory, 23 ; Present Condition of the North- West, 24 9-25 CHAPTER II. BRIEF HISTORICAL SKETCH OF ILLINOIS. French Possessions, 25 ; The first Settle- ments in Illinois, 26; Founding of Kaskaskia, 27; As a part of Louisi- ana, 27 ; Fort Chartres, 28 ; Under French rule, 29 ; Character of the Early French Settlers, 30; A Possession of Great Britain, 30 ; Conquest by Clark, 32; The "Compact of 1787," 32; Land Tenures, 34 ; Physical Features of the State, 35 ; Progress and Development, 35; Material Resources of the State, 36 ; Annual Products, 36 ; The War Record, 38; Civil Government, 39; Territorial and State Officers, 40 ; Mis- cellaneous Information 25-45 CHAPTER III. RAILROAD FACILITIES. EDWARDS COUNTY, 46 ; LAWRENCE COUNTY, 46 ; WABASH COUNTY, 47. Railroads, Wabash, St. Louis and Pacific, 48; Ohio and Mississippi, 49; Louisville, Evansville and St. Louis, 49 ; Peoria, Decatur and Evansville, 49 ;. . . 46-50 CHAPTER IV. UEOLOQY. EDWARDS COUNTY, 50; WABASH COUNTY, 51 ; LAWRENCE COUNTY, 53. . . . 50-54 CHAPTER V. FLORA. List of Native Woody Plants, Grasses, etc., etc 56, 56 CHAPTER VI. FAUNA. Treating of the Various Families of Ani- mals and Birds that have existed in these counties 56-58 CHAPTER VII. PIONEERS AND EARLY SETTLERS. HOWARDS COUNTY, First Settlers, 58 ; Early Marriages, 66 ; The Deep Snow, 67 ; The Sudden Freeze, 67. LAWRENCE COUNTY, First Settlers, 68 ; WABASH COUNTY, First Settlers, 73 ; Pioneer Mills, 77 ; The Cannon Massacre, 78 ; Habits and Modes of living in Pioneer times, 78 58-80 CHAPTER VIII. CIVIL HISTORY. CDWARDS COUNTY, Act creating the Coun- ty, 80 ; County Government at Pal- myra, 81 ; Second Court, Third Court, Justice's Court, 84 ; First and Second Commissioner's Court, 85 ; County Government at Albion, County Com- missioner's Court from First to Four- teenth, 86-88 ; County Courts, from First to Seventh, 89, 90 ; Boards of County Commissioners, 90, 91 ; Pub- lic Buildings, 91 ; Taxable Property, 92 ; Circuit Courts, First Murder Trial, 93; Second Murder Case, 94; First Naturalization, Judges of Circuit Court, First Probate Business, The First Will, Probate Judges, 95 ; First Deed Recorded, Delegates to Constitu- tional Convention, The County in the General Assembly 96 ; County Officers 97. LAWRENCE COUNTY, 97; County Gov- ernment, 100; Militia Districts, 101 ; Public Buildings, The First Court- house, 102; Early Ferries, Early Revenue, Fiscal Statement of De- cember 6, 1827, 105; Election Pre- cincts, 104-106 ; County Finance since 1827, 106-108 ; Circuit Courts, 1821 to 1848, 108-110; United States Census 1850, County Government from 1849 to 1883, Swamp Lands, 110 ; Finan- cial Notes 1849 to 1883, 111 ; Officers Representing and Serving Lawrence County, 111-115. WABASH COUNTY, Organization, etc., 115- 120 ; Public Buildings, 120-123 ; Tax- es and Debts, 1825 to 1850, 123, 124 ; Railroad Debts, 124 ; Officers Repre- senting and Serving the county, 125- 127 80-127. CHAPTER IX. THE BENCH ASD BAR. Circuit Judges & Non-resident lawyers, 128. EDWARDS COUNTY, Former Resident Law- yers, 129; Present Bar, 129. LAW- BENCE COUNTY, Former Resident Law- yers, 130; Present Bar, 130; WA- BASH COUNTY, Former Resident Law- yers, and Present Bar, 132. ; . . 127-133 CHAPTER X. THE PRESS. Giving the Names of all the News- papers that have been printed in each of the Counties 133-137. CHAPTER XI. PATEIOTISM. Black Hawk War, 137-141 ; War of the Rebellion, 141 ; A List of Names of the volunteers from each of the Counties, with a short historical Sketch of the Regiments to which they belonged 137-156 TABLE OF CONTEXTS. CHAPTER XII. COMMON SCHOOLS. The School Systems of the State their Growth, Resources and Management etc., 150 ; EDWARDS COUNTY, 159 ; LAWKEXCK CorxTY, 1G1 ; WAIIASH CDI-VTY It! lot) lb'3 Foster Blashel PAGE 315 Rice Cyrus PAGE . . 220 . . 323 . .260 . . 309 . . 218 . . 257 . . 310 . . 256 . .245 . . 244 . . 310 . . 258 . . 222 . . 306 . . 297 . .218 . . 255 . . 309 . .307 . .324 216 Foster, William F Fox Jeremiah .... 224 99 Rigg, Henry H Rigg James W Frazcr, Dr. Milton D Freeman, Samuel French, Dr. Zeba D Friend, Dr. William Frost, James P .... 330 .... 324 .... 21)!! .... 310 .... 275 .... 274 .... 225 .... 262 .... 314 .... 314 .... 300 .... 249 .... 322 .... 224 . . . .217 . ... 261 .... 253 . ... 308 . ... 267 253 Rodgers, Augustine J Rude, David S Samoniel Brothers Schaefer, Dr. H. M Schneck, Dr. J Schrodt, John Sears, Dr. Paul Seibert. Charles Scitz, Jr., William Sentance, John Shearer, Joseph B Smith, Dr. James E Smith, John Smith, Valentine Smith, Rozander Stewart, Alexander Stoltz, George Strahan, John (deceased) Tribe William B CHAPTER XIII. ECCLESIASTICAL. EDWARDS COUSTT. Methodist Church, 163 ; Protestai.t Episcopal, 165; Baptist, 167; ChurcU of Christ, 268; Cumberland Presbyterian, 172; United Brethren, 176; Evangelical Association, 179; LAWRENCE C o u N T Y .-Presbyterian Church, 181 ; Christian Church, 182; United Brethren, 200; Disciples of Christ, 183; Methodist Protestant, 184 ; Methodist Episcopal, 185. WA- BASH COUNTY. Christian Church, 186; M. E. Church, 189; Presbyterian, 192; Evangelical, 195 ; Catholic, 198 ; Ger- man Lutheran, 198 ; Evangelical As- sociation of N. A., 199 ; United Breth- ren in Christ, 200 163-202 Glaubensklee, Henry Gordon, Robert S Gould, Ansel A Gould, Philander Gray, Dr. F. S Green, Hon. Edward B Groff, Hon. John Hallam, John Harris, Gibson Harrison, John M Havill, Frank W Higgins, John Hoopes Caleb Ulm, Captain William Utter, Abraham (deceased) . . 246 . .288 . . 309 . .283 . .284 Joy, Thomas L Kamp, Louis Keen, Hon. E. B Keen, George W . . . .261 . ... 263 .... 335 . ... 306 . ... 258 . ... 299 Vandermark, Simon Vandermark, Cyr,us Waller, Dr Fay K Wilkinson, Thomas Wilkinson, Hon. William R BIOGRAPHIES. Adams, David 300 Keniepp, Captain G. M King, Henry (deceased) .... Landes Hon Silas Z Armstrong, Thomas N 298 Armstrong, Berkley (deceased) 297 Bear, James 220 Bell, Hon. Robert 247 Lescher, Dr. Jacob Lewis, Harlie V . ... 259 329 Woods, Thomas T." Wood Hon William (deceased) . .227 259 Low, Dr. Lyman W Manley, Alfred P Manley Frank C k . ... 219 . ... 257 3''5 Zimmerman, Hon. Jacob TOWNSHIPS. Allison H^ellmont Bond . . 248 . .276 . . 319 342 Belles, Philip 330 Berninger, Isaiah 307 Blood, John M. (deceased) 276 Bockhouse, William 325 Bower, George . ^ . . 228 Brause, August 302 Briggs, Jonathan 216 Burkett, JohnT 262 Campbell, Joseph M. , 226 Churchill, Joel 215 Colyer, Walter . . 26 Manley, Dr. Paul G Mayo, Walter L Marx, Samuel Marx, Philip H McClane, Dr. C. T McClurkin, Dr. John C McDowell, Dr. James Mclntosh, Dr. Andrew J McJilton, Dr. Edward L Medler, William H Michels, George Miller, Edward . ... 336 . ... 221 . . . . 307 . ... 308 .... 324 225 .... 268 .... 296 .... 308 .... 225 .... 214 .... 254 Bridgeport City and Precinct of Albion City and Township of Lawrenceville . b/City and Precinct of Mt Carmel . .327 . . 203 . . 228 235 Christy . . 264 331 Dennison . . >:. 89 Compton, Van Bureu 298 Curdling, Robert W ........ 227 Dalby, Samuel Nelson 214-n Dickson, Dr. Henry I, 224 Edwards, Eld. Caleb 227 Emmerson, Morris 226 Kw:iM, George C 323 HIM, Id-. Chesterfield 22ti Flower, George 212 Kluwci-. Mrs. Eliza Julia -j] | v "owe-.'. R.C 224- A French Creek . . 337 Morgan, Maxwell W Murphy, Dr. Hugh A Parkinson, Robert (deceased) . . Parmenter, Henry Petty, G. \V Pixley, Asa (deceased) Price, Isaac K Putnam, Samuel R .... 218 .... 267 .... 260 .... 326 . ... 208 . ... 316 . . . . 2"iii . . . . .V, ^Lancaster /Lick Prairie Lukin Petty Russell Salem Sh.'ll.y ,/Walmsh . . 303 . . 340 . . 301 . . :;i7 . . m . . 311 . . 272 . . 2!1 TABLE OF CONTENTS. vii PORTRAITS. ILLUSTRATIONS I'AGK Landes Mrs lietw en IMS -IMH PAGE Mauley, Dr. P. G Facing 332 Armstrong, Berkley . Facing 290 Adams, David (deceased) Facing 808 Map ot Counties Facing ', Blood, John M. (dec'd) .... Facing 270 Armstrong, Berkley Facing 2'JO Medler, Win. H Facing 272 Churchill, Joel ... .216 Bear, James W Facing 342 Miller, Edward |-:u-i,, K 888 Flower, George .... 212 Blood, Mrs. A Facing 204 Parmenter, Henry Facing 336 Flower, Mrs. Eliza Julia . . . . . . . 214-A Bond, L. C Facing 226 Pixley, A., Jr Facing 310 Flower, K.C . . . 224-A Buxton, Dr. W. E Facing 204 Public Buildings, Edwards County . Facing 84 Foster, Blashel .... :!!,") Churchill Bros.' Business Block . . Facing 208 Public Buildings, Lawreuceville . . Facing 232 Frost, James P . . . . 276 Churchill, James, Residence . . . Facing 20 Rigg, H. H Facing 280 Gill, Thomas . . . .274 Churchill, Mrs. Joel, Residence . . Facing 208 Kigg, J. W Facing 256 Gould, Philander, . Facing 314 Couit-House, Mt. Carmel . . . . Facing 120 Sears, Dr. Paul Betw< en 248-249 Gould, Martha L . Facing 314 Curtis, John Facing 268 Seibert, Charles Facing 304 liouM, Mrs. Sarah (dec'd) . . . . Facing 314 Dreibelbis, F. and J. Mill .... Facing 232 Seller, Jacob Facing 236 Gould, Ansel A Facing 314 Ewald, George C Facing 284 Sentance, J. and Son Facing 226 Gould, Chloe S . Facing 314 Foster, Blashel Facing 326 Smith, Rozander Facing 308 Groff, John and Wife . Facing 322 Frost, James P Facing 272 Smith, James N Facing 274 Harris Gibson .... 217 Th Facing 284 Tribe, R. M Facing 2bO Lescher, Dr. Jacob .... 269 Gill, Thomas Facing 274 Tribe, W. B Facing 226 Low, Dr. Lyman W .... 219 Glaubensklee, Henry and Sanih . Facing 220 Utter, Abraham (deceased) . . . . Facing 247 Mayo, Walter L .... 221 Gould, Deuel Facing 204 Wood Joseph Facing 216 Pixley, Asa (dec'd,) . Facing 316 Gould, Ansel, Jr Facing 288 Wood, Oliver II Facing 280 Rice, Cyrus . Facing 220 Gould, Philander Betwe en 312-313 Wood, Thomas Facing 342 Rude, David S. (dec'd) .... . Facing 218 Gould, Ansel A Betwe en 318-319 Wright, David P Facing 256 Sears, Dr. Paul .... 244 Groff, John Betwe en 320-321 Stewart, Alexander Utter, Abraham (deceased) . . . . .223 .... 240 Kamp's Mill Keen E B Facing 240 Facing 298 Partial List of Patrons Constitution of Illinois . . . 345 . 360 Utter, Mrs. Elizabeth .... 246 Keen, G. W Facing 308 Declaration of Independence . . . . . 872 Wood, Hon. William (dec'd) . . . Facing 250 Keen, W. E Facing 332 Constitution of the United States . ... 373 Wood, Joseph (dec'd) . Facing 210 King Henry (deceased) Facing 300 Amendments to Constitution of U. 5. ... 376 LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY or ILIINOIS ^ T.+ N\ b EWARDS.LAWRENCE W F O ft D _./?. H T'vr\-\~ J. r ID 1 IRIJJS! -|-4- : - El LVIL HISTORY EDWARDS, LAWRENCE AND WABASH COUNTIES, ILL CHAPTER I. A BRIEF SKETCH OF THE NORTH-WEST TERRITORY. GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION. ,N 1784 the North Western Territory was ceded to the United States by Virginia. It embraced only the territory lying be- tween the Ohio and Mississippi rivers; and north, to the northern limits of the United States. It coincided with the area now embraced in the states of Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, and that portion of Minnesota lying on the east side of the Mississippi river. On the first day of March, 1784, Thomas Jefferson, Samuel Hardy, Arthur Lee, and James Monroe, delegates in Congress on the part of Vir- ginia, executed a deed of cession, by which they transferred to the United States, on certain conditions, all right, title and claim of Virginia to the country known as the North- western Territory. But by the purchase of Louisiana in 1803, the western boundary of the United States was ex- tended to the Rocky Mountains and the Northern Pacific Ocean. It includes an area of 1,887,850 square miles, beiug greater than the united areas of the Middle and Southern states, including Texas. Out of this magnificent territory have been erected eleven sovereign states and eight territories, with an aggregate population at the present time of 13,000,000 inhabitants, or nearly one-third of the entire population of the United States. Its rivers are the largest on the continent, flowing thous- ands of miles through its rich alluvial valleys and broad, fertile prairies. Its lakes arc fresh-water seas, upon whose bosom floats the commerce of many states. Its far-stretching prairies have more acres that are arable and productive than any other area of like extent on the globe. For the last quarter of a century the increase of popula- tion and wealth in the north-west has been about as three to one in any other portion of the United States. EARLY EXPLORATIONS. In the year 1512, on Easter Sunday, the Spanish name for which is Pascua Florida,* Juan Ponce de Leon, an old comrade of Columbus, discovered the coast of the American continent, near St. Augustine, and in honor of the day and of the blossoms which covered the trees along the shore, named the new-found country Florida. Juan had been led to undertake the discovery of strange lands partly by the hope of finding endless stores of gold, and partly by the wish to reach a fountain that was said to exist deep within the forests of North America, which possessed the power of renovating the life of those who drank of or bathed in its waters. He was made governor of the region he had visited but circumstances prevented his return thither until 1521 ; and then he went only to meet death at the hands of" the Indians. In the meantime, in 1516, a Spanish sea-captain, Diego Miruelo, had visited the coast first reached by Ponce de Leon, and in his barters with the natives had received con- siderable quantities of gold, with which he returned home and spread abroad new stories ^f the wealth hidden in the interior. Ten years, however, passed before Pamphilo de Narvaei undertook to prosecute the examination of the lands north of the Gulf of Mexico. Narvaez was excited to action by the late astonishing success of the conqueror of Montezuma, but he found the gold for which he sought constantly flying before him ; each tribe of Indians referred him to . those living farther in the interior. And from tribe to tribe he and his companions wandered. They suffered untold priva- tions in the swamps and forests ; and out of three hundred followers only four or five at length reached Mexico. And still these disappointed wanderers persisted in their original fancy, that Florida was as wealthy as Mexico or Peru. Pascum, the old English "Pash" or Passover; " Pascua Florida" is the " Holyday of Flowers." 10 HISTORY OF EDWARDS, LAWRENCE AND WABASH COUNTIES, ILLINOIS. Among those who had faith in that report was Ferdinand de Soto, who had been with Pizarro in the conquests of Peru. He asked and obtained leave of the King of Spain to con- quer Florida at his own cost. It was given in the year 1538. With a brilliant and noble band of followers he left Europe and in May, 1538, after a stay in Cuba, anchored his vessels near the coast of the Peninsula of Florida, in the bay of Spiritu Santa, or Tampa bay. De Soto entered upon his march into the interior with a determination to succeed. From June till November of 1539, the Spaniards toiled along until they reached the neighborhood of Appalachee bay. During the next season, 1540, they followed the course suggested by the Florida Indians, who wished them out of their country, and going to the north-east, crossed the rivers and climbed the moun- tains of Georgia. De Soto was a stern, severe man, and none dared to murmur. De Soto passed the winter with his little band near the Yazoo. In April, 1541, thfc resolute Spaniard set forward, and upon the first of May reached the banks of the great river of the West, not far from the 35th parallel of latitude.* A month was spent in preparing barges to convey the horses, many of which still lived, across the rapid stream. Having successfully passed it, the explorers pursued their way northward, into the neighborhood of New Madrid ; then turning westward again, marched more than two hun- dred miles from the Mississippi to the highlands of White river; and still no gold, no gems, no cities only bare prai- rie?, and tangled forests, and deep morasses To the south again they toiled on, and passed their third winter of wander- ing upon the Washita. In the following spring (1542), De Soto, weary with hope long deferred, descended the Washita to its junction with the Mississippi. He heard, when he reached the mighty stream of the west, that its lower portion flowed through endless and uninhabitable swamps. The news sank deep into the stout heart of the disap- pointed warrior. His health yielded to the contests of his miud and the influence of the climate. He appointed a successor, and on the 21st of May died. His body was sunk in the stream of the Mississippi. Deprived of their ener- gatic leader, the Spaniards determined to try to reach Mexico by land. After some time spent in wandering through the forests, despairing of success in the attempt to rescue them- selves by land, they proceeded to prepare such vessels as they could to take them to sea. From January to July 1543, the weak, sickly band of gold-seekers labored at the doleful task, and in July reached, in the vessels thus built, the Gulf of Mexico, and by September entered the river Paunco. Ode-half of the six hundred f who had disem- barked with De Soto, so gay in steel and silk, left their bones among the mountains and in the morasses of the South, from Georgia to Arkansas. De Soto founded no settlements, produced no results, and left no traces, unless it were that he awakened the hostility of the red man against the white man, and disheartened * De Soto probably was at the lower Chickasaw bluffs. The Spaniards called the Mississippi Rio Grande, Great River, which is the literal meaning of the aboriginal name. > t De Biedna says there landed G20 men. such as might desire to follow up the career of discovery for better purposes. The French nation were eager and ready to seize upon any news from this extensive domain, and were the first to profit by De Solo's defeat. As it was, for more than a century after the expedition, the west remained utterly unknown to the whites. The French were the first Europeans to make settlements on the St. Lawrence river and along the great lakes. Quebec was founded by Sir Samuel Champlain in 1608,* and in 1609 when Sir Henry Hudson was exploring the noble river which bears his name, Champlain ascended the Sorrelle river, and discovered, embosomed between the Green moun- tains, or " Verdmont," as the chivalrous and poetic French- man called them, and the Adirondacks, the beautiful sheet of water to which his name is indissolubly attached. In 1613 he founded Montreal. During the period elapsing between the years 1607 and 1664, the English, Dutch, and Swedes alternately held pos- session of portions of the Atlantic coast, jealously watching one another, and often involved in bitter controversy, and not seldom in open battle, until, in the latter year, the English became the sole rulers, and maintained their rights until the era of the Revolution, when they in turn were compelled to yield to the growing power of their colonies, and retire from the field. The French movements, from the first settlement at Quebec, and thence westward, were led by the Catholic missionaries. Le Caron, a Franciscan friar, who had been the companion and friend of Champlain, was the first to penetrate the western wilds, which he did in 1616* in a birch canoe, exploring lake Huron and its tributaries. This was four years before the Pilgrims "Moored their bark on the wild New England shore." Under the patronage of Louis XIII, the Jesuits took the advance, and began vigorously the work of Christianizing the savages in 1632. In 1634, three Jesuit missionaries, Brebeuf, Daniel, and Lallemand, planted a mission on the shores of the lake of the Iroquois, (probably the modern Lake Simcoe), and also established others along the eastern border of Lake Huron. From a map published in 1660, it would appear that the French had at that date, become quite familiar with the region from Niagara to the head of Lake Superior, includ- ing considerable portions of Lake Michigan. In 1641, Fathers Jogues and Raymbault embarked on the Penetanguishine Bay for the Sault St. Marie, where they arrived after a passage of seventeen days. A crowd of two thousand natives met them, and a great council was held. At this meeting the French first heard of many nations dwelling beyond the great lakes. Father Raymbault died in the wilderness in 1642, while enthusiastically pursuing his discoveries. The same year, Jogues and Bressani were captured by the Indians and tortured, and in 1648 the mission which had been founded at St. Joseph was taken and destroyed, and Father Daniel slain. In 1649, the missions St Louis and St. Ignatius HISTORY OF EDWARDS, LAWRENCE AND WABASU COUM1ES, ILLINOIS. were also destroyed, and Fathers Brebeuf and Lallemand barbarously tortuivd by the same terrible and unrelenting enemy. Literally did those zealous missionaries of the Romish Church "take their lives in their hands," and lay them a willing sacrifice on the altar of their faith. It is stated by some writer that, in 1G54, two fur traders accompanied a band of Ottawas on a journey of five hun- dred leagues to the west. They were absent two years, and on their return brought with them fifty canoes and two hundred and fifty Indians to the French trading posts. They related wonderful tales of the countries they had Been, and the various red nations they had visited, and described the lofty mountains and mighty rivers in glowing terms. A new impulse was given to the spirit of adventure, and tcouts and traders swarmed the frontiers and explored the great lakes and adjacent country, and a party wintered in IGoO-GO on the south shore of Lake Superior. In 1GGO Father Mesnard was sent out by the Bishop of Quebec, and visited Lake Superior in October of that year. While crossing the Kecweenaw Point he was lost in the wilder- ness and never afterwards heard from, though his cassock and breviary were found long afterwards among the Sioux. A change was made in the government of New France in 1G65. The Company of the Hundred Associates, who had ruled it since 1632, resigned its charter. Tracy was made Viceroy, Courcclles Governor, and Talon Intendent.* This was called the Government of the West Indies. The Jesuit missions were taken under the care of the new govcnmcnt, and thenceforward became the leaders in the movement to Christianize the savages. In the same year (1GG5) Pierre Claude Allouez was sent out by way of the Ottawa river to the far west, via the Sault St. Marie and the south shore of Lake Superior, where he landed at the bay of Chegoimegon. Here he found the chief village of the Chippcwas, and established a mission. He also made an alliance with them and the Sacs, Foxes and Illinois,^ against the formidable Iroquois. Allouez, the next year (1GGG) visited the western end of the great lake, where he met the Sioux, and from them first learned of the Missis- sippi river which they called "Mcssipi." From thence he returned to Quebec. In 1GG8 Claude Dablon and Jacques Marquctte estab- lished the mission at the Sault called St. Marie, and during the next five years Alloiicz, Dablon and Marquette explored the region of Lake Superior on the south shore, and ex- tending to Lake Michigan. They also established the mis- sions of Chegoimegon, St. Marie, Mackinaw and Green Bay. The plan of exploring the Mississippi probably originated with Marquctte. It was at once sanctioned by the Inten- dent, Talon, who was ambitious to extend the dominion of France over the whole West. In 1G70 Nicholas Perot was sent to the West to propose a congress of all the nations and tribes living in the vicinity of the lakes ; and, in 1G71, a great council was held at Sault St. Marie, ct which the Cross was set up, and the nations of * The duties of Intcmlent included a supervision cf t'.ic policy, justice, taj finance of the province. | The meaning of this word b said to be " Men." the great North-west were taken into an alliance, with much pomp and ceremony. On the 13th of May, 1G73, Marquctte, Joliet, and five voyageurs, embarked in two birch canoes at Mackinaw and entered Lake Michigan. The first nation they visited was the " Folles-Avoines," or nation of Wild Oats, since known as the Menomonies, living around the " Baie des Puans," or Green Bay. These people, with whom Marquette was some- what acquainted, endeavored to persuade the adventurers from visiting the Mississippi. They represented the Indians on the great river as being blood-thirsty and savage in the extreme, and the river itself as being inhabited by monsters which would devour them and their canoes together.* Marquctte thanked them for their advice, but declined to be guided by it. Passing through Green Bay, they ascended the Fox River, dragging their canoes over the strong rapids and visited the village, where they found living in l.armony together tribes of the Miamis, Mascoutens f tMilKika.bea.ux or Kickapoos. Leaving this point on the 10th of June, they made the portage to the " Ouisconsin," and descended that stream to the Mississippi, which they entered on the 17th with a joy, as Marquette says, which he could not express."! Sailing down the Mississippi, the party reached the Des Moines River, and, according to some, visited an Indian village some two leagues up the stream. Here the people again tried to persuade them from prosecuting their voyage down the river. After a great feast and a dance, and a night passed with this hospitable people, they proceeded on their way, escorted by six hundred persons to their canoes. These people called themselves Illinois, or Illini. The name of their tribe was Peruaca, and their language a dialect of the Algonquin. Leaving these savages, they proceeded down the river. Passing the wonderful rocks, which still excite the admira- tion of the traveller, they arrived at the mouth of another great river, the Pekilan"ni, or Missouri of the present day. They noticed the condition of its waters, which they described as " muddy, rushing and noisy." Passing a great rock, they came to the Ouabouskigon, or Ohio. Marquette shows this river very small, even as com- pared with the Illinois. From the Ohio they passed as far down as the Akamsca, or Arkansas, where they came very near being destroyed by the natives; but they finally paci- fied them, and, on the 1 7th of July, they commenced their return voyage. The party reached Green Bay in September without loss or injury, and reported their discoveries, which were among the most important of that age. Marquctte afterwards returned to Illinois, and preached to the natives until L<75. On the 18th of May of that year, while cruising up the eastern coast of Lake Michigan with a par!y of boatmen, he landed at the mouth of a stream putting into the lake from the east, since known as the river Marquette. He performed mass, and went a little apart to pruy, and being * See hgend of the p-eat bird, the terrible " Plata," t.'iru devoured men and was only overcome by the sacrl5ec cf a bruvi.youn ; chief. The rocks above Alton, Ill.aois, have como rude rci>SB^gU.or. i ci" this monster. | Prair'c II * XIarquctte's journal. { The ^rand tD 12 HISTORY OF EDWARDS, LAWRENCE AND W ABASH COUNTIES, ILLINOIS. gone longer than his companions deemed necessary, they j went in search of him, and found him dead where he had j knelt. Thefburied him in the sand. While this distinguished adventurer was pursuing his labors, two other men were preparing to follow in his foot- i step, and make still further explorations, and, if possible, | more important discoveries. These were the Chevalier | Robert de la Salle and Louis Hennepin. La Salle was a native of Rouen, in Normandy. He was educated at a seminary of the Jesuits, and designed for the ministry, but, for reasons unknown, he left the seuiinary and came to Canada, in 1GG7, where he engaged in the fur trade. Like nearly every intelligent man, he became intensely interested in the new discoveries of the West, and conceived the idea of exploring the passage to the great South Sea, which by many was believed to exist. He made known his ideas to the Governor-General, Count Frontenac, and de- sired his co-operation. The Governor at once fell in with his views, which were strengthened by the reports brought back by Marquette and Joliet, and advised La Salle to apply to the King of France in person, and gave him letters of introduction to the great Colbert, then Minister of Finance and Marine. Accordingly, in 1675, he returned to France, where he was warmly received by the King and nobility, and his ideas were at once listened to, and every possible favor shown to him. He was made a Chevalier, and invested with the seigniory of Fort Catarocouy, or Frontenac (now known as Kingston) upon condition that he would rebuild it, as he proposed, -of stone. Returning to Canada, he wrought diligently upon the fort until 1677, when he again visited France to report progress. He was received, as before, with favor, and, at the instance of Colbert and his son, the King granted him new letters patent and new privileges. On the 14th of July, 1678, he sailed from Rochelle, accompanied by thirty men, and with Tonti, an Italian, for his lieutenant. They arrived at Quebec on the 13th of September, and after a few days' delay, proceeded to Frontenac. Father Lewis Henuepin, a Franciscan friar, of the Recollet sect, was quietly working in Canada on La Salle's arrival. He was a man of great ambition, and much interested in the discoveries of the day. He was appointed by his religious superiors to accompany the expedition fitting out for La Salle. Sending agents forward to prepare the Indians for his coming, and to open trade with them, La Salle himself era- barked, on the 18th of November, in a little brigantine of ten tons, to cross Lake Ontario. This was the first ship of European build that ever sailed upon this fresh-water sea. Contrary winds made the voyage long and troublesome, and a month was consumed in beating up the lake to the Niagara River. Near the mouth of this river the Iroquois had a village, and here La Salle constructed the first fortification, which afterwards grew into the famous Fort Niagara. On the 2Cth of January, 1G79, the keel of the first vessel built on Luke Erie was laid at the mouth of the Cayuga Creek, on the American side, about six miles above the falls. In the meantime La Salle had returned to Fort Frontenac to forward supplies for his forthcoming vessel. The little barque on Lake Ontario was wrecked by carelessness, and a large amount of the supplies she carried was lost. On the 7th of August, the new vessel was launched, and made ready to sail. She was about seven tons' burden. La Salle christened his vessel the " Griffin," in honor of the arms of Count Frontenac. Passing across Lake Erie, and into the small lake, which they named St. Clair, they entered the broad waters of Lake Huron. Here they en- countered heavy storms, as dreadful as those upon the ocean and after a most tempestuous passage they took refuge in the roadstead of Michillimackinac (Mackinaw), on the 27th of August La Salle remained at this point until the middle of September, busy in founding a fort and constructing a trading-house, when he went forward upon the deep waters of Lake Michigan, and soon after cast anchor in Green Bay. Finding here a large quantity of furs and peltries, he deter- mined to load his vessel and send her back to Niagara. On the 18th of September, she was sent under charge of a pilot while La Salle himself, with fourteen men,* proceeded up Lake Michigan, leisurely examining its shores and noting everything of interest. Tonti, who had been sent to look after stragglers, was to join him at the head of the lake. From the 19ih of September to the 1st of November, the time was occupied in the voyage up this inland sea. On the last-named day, La Salle arrived at the mouth of the river Miamis, now St. Joseph. Here he constructed a fort, and remained nearly a month waiting for tidings of his vessel; but, hearing nothing, he determined to push on before the winter should preventhim. On the 3d of December, leaving ten men to garrison the fort, he started overland towards the head-waters of the Illinois, accompanied by three monks and twenty men. Ascending the St. Joseph River, he crossed a short portage and reached the The-a-ki-ki, since corrupted into Kankakee. Embarking on this sluggish stream, they came shortly to the Illinois, and soon after found a village of the Illinois Indians, probably in the vicinity of the rocky bluffs, a few miles above the present city of La Salle, Illinois. They found it deserted, but the Indians had quite a quantity of maize stored here, and La Salle, being short of provisions, helped himself to what he required. Passing down the stream, the party, on the 4th of January, came to a lake, probably the Lake Peoria, as there is no other upon this stream. Here they found a great number of natives, who were gentle and kind, and La Salle determined to construct a fort. It stood on a rise of ground near the river, and was named Oreve- Cceur f (broken-heart), most probably on account of the low spirits of the com- mander, from anxiety for his vessel and the uncertainty of the future. Possibly he had heard of the loss of the " Griffin," which occurred on her downward trip from Green Bay ; most probably on Lake Huron. He remained at the Lake Peoria through the winter, but no good tidings came, and no supplies. His men were discontented, but the brave adventurer never gave up hope. He resolved to send a party on a voyage of exploration up the Mississippi, under * Annals of the West. t Th site of the work is at present unknown. HISTORY OF EDWARDS, LAWRENCE AND W ABASH COUNTIES, ILLINOIS. the lead of Father Hennepin, and he himself would proceed on foot to Niagara and "Froutenac, to raise more means and enlist new men ; while Tonti, his lieutenant, should stay at the fort, which they were to strengthen in the meantime, and extend their intercourse with the Indians. Hennepin started "on his voyage on the last day of Febru- ary, 16SO, and La Salle soon after, with a few attendants, started on his perilous journey of twelve hundred miles by the way of the Illinois River, the Miami, and Lakes Erie ind Ontario, to Frontenac, which he finally reached in safety. lie found his worst fears realized. The "Griffin" was lost, his agents had taken advantage of his absence, and his creditors had seized his goods. But he knew no such word as fail, and by the middle of summer he was again on his way with men and supplies for his band in Illinois. A sad disappointment awaited him. He found his fort deserted and no tidings of Tonti and his men. During La Salle'a absence the Indians had become jealous of the French, and they had been attacked and harassed even by the Iroquois, who came the long distance between the shores of Lake Ontario and the Illinois River to make war upon the more peaceable tribes dwelling on the prairies. JJncertain of any assistance from La Salle, and apprehensive of a general war with the savages, Tonli, in September, 1G80, abandoned his position and returned to the shores of the lakes. La Salle reached the post on the Illinois in December, 1C80, or January, 1681. Again bitterly disappointed, La Salle did not succumb, but resolved to return to Canada and start anew. This he did, and in June met his lieutenant, Tonti, at Mackinaw. Hennepin in the meanwhile had met with strange adven- tures. After leaving Creve-Cceur, he reached the Missis- sippi in seven days ; but his way was so obstructed by ice that he was until the llth of April reaching the Wisconsin line. Here he was taken prisoner by some northern Indians, who, however, treated him kindly and took him and his companions to the falls of St. Anthony, which they reached on the first of May. These falls Hennepin named in honor of his patron saint. Hennepin and his companions remained here for three months, treated very kindly by their captors. At the end of this time they met with a band of French, led by one Sieur de Luth,* who, in pursuit of game and trade, had penetrated to this country by way of Lake Su- perior. With his band Hennepin and his companions re- turned to the borders of civilized life in November, 1G80, just after La Salle had gone back to the wilderness. Ilen- nepin returned to France,' where, ia 1684, he published a narrative of his wonderful adventures. Robert De La Salle, whose name is more "closely connected with the explorations of the Mississippi than that of any other, was the next to descend the river in the year 1682. Formal possession was taken of the great river and all the countries bordering upon it or its tributaries in the name of the King. La Salle and his party now retraced their steps towards the north. They met with no serious trouble until they reached the Chickasaw Bluffs, where they had erected a fort From this man undoubtedly come: the name of Eruluth. on their downward voyage, and named it Frudhomme. Here La Salle was taken violently sick. Unable to proceed, he sent forward Toiiti to communicate with Count Fronte- nac. La Salle himself reached the mouth of the St. Joseph the latter part of September. From that point he sent Father Zenobe with his dispatches to represent him at court, while he turned his attention to the fur trade and to the project of completing a fort, which he named St Louis, upon the Illinois River. The precise location of this work is not known. It was said to be upon a rocky bluff two hundred and fifty feet hi^h, and only accessible upon one side. There are no bluffs of such a height on the Illinois River answering the description. It may have been on the rocky bluff above La Salle, where the rocks are perhaps one hundred feet in height. Upon the completion of this work La Salle again sailed for France, which he reached on the 13th of December, 1683. A new man, La Barre, had now succeeded Fronte- nac as Governor of Canada. This man was unfriendly towards La Salle, and this, with other untoward circum- stances, no doubt led him to attempt the colonization of the Mississippi country by way of the mouth of the river. Not- withstanding many obstacles were in his path, he succeeded in obtaining/ the grant of a fleet from the King, and on the 24th of July, 1684, a fleet of twenty-four vessels sailed from Rochelle to America, four of which were destined for Lou- isiana, and carried a body of two hundred and eighty people, including the crews. There were soldiers, artificers, and volunteers, and also " some youisg women." Discord soon broke out between M. de Beaujcu and La Salle, and grew from bad to worse. On the 20th of December they reached the island cf St. Domingo. Joutel* was sent out with this party, which left oa the 5ih of February, and traveled eastward three clays, when they came to a great stream which they could not cross. Here they made signals by building great fires, and on the 13th two of the vessels came in sight. The stream was sounded and the vessels were anchored under shelter. But again misfortume overtook La Salle, and the vessel was wrecked, and the bulk of supplies was lost. At this junc- ture M. de Beaujeu, his second in command, set sail and returned to France. La Salle now constructed a rude shelter from the timbers of his wrecked vessel, placed his people inside of it, and set out to explore the surrounding country in hope of .finding the Mississippi. He was, of course, disappointed : but found on a stream, which is, named the Yachcs, a- good site for a fort. He at once re- moved his camp, and, after incredible exertions, constructed a fortification sufficient to protect them from the Indians. This fort was situated on Matagorda Bay, within the present limits of Texas, and was called by La Salle Fort St. Louis. Leaving Joutel to complete the work with one hundred men, La Salle took the remainder of the company and em- barked on the river, with the intention of proceeding as far up as he could. The savages toon became troublesome, and sjoutcl, historian of the voyage, accompanied La Salle, and subse- quently wrote h;s " Journal Historique," which was published in Paris, 1713. u HISTORY OF EDWARDS, LAWRENCE AND W ABASH COUNTIES, ILLINOIS. on the 14th of July La Salic ordered Joutel to join him with his whole force. They had already lost several of their best men, and dangers threatened them on every side. It would seem from the historian's account of the expedition that La Salle began to erect another fort, and also that he became morose and severe in his discipline, so much so as to get the ill will of many of his people. He finally resolved to advance into the country, but whether with the view of returning to Canada by way of Illinois, or only for the pur- pose of makiiig further discoveries, Joutel leives in doubt. Giving his last instructions, he left the fort en the 12th day of January, 1687, with a company of about a dozen men, including his brother, two nephews, Father Ana&tasius, a Franciscan friar, Joutel, and others, and moved north-east- ward, as is supposed, until the 17th of March, when some of his men, who had been cherishing revengeful feelings for some time, waylaid the Chevalier and shot him dead. They also slew one of his nephews and two of his servants. This deed occurred on the 20th of March, on a stream called Cenis. In 1C87, France was involved in a long and bloody war. The League of Augsburg was formed by the Princes of the Empire against Louis XIV., and England, Spain, Holland, Denmark, Sweden, and Savoy took up arms, and Louis found himself battling with nearly the whole of Europe, and only Turkey for an ally. This war ended with the peace of Ryswick in 1697. No material change took place in America, but the colo- nists were harassed and many of their people killed or car- ried captives to the Canadas. In 1688, the French posses- sions in North America included nearly the whole of the continent north of the St. Lawrence, and the entire valley of the Mississippi ; and they had begun to establish a line of fortifications extending from Quebec to the mouth of the Mississippi, between which points they had three great lines of communication, to wit : by way of Mackinaw, Green Bay, and the Wisconsin Eiver ; by way of Lake Michigan, tlie Kankakee and Illinois Rivers ; and by way of Lake Erie, the Maumee and Wabash Rivers, and were preparing to explore the Ohio as a fourth route. In 1699, D'Iberville, under the authority of the crown, discovered, on the second c f March, by way of the sea, the mouth of the " Hidden River." This majestic stream was called by the natives " Malbouchia," and by the Spaniards, ' La Palissade," from the great number of trees about its mouth. After traversing the several outlets, and satisfying himself as to its certainty, he erected a fort near its western outlet, and returned to France. An avenue of trade was now opened out, which was fully improved. At this time a census of -New France showed a total population of eleven thousand two hundred and forty-nine Europeans. War again broke out in 1701, and extended over a period of twelve years, ending with the treaty of Utrecht, in 1713. This also extended to the American Colo- nits, and its close left everything as before, with the excep- tion that Nova Scotia was captured in 1710. In 1718, New Orleans was laid out and settled by some European colonists. In 1762, the colony was made over to Spain, to be regained by France, under the consulate of Napoleon. In 1803, it was purchased by the United States, for the sum of fifteen million dollars, and the territory of Louisiana and the commerce of the Mississippi river, came under the charge of the United States. Although La Salle's labors ended in defeat and death, he had not worked and suffered in vain. He had thrown open to France and the world an immense and most valuable country. Had established several ports, and laid the foundation of more than one settlement there. " Peoria, Kaskaskia and Cahokia arc to this day monuments of La Salle's labors; for, th-ugh he had founded neither of them (unless Peoria, which was built nearly upon the site of Fort Crevecoeur), it was by those he led into the west that these places were peopled and civil- ized. He was, if not the discoverer, the first settler of the Mississippi Valley, and as such deserves to be known and honored."* The French early improved the opening made for them, and before 1693, the Reverend Father Gravier began a mission among the Illinois, and became the founder of Kas- kaskia. For some time it was merely a missionary station, and the inhabitants of the village consisted entirely of natives ; it being one of three such villages, the other two being Cahokia and Peoria. This we learn from a letttr written by Father Gabriel Marest, dated " Aux Cascaskias, Autrement dit de I'lmmaculee concepcion de la Saiute Vierge, le 9 Novembre, 1712." In this letter, the writer tells us that Gravier must be regarded as the founder of the Illinois mi sions. Soon after the founding of Kaskaskia, the missionary, Pinet, gathered a flock at Cahokia.f while Peoria arose near the remains of Fort Crevecreur J An unsuccessful attempt was also made to found a colony on the Ohio. It failed in consequence of sickness. In the north, De La Motte Cadillac, in June, 1701, laid the foundation of Fort Poutchartrain, on the strait, (le De- troit), || while in the southwest efforts were making to realize the dreams of La Salle. The leader in the last named en- terprise was Lemoine D'Iberville, a Canadian officer, who from 1694 to 1697 distinguished himself not a little by battles and conquests among the icebergs of the " Baye D'Udson or Hudson Bay." The post at Vincennes, on theOubaehe river, (pronounced Wa-ba, meaning summer cloud moving swiftly), was estab- lished in 1702. It is quite probable that on La Salle's last trip he established the stations at Kaskaskia and Cahokia. Until the year 17.30, but little is known of the settlements in the northwest, as it was not until this time that the atten- The authorities m relation to La Salle are Hennepin : a narrative pub- lished in the name of Tonti, in 1697, but disclaimed by him (Charlevoix III, 365. Lettres Edifiantes. t Bancroft, iii. 196. J There was an Old Peoria on the northwest shore of the lake of that name, a mile and a half above the outlet. From 1778 to 1796 the inhabi- tants left this for New Peoria, (Fort Clark) at the outlet. American State Papers, xviii. 476. I Western Annals. Chnrlevoix, ii. 284. Le Detroit was the whole strait from Erie to Huron. The first grants of land at Detroit, t. ., Fort Pontchartrain, were made in 1707. HISTORY OF EDWARDS, LAWRENCE AND WABASH COUNTIES, ILLINOIS. 15 tion of the English was called to the occupation of this por- tion of the new world, which they then supposed they owned. Vivier, a missionary among the Illinois, writing " Aux Illinois," six leagues from Fort Chartres, June 8th, 1750, says : " We have here whites, negroes, and Indians, to say nothing of the cross-breeds. There are five French villages, and three villages of the natives within a space of twenty-one leagues, situated between the Mississippi and another river, called the Karkadiad, (Kaskaskia). In the five French villages are, perhaps, eleven hundred whites, three hundred blacks, and some tixty red slaves or savages. The three Illinois towns do not contain more than eight hundred souls all told.* Most of the French till the soil. They raise wheat, cattle, pigs and horses, and live like princes. Three times as much is produced as can be con- sumed, and great quantities of grain and flour are sent to New Orleans." Again, in an epistle dated November 17th, 1750, Vivier says : " For fifteen leagues above the mouth of the Missis- sippi, one sees no dwellings * * * * New Orleans contains black, white and red, not more, I think, than twelve hun- dred persons. To this point come all kinds of lumber, bricks, salt-beef, tallow, tar, skins, and bear's grease ; and above all pork and flour from the Illinois. These things create some commerce, as forty vessels and more have come hither this year. Above New Orleans plantations are again met with ; the most considerable is a colony of Germans, some ten leagues up the river. At point Coupee, thirty-five leagues above the German settlement, is a fort. Along here, within five or six leagues, are not less than sixty habitations. Fifty leagues farther up is the Natchez post, where we have a garrison." Father Marest, witing from the post at Vincennes, makes the same observation. Vivier also says, " Some individuals dig lead near the surface, and supply the Indians and Can- ada. Two Spaniards, now here, who claim to be adepts, say that our mines are like those of Mexico, and that if we would dig deeper we would find silver under the lead ; at any rate the lead is excellent. There are also in this coun- try, beyond doubt, copper mines, as from time to time, large pieces have been found in the streams."f At the close of the year- 1750, the French occupied in ad- dition to the lower Mississippi posts and those in Illinois, one at Du Quesne, one at the Maumee, in the country of the ^lamis, and one at Sandusky, in what may be termed the Ohio Valley. In the northern part of the north-west, they j had stations at St. Joseph's on the St. Joseph's of Lake Michigan, at Fort Pontehartrain (Detroit), at Michilli- j mackinac or Massillimacinac, Fox River of Green Bay, and \ at Sault Ste. Marie. The fondest dreams of La Salle were I now fully realized. The French alone were possessors of | this vast realm, basing their claim on discovery and settle- | ment. Another nation, however, was now turning its attention to this extensive country, and learning of its wealth began to lay plans for occupying it and for securing the great profits arising therefrom. c Letlrcs Ediffantcs (Paris, 1731), vii. 97-106. t Western Annals. The French, however, had another claim to this country, namely, the DISCOVERY OF THE OHIO. The largest branch of the Mississippi river from the east, known to the early French settlers as la belle riviere, called "beautiful" river, was discovered by Robert Cavalier de La Salle, in 1669. While La Salle was at his trading-post on the St. Lawrence, he found leisure to study nine Indian dialects, the chief of which was the Iroquois. While con- versing with some Senecas, he learned of a river called the Ohio, which rose in their country and flowed to the sea. In this statement the Mississippi and its tributaries were considered as one stream. La Salle, believing as most of the French at that period did, that the great rivers flowing west emptied into the Sea of California, was anxious to em- bark in the enterprise of discovering a route across the continent. He repaired at once to Quebec to obtain the approval of the Governor and the Intendent, Talon. They issued letters patent, authorizing the enterprise, but made no provisions to defray the expenses. At this juncture the seminary St. Sulpice decided to send out missionaries in connection with the expedition, and La Salle offering to sell his improvements at La Chive to raise the money, the offer was accepted by the Superior, and two thousand eight hundred dollars were raised, with which La Salle purchased four canoes and the necessary supplies for the outfit. On the 6th of July, 1689, the party, numbering twenty- four persons, embarked in seven canoes on the St. Lawrence. Two additional canoes carried the Indian guides. In three days they were gliding over the bosom of Lake Ontario. Their guides conducted them directly to the Seneca village on the bank of the Genesee, in the vicinity of the present city of Rochester, New York. Here they expected to procure guides to conduct them to the Ohio, but in this they were disappointed. After waiting a month in the hope of gaining their object, they met an Indian from the Iroquois colony, at the head of Lake Ontario, who assured them they could find guides, and offered to conduct them thence. On their way they passed the mouth of Niagara river, when they heard for the first time the distant thunder of the cataract. Arriving among the Iroquois they met with a friendly reception, and learned from a Shawnee prisoner that they could reach the Ohio in six weeks.- - De- lighted with the unexpected good fortune, they made ready to resume their journey, and as they were about to start they heard of the arrival of two Frenchmen in a neighboring village. One of them proved to be Louis Joliet, afterwards famous as an explorer in the west. He had been sent by the Canadian government to explore the copper mines on Lake Superior, but had failed and was on his way back to Quebec. On arriving at Lake Superior, they found, as La Salle had predicted, the Jesuit fathers, Marquette and Dablo;:, occupying the field. After parting with the priests, I ,-\ Salle went to the chief Iroquois village at Onondago, ivhrre he obtained guides and passing thence to a tributary of the Ohio south of Lake Erie, he descended the latter as far as 16 HISTORY OF EDWARDS, LAWRENCE AND W ABASH COUNTIES, ILLINOIS. the falls of Louisville. Thus was the Ohio discovered by La Salle, the persevering and successful French explorer of the west in 1069. When Washington was sent out by the colony of Virginia in 1753, to demand of Gordeur de St. Pierre why the French had built a fort on the Monongahela, the haughty com- mandant at Quebec replied : " We claim the country on the Ohio by virtue of the discoveries of La Salle, and will not give it up to the English. Our orders are to make prisoners of every Englishman found trading in the Ohio valley." ENGLISH EXPLORATIONS AND SETTLEMENTS. We have sketched the progress of French discovery in the valley of the Mississippi. The first travelers reached tha* river iu 1G73, and when the year 1750 broke in upon the father of waters and the great north-west, all was still except those little spots upon the prairies of Illinois and among the marshes of Louisiana. Volney, by conjecture, fixes the settlement of Vincennes about 1735.* Bishop Brute, of Indiana, speaks of a mis- sionary station there in 1700, and adds: "The friendly tribes and traders called to Canada for protection, and then M. De Vincennes came with a detachment, I think, of Cariguan, and was killed in 1735. ''f Bancroft says a mili- tary establishment was formed there in 1716, and in 1742 a settlement of herdsmen took place.J In a petition of the old inhabitants at Vincennes, dated in November, 1793, we find the settlement spoken of as having been made before 1742. And such is the general voice of tradition. On the other hand, Charlevoix, who records the death of Vincennes, which took place among the Chickasaws, in 1736, makes no mention of any post on the Wabash, or any missionary station there. Neither does he mark any upon his map, although he gives even the British forts upon the Tennessee and elsewhere. Such is the character of the proof relative to the settlement of Vincennes. Hennepin, in 1663-4, had heard of the " Hohio." The route from the lakes to the Mississippi, by the Wabash, was explored 1676,|| and in Hennepin's volume of 1698, is a journal, said to be that sent by La Salle to Count Frontenac in 1682 or '83, which mentions the route by the Maumee^f and Wabash as the most direct to the great western river. In 1749, when the English first began to think seriously of sending men into the west, the greater portions of the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota were yet under the dominion of the red men. The English knew, however, of the nature of the vast wealth of these wilds. In the year 1710, Governor Spotswood, of Virginia, had matured a plan and commenced movements, the object of which was to secure the country beyond the Alleghenics to the English crown. In Pennsylvania, also, Governor Keith and James Logan, Secretary of the Province from 1719 to Volney's View, p. 336. t Butler's Kentucky. J History XJ. S. iii. 340. \ American State Papers, xvi. 32. | Histoire General Des Voyages iiv., 758. TNow called Miami. 1731, represented to the powers of England the necessity of taking steps to secure the western lands. Nothing, however/ was done by the mother country, except to take certain diplomatic steps to secure the claim of Britain to this unex- plored wilderness. England had from the outset claimed from the Atlantic to the Pacific, on the ground that the dis- covery and possession of the sea coast was a discovery and possession of the country ; and as is well known, her grants to Virginia, Connecticut, and other colonies, were through from " sea to sea." This was not all her claims ; she had purchased from the Indian tribes large tracts of laud. Thij was also a strong argument. In the year 1684, Lord Howard, Governor of Virginia, held a treaty with the five nations at Albany. These wero the great Northern Confederacy, and comprised at first the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas. Afterward the Tuscaroras were taken into the confederacy, and it became known as the six nations. They came under the protection of the mother country, and again in 1701 they repeated the agreement. Another formal deed was drawn up and signed by the chiefs of the National Confederacy in 1726, by which their lands were conveyed in trust to Eng- land, " to be protected and defended by his majesty, to and for the use of the grantors and their heirs." The validity of this claim has often been disputed, but never successfully. In 1774, a purchase was made at Lancaster of certain lands within the " colony of Virginia-," for which the Indians received 200 in gold and a like sum in goods, with a promise that as settlements increased, more should be paid. The commissioners from Virginia at the treaty were Col. Thomas Lee and Col. William Beverly. As settlements extended, and the Indians ./egan to com- plain, the promise of further pay was called to mind, and Mr. Conrad Weiser was sent across the Alleghenies to Logs' town. In 1784, * Col. Lee and some Virginians accom- panied him, with the intention of ascertaining the feelings of the Indians with regard to further settlements in the west, which Col. Lee and others were contemplating. The object of these proposed settlements was not the cultivation of the soil, but the monopoly of the Indian trade. Accordingly aftef Weiser's conference with the Indians at Logstown, which was favorable to their views, Thomas Lee, with twelve other Virginians, among whom were Lawrence and Augustine, brothers of George Washington, and also Mr. Hanbury, of London, formed an association whLh they called the "Ohio Company," and in 1748 petitioned the king for a grant beyond the mountains. This petition was approved by the English government, and the government of Virginia was ordered to grant to the petitioners half a million of acres within the bounds of that colony beyond the Alleghenies, two hundred thousand of which were to be located at once. This portion was to be held for ten years free of quit-rent, provided the company would put there one hundred families within seven years, and build a fort suffi- cient to protect the settlement. The company accepted the proposition, and sent to London for a cargo suited to tho Indian trade, which should arrive in November, 1749. * Plain Facts, pp. 40, 120. HISTORY OF EDWARDS, LAWRENCE AND WAS ASH COUNTIES, ILLINOIS. Other companies were also formed about this time in Vir- ginia to colonize the west. On the 12th of June, 1749, a grant of 800,000 acres from the line of Canada, on the north and west, was made to the Loyal Company, and on the 29th of October, 1751, another of 100,000 acres to the Greenbriar Company. * The French were not blind all this time. They saw that if the British once obtained a stronghold upon the Ohio, they might not only prevent their settlements upon it, but in time would come to the lower posts, and so gain posses- sion of the whole country. Upon the 10th of May, 1744, Vandreuil, the French governor, well knowing the conse- quences that must arise from allowing the English to build trading posts in the north- .vest, seized some of their frontier posts, to further secure the claims of the French to the west. Having these fears, and seeing the danger of the late movements of the British, Gallisouiere, then Governor of Canada, determined to place along the Ohio evidences of the French claim to, and possession of, the country. For that purpose he sent, in the summer of 1749, Louis Celeron, with a party of soldiers, to place plates of lead, on which were written out the claims of the French, in the mounds and at the mouths of the rivers. These were heard of by Willliam Trent, an Indian commissioner, sent out by Vir- ginia in 1752, to treat with and conciliate the Indians, while upon the Ohio, and mentioned in his journal. One of these plates was found with the inscription partly defaced. It bears date August 16th, 1749, and a cop^ of the inscrip- tion, with particular account, was sent by De Witt Clinton to the American Antiquarian Society, among whose journals it may now be found. These measures did not, however, deter the English from going on with their explorations. In February, 1751, Christopher Gist was sent by the Ohio Company to examine its lands. He went to a village of the Twigtwees, on the Miami, about 150 miles above its mouth. From there he went down the Ohio River nearly to the falls, at the present city of Louisville, and in Novem- ber he commenced a survey of the company's lands. In 17.31, General Andrew Lewis commenced some surveys in the Greenbrier country, on behalf of the company already mentioned. Meanwhile the French were busy in preparing their forts for defence, and in opening roads. In 1752 having heard of the trading houses on the Miami River, they, assisted by the Ottawas and Chippewas, attacked it, and, after a severe battle, in which fourteen of the natives were killed and others wounded, captured the garrison. The traders were carried away to Canada, and one account gays several were burned. This fort, or trading house was called by the English writers Pickawillany. A memorial of the king's ministers refers to it as " Pickawellanes, in the centre of the territory between Ohio and the Wabash." This was the first blood shed between the French and English, and occurred near the present city of Piqua, Ohio. The English were determined on their part to purchase a title from the Indians of lands which they wished to occupy, and in the spring of 1752, Messrs. Fry,f Lomax and Pat on * Revised Statutes of Virginia. t Afterwards Commander-in-chief ment of the French War of 177:,. Washington, at the commence- were sent from Virginia to hold a conference with the natives at Logstown, to learn what they objected to in the treaty at Lancaster, and to settle all difficulties. On the 9th of Juno the commissioners met the red men at Logs- town. This was a village seventeen miles below Pittsburgh, upon the north side of the Ohio. Here had been a trading post for many years, but it was abandoned by the Indians in 1750. At first the Indians declined to recognize the treaty of Lancaster, but the commissioners taking aside Montour, the interpreter, who was a son of the famous Catherine Montour, and a chief among the six nations, being three-fourths of Indian blood, through his influence an agreement was effected, and upon the 13lh of June they all united in signing a deed, confirming the Lancaster treaty in its fullest extent. Mean while the powers beyond the seas were trying to out-mano3uver each other, and were professing to be at peace. The English generally outwitted the Indians, and secured themselves, as they thought, by their polite conduct. But the French, in this as in all cases, proved that they knew best how to manage the natives. While these measures were taken, another treaty with the wild men of the debatable land was also in contemplation. And in Sep- tember, 1753, William Fairfax met their deputies at Win- chester, Virginia, where he concluded a treaty. In the month following, however, a more satisfactory inter view took place at Carlisle, between the representatives of the Iroquois, Delawares, Shawnees, Twigtwees, and Wyandots, and the commissioners of Pennsylvania, Richard Peters, Isaac Norris, and Benjamin Franklin. Soon after this, no satisfaction being obtained from the Ohio, either as to the force, position, or purposes of the French, Robert Dinwiddie, then Governor of Virginia, determined to send to them another messenger, and learn if possible their intentions. For this purpose he selected a young surveyor, who, at the age of nineteen had I attained the rank of major, and whose previous life had inured him to hardships and woodland ways ; while his courage, cool judgment, and firm will, all fitted him for such ' a mission. This personage was no other than the illustrious George Washington, who then held considerable interest in western lands. He was twenty-one years old at the time of ! the appointment.* Taking Gist as a guide, the two, accom- panied by four servitors, set out on their perilous march. ! They left Will's Creek, where Cumberland now is, on the 15th of November, and on the 22d reached the Monongahela, | about ten miles above the fork. From there they went to i Logstown, where Washington had a long conference with the chiefs of the six nations. Here he learned the position of the French, and also that they had determined not to come down the river until the following spring. The Indians were non-committal, they deeming a neutral position the safest. Washington, finding nothing could be done, went on to Ve- nango, an old Indian town at the mouth of the French Creek. Here the French had a fort called Fort Machault. On the llth of December he reached the fort at the head of French Creek. Here he delivered Governor Dinwiddie's letter, received his answer, and upon the 16th set out upon his return journey with no one but Gist, hia guide, and a few Sparks' Washington, Vol. ii., pp. 42S-447. 18 HISTORY OF EDWARDS, LAWRENCE AND W ABASH COUNTIES, ILLIN CJf. Indians, who still remained true to him. They reached home in safety on the Gth of January, 1754. From the letter of St. Pierre, Commander of the French fort, sent by Washing- ton to Governor Diuwiddie, it was perfectly clear that the French would not yield the West without a struggle. Active preparations were at once made iii all the English colonies for the coming conflict, while the French finished their fort at Venango and strengthened their lines of fortifications to be in readiness. The Old Dominion was alive. Virginia was the center of great activities. Volunteers were called for, and from neighboring colonies men rallied to the conflict, and everywhere along the Potomac men were enlisting under Governor's proclamation, which promised two hundred thousand acres on the Ohio. Along this river they were gathering as far as Will's Creek, and far beyond this point, whither Trent had come for assistance, for his little band of forty-one men, who were working away in hunger and want, to fortify that point at the fork of the Ohio, to which both parties were looking with deep interest. The first birds of spring filled the fjrest with their songs. The swift river rolled by the Allegheny hillsides, swollen by the melting snows of spring and April showers. The leaves were appear- ing, a few Indian Scouts were seen, but no enemy seemed near at hand, and all was so quiet that Frazier, an old In- dian trader, who had been left by Trent in command of the new fort, ventured to his home at the mouth of Turtle Creek, ten miles up the Monongahela. But though all was so quiet in that wilderness, keen eyes had seen the low entrenchment that was rising at the fork, and swift feet had borne the news of it up the valley, and on the morning of the 17th of April, Ensign Ward, who then had charge of it, saw upon the Allegheny a sight that made his heart sink; sixty batteaux and three hundred canoes, filled with men, and laden deep with cannon and stores. The fort was called on to surren- der : by the advice of the Half-King, Ward tried to evade the act, but it would not do. Contrecceur, with a thousand men about him, said ' Evacuate,' and the ensign dared not refuse. That evening he supped with his captor, and the next day was bowed off by the Frenchman, and, with his men and tools, marched up the Monongahela." The French and Indian war had begun. The treaty of Aix la Chapelle, in 1748, had left the boundaries between the French and English possessions unsettled, and the events already narra- ted show that the French were determined to hold the coun- try watered by the Mississippi and its tributaries : while the English laid claim to the country by virtue of the discoveries by the Cabots, and claimed all the country from New Found- land to Florida, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The first decisive blow had been struck, and the first attempt of the English, through the Ohio Company, to occupy these lands had resulted disastrously to them. The French and Indians immediately completed the fortifications begun at the fork, which they had so easily captured, and when com- pleted gave to the fort the name of Du Quesne. Washing- ton was at Will's Creek, when the news of the capture of the fort arrived. He at once departed to recapture it. On his way he entrenched himself at a place called the " Meadow*," where he erected a fort called by him Fort Necessity. From there he surprised and captured a forco of French and Indi- ans marching against him, but was soon after attacked by a much superior force, and was obliged to yield on the morn- ing of July 4th. He was allowed to return to Virginia. The English Government immediately planned for cam- paigns, one against Fort Du Quesne, one against Nova Sco- tia, one against Fort Niagara, and one against Crown Point. These occurred during 1755-6, and were not successful in driving the French from their possessions. The expedition against Fort Du Quesne was led by the famous Braddock, who, refusing to listen to the advice of Washington and those acquainted with Indian warfare, suffered an inglorious de- feat. This occurred on the morning of July 9th, and is gen- erally known as the battle of Monongahela or " Braddock's defeat." The war continued through various vicissitudes through the years 1756-7, when, at the commencement of 1758, in accordance with the plans of William Pitt, then secretary of state, afterwards Lord Chatham, active prepa- rations were made to carry on the war. Three expeditions were planned for this year : one under General Amherst, against Louisburg; another under Abercrombie, against Fort Ticonderoga ; and a third under General Forbes, against Fort Du Quesne. On the 26th of July, Louisburg surren- dered after a desperate resistance of more than forty days, and the eastern part of the Canadian possessions foil into the hands of the British. Abercrombie captu red Fort Fronte- nac, and when the expedition against Fort Du Quesne, of which Washington had the active command, arrived there, it was found in flames and deserted. The English at once took possession, rebuilt the fort, and in honor of their illus- trious statesman, changed the name to Fort Pitt. The great object of the campaign of 1759, was the reduc- tion of Canada. General Wolfe was to lay siege to Quebec ; Amherst was to reduce Ticonderoga and Crown Point ; and General Prideaux was to capture Niagara. This latter place was taken in July, but the gallant Prideaux lost his life. Amherst captured Ticonderoga and Crown Point, without a blow ; and Wolfe, after making the memorable ascent to the plains of Abraham, on September 13th, defeated Montcalm, and on the 18th the city capitulated. In this engagement, Montcalra and Wolfe both lost their lives. De Levi, Mont- calm's successor, marched to Sillery, three miles above the city, with the purpose of defeating the English, and there, on the 28th of the following April, was fought one of the bloodiest battles of the French and Indian war. It resulted in the defeat of the French, and the fall of the city of Mon- treal. The Governor signed a capitulation by which the whole of Canada was surrendered to the English. This practically concluded the war, but it was not until 1763 that the treaties of peace between France and England were signed. This was done on the 10th of February of that year, and under its provisions all the country east of the Mississippi and north of the Ibervill river in Louisiana, were ceded to England. At the same time, Spain ceded Florida to Great Britain. On the 13th September, 1760, Major Robert Rogers was sent from Montreal to take charge of Detroit, the only re- maining French post in the territory. He arrived there on HIS TORY OF EDWARDS, LAWRENCE AND WABASH COUNTIES, ILLINOIS. the ( Jth of November, and summoned the place to surrender. At first the commander of the post, Beletre, refused, but on the 29th, hearing of the continued defeat of the French army, surrendered. The North-west Territory was now entirely under the English rule. In 1762, France, by a secret treaty, ceded Louisiana to Spain, to prevent it falling into the hands of the English, who were becoming masters of the entire West. The next year the treaty of Paris, signed at Fou- tainbleau, gave to the English the dominion iu question. Twenty years after, by the treaty of peace between the United States and England, that part of Canada lying south and west of the great lakes, comprising a large territory, was acknowledged to be a portion of the United States. In 1803 Louisiana was ceded by Spain back to France, and by France sold to the United States, By the treaty of Paris, the regions east of the Mississippi, including all these and other towns of the north-west, were given over to England ; but they do not appear to have been taken possession of until 1765, when Captain Stirling, in the name of the Majesty in England, established himself at Fort Chartres, bearing with him the proclamation of General Gage, dated December 30th, 1764, which promised religious freedom to all Catho- lics who worshiped here and the right to leave the country with their effects if they wished, or to remain with the priv- ileges of Englishmen. During the years 1775 s.nd 1776, by the operations of land companies and the perseverance of individuals, several settlements were firmly established be- tween the Alleghenies and the Ohio river, and western land speculators were busy in Illinois and on the Wabash. At a council held in Kaskaskia, on July 5th, 1773, an association of English traders, calling themselves the " Illinois Land Company," obtained from the chiefs of the Kaskaskia, Ca- hokia, and Peoria tribes two large tracts of land lying on the east side of the Mississippi river south of the Illinois. In 1775 a merchant from the Illinois country, named Viviat, came to Post Vincenncs as the agent of the association called the " Wabash Land Company." On the 8th of October he obtained from eleven Piankeshaw chiefs a deed for 37,497, 600 acres of land. This deed was signed by the grantors, attested by a number of the inhabitants of Vincenues, and afterward recorded in the office of a Notary Public at Kas- kaskia. This and other land companies had extensive schemes for the colonization of the West ; but all were frus- trated by the breaking out of the Revolutionary war. On the 20th of April, 1780, the two companies named consoli- dated under the name of the " United Illinois and Wabash Land Company ; " they afterwards made strenuous efforts to have these grants sanctioned by Congress, but all signally failed. When the war of the Revolution commenced, Ken- tucky was an unorganized country, though there were several settlements within her borders. Iu Ilutchins' Topography of Virginia, it is stated that at that time Kaskaskia contained 80 houses, and nearly 1,000 white and black inhabitants, the whites being a little the more numerous. Cahokia contained fifty houses, 300 white inhabitants, and 80 negroes. There were east of the Missis- sippi river, about the year 1771 when these observations wcro made" 300 v.hitc men capable of bearing arms, and 233 negroes." From 1775 until the expedition of Clark, nothing is recorded and nothing known of these settlements, save what is contained iu a report made by a committee to Congress in June, 1778. From it the following extract is made : " Near the mouth of the river Kaskaskia, there is a village which appears to have contained nearly eighty fam- ilies from the beginning of the late Revolution ; there are twelve families at a small village at La Prairie Du Rochers, and nearly fifty families at the Cahokia village. There aro also four or five families at Fort Chartres and St. Philip's, which is five mibs further up the river." St. L >uis had been settled in February, 1764, and at this time contained, inclu- ding its neighboring towns, over six hundred white and one hundred and fifty negroes. It must be remembered that all the country west of the Mississippi was under French rule, and remained so until ceded back to Spain, its original owner, who afterwards sold it and the country including New Or- leans to the Uuited States. At De'roit, there were, accord- ing to Captain Carver, who was in the north-west from 1768 to 1776, more than one hundred houses, and the river was settled for more than twenty miles, although poorly cultiva- ted, the people being engaged iu the Indian trade. On the breaking out of the Revolution, the British held every post of importance in the West. Kentucky was formed as a component part of Virginia, and the sturdy pioneers of the West, alive to their interests, and recog- nizing the great benefits of obtaining the control of the trade iu this part of the New World, held steadily to their purposes, and those within the commonwealth of Ken- tucky proceeded to exercise their civrl privileges of electing John Todd and Richard Gallaway burgesses, to represent them in the assembly of the present state. The chief spirit in this far-out colony, who had represented her the year previous east of the mountains, was now meditating a move of unequalled boldness. He had been watching the move- ments of the British throughout the north-west, and under- stood their whole plan. He saw it was through their possession of the post at Detroit, Vincennes, Kaskaskia, and other places, which would give them easy access to the vari- ous Indian tribes in the north-west, that the British intended to penetrate the country from the north and south, and annihilate the frontier fortresses. This moving, energetic man was Colonel, afterwards General George Rodgers Clark. He knew that the Indians were not unanimously in accord with the English, and he was convinced that, could the British be defeated and expelled from the north-west, the natives might be easily awed into neutrality ; by spies sent for the purpose, he satisfied himself that the enterprise against the Illinois settlements might easily succeed. Patrick Henry was Governor of Virginia, and at once entered heartily into Clark's plans. The same plan had before been agitated in the Colonial Assemblies ; but there was no one until Clark came who was sufficiently acquainted with the condition of affairs at the scene of action to be able to guide them. Clark, having satisfied the Virginia leaders of the feasibility of his plan, received on the second of January two sets of instructions: one secret, the other open. The latter authoriz- ed him to proceed to enlist seven companies to go to Ken- HISTORY OF EDWARDS, LAWRENCE AND WABASH COUNTIES, ILLINOIS. tucky, subject to his orders, and to serve three months from their arrival in the west. The secret order authorized him to arm the troops, to procure his powder and lead of General Hand, at Pittsburg, and to proceed at once to subjugate the country. With these instructions Clark repaired to Pittsburg, choos- ing rather to raise his men west of the mountains. Here he raised three companies and several private volunteers. Clark at length commenced his descent of the Ohio, which he navigated as far as the falls, where he took possession of and fortified Corn Island, between the present sites of Louis- ville, Kentucky, and New Albany, Indiana. Remains of this fortification may yet be found. At this place he ap- pointed Col. Bowman to meet him with such recruits as had reached Kentucky by the southern route. Here he an- nounced to the men their real destination. On the 24th of June he embarked on the river, his destination being Fort Massac or Massacre, and then marched direct to Kaskaskia. The march was accomplished and the town reached on the evening of July 4. He captured the fort near the village, and soon after the village itself, by surprise, without the loss of a single man or killing any of the enemy. Clark told the natives that they were at perfect liberty to worship as they pleased, and to take whichever side of the conflict they would, and he would protect them from any barbarity from British or Indian foes. This had the desired effect) and the inhabitants at once swore allegiance to the Amerr can arms, and when Clark desired to go to Cahokia on the 6th of July, they accompanied him, and through their in- fluence the inhabitants of the place surrendered. Thus two important posts iu Illinois passed from the hands of the Eng- Hsh into the possession of Virginia. During the year (1779) the famous " Land Laws " of Virginia were passed- The passage of these laws was of more consequence to the pioneers of Kentucky and the north-west than the gaining of a few Indian conflicts. These grants confirmed in the main all grants made, and guaranteed to actual settlers their rights and privileges. After providing for the settlers, the laws provided for sell- ing the balance of the public lands at forty cents per acre. To carry the Land Laws into effect, the Legislature sent four Virginians westward to attend to the various claims over many of which great confusion prevailed concerning their validity vote.* These gentlemen opened their court on October, 13, 1779, at St. Asaphs, and continued until April 26, 1780, when they adjourned, having decided three thou- sand claims. They were succeeded by the surveyor, George May, who assumed the duties on the 10th day of the month whose name he bore. With the opening of the next year (1781) the troubles concerning the navigation of the Missis- sippi commenced. The Government of Spain exacted such measures in relation to its trade as to cause the overtures made to the United States to be rejected. The American Government considered they had a right to navigate its channel. To enforce their claims, a fort was erected below the mouth of the Ohio on the Kentucky side of the river. f Butler's Kentucky. t American Stati- Papers. The settlements in Kentucky were being rapidly filled by emigrants. It was during this year that the first seminary of learning was established in the West in this young and enterprising commonwealth. The settlers did not look upon the building of the fort in a friendly manner as it aroused the hostility of the Indians. Spain had been friendly to the colonies during their struggle for independence, and though for a while this friendship ap- peared in danger from the refusal of the free navigation of the river, yet it was finally settled to the satisfaction of both nations. The winter of 1779-80 was one of the most unusu- ally severe ones ever experienced in the West. The Indians always refered to it as the " Great Cold. " Numbers of wild animals perished, and not a few pioneers lost their lives. The following summer a party of Canadians and Indians, attacked St. Louis, and attempted to take possesion of it in consequence of the friendly disposition of Spain to the revolt- ing colonies. They met with such a determined resistance on the part of the inhabitants, even the women taking part in the battle, that they were compelled to abandon the con- test. They also made an attack on the settlements in Ken- tucky, but, becoming alarmed in some unaccountable man- ner, they fled the country in great haste. About this time arose the question in the Colonial Congress concerning the western lands claimed by Virginia, New York, Massachu- setts and Connecticut. The agitation concerning this sub- ject finally led New York, on the 19th of February, 1780, to pass a law giving to the delegates of that State in Congress the power to cede her western lands for the benefit of the United States. This law was laid before Congress during the next month, but no steps were taken concerning it until September 6th, when a resolution passed that body calling upon the states claiming western lands to release their claims in favor of the whole body. This basis formed the Union, and was the first after all of those legislative measures, which resulted in the creation of the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois,Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota. In December of the same year, the plan of conquering Detroit again arose. The conquest might easily have been effected by Clark, had the necessary aid been furnished him. Nothing decisive was done, yet the heads of the Government knew that the safety of the North- West from British invasion lay in the capture and retention of that important post, the only uuconquered one in the territory. Before the close of the year, Kentucky was divided into the counties of Lincoln, Fayette, and Jefferson, and the act eetablishicg the town of Louisville was passed. Virginia in accordance with the resolution of Congress, on the 2d day of January, 1781, agreed to yield her western lands to the United States upon certain conditions, which Congress would not accede to,* and the Act of Cession, on the part of the Old Dominion, failed, nor was anything farther done until 1783. During all that time the colonies were busily engaged in the struggle with the mother country, and in consequence thereof but little heed was given to the western settlements. Upon the 16th of April, 1781, the first birth north of the Ohio River of American parentage occurred, being that of Mary/ * AmiT>:m State Papers. HISTORY OF EDWARDS, LAWRENCE AND WABASH COUNTIES, ILLINOIS. Heckewelder, daughter of the widely known Moravian Mis- sionary, whose baud of Christian Indians suffered in after years a horrible massacre by the hands of the frontier settlers, who had been exasperated by the murder of several of their neighbors, and in their rage committed, without regard to humanity, a deed which forever afterwards cast a shade of shame upon their lives. For this and kindred outrages on the part of the whites, the Indians committed many deeds of cruelty which darken the years of 1781 and 1782 in the his- tory of the North-west. During the year 1782 a number of battles among the Indians and frontiersmen occurred, and between the Moravian Indians and the Wyandots. In these, horrible acts of cruelty were practiced on the captives, many of such dark deeds transpiring under the leadership of fron- tier outlaws. These occurred chiefly in the Ohio Valleys. Contemporary with them were several engagements in Ken- tucky, in which the famous Daniel Boone engaged, and who, often by his skill and knowledge of Indian warfare, saved the outposts from cruel destruction. By the close of the year victory had perched upon the American banner, and on the 30th of November, provisional articles of peace had been arranged between the Commissioners of England and her unconquerable colonies ; Cornwallis had been defeated on the 19th of October preceding, and the lib- erty of America was assured. On the 19th of April follow- ing, the anniversary of the' battle of Lexington, peace was proclaimed to the Army of the United States, and on the 3d of the next September, the definite treaty which ended our revolutionary struggle was concluded. By the terms of thai treaty, the boundaries of the West were as follows: On the, north the line was to extend along the centre of the Great Lakes ; from the western point of Lake Superior to Long Lake, thence to the Lake of the Woods ; thence to the head of the Mississippi River ; down its center to the 31st parallel of latitude, then on that line east to the head of the Appalach- icola River; down its center to its junction with the Flint ; thence straight to the head of St. Mary's River, and thencj clown along its center to the Atlantic Ocean. Following the cessation of hostilities with England, several posts were still occupied by the British in the North and West. Among these was Detroit, still in the hands of the enemy. Numerous engagements with the Indians through- out Ohio and Indiana occurred, upon whrse lands adventur- ous whites would settle ere the title had been acquired by the proper treaty. To remedy this evil, Congress appointed Commissioners to treat with the natives and purchase their lands, and prohibited the settlement of the territory until this could be done. Before the close of the year another attempt was made to capture Detroit, which was, however, not pushed, and Virginia, no longer feeling the interest in the North-west she had formerly done, withdrew her troops, having on the 20th of December preceding, authorized the whole of her possessions to be deeded to the United States. This was done on the 1st of March following, and the North- west Territory passed from the control of the Old Dominion. To General Clark and his soldisrs, however, she gave a tract of one hundred and fifty thousand acres of land, to be situ- ated anywhere north of the Ohio wherever they chose to locate them. They selected the region opposite the falls of the Ohio, where is now the village of Clarksville, about mid- way between the cities of New Albany and Jeffersonville, Indiana. While the frontier remained thus, and General Haldi- mand at Detroit refused to evacuate, alleging that he had no orders from his king to do so, settlers were rapidly gather- ing about the inland forts. In the spring of 1784, Pittsburg was regularly laid out, and from the journal of Arthur Lee, who passed through the town soon after on his way to the Indian council at Fort Mclntosh, we suppose it was not very prepossessing in appearance. He says, " Pittsburg is in- habited almost entirely by Scots and Irish, who live in paltry log houses, and are as dirty as if in the North of Ireland, or even Scotland. There is a great deal of trade carried on, the goods being brought at the vast expense of forty-five shillings per hundred Ibs. from Philadelphia and Baltimore. They take in the shops flour, wheat, skins and money. There are in the town, four attorneys, two doctors, and not a priest of any persuasion, nor church nor chapel." Kentucky at this time contained thirty thousand inhabi- tants, and was beginning to discuss measures for a separation from Virginia. A land office was opened at Louisville, and measures were adopted to take defensive precaution against the Indians, who were yet, in some instances, incited to deeds of violence by the British. Before the close of this year, 1784, the military claimants of land began to occupy them, although no entries were recorded until 1787. The Indian title to the Northwest was not yet extinguished, they held large tracts of lands, and in order to prevent bloodshed Con- gress adopted means for treaties with the original owners and provided for the surveys of the lands gained thereby, as well as for those north of the Ohio, now in its possession. On January 31, 1786, a treaty was made with the Wabash Indians. The treaty of Fort Stanwix had been made in 1781, that at Fort Mclntosh in 1785, and through these vast tracts of land were gained. The Wabash Indians, how- ever, afterwards rfused to comply with the provisions of the treaty made with them, and in order to compel their adherence to its provisions, force was used. During the year 1786, the free navigation of the Mis- sissippi came up in Congress, and caused various discussions, which resulted in no definite action, only serving to excite speculation in regard to the Western lands. Congress had promised bounties of land to the soldiers of the Revolution, but owing to the unsettled condition of affairs along the Mississippi respecting its navigation, and the trade of the Northwest, that body, had in 1783 declared its inability to fulfill these promises until a treaty could be concluded be- tween the two governments. Before the close of the year, 1786, however, it was able, through the treaties with the Indians, to allow some grants and settlements thereon, and on the 14th of September Connecticut ceded to the general government the tract of land known as the " Connecticut Reserve," and before the close of the year a large tract of hind was sold to a company, who at once took measures to settle it. By the provisions of this grant, the company were to pay the United States one dollar per acre, subject to a de- HISTORY OF EDWARDS, LAWRENCE AND WABASH COUNTIES, ILLINOIS. duction of one-third for bad lands and other contingencies*, they received 750,000 acres bounded on the south by the Ohio, on the east by the Seventh range of townships, on the west by the Sixteenth range, and on the north by a line so drawn as to make the grant complete without the reservation. In addition to this Congress afterward granted 100,000 acres to actual settlers, and 214,285 acres as army bounties under the resolutions of 1789 and 1790. While Dr. Cutler, one of the agents of the company, was pressing its claims before Congress, that body was bringing into form an ordinance for the political and social organization of this Territory. When the cession was made by Virginia, 1784, a plan was offered, but rejected. A motion had been made to strike from the proposed plan the prohibition of slavery, which prevail- ed. The plan was -then discussed and altered, and finally passed unanimously, with the exception of South Carolina. By tliis proposition the Territory was to have been divided into ten States by parallels and meridian lines. There were, However, serious objections to this plan ; the root of the diffi- culty was in 'the resolution of Congress passed in October, 1780, which fixed the boundaries of the ceded lands to be from one hundred to one hundred and fifty miles square. These resolutions being presented to the Legislatures of Vir- ginia and Massachusetts they desired a change, and in July 1786, the subjeet was taken up in Congress and changed to favor a division into not more than five Spates, and not less than three; this was approved by the Legislature of Virginia. The subject was again taken up by Congress in 17S6, and discussed throughout that year, and until July 1787 when the famous " compact of 1787 " was passed, and the founda- tion of the government of the Northwest laid. This compact is fully discussed and explained in the sketch on Illinois in this book, and to it the reader is referred. The passage of this act and the grant to the New England Company was soon followed by an application to the Government by John Cleves Symtnes, of New Jersey, for a grant of land between the Miamis. This gentleman had visited these lands soon after the treaty of 1786, and being greatly pleased with them, offered similar terms to those given to the New England Company. The petition was referred to the Treasury Board with power to act, and a contract was concluded the follow- ing year. During the autumn the directors of the New England Company were preparing to occupy their grant the following spring, and upon the 23d of November made arrangements for a party of forty-seven men, under the superintendency of General Rufus Putnam, to set forward. Six boat-builders were to leave at once, and on the first of January the surveyors and their assistant', twenty-six in number, were to meet at Hartford and proceed on their journey westward, the remainder to follow as soon as possi- ble. Congress in the meantime, upon the 3d of October, had ordered seven hundred troops for defense of the western settlers, and to prevent unauthorized intrusions, and two days later appointed Arthur St. Clair Governor of the Ter- ritory of the Northwest. AMERICAN SETTLEMENTS. The civil organization of the Northwest Territory was now complete, and notwithstanding the uncertainty of In- dian affairs, settlers from the east began to come into the country rapidly. The New England Company sent their men during the winter of 1787-8, pressing on over the Alle- ghenics by the old Indian path which had been opened into Braddock's road, and which has since' been made a national turnpike from Cumberland, westward. Through the weary winter days they toiled on, and by April were all gathered on the Youghiogheny, where boats had been built, and a once started for the Muskingum. Here they arrived on the 7th of that mouth, and unless the Moravian missionaries be regarded as the pioneers of Ohio, this little band can justly claim that honor. General St. Clair, the appointed Governor of the North west not having yet arrived, a set of laws were passed, writ- ten out, and published by being nailed to a tree in the embryo town, and Jonathan Meigs appointed to administer them. Washington in writing of this, the first American settlement in the Northwest said : " No colony in America was ever settled under such favorable auspices as that which has just commenced at Muskingum. I know many of its set- tlers personally, and there were never men better calculated to promote the welfare of such a community." On the 2d of July a meeting of the directors and agents was held on the banks of the Muskingum, " for the purpo.e of naming the new born city and its squares." As yet the settlement was known as the " Muskingum," but was afterwards changed to the name, Marietta, in honor, of Marie Antoinette. Two days after, an oration was delivered by James M. Var- num, who with S. H. Parsons and John Armstrong had been appointed to the judicial bench of the territory on the ICth of October 1787. On July 9, Governor St. Clair arrived j and the colony began to assume form. The act of 1787 pro- vided two distinct grades of government for the Northwest, under the first of which the whole power was invested in the hands of a governor and three district judges. This was immediately formed on the governor's arrival, and the first laws of the colony passed on the 25th of July : these provid- ed for the organization of the militia, and on the next day appeared the Governor's proclamation, erecting all that country that had been ceded by the Indians east of the Scioto River into the county of Washington. From that time forward, notwithstanding the doubts yet existing as to the Indians, all Marietta prospered, and on the second of September the first court was held with imposing ceremonies. The emigration westward at this time was very great. The commander at Fort Harmer, at the mouth of the Musk- ingum reported four thousand five hundred persons as having passed that post between February and June 1788, many of whom would have purchased of the " Associates," as the New England Company was called, had they been ready to receive them. On the 26th of November 1787 Symmes issued a pamphlet stating the terms of his contract and the plan of sale he intend.ed to adopt. In January 1788, Mat- thias Denman, of New Jersey, took an active interest in Symmes' purchase, and located among other tracts the sec- tions upon which Cincinnati has been built. Retaining one- third of this locality, he sold the other two-thirds to Robert Patterson and John Filson, and the three about August HISTORY OF EDWARDS, LAWRENCE AND WABASH COUNTIES, ILLINOIS. commenced to lay out a town on the spot, which was desig- nated as being Licking River, to the mouth of which they proposed to have -a road cut from Lexington ; these settle- ments prospered but suffered greatly from the flood of 1789. On the 4th of March 1789, the Constitution of the United States went into operation, and on April 30th, George Washington was inaugurated President, and during the next summer an Indian war was commenced by the tribes north of the Ohio. The President at first used pacific means, but these failing, he sent General Harmer against the hostile tribes. He destroyed several villages, but was defeated in two battles, near the present city of Fort Wayne, Indiana. From this time till the close of 1795, the principal events were the wars with the various Indian tribes. In 1796, General St. Clair was appointed in command, and marched against the Indians ; but while he was encamped on a stream, the St Mary, a branch of the Maumee, he was attacked and defeated with a loss of six hundred men. General Wayne was then sent against the savages. In August, 1794, he met them near the rapids of the Maumee, and gained a compkte victory. This success, followed by vigorous measures, com- pelled the Indians to sue for peace, and on the 30th of July, the following year, the treaty of Greenville was signed by the principal chiefs, by which a large tract of country was ceded to the United States. Before proceeding in our nar- rative, we will pause to notice Fort Washington, erected in the early part of this war. on the site of Cincinnati. Nearly all the great cities of the-North-west, and indeed of the whole country, have had their nuclei in those rude pioneer struc- tures, known as forts or stockades. Thus Forts Dearborn, Washington, Ponchartrain, mark the original sites of the now proud cities of Chicago, Cincinnati and Detroit. So of most of the flourishing cities east and west of the Mississippi. Fort Washington, erected by Doughty in 1790, was a rude but highly interesting structure. It was composed of a num- ber of strong'y-built hewed log cabins. Those designed for soldiers' barracks were a story and a half high, while those composing the officers' quarters were more imposing and more conveniently arranged and furnished. The whole was so placed as to form a hollow square, enclosing about an acre of ground, with a block house at each of the four angles. Fort Washington was for some time the headquarters of both the Civil and Military governments of the North-western Territory. Following the consummation of the treaty vari- ous gigantic land speculations were entered into by different persons, who hoped to obtain from the Indians in Michigan and northern Indiana, large tracts of lands. These were generally discovered in time to prevent the schemes from being carried out, and from involving the settlers in war. On October 27, 1795, the treaty between the United States and Spain was signed, whereby the free navigation of the Mississippi was secured. No sooner had the treaty of 1795 been ratified than settlers began to pour rapidly into the west. The great event of the year 179G, was the occupa'ion of that part of the North-west including Michigan, which was this year, under the provisions of the treaty, evacuated by the British forces. The United States owing to certain conditions, did not feel justified in addressing the authorities in Canada in relation to Detroit and other frontier posts. When at last the British authorities were called upon to give them up, they at once complied, and General Wayne who had done so much to preserve the frontier settlements, and who before the year's close, sickened and died near Erie, transferred his headquarters to the neighborhood of the lakes, where a county named after him was formed, which included the north-west of Ohio, all of Michigan, and the north-east of Indiana. During this same year settlements were formed at the present city of Chillicothe, along the Miami from Middletown to Piqua, while in the more distant West, settlers and speculators began to appear in great numbers. In Sep- tember the city of Cleveland was laid out, and during the summer and autumn, Samuel Jackson and Jonathan Sharp- less, erected the first manufactory of paper the " Redstone Paper Mills" in the West. St. Louis contained some seventy houses, and Detroit over three hundred, and along the river, contiguous to it, were more than three thousand inhabitants, mostly French Canadians, Indians and half- breeds, scarcely any Americans venturing yet into that part of the North-west. The election of representatives for the territory had taken place, and on the 4th of February, 1799, they convened at Losantiville now known as Cincinnati, having been named so by Gov. St. Clair, and considered the capital of the territory, to nominate persons from whom the' members of the Legislature were to be chosen in accordance with a previous ordinance. This nomination being made, the Assembly adjourned until the 16. h of the following Sep- tember. From those named the President selected as mem- bers of the council, Henry Vandenburg, of Vincennes, Robert Oliver, of Marietta, James Findley, and Jacob Burnett, of Cincinnati, and David Vance, of Vance ville. On the 16th of September, the Territorial Legislature met, and on the 24th, the two houses were duly organized, Henry Vanden- burg being elected President of the Council. The message of Gov. St. Clair, was addressed to the Legislature Septem- ber 20th, and on October 13th, that body elected as a dele- gate to Congress, General Wm. Henry Harrison, who re- ceived eleven of the votes cast, being a majority of one over his opponent, Arthur St. Clair, son of General St. Clair. The whole number of acts passed at this session and approved by the Governor, were thirty-seven eleven others were passed but received his veto. The most important of those passed related to the militia, to the administration, and to taxation. On the 1 9th of December this protracted session of the first Legislature in the West closed, and on the 30lh of December the President nominated Charles Willing Byid, to the office of secretary of the Territory, vice Wm. Henry Harrison, elected to Congress. The Senate confirmed his nomination the next day. DIVISION OF THE NORTH- TVEST TEEEITOEY. The increased emigration to the north-west, and extent of the domain, made it very difficult to conduct the ordinary operations of government, and rendered the efficient action of courts almost impossible ; to remedy this it was deemed advisable to divide the territory for civil purposes. Coil- HISTORY OF EDWARDS, LAWRENCE AND WABASH COUNTIES, ILLINOIS. gross, in 1800, appointed a committee to examine the ques- tion and report some means for its solution. This committee on the 3d of March reported : " In the western countries there had been but one court having cog- nizance of crimes, in five years, and the immunity which offenders experience attracts, as to an asylum, the most vile and abandoned criminals, and at the same time deters useful citizens from making settlements in such society. The extreme necessity of judiciary attention and assistance is experienced in civil as well as in criminal cases. * * * * To remedy this evil it is expedient to the committee that a division of said territory into two distinct and separate governments should be made, and that such division be made by beginning at the mouth of the Great Miami river, running directly north until it intersects the boundary between the United States and Canada." The report was accepted by Congress, and, in accordance with its suggestions, that body passed an act extinguishing the north-west territory, which act was approved May 7th. Among its provisions were these : " That from and after July 4 next all that part of the territory of the United States north-west of the Ohio river, which lies to the westward of a line beginning at a point opposite the mouth of the Kentucky river, and running thence to Fort Recovery, and thence North until it shall intersect the territorial line between the United States and Canada, shall for the purpose of temporary government, constitute a separate territory and be called the Indian Territory." Gen. Harrison (afterwards President), was appointed governor of the Indiana Territory, and during his residence at Vincennes, he made several important treaties with the Indians, thereby gaining large tracts of land. The next year is memorable in the history of the west for the purchase of Louisiana from France by the United States for 815,000,- 000. Thus by a peaceful manner the domain of the United States was extended over a large tract of country west of the Mississippi, and was for a time under the jurisdiction of the north-western government. The next year Gen. Harri- son obtained additi >nal grants of land from the various Indian nations in Indiana and the present limits of Illinois, and on the 18th of August, 1804, completed a treaty at St. Louis, whereby over 51,000,000 acres of land were obtained. During this year, Congress granted a township of land for the support of a college and began to offer inducements for settlers in these wilds, and the country now comprising the state of Michigan began to fill rapidly with settlers along its southern borders. This same year a law was passed organizing the south-west territory, dividing it into two portions, the territory of New Orleans, which city was made the seat of government, and the district of Louisiana, which was annexed to the domain by General Harrison. On the llth of January, 1805, the territory of Michigan was formed, and Wm. Hull appointed governor, with head- quarters at Detroit, the change to take effect June 30th. On the llth of that month, a fire occurred at Detroit, which destroyed most every building in the place. When the officers of the new territory reached the post, they found it in ruins, and the inhabitants scattered throughout the coun- try. Rebuilding, however, was commenced at once. While this was being done, Indiana passed to the second grade of government. In 1809, Indiana territory was divided, and the territory of Illinois was formed, the seat of government being fixed at Kaskaskia, and through her General Assem- bly had obtained large tracts of land from the Indian tribes. To all this the celebrated Indian Tecumthe, or Tecumseh, vigorously protested,* and it was the main cause of his attempts to unite the various Indian tribes in a conflict with the settlers. He visited the principal tribes, and succeeded in forming an alliance with most of the tribes, and then joined the cause of the British in the memorable war of 1812. Tecumseh was killed at the battle of the Thames. Tecum- seh was, in many respects, a noble character, frank and honest in his intercourse with General Harrison and the settlers ; in war, brave and chivalrous. His treatment of prisoners was humane. In the summer of 1812, Perry's vic- tory on Lake Erie occurred, and shortly after, active pre- parations were made to capture Fort Maiden. On the 27th of September, the American army- under command of General Harrison, set sail for the shores of Canada, and, in a few hours, stood around the ruins of Maiden, from which the British army under Proctor had retreated to Sandwich, intending to make its way to the heart of Canada by the valley of the Thames. On the 29th, General Harrison was at Sandwich, and General McArthur took possession of Detroit and the territory of Michigan. On the 2d of Octo- ber following, the American army began their pursuit of Proctor, whom they overtook on the 5th, and the battle of the Thames followed. The victory was decisive, and practi- cally closed the war in the north-west. In 1806, occurred Burr's insurrection. He took possession of an island in the Ohio, and was charged with treasonable intentions against the Federal government. His capture was effected by General Wilkinson, acting under instruction of President Jefferson. Burr was brought to trial on a charge of treason, and, after a prolonged trial, during which he defended him- self with great ability, he was acquitted of the charge of treason. His subsequent career was obscure, and he died in 1836. Had his scheme succeeded, it would be interesting to know what effect it would have had on the north-we-tern territory. The battle of the Thames was fought October 6th, 1813. It effectually closed hostilities in the north-west, although peace was not restored until July 22d, 1814, when a treaty was made at Greenville, by General Harrison, be- tween the United States and the Indian tribes. On the 24th of December, the treaty of Ghent was signed by the repre- sentatives of England and the United States. This treaty was followed the next year by treaties with various Indian tribes throughout the north-west, and quiet was again restored. PRESENT CONDITION OF THE NORTH-WEST. In former chapters we have traced briefly the discoveries, settlements, wars, and most important events which have occurred in the large area of country denominated the * American State Papers HISTORY OF EDWARDS, LAWRENCE AND WABASH COUNTIES, ILLINOIS. 28 BRIEF HISTORICAL SKETCH OF ILLINOIS. north-west, and we now turn to the contemplation of its gro\vth and prosperity. Its people are among the most intelligent and enterprising in the Union. The population is steadily increasing, the arts and sciences are gaining a i stronger foothold, the trade area of the region is becoming j daily more extended, and we have been largely exempt from the financial calamities which have nearly wrecked com munitties on the seaboard, dependent wholly on foreign com- merce or domestic manufacture. Agriculture is the leading feature in our industries. This vast domain has a sort of I natural geographical border, save where it melts away to ; the southward in the cattle- raising districts of the south- i west. The leading interests will be the growth of the food of the world, in which branch it has already outstripped all competitors, and our great rival will be the fertile fields of Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, Texas and New Mexico. To attempt to give statistics of grain productions for 1880 would require more space than our work would permit of. Manufacturing has now attained in the chief cities a foot- hold that bids fair to render the north-west independent of the outside world. Nearly our whole region has a distribu- tion of coal measure which will in time support the manu- factures necessary to our comfort and prosperity. As to transportation, the chief factor in the production of all articles except food, no section is so magnificently endowed, and our facilities are yearly increasing beyond those of any other region. The principal trade and manufacturing centres of the great north-west are Chicago, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Detroit, Cleveland and Toledo, with any number of minor cities and towns doing a large and growing business. The intelligence and enterprise of its people ; the great wealth of its soil and minerals ; its vast inland seas and navigable rivers ; its magnificent railroad system ; its patriotism and love of country will render it ever loyal in the future as in the past. The people of the Mississippi Valley are the key- stone of the national union and national prosperity. CHAPTER II. :EGINNING the history of this great State j we direct attention briefly to the discovery . and exploration of the 3Iigsissippi. Hernando .De Soto, cutting his way through the wilder- ness from Florida, had discovered the Missis- j sippi in the year 1542. Wasted with disease | and privation, he only reached the stream j to die upon its banks, and the remains of j the ambitious and iron-willed Spaniard found a fitting resting-place beneath the waters of the great river. The chief incitement to Spanish discoveries in America was a thirst for gold and treasure. The discovery and settle- ment of the Mississippi Valley on the part of the French must, on the other hand, be ascribed to religious zeal. Jesuit missionaries, from the French settlements on the St. Lawrence, early penetrated to the region of Lake Huron. It was from the tribes of Indians living in the West, that intelligence came of a noble river flowing south. Marquette, who had visited the Chippewas in 1668, and established the mission of Sault Ste. Marie, now the oldest settlement within the present commonwealth of Michigan, formed the purpose of its exploration. The following year he moved to La Poiute, in Lake Superior, where he instructed a branch of the Hurons till 1670, when he removed south and founded the mission at St. Ignace, on the Straits of Mackinaw. In company with Joliet, a fur-trader of Quebec, who had been designated by M. Talon, Intendent of Canada, as chieftain of the explor- ing party, and five French voyageurs, Marquette, on the 10th of June, 1673, set out on the expedition. Crossing the water-shed dividing the Fox from the Wisconsin rivers, their two canoes were soon launched on the waters of the latter. Seven, days after, on the 17th of June, they joy- fully entered the broad current of the Mississippi. Stopping sis days on the western bank, near the mouth of the Des Moines River, to enjoy the hospitalities of the Illinois Indians, the voyage was resumed, and after passing the perpendicular rocks above Alton, on whose lofty limestone front were painted frightful representations of monsters, they suddenly came upon the mouth of the Missouri, known by its Algonquin name of Pekitanoni, whose swift and turbid current threatened to engulf their frail canoes. The site, of St. Louis was an unbroken forest, and further down the fertile plain bordering the river reposed in peaceful solitude, as, e.irly in July, the adventurers glided past it. They continued their voyage to a point some distance below the mouth of the Arkansas, and then retraced their course up the river, arriving at their Jesuit Mission at the head of Green Bay, late in September. Robert Cavalier de La Salle, whose illustrious name is more intimately connected with the exploration of the Mississippi than that of any other, was the next to descend the river, in the early part of the year 1682. La Salle was a man of remarkable genius, possessing the power of originating the vastest schemes, and endowed with a will and a judgment capable of carrying them to successful results. Had ample facilities been placed by the king of France at his disposal, the result - of the colonization of this continent might have been far different from what we now behold. He was born in Rouen, France, in 1643, of wealthy parentage, but he renounced his patrimony on entering a college of the Jesuits from which he separated and came to Canada a poor man in 1666. The priests of St. Sulpice, among whom he had a brother, were then the proprietors of Montreal, the nucleus of which was a seminary or convent founded by that order. The Superior granted to La Salle a large tract of land at La Chine, where he established himself in the fur trade. He was a man of daring genius, and outstripped all his competitors in exploits of travel and commerce with the Indians. In 1669 he visited the headquarters of the great Iroquois Confederacy, at Ouondaga, in the heart of New at HISTORY OF EDWARDS, LAWRENCE AND W ABASH COUNTIES, ILLINOIS. York, and obtaining guides, explored the Ohio River to the falls at Louisville. In order to understand the intrepid genius of La Salle, it must be remembered that for many years prior to his time the missionaries and traders were obliged to make their way ts the North west by the Ottaway River (of Canada), on account of the fierce hostility of the Iroquois along the lower l^kes and Niagara River, which entirely closed this latter route to the Upper Lakes. They carried on their commerce chiefly by canvas, paddling them through the Ottaway to Lake Nipissing, carrying them across the port- age to French River, and descending that to Lake Huron. This being the route by which they reached the North-west, accounts for the fact that all the earliest Jesuit missions were established in the neighborhood of the Upper Lakes. La Salle conceived the grand idea of opening the route by Niagara River and the Lower Lakes to Canadian commerce by sail vessels, connecting it with the navigation of the Mississippi, and thus opening a magnificent water communi- cation from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the Gulf of Mexico. This 'truly grand and comprehensive purpose seems to Lave animated him in all his wonderful achievements and the matchless difficulties and hardships he surmounted. As the first step in the accomplishment of this object he established himself on Lake Ontario, and built and gar- risoned Fort Frontenac, the site of the present city of Kingston, Canada. Here he obtained a grant of land from the French crown and a body of troops by which he beat hack the invading Iroquois and cleared the passage to Niagara Falls. Having by this masterly stroke made it safe to attempt a hitherto untried expedition, his next step as we have seen, was to advance to the falls with all his outCt for building a ship with which to sail the lakes. He was successful in this undertaking, though his ultimate pur- pose was defeated by a strange combination of untoward circumstances. The Jesuits evidently hated La Salle and plotted against him, because he had abandoned them and co-operated with a rival order. The fur traders were also jealous of his superior success in opening new channels of commerce. At La Chine he had taken the trade of Lake Ontario, which but for his presence there weuld have gone to Quebec. While they were plodding with their bark canoes through the Ottaway he was constructing vessels to command the trade of the lakes and the Mississippi. These great plans excited the jealousy and . envy of the small traders, introduced treason and revolt into the ranks of his own companions, and finally led to the foul assassination by which his great achievements were prematurely ended. In 1082, La Salle, having completed his vessel at Pcoria, descended the Mississippi to its confluence with the Gulf of Mexico. At its mouth he erected a column, and decorating it with the arms of France, placed upon it the following inscription : LOUIS LE GRAND, EOI DE FRANCE ET DE NAVARRE REGNE ; LE NEUVIEME AVRIL, 1G82. Thus France, by right of discovery, lay claim to the Mississippi Valley, the fairest portion of the globe, an empire in' extent, stretching from the Gulf to the Lakes, and from the farthest sources of the Ohio to where the head waters of the Missouri are lost in the wild solitudes of the Rocky Mountains. La Salle bestowed upon the territory the name of Louisiana, in honor of the King of France, Louis XIV. The assertion has been made that on La Salle's return up the river, in the summer of 1682, a portion of the party were left behind, who founded the village of Kaskaskia and Cahokia, but the statement rests on no substantial foun- dation. THE FIRST SETTLEMENTS IN ILLINOIS. The gentle and pious Marquette, devoted to his purpose of carrying the gospel to the Indians, had established a mission among the Illinois, in 1675, at their principal town on the river which still bear stheir .name. This was at the present town of Utica, in La Salle County. In the presence of the whole tribe, by whom, it is recorded, he was received as a celestial visitor, he displayed the sacred pictures of the Virgin Mary, raised an altar, and said mass. On Easter Sunday, after celebrating the mystery of the Eucharist, he took possession of the land in the name of the Saviour of the world, and founded the "Mission of the Immaculate Conception." The town was called Kaskaskia, a name afterwards transferred to another locality. The founding of this mission was the last act of Marquette's life. He died in Michigan, on his way back to Green Bay, May 18, 1675. La Salle, while making preparations to descend the Mississippi, built a fort, on the Illinois River, below the Lake of Peoria, in February, 1680, and in commemoration of his misfortunes, bestowed upon it the name of Crevecceur, "broken-hearted." Traces of its embankments are yet dis- cernible. This was the first military occupation of Illinois. There is no evidence, however, that settlement was begun there at that early date. On La Salle's return from this exploration of the Missis- sippi, in 1682, he fortified " Starved Rock," whose military advantages had previously attracted his attention. Fronj its summit, which rises 125 feet above the waters of the river, the valley of the Illinois speeds out before the eye in landscape of rarest beauty. From three sides it is inacces- sible. This stronghold received the name of the Fort of j3t. Louis. Twenty thousand allied Indians gathered round it on the fertile plains. The fort seems to have been aban- doned soon after the year 1700. Marquette's mission (1675), Crevecceur (1680), and the Fort of St. Lauia (1682), embrace, so far, all the attempts made towards effecting anything like a permanent settle- ment in the Illinois country. Of the second few traces remain. A line of fortifications may be faintly traced, and that is all. The seed of civilization planted by the Jesuit, Marquette, among the Illinois Indians, was destined to pro- duce more enduring fruit. It was the germ of Kaskaskia, during the succeeding years of the French occupation the metropolis of the Mississippi Valley. The southern Kas- kaskia is merely the northern one transplanted. The Mission of the Immaculate Conception is the fame. HISTORY OF EDWARDS, LAWRENCE AND WAS ASH COUNTIES, ILLINOIS. 27 FOUNDING OF KASKASKIA. On the death of Marquctte, he was succeeded by Alloiicz, and he by Father Gravier, who respectively had charge of the Mission on the Illinois River Gravier is said to have been the first to reduce the principles of the Illinois lan- guage to rules. It was also he who succeeded in trans- ferring Marquette's Mission from the banks of the Illinois south to the spot where stands the modern town of Kas- kaskia, and where it was destined to endure. The exact date is not known, but the removal was accomplished some time prior to the year 1685, though probably not earlier than 1082. Father Gravier was subsequently recalled to Mackinaw, and his place was supplied by Bineteau and Pinet. Pinet proved an eloquent and successful minister, and his chapel was often insufficient to hold the crowds of savages who gathered to hear his words. Bineteau met with a fate similar to that which befell many another devoted priest in his heroic labors for the conversion of the savages. He accompanied the Kaskaskias on one of their annual hunts to the upper Mississippi, that his pastoral relations might not suffer intermission. His frame was poorly fittfd to stand the exposure. Parched by day on the burning prairie, chilled by heavy dews at night, now panting with thirst and again aching with cold, he at length fell a victim to a violent fever, and " left his bones on the wilder- ness range of the buffaloes." Pinet shortly after followed his comrade. Father Gabriel Morrest had previously arrived at Kas- kaskia. He was a Jesuit. He had carried the emblem of bis faith to the frozen regions of Hudson's Bay, and had been taken prisoner by the English, and upon his liberation returned to America, and joined the Kaskaskia Mission. After the deaths of Bineteau and Pinet, he had sole charge until. joined by Father Mermet shortly after the opening of the eighteenth century. The devotion and piety of Mermet fully equalled those of his companion. He had assisted in collecting a village of Indians and Canadians, and had thus founded the first French port on the Ohio, or, as the lower part of the river was then called, the Wabash. At the Kaskaskia Mission his gentle virtues and fervid eloquence seem not to have been without their influence. " At early dawn his pupils came to church dressed neatly and modestly, each in a large deer- skin, or in a robe stitched together from several skins. After receiving lessons they chanted canticles; mass was then said in presence of all the Christians in the place, the French and the converts the women on one side and the men on the other. From prayer and instruction the mis- sionaries proceeded to visit the sick and administer medicine, and their skill as physicians did more than all the rest to I win confidence. In the afternoon the catechism was taught in the presence of the young and the old, when every oue, ' without distinction of rank or age, answered the questions of the missionary. At evening all would assemble at the chapel for instruction, for prayer, and to chant the hymns of the church. On Sundays and festivals, even after vespers a homily was pronounced ; at the close of the day parties would meet in houses to recite the chaplet in alternate choirs, and sing psalms until late at night. These psalms were often homilies with words set to familiar tunes. Satur- day and Sunday were days appointed for confession and communion, and every convert confessed once in a fortnight. The success of the mission was such that marriages of French immigrants were sometimes solemnized with the daughters of the Illinois according to the rites of the Catholic Church. The occupation of the country was a cantonment of Europeans among the native proprietors of the forests and the prairies.* A court of law was unknown for nearly a century, and up to the time of Boisbriant there was no local government. The priests possessed the entire confidence of the community, and their authority happily settled, without the tardy delays and vexations of the courts, the minor difficulties which threatened the peace of the settlement. Of the families which formed part of the French population in the early history of Kaskaskia, there is some uncertainty. There is, however, authority for believing that the following were among the principal settlers: Bazyl La Chapelle, Michael Derouse, (called St. Pierre), Jean Baptiste St. Gemme Bcauvais, Baptiste Mon- treal, Boucher de Moutbrun, Charles Danie, Franc.ois Charlesville, Antoine Bienvenu, Louis Bruyat, Alexis Doza, Joseph Paget, Prix Pagi, Michael Antoyen, Langlois De Lisle, La Derrou te and Nova!- AS PAftT OF LOUISIANA. The settlements of Illinois had been a separate depend- ency of Canada. In 1711, together with the settlements on the Lower Mississippi, which had been founded by D'lber- ville and Bienville, they became united in a single province under the name of Louisiana, with the capital at Mobile. The exclusive control of the commerce of this region, whose boundless resources, it was believed, were to enrich France, was granted to Anthony Crozat, a merchant of great wealth. "We permit him," says the king in his letters patent, " to search, open, and dig all mines, veins, minerals, precious stones and pearls, and to transport the proceeds thereof into any part of France for fifteen years." La Motte Cadillac, who had now become royal Governor of Louisiana, was his partner. Hopes of obtaining great quantities of gold and silver animated the proprietors, as well as agitated France. Two pieces of silver ore, left at Kaskaskia by a traveler from Mexico, were exhibited to Cadillac as the produce of a mine in Illinois. Elated by this prospect of wealth, the Governor hurried up the river to find his anticipations fade away in disappointment. ''Iron ore and the purest lead were discovered in large quantities in Missouri, but of gold, and silver, and precious stones not a trace was found. After Crozat had expended 42.3,000 livres, and realized only 300,000, he, in 1717, petitioned the king for the revocation of his charter. The white popula- tion had slowly increased ; and at the time of his departure it was estimated that the families comprising the Illinois settlements, now including those on tho AVabash, numbered three hundred and twenty souls. * Bancroft. 27 HJSTOHY OF LDWA1WS, LA WHENCE AND WABASH COUNTIES, ILLINOIS. The commerce of Louisiana was next transferred to the Mississippi Company, instituted under the auspices of the notorious John Law. The wild excitement and visionary schemes which agitated France during Law's connection with the Cumpany of the West, and while at the head of the Bank of France, form the most curious chapter in the annals of commercial speculations. These delusive dreams of wealth were based mainly upon the reports of the fabu- lous riches of the Mississippi Valley. Attempts to colonize the country were conducted with careless prodigality. Three ships landed eight hundred emigrants in August, 1718, near Mobile, whence they were to make their way overland to the Mississippi. Bienville, on the banks of that river, had already selected the spot for the Capital of the new Empire, which, after the Regent of France, was named New Orleans. From among the emigrants, eighty convicts from the prisons of France were sent to clear away the coppices which thickly studded the site. Three years after in 1721, the place was yet a wilderness, overgrown with cauebrakes, among which two hundred persons had en- camped. Phillip Renault was created Director-General of the mines of the ne>v country, and an expedition was organized to work them. Renault left France, in 1719, with two hundred mechanics and laborers. Touching at San Domingo he bought five hundred negro slaves for working the mines. On reaching the Mississippi, he sailed to Illinois, the region in which gold and silver were supposed to abound. A few miles from Kaskaskia, in what is now the south-west corner of Monroe County, was the seat of his colony. The village which he founded received the name of St. Phillip's. From this point various expeditions were sent out in search of the precious metals. Drewry's Creek, in Jackson County, was explored; St. Mary's, in Randolph; Silver Creek, in Monroe ; and various parts of St. Clair County, and other districts of Illinois. On Silver Creek, tradition has it that considerable quantities of silver were discovered and sent to France, and from this the stream has its name. By the retrocession of the territory to the crown, Renault was left to prosecute the business of mining without means. His operations proved a disastrous failure. FORT CHARTRES. Meanwhile war had sprung up between France and Spain and to protect the Illinois settlements from incursions of Spanish cavalry across the Great Desert, it was thought advisable to establish a fort in the neighborhood of Kas- kaskia. A Spanish expedition had, indeed, been fitted out at Santa Fe, but their guides, leading it by mistake to the Missouri Indians, instead of the Osages, enemies instead of friends, the whole party was massacred, with the exception of a priest who escaped to relate the fate of his unfortunate comrades. Previous to this La Salle, on the occasion of his visit to Paris, had shown the necessity of building a chain of forts from Canada to the Gulf, in order to secure the territory to the crown of France. In 1718, Buisbriant was despatched to Illinois. He began the building, of Fort Chnrtres, long the strongest fortress on the Western Conti- nent, and of wide celebrity in the subsequent history of Illinois. Fort Chartres stood on the east bank of the Mississippi, seventeen miles north-west of Kaskaskia, and between three and four miles from the location of the present village of Prairie du Rocher. The Company of the West finally built their warehouses here. In 1721, on the division of Louisi- ana into seven districts, it became the headquarters of Bois- briant, the first local Governor of Illinois. Fort Chartres was the seat of the Government of Illinois, not only while the French retained possession ot' the country, but after it passed under English control. When the fort was built, it stood about one mile distant from the river. In the year 1724 an inundation of the Mississippi washed away a portion of bank in front of the fort. Captain Philip Pitman visited Illinois in 1766. He was an engineer in the British army, and was sent to Illinois to make a survey of the forts, and report the condition of the country, which had recently passed under British control. He published in London, in 1770. a work entitled, " The present State of the European Settlements on the Missis- sippi," in which he gives an accurate description of Fort Chartres : " Fort Chartres, when it belonged to France, was the seat of the government of the Illinois. The headquarters of the English commanding officer is now here, who, in fact, is the arbitrary governor of the country. The fort is an irregular quadrangle. The sides of the exterior polygon are four hun- dred and ninety feet. It is built of stone, and plastered over, and is only designed for defence against the Indians. The walls are two feet two inches thick, and are pierced with loopholes at regular distances, and with two port holes for cannon in the facies, and two in the flanks of each bastion. The ditch has never been finished. The entrance to the fort is through a very handsome rustic gate. Within the walls is a banquette raised three feet, for the men to stand on'when they fire through the loopholes. The buildings within the fort are, a commandant's and a commissary's house, the magazine of stores, corps de garde, and two barracks., iThese. occupy the square. ' Within the gorges of the bastion are a powder-magazine, a bake-house, and a prison, in the floor of which are four dungeons, and in the upper, two rooms and an out-house belonging to the commandant. The command- ant's house is thirty-two yards long and ten broad, and con- tains a kitchen, a dining-room, a bed-chamber, one small room, five closets for servant?, and a cellar. The commis- sary's house is built on the same line as this, and its propor- tion and the distribution of its apartments are the same. Opposite these are the store-house, and the guard-house, each thirty yards long and eight broad. The former consists of two large store rooms, (under which is a large vaulted cellar), a large room, a bed-chamber, and a closet for the storekeeper. The latter of a soldiers' and officers' guard-room, a chapel, a bed-chamber, a closet for the chaplain, and an artillery store-room. The lines of barracks have never been finished. They at present consist of two rooms each for officers, and three for soldiers. They are each twenty-five feet square, and have betwixt a small passage." HISTORY OF EDWARDS, LAWRENCE AND WAS ASH COUNTIES, ILLINOIS. 21 Such was Fort Chartres, believed at the time to be the most convenient and best built stronghold in North America ! Just before the French surrender, forty families lived in the neighboring village, in which stood a parish church, under the care of. a Franciscan friar, and dedicated to St. Anne. At the time of the surrender to the English, all, with the exception of three or four families, abandoned their homes, and removed to the west bank of the Mississippi, preferring the government of La Belle France to the hated English rule, ignorant that by secret treaty the territory west of the Mississippi had been ceded to Spain, even before the transfer of the region eastward was made to the English. But the glory of the old fortress soon departed! In 1756 nearly half a. mile intervened between Fort Chartres and the bank of the Mississippi. A sand bar, however, was forming opposite, to which the river was fordable. Ten years later the current had cut the bank away to within eighty yards of the fort. The sand-bar had become an island, covered with a thick growth of cottonwoods. The channel between it and the eastern bank was forty feet in depth. In the great freshet six years after, in 1772, in which the American Bot- tom was inundated, the west walls and two of the bastions were swept away in the flood. It was abandoned by the British garrison, which took up its quarters in Fort Gage, on the bluff opposite Kaskaskia, which then became the seat of government. From this date its demolition proceeded rapidly. InT^O the south-east angle was still remaining. Only vestiges of the old Fortress can now be traced. Much of the stone was carried away, and used for building pur- poses elsewhere. Trees of stately growth cover the founda- tions. The river has retreated to its original channel, and is now a mile distant from the ruins. A growth of timber covers the intervening land, where less than a century ago swept the mighty current of the Father of Waters. UNDER FRENCH RULE. During the few years immediately succeeding the comple- tion of Fort Chartres, prosperity prevailed in the settlements between the Kaskaskia and the Miss'ssippi rivers. Prairie du Rocher, founded about the year 1722, received consider- able accessions to its population. Among the earliest French settlers to make their homes here were Etienne Langlois, Jean Baptiste Blais, Jean Baptiste Barbeaux, Antoine Louvier, acd the La Compte and other families, whose de- scendants are still found in that locality. New settlements sprang up, and the older ones increased in population. At Kaskaskia, the Jesuits established a monastery, and founded a college. In 1725 the village became an incorporated town, and the king, Louis XV., granted the inhabitants a com- mons. The Bottom land, extending upward along the Mis- sissippi, unsurpassed for the richness of its soil, was in the process of being rapidly settled by the larger number of new arrivals in the colony. Fort Chartres, the seat of govern- ment and the headquarters of the commandment of Upper Louisiana, attracted a wealthy, and for Illinois, a fashionable population. After having been fourteen years under the government of the Western Company, in April, 1732,. the king issued a proclamation by which Louisiana was declared free to all hU subjects, and all restrictions on commerce were removed. At this time many flourishing settlements had sprung up in Illinois, centering about Kaskaskia, and the inhabitants were said to be more exclusively devoted to agriculture than in any other of the French settlements in the West. M. D'Artaguette, in -1732, became commandant of Fort ! Chartres, and Governor of Upper Louisiana. Between New i Orleans and Kaskaskia the country was yet a wilderness. j Communication by way of the Mississippi was interrupted by the Chickasaws, allies of the English and enemies of France, whose cedar barks shooting boldly out into the cur- rent of the Mississippi, cut off the connection between the two colonies. It was in an attempt to subdue these that M. D'Artaguette, the commandant, lost h ; s life. An officer arrived at Fort Chartres from M. Prerrier, Governor-General at New Orleans, in the year 1736, summoning M. D'Arta- guette, with his French soldiers, and all the Indians whom he could induce to join him, to unite in an expedition against the enemy. With an army of fifty Frenchmen, and more than one thousand Indians accompanied- by Father Senat and the gallant Vincennes, commandant of the post on the Wabash, where now stands the city bearing his name, D'Artaguette stole cautiously in the Chickasaw country. ! His Indian allies were impatient, and the commander con- i sented, against his better judgment, to an immediate attack. One fort was carried another and then in making the as- sault on the third, the young and intrepid D'Artaguette fell at the head of his forces, pierced with wounds. The Indian allies made this reverse the signal for their flight. The Jesuit Senat might have fled, Vincennes might have saved his life, but both preferred to share the fate of their leader. The captives afterward met death at the stake under the slow torments of fire. La Buissoniere succeeded as commandant at Fort Chartres. In 1739 a second expedition was undertaken against the Chickasaw country. La Buissoniere joined Bienville, then ; Governor-General of Louisiana, with a force of two hundred ! Frenchmen and three hundred Indians. The whole force I under Bienville was twelve hundred French and five hun- j dred Indians and negroes. His men suffered greatly from malarial fevers and famine, and returned the following spring without conquering the Chickasaws, with whom after- ward, however, amicable relations were established. The period from 1740 to 1750 was one of great prosperity for the colonies. Cotton was introduced and cultivated. Regular cargoes of pork, flour, bacon, tallow, hides and leather, were fl >ated down the Mississippi, and exported thence to France. Frsnch emigrant* poured rapidly into the settlements. Canadians exchanged the cold rigors of their climate for the sunny atmosphere and rich soil of the new country. Peace and plenty blessed the settlements. La Buissoniere was followed, in 1750, by Chevalier Ma- carty as Governor of Upper Louisiana, and Commandant of Fort Chartres. Peace was soon to be broken. The French and English war, which terminated in 1759 with the defeat of Montcalm on the plains of Abraham, and the capturo of HISTORY OF EDWARDS, LAWRENCE AND W ABASH COUNTIES, ILLINOIS. Quebec, began with a struggle for the territory on the Upper Ohio. Fort Chartres was the depot of supplies and the place of rendezvous for the united forces of Louisiana, and several expeditions were fitted out and dispatched to the scene of con- flict on the border between the French and English settle- ments. But France was vanquished in the struggle, and its result deprived her of her princely possessions east of the Mississippi. CHARACTER OF THE EARLY FRENCH SETTLERS. The early French inhabitants were well adapted by their peculiar traits of character for intercourse with their savage neighbors of the forest, with whom they lived on terms of peace and friendship. For this reason, the French colonists almost entirely escaped the Indian hostilities by which the English settlements were repressed and weakened. The freest communication existed between the two races. They stood on a footing of equality. The Indian was cordially received in the French village, and the Frenchman found a safe resting-place in the Iodg3 of the savage. In see ies of social pleasure, in expeditions to remote rivers and distant forests, in the ceremonies and exercises of the church, the red men were treated as brothers, and the accident of race and color was made as little a mark of distinction as possi- ble. Frequent intermarriages of the French with the In- dians strongly cemented this union. For nearly a hundred years the French colonists enjoyed continual peace, while the English settlements on the Atlantic coast were in a state of almost constant danger from savage depredations. It was doubtless greatly owing to the peculiar facility with which the French temperament adapted itself to surround- ings, and the natural address with which Frenchmen ingra- tiated themselves in the favor of the savages, that this happy condition of affairs existed. But something must be ascribed to the differences of character between the French and Eng- lish in regard to their aggressiveness. The English colonists excited the jealousy and fear of the Indians by their rapid occupation of the country. New settlements were constantly being projected, and the white population pushed farther and farther into the wilderness. When the Indians saw their favorite haunts broken up, and their hunting grounds invaded, a natural feeling of distrust and jealousy led them to warfare against the English. With the French it was different. There was but little disposition to found new settlements, or occupy the wilderness. They were essentially a social people, and the solitary life of a pioneer in the forest was repugnant to their disposition. They lived in compact villages. Their houses were in close proximity. With abundant room for spacious streets, they yet made them BO narrow that the merry villagers could converse with ease across the street, each from his own cottage. Hunting was a favorite pursuit, and the chief means of support. With this mode of life the French were content. Ambition failed to incite them to conquer the wilderness, and push their set- tlements to unknown regions, and avarice was wanting to lead them to grasp after great possessions. The development of the "territorial paradise," as La Salle had called the re- gion through which he passed on his first voyage down the Mississippi, was to be accomplished by another race. A POSSESSION OF GREAT BRITAIN. By the treaty of Fountainbleau,1762, the vast possessions of France, east of the Mississippi, with the exception of the island of New Orleans, passed under British control. Fort Chartres and the other Illinois posts were surrounded by an impenetrable barrier of hostile savages, friends to the French | and enemies to the English, and the French officers were authorized t) retain command until it was found pos.-ible for the English to take possession. M. Neyon de Villicrs was commandant of Fort Chartres, and upon his retiring in 1764, St. Ange d'Bellerive took upon himself the duties of that position. It was the time of Pontiac's conspiracy, when the Indian tribes, inflamed by the savage spirit of that warrior, were precipitating themselves on. the English settlements from Canada to Carolina. The French commandant of Fort Chartres was besieged for arms and ammunition to be used against the English. The French flag was still flying over the Fort, and the fact of the territory having been ceded to Great Britain was not generally known except to those in authority. The commandant was visited by embassies from the Illinois, the Delawares, Shawnees and Miamis, and finally Pontiac himself, at the head of four hundred warriors, entered the council hall. St. Ange d Bellerive, unable to furnish arms, offered instead his good will. The reply was received with dissatisfaction. The Indians pitched their lodges about the Fort, and for a time an attack was seriously apprehended. Finally Pontiac dispatched a chosen band of warriors to New Orleans to obtain from the Governor there the assistance St. Ange refused to grant. Pontiac was killed a few years after. Disappointed by the failure of his plans against the English, he retired to the solitude of the forests. In the year 1769, he suddenly made his appearance in the neighborhood of St. Louis. Arrayed in the French uniform given him by the Marquis Montcalm a short time previous to the latter's death on the Plains of Abraham, he visited St. Ange d'Bellerive, who at that time had removed from Fort Chartres to St. Louis, where he had become one of the principal inhabitants and commandant of the Spanish garrison. While at St. Louis, he crossed the Mississippi to attend a social gathering of Indians at Cahokia. Becoming intoxicated he started to the neighboring woods, when an Indian of the Kaskaskia tribe, bribed by an Eng- lish trader with a barrel of whiskey, stole up behind him and buried a tomahawk in the brain of the renowned warrior. St. Ange procured the body, and buried it with all the honors of war near the fort under his command in St. Louis. The tramp of a great city now sweeps over his grave. Two attempts, on the part of the English, to take posses- sion of Illinois and Fort Chartres, had been made by way of the Mississippi, but hostile Indians on the banks of the river had driven back the expeditions. Meantime a hundred Highlanders of the Forty-second Regiment, those veterans " whose battle cry had echoed over the bloodiest fields of America,'' had left Fort Pitt, now Pittsburg, and descending the Ohio, appeared before Fort Chartres while the forests were yet rich with the varied hues of autumn. St. Ange yielded up the citadel. It was on the tenth day of October, 17(55, that the ensign of France on the ramparts of the Fort HISTORY OF EDWARDS, LAWRENCE AND WABASH COUNTIES, ILLINOIS. gave place to the flag of Great Britain. Kaskaskia had now been founded more than three-fourths of a century. Ou the surrender of Fort Chartres, St. Ange with his gar- rison of twenty-one soldiers retired from the country, and became commandant at St. Louis, an infant settlement just founded. A large number of the French residents of Kas- kaskia and other settlements refused to live under English rule. Many of the wealthiest families left the country ; some removed across the Mississippi, to the small village of Ste. Genevieve, under the impression that on the west bank of the Mississippi they would still find a home under the govern- ment of France, while in truth that territory had been ceded to Spain by a secret treaty in 1762. Others joined in found- ing the city of St. Louis. The French settlements in Illinois, at a period immediately preceding this date, were at the zenith of their prosperity. From that day the French in- habitants have declined in numbers and influence. In 17C5, the population -of the Illinois settlements was computed as follows : White men able to bear arms, seven hundred ; white women, five hundred ; white children, eight hundred and fifty ; negroes, nine hundred ; total, two thousand nine hun- dred and fifty. One-third of the whites, and a still larger proportion of the blacks, removed on the British taking pos- session. A population of less than two thousand remained. Few English, or Americans, with the exception of the British troops, were in the country. Captain Stirling, who now had command of the Fort, issued a proclamation guaranteeing the inhabitants the liberty of the Catholic faith, permission to retire from the country, and enjoyment of their full rights and privileges, only requiring an oath of fidelity and obedience to His Majesty, the English King. Captain Stirling died some three months after his arrival. In the period that elapsed before the coming of his successor, St. Ange d'Bollerive returned from St. Louis, and discharged the duties of commandant. Major Frazier, from Fort Pitt, exercised for a time an arbitrary power, and his successor, Col. Reed, proved still worse. He held the office eighteen months, and during that time aroused the hatred of the settlements by his oppressive measures. Lieutenant Colo- nel Wilkins assumed command in 17G8. Captain Pitman, to whose book on " The Present State of the European Settlements on the Mississippi " reference has already been made, gives the following description of Kas- kaskia, as it appeared in 1766. The vi'lage of Notre Dame de Cascasquias is by far the most considerable settlement in the country of the Illinois, as well from its number of inhabitants as from its advan- tageous situation. " Mons. Paget was the first who introduced water mills in this country, and he constructed a very fine one on the river Cascasquias, which was both for grinding corn and sawing boards. It lies about one mile from the village. The mill proved fatal to him, being killed as he was working it, with two negroes, by a party of Cherokees, in the year 1764. " The principal buildings are the church and the Jesuits' house, which has a small chapel adjoining it; these, as well as some of tho other houses in the village, arc built of stone, and, considering this part of the world, make a very good appearance. The Jesuits' plantation consisted of 240 arpents (an arpent is 85-100 of an acre) of cultivated land, a very good stock of cattle,, and a brewery which was sold by the French commandant, after the country was ceded to tho English, for the crown, in consequence of the suppression of the order. " Mons. Beauvais wa^ tiio purchaser, who is the richest of the English subjects in this country; he keeps eighty slaves; he furnishes 86,000 weight of flour to the King's magazine, which was only part of the harvest he reaped in one year. Sixty-five families reside in this village, besides merchants, other casual people, and slaves. The fort which was burnt down in October, 1766, stood on the summit of a high rock opposite the village and on the opposite side of the river. It was an oblong quadrangle, of which the extreme polygon measured 290 by 251 feeL It was built of very thick square timber, and dove-tailed at the angles. An officer and twenty soldiers are quartered in the village. The officer governs the inhabitants under the direction of the commandant at Fort Chartres. Here are also two companies of militia." Of Prairie du Rocher, Pitman writes that " it is a small village, consisting of twenty-two dwelling-houses, all of which are inhabited by as many families. Here is a little chapel, formerly a chapel of ease to the church at Fort Chartres. The inhabitants are very industrious, and raise a great deal of com and every kind of stock. The village is two miles from Fort Chartres. It takes its name from its situation, being built under a rock that runs parallel with the Missis- sippi river at a league distance, for forty miles up. Here is a company of militia, the captain of which regulates the police of the village. " In describing the distance from Fort Chartres, the author, doubtless, refers to Little Village, which was a mile or more nearer than Prairie du Rocher. The writer goes on to de- scribe "Saint Philippe" as a "small village about five miles from Fort Chartres on the road to Kaoquias. There are about sixteen houses and a small church standing ; all of tho inhabitants, except the captain of the militia, deserted in 1765, and went to the French side (Missouri ) The captain of the militia has about twenty slaves, a good stock of cattle, and a water mill for corn and planks. The village stands on a very fine meadow about one mile from the Mis- sissippi. From the same authority we learn that the soil of the country is in general rich and luxuriant. It was favorably adapted to the production of all kinds of European grains which grew side by side with hops, hemp, flax, cotton and tobacco. European fruits arrived to great perfection. Of the wild grapes a wine was made, very inebriating, and in color and taste much like the red wine of Provcac?. In tho late wars, New Orleans and the lower parts of Louisiana were supplied with flour, baef, wines, hams, and other pro- visions, from this country. At present, its commerce is mostly confined to the peltry and furs which are got in traf- fic from the Indians ; for which are received in turn such European commodities as arc necessary to carry on that com- merce and the support of its inhabitants." 92 HISTORY OF EDWARDS, LAWRENCE AND W ABASH COUNTIES, ILLINOIS. CONQUEST BY CLARKE. On the breaking out of the War of the Revolution, it is probable that the British garrison (removed in 1772 from Fort Chartres to Fort Gage, opposite Kaskaskia,) had been withdrawn. Illinois was remote from the theatre of action, and the colonists were little disturbed by the rumors of war which came from the Atlantic coast. The French inhabitants were rather in sympathy with the Americans than the Eng- lish, but probably understood little of the nature of the struggle. Illinois belonged to the jurisdiction of Virginia. George Rogers Clarke, who visited Kentucky in 1775, seems to have been the first to comprehend the advantages which would result from the occupation of Illinois by the Ameri- cans. He visited Virginia, where he laid his plans before Patrick Henry, the Governor of the State. Clarke received his instructions, January, 1778, and the following month set out for Pittsburg His instructions were to raise seven com- panies of men, but he could only succeed in enlisting four commanded by Captains Montgomery, Bowman, Helm, and Harrod. On Corn Island, opposite Louisville, on the Ohio, Clarke announced his destination to the men. At the mouth of the Tennessee, a man named John Duff was encountered, with a party of hunters, who had recently visited Kaskaskia, and also brought the intelligence that one Rocheblave, a French Canadian, was in command at that point, that he kept the militia well drilled, and that sentinels were posted to watch for the " Long Knives," as the Virginians were called, of whom the inhabitants were in terror. Securing his boats near Fort Massacre (or Massac,) Clarke undertook the journey across the country, one hundred and twenty miles, to Kaskaskia. It was accomplished with difficulty. On the afternoon of the fourth of July, 1778, the exhausted band of invaders came to the vicinity of Kaskaskia, and concealed themselves in the hills to the east of the town. After dark Clarke proceeded to the old ferry-house, three-fourths of a mile above the village, and at midnight addressed his troops on the banks of the river. He divided his force into three parties. Two were to cross to the west side of the river, and enter the town from different quarters. The third, under the direction of Clarke himself, was to capture the fort on the east side. Kaskaskia at that time was a village of about two j hundred and fifty houses. The British commander last in j charge had instilled in the minds of the people the impres- ! sion that the Virginians, otherwise the " Long Knives," were I a ferocious band of murderers, plundering houses, slaughter- ! ing women and children, and committing acts of great atro- j city. Clarke determined to take advantage of this, and so j surprise the inhabitants by fear as to induce them to submit | without resistance. Clarke effected an entrance to the fort without difficulty. The other parties at a given signal en- | tered Kaskaskia at the opposite extremities, and with terri- ble outcries and hideous noises, aroused the terrified inhabi- tants, who shrieked in their alarm, "The Long Knives!' " The Long Kuives are here!" The panic stricken towns- j men delivered up their arms, and the victory was accom- \ plished without the shedding of a drop of blood. M. Roche- blave, the British commandant, was unconscious of the pres- ence of the enemy, till an officer of the detachment entered his bed-chamber, and claimed him as a prisoner. ' In accord- ance with his original plan of conquering the inhabitants by terror, and then afterward winning their regard and grati- tude by his clemency, Clarke, the next day, withdrew hia forces from the town, and sternly forbade all communication between it and his soldiers. Some of the principal militia officers, citizens of the town, were next put in irons. The terror now reached its height. The priest, and a deputation of five or six elderly men of the villige, called on Clarke, and humbly requested permission to assemble in the church, to take leave of each other and commend their future lives to the protection of a merciful Gjd, since they expected to be separated, perhaps never to meet again. Clarke gruffly granted the privilege. The whole population convened at the church, and after remaining together a long time, the priest and a few others again waited upon the commander of the American forces, presenting thanks for the privilege they had enjoyed, and desiring to know what fate awaited them. Clarke now determined to lift them from their despair, and win their gratitude by a show of mercy. " What!" said he; " do you take us for savages ? Do you think Americans will strip women and children, and take bread from their mouths? My countrymen disdain to make war on helpless innocents." He further reminded them that the King of France, their former ruler, was an ally of the Americans, and now fighting their cause. He told them to embrace the side they deemed best, and they should be respected in the enjoyment of their liberty and the rights of property. The revulsion of feeling was complete. The good news spread throughout the village. The church-bell rang a merry peal, and the delighted inhabitants gathered at the chapel, where thanks were offered to God for their happy and unexpected deliverance. The loyalty of the inhabitants was assured, and ever after they remained faithful to the American cause. The French inhabitants of Kaskaskia were readily reconciled to a change of government. In October, 1778, the Virginia Assembly erected the conquered 'territory into the County of Illinois. This County embraced all the region north-west of Ohio, and five large states have since been formed from it. Colonel Clarke was appointed military commander of all the western territory north and south of the Ohio, and Colonel John Todd, one of Clarke's soldiers, who next to Clarke had been the first man to enter Fort Gage, was appointed lieutenant-commander of Illinois. In the spring of 1779, Colonel Todd visited Kaskaskia, and made arrangements for the organization of a temporary government. Many of the French inhabitants of Kaskaskia, Prairie du Rocher, and the other settlements, readily took the oath of allegiance to Virginia. Colonel Todd was killed at the famous battle of Blue Licks, in Kentucky August, 1782, and Timothy deMontbrun, a Frenchman, succeeded him as commandant of Illinois County. Of his administra- tion but little is known. THE "COMPACT OF 1787." In 1632 Illinoi? became a possession of the French crown, a dependency of Canada, and a part of Louisiana. In 17C5 the English flag was run up on old Fort Chartres, and HISTORY OF EDWARD, LAWRENCE AND WARASH COUNTIES, ILLINOIS. Illinois was counted among the treasures of Great Britain. In 1779 it was taken from the English by Col. George Rogers Clark : this man was resolute in nature, wise in coun- cil, prudent in policy, bold in action, and heroic in danger. Few men who have figured in the early history of America are more deserving than he. Nothing short of first-class ability could have rescued " Vincins " and all Illinois from the English, and it is not possible to over-estimate the in- fluence of this achievement upon the republic. In 1779, Illinois became a part of Virginia. It was soon known as Illinois county. In 1784 Virginia ceded all this territory to the general government to be cut into states, to be republi- can in form, with " the same right of sovereignty, freedom and independence as the other states." In 1787 it was the object of the wisest and ablest legisla- tion found in any merely human records. No man can study the secret history of The Compact of 1787 and not feel that Providence was guiding with sleepless eyes these unborn states. The ordinance that on July 13, 1787, finally became the incorporating act, has a most marvelous history. Jefferson had vainly tried to secure a system of government for the north-western territory. He was an emancipationist of that day, and favored the exclusion of slavery from the territory Virginia had ceded to the general government, but the south voted him down as often as it came up. In 1787, as late as July 10, an organizing act without the anti-slavery clause was pending. This concession to the south was expected to carry it Congress was in session in New York city. Oi July 5, Rev. Dr. Manasseh Cutler, of Massachusetts, came into New York to lobby, on the north- western territory. Everything seemed to fall into his hands. Events were ripe : the state of the public credit, the growing of southern prejudice, the basis of his mission, his personal character, all combined to complete one of those sudden and marvelous revolutions of public sentiment that once in five or ten centuries are seen to sweep over a country like the breath of the Almighty. Cutler was a remarkable man ; a graduate of Yale, he had studied and taken degrees in the three learned professions, law, divinity and medicine, Har- vard had given him his A. M., and Yale had honored herself by adding his D. D. He had thus America's best literary indorsement. He had published a scientific examination of the plants of New England. His name stood second only to that of Franklin as a scientist in America. He was a courtly gentleman of the old style, a man of commanding presence, and of inviting face. The southern members were captivated by his genial manners, rare and profound abilities. He came representing a company that desired to purchase a tract of land now included in Ohio, for the purpose of plant- ing a colony. Government money was worth eighteen cents on the dollar. This Massachusetts company had collected enough to purchase 1,500,000 acres of land. Other specu- lators in New York made Dr. Cutler their agent ; on the 12th he represented a demand for 5,500,000 acres. This would reduce the national debt. Jefferson and Virginia were regarded as authority concerning the land Virginia had just ceded. Jefferson's policy wanted to provide for the publio credit, and this was a good opportunity to do some- thing. Massachusetts then owned the territory of Maine, which she was crowding on the market. She was opposed to opening the north-western region. This fired the zeal of Virginia. The South caught the inspiration, and all exalted Dr. Cutler. The English Minister invited him to dine with some of the Southern gentlemen. He was the centre of in- terest; the entire South rallied around him. Massachusetts could not vote against him, because many of the constituents of her members were interested personally in the western speculation ; thus Cutler, making friends with the south, and doubtless using all the arts of the lobby, was enabled to command the situation. True to deeper conviction, he dictated one of the most compact and finished documents of wise statesmanship that ever adorned any human law book ; he borrowed from Jefferson the term " Articles of Compact," which preceding the federal constitution, rose into the most sacred character. He then followed very closely the constitu- tion of Massachusetts, adopted three years before, its most marked points were : 1st. The exclusion of slavery from the territory forever. 2d. Provision for public schools, giving one township for a seminary, and every section numbered 16 in each town- ship ; that is, one thirty-sixth of all the land for public schools. 3d. A provision prohibiting the adoption of any consti- tution, or the enactment of any law that should nullify pre-existing contracts. Be it forever remembered that this compact declared that " Religion, morality, and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and means of education shall always be encouraged." Dr. Cutler planted himself on this platform and would not yield. Giving his unqualified declaration that it was that or nothing that unless they could make the land desirable they did not want it he took his horse and gig and started for the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. On July 13, 1787, the bill was put upon its passage, and was unanimously adopted, every Southern member voting for it, and only one man, Mr. Yates of New York, voting against it, but as the States voted as States, Yates lost his vote, and the compact was put beyond repeal. Then the great States of Ohio, In- diana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin a vast empire, the heart of the great valley were consecrated to freedom, intelligence, and honesty. In the light of these ninety-five years, it is evident to all that this act was the salvation of the republic and the destruction of slavery. Soon the south saw their great blunder, and tried to repeal the compact. In 1803 Congress referred it to a committee, of which John Randolph was chairman. He reported that this ordinance was a compact, and opposed repeal. Thus it stood a rock in the way of the on-rushing sea of slavery. With all this i timely aid it was, after all, a most desperate and protracted ! struggle to keep the soil of Illinois sacred to freedom. It was the natural baltlc field for the irrepressible conflict. In the southern end of the State slavery preceded the compact. It existed among the old French settlers, and was hard to eradicate. The southern part of the State was settled froni 1 the slave States ; and this population brought their laws, HISTORY OF EDWARDS, LAWRENCE AND W ABASH COUNTIES, ILLINOIS. customs, and institutions with them. A stream of popula- tion from the North poured into the northern part of the State These sections misunderstood and hated each other perfectly. The Southerners regarded the Yankees as a skin- ning, tricky, penurious race of peddlers, filling the country with tinware, brass clocks, and wooden nutmegs. The Northerner thought of the Southerner as a lean, lank, lazy creature, burrowing in a hut, and rioting in whisky, dirt and ignorance. These causes aided in making the struggle long and bitter. So strong was the sympathy with slavery that in spite of the ordinance of 1787, and in spite of the deed of cession, it was determined to allow the old French settlers to retain their slaves. Planters from the slave States might bring their slaves, if they would give them a chance to choose freedom, or years of service and bondage for their children till they should become thirty years of age. If they chose freedom they must leave the State in sixty days or be sold as fugitives. Servants were whipped for offences for which white men are fined ; each lash paid forty cents of the fine. A negro ten miles from home without a pass was whipped. These famous laws were imported from the slave States, just as they imported laws for the inspec- tion of flax and wool when there was neither in the State. These black laws are now wiped out. A vigorous effort was made to protect slavery in the State Constitution of 1818 ; it barely failed. It was renewed in 1826, when a convention was asked to make a new constitution. After a hard fight the convention was defeated ; but slaves did not disappear from the census of the State until 1850. There were mobs and murders in the interest of slavery. Lovejoy was added to the list of martyrs a sort of first fruits of that long line of immortal heroes who saw freedom a3 the one supreme desire of their souls, and were so enamored of her that they pre- ferred to die rather than survive her. LAND TENURES. The early French settlers held the possession of their land in common. A tract of land was fixed upon for a Common Field, in which all the inhabitants were interested. Besides the Common Field, another tract of land was laid off on the Commons. All the villagers had free access to this as a place of pasturage for their stock. From this they also drew their supply of fuel. Indiv : dual grants were likewise made. Under the French system, the lands were granted without any equivalent con- sideration in the way of money, the individuals satisfying the authorities that the lands were wanted for actual settle- ment, or for a purpose likely to benefit the community. The fir.-t grant of land, which is preserved, is that made to Charles Danie, May 10th, 1722. The French grants at Kaskaskia extended from river to river, and at other places in the Bot- tom they commonly extended from river to bluff. Grants of land were made for almost all the American Bottom, from the upper limits of the Common Field of St. Phillip's to the lower line of the Kaskaskia Common Field, a distance of nearly thirty miles. The British commandants, who assumed the government on the cession of the territory by France, exercised the pri- vilege of making grants, subject to the approval of his Ma- jesty, the King. Colonel Wilkins granted to some merchants of Philadelphia a magnificent domain of thirty thousand acres lying between the village of Kaskaskia and Prairie du Kocher, much of it already coven d by French grants pre- viously made. For the better carrying out their plans, the British officers, and perhaps their grantees, destroyed, to some extent, the records of the ancient French grants at Kaskaskia, by which the regular claim of titles and convey- ances was partly broken. This British grant of thirty thousand acres, which had been assigned to John Edgar, was afterward patented by Governor St. Clair to Edgar and John Murray St. Clair, the Governor's son, to whom Edgar had previously conveyed a moiety by deed. Although much fault was found with the transaction, a confirmation of the grant was secured from the United States government. When Virginia ceded Illinois, it was stipulated that the French and Canadian inhabitants, and other settlers, who had professed allegiance to Virginia, should have their titles confirmed to them. Congress afterwards authorized the Governor to confirm the possessions and titles of the French to their lands. In accordance with this agreement, Governor St. Clair, in 1790, issued a proclamation directing the inhabitants to exhibit their titles and claims of the lands which they held, in order to be confirmed in their possession. Where the instruments were found to be authentic, orders of survey were issued, the expense of which was borne by the parties who claimed ownership. The French inhabitants were in such poverty at this time that they were really una- ble to pay the expenses of the surveys, and a memorial signed by P. Gibault, the priest at Kaskaskia, and eighty- seven others, was presented to Governor St. Clair, praying him to petition Congress for relief in the matter. In 1791, Congress directed that four hundred acres of land should be granted to the head of every family which had made improve- ments in Illinois prior to the year 1788. Congress had also directed that a donation be given to each of the families then living at either of the villages of Kaskaskia, Prairie du Rocher, Cahokia, Fort Chartres, or St. Phillips. These were known as the " bead-right " claims. At an early date, speculation became active in the land claims of different kinds; bead-rights, improvement rights, militia right', and fraudulent claims were produced in greet numbers. The French claims were partly unconfirmed, owing to the poverty of that people, and these were forced on the market with the others. Tne official report of the commissioners at Kaskaskia, made in 1810, shows that eight | hundred and ninety land claims were rejected as being ille- gal or fraudulent. Three hundred and seventy were reported as being supported by perjury, and a considerable j number were forged. There are fourteen names given of persons, both English and French, who made it a regular business to furnish sworn certificates, professing an intimate knowledge, in every case, of the settlers who had made cer- tain improvements upon which claims were predicated and when and where they were located. A Frenchman, clerk of the parish of Prairie du Rocher, " without property and fond of liquor," after having given some two hundred -depo- HISTORY OF EDWARDS, LAWRENCE AND WABASH COUNTIES, ILLINOIS. sitions iii favor of three land claimant speculators, " was induced,'' in the language of the report, " either by compen- sation, fear, or the impossibility of obtaining absolution on any o.% 181 First Territorial Legislature 1812. askaskia on the 25th day of November, A. D. 1812. Adjour ' , . . nvened and adjourned Convened at Ka _ the 26th day of December, 1812. Second November 8, A. D. 1813. LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL. OFFICERS. President Pierre Menard. Secretary John Thomas. Doorkeeper Thomas Van Swearingen. MEMBERS. Randolph. Samuel Judy Madis ...(iallatin. Thomas Ferguson Johns ...St. Clair. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. OFFICERS. Pierre Menard IVniiU.im Tall>tt William Biggs Doorkeeper MEMBERS. George Fisher Randolph. Josh Alexander Wilson Gallat-n. Jaco . Gallatin ..Johnson . . Greenu Van Swe Pt. flair ..... St. Cl.ir Madron Second Territorial legislature 1814. FIRST SESSION. ;d at Kaskaskia the 14th day of November, A. 24, A. D., 1814. D. 1814. Adjourned LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL. OFFICERS. President Pierre Menard. Secretary John Thomas. Doorkeeper Thomas Stuart. MEMBERS. Pierre Menard Randolph. Samuel Judy Madison. William ISim?s t. Clair. Thomas Ferguson Johnson. Benjamin Talbott Gallatin. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVF.S. OFFICERS. Sneaker Risdon Moore. Clerk William Mears. Doorkeeper Thomas Stuart MEMBERS. Riadon Moore St. Clair. Phillip Trammel Gallatin. William Rabh Madis,,,,. Thomas C. Browne Oaltatln. James Lemon, Jr ft. Clair. Owe,, Kvans Johnson. James Gilbreath* Randolph. Second Territorial Legislature 18 5. SECOND SESSION ,th day of December, A. D. 1815. LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL. OFFICERS. President Pierre Mcnard. Secretary lohn Thomas Enrolling and Engroiiwa Clerk Wm. C. Greenup. MEMBERS. Pierre Menard Randolph. Willis Samuel Judy Madison. Thorn Benjamin Talbott Gallatin. Expelled. HISTORY OF EDWARD, LAWRENCE AND WADASH COUNTIES, 1UANOIS. B OUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. OFFICERS. Spcak f r Risdon Moore. Under t C'crk Vaorkccper Daniel P. Cook. Ezra Owen. nor and I Enrolling and Enjr^ syutgfJUrk Wm. C. Greenup. election re l:j -'l-.n Moore KEMBEB8. St. Clair. John G. Lofton.. Madison. the Speak Phillip Trammel Th asC. I-.rown,-".: Jarvis Ilazelton (iallatin. William Ual.l..... Hallatin. Jam.-- I..-m.-ii. . Kan.l.ilph. Mudi-.ui. r St. Clair. open and j the Gener .:_* u_ii Third Territorial legislature 181O-1T. FIRST SESSION. Convened at Kaskaskia the 2d day of December, A. D. 1816. Adjourned January 11, A. D. 1817. LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL . President.. I'ier iMenard. MEMBERS. HarmMenard Randolph. John Grammar John Thomas C. Browne ................. Gallati , G.Lofton Madison. Abraham Amo.i St. Clair. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. OFFICERS. Speaker T. Oeor^' 1 i'i-h Doorkeeper Georco Fisher .................... Randolph. C. R. Mathem- ....................... St. (flair. Win II l!r:idsliv .......... St. Clair. Nathan Davis ........................ Jackson. . . Ezra Owen eph Palmer ..................... Johnson. i.Jard .............................. Edwards. iin.'l oinelvcny ........................ I'ope. A. D. 1817. Adjour ..Ptoi Third Territorial Legislature SECOSD SESSIOX. rened at Kaskaskia the. 1st day of December, LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL. ' winjGtort Ezra Owen. 5IEMBERS. Pierre Menard Randolph. John G. Lofton M Ai.rah.iin AT.OS Monroe. Thomas C. Browne G JolmGrimmar Johnson. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. OFFICERS. Speaker George Fisher. : Doorkeeper MEMBERS. George Fisher ......................... Randolph Wm. H. Bradsby M itheny .................. St. Clair. Joseph Pal CoOk. [J. K. MrLuii>_rlilm. Ezra Owen. Wil nport First Constitutional Convention. CONVENTION OF 1818. Assembled at Kaskaskia, July 1818. Adjourned August 26, 1818. Thirty-three delegates. One member from Washington county ilird during the sitting of the convention ; name unknow tion mlopted in convention without being submitted to people. Approved by Congress, December 3, 1818. OFFICERS. President ............................ ........... Jesse B. Thomas. Secretary ..................................... William C. Greenup. DELEGATES. St. Glair Jesse B Tiiomas, John Mewinger, James Lemen, Jr. (ieor-o lusher, Elias Kent Kane. Mu'limn Benjamin Stephenson, Joseph Borough, Abraham Pri kett. - - Michael Jones, Leonard White, Adolphua F. Hubbard. , Hc'7.ekiah West, Win MoKatridge. .! Srt.li Gard, Levi Corapton. /,' illi* Hargrave, Win McIIcnry. -Caldweli Cams Enoch Moore, -Samuel Omelveny, Hamlet Ferguson. ..-Conrad Will, James Hall, Jr. ../-Joseph Kitchell, Edward N. Cnllom. #;/ -Thomas Kirk patrick, S;imm-l G. Morse. William KrhokJohiiWhiteaker. Waihingtnn Andrew Bankson. Franklin Iham Harrison, Thomas Roberts. EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT. Under the constitution of 1S18 the elective officers were the Gover- nor and Lieutenant-Governor, who held office for four years. The re transmitted by the returning officers, directed to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, whose duty it was to open and publish them in the presenca of a majority of each house of l Assembly. In case of a lie, the choice was made by a joint ballot of both houses. The first election for Governor and Lieutenant-Governor was held on the third Thursday of September, A. D. 1818. Thereafter the eleclions were held every four years on the first Monday of August. The Secretary of State was appointed by the Governor, with the advice and consent of the Senate. The Auditor of Public Accounts, Treasurer and Attorney- General were elected by the General Assembly, and held office for two years respectively. By the constitution of 1848, all these officers were made elective by the people, except the Attorney-General, which office was abolished . The term of office for each was four years, except the Trcasn n r, which was two years. The office of Attorney-General was again created by law, in 1867, and the term fixed at two years. The office was first filled by appointment by the Governor, and at the expiration of the term by election by the people. The constitution of 1870 provides that the Executive Department shall consist of a Gorernor, Lieutennnt-Governor, Secretary of State, Auditor of Public Accounts, Treasurer, Superintendent of Public In- struction, and Attorney-General, who shall each, with the exception of the Treasurer, hold office for four years from the second Monday in January next after election. The Treasurer holds office for two years, and is ineligible for re-election until the expiration of two years next after the end of his term. The first election under the constitution of 1870 was held November 5, A. D. 1872. By a law passed in 1849 the Secretary of State was made ex-officio State Superintendent of Public Schools. In 1854 the law establish- ing a system of free schools created the office of State Superintendent, and provided for the appointment by the Governor, upon the taking effect of the law, of some person to hold office until the election in 1855, when a State Superintendent should be elected, and every two years thereafter. ..St. Ciair. The offices of Adjutant-General, State Geologist, and Entomolo- '..Gallatin] gist, are created by law, and filled by appointment of the Governor. STATE OF ILLINOIS. igust 20, Coveriioro n county tc of the When From what Nsme. ^ inaugurated. county Remarks. . Shadraeh Bond Oct. 6, 1818 St. Clair tiup. 1-Mwurd Coles Dec. &, 182.!.... Madison Ninian Kdwur.ls Dec. 6, 1S2C... Ma.lis.M, John Reynolds Dec. 9, 1830,... St. Clair Re-iltneil Nov. IT,' 1834." n, Jr. Win. T,. 1). Ewing NOT. 17, 1834.. K-.yrtt" Elected ll.'p. to Congress. Vice Reynolds. m Pric- M-illl Thomas Carlin Dee. 3, 1834 Dec. 7, 1838 iV,".^*" ;"'z;!"z:;;!r;r7'.i::::::::. Thomas Ford Dee. 8, 1842 Ogle '.'.'.'.'I ibbard. Augustus C. French Augustus C. Frenuli Ian. ,s, Will Crawford Crawford iie-eiected "under"con'st'ii of 1847. Jan., is:,. 1 ! Will John Wood. '.'.".'.I..'.'.!!. Jim. ll', ls:,T.... Mar. 21, 180(1... 4-temiw.'.".'.'.'.'. ~n.'.'. Lnckwood.... Oct. 6. Do 18, \|.ril 2, Oct. 15, George Forquer Jan. 17, Alexander P. Field ' Stephen A. Don-las Lyman Trumbull >feo^27, Thompson Campbell.... Mar. 4, Horaces. CooK-v Do.; 2'i Horaces. Cooley !jan. 8, David L.Grcggs April 10, Alexander Starne Ian In Ozias M. Hatch Ian. 12 OziasM. Hatch Ian. 14 Shan.n Tvndale.. Edward Hummel 1818..,Kaskaskia.. cteb.Z gamon... 1828..|Union Win.. Morgan ,8H.. St. Clair 1843.. JoDaviess ... Adams IS If,. Adams Cook Pike Pike lair!::::: Peoria Tazi-wi'll Resignoa Dec. 16, 1822. U.-ointed'b'y''G'o'v'.'ogiesby. D B.Walsh !June 11, lsr,7.. Itock Island Wm. LoKarnm April 2, 187(1.. Kane Cyrus Thomas \pril M, l7- Jackson ' ah C.Berrv ................ .June 11 1821.. ios W. 11,-rrv .............. Ii-e. 19,1828.. es K. Anderson ....... Dec. in, i.s:::>.. Kim I'., liui'knor .......... \i>ril 3, ls:.7.. Wm.c;. Kennoy ............. \, ls:,7.. Thomas S. Math.-,. ......... not. 2S. ls:.s.. Allen C. Killlor ................. Nov. II. lsi;l. Ishani X. Hiwni.i ........... .lan'v 1C, ISiir... Kdwanl P. Nilos .................... .' ..... . ......... i^H Remttrk3 ' dolph..... Uesigiii'd .Nov7i'i','i839." Uexamler... Hubert DilKc-r Meh. 21, lxi.ii.. Sali'-am.m".'.'. Ivlwiti I. HI--M,- .l.mV.l, 1ST:!.. Edwin L. HiRstins 'July 1,1874.. Hiram HillianL.^'Z.'^ .InlV >', is::... c,...k 1 Inly 2, 1877.. " Hiram Hilliard ice Kinney, deceased. HISTORY OF EDWARD, LAWRENCE AND WABASH COUNTIES, ILLINOIS. POPULATION OF Stat-mont showing the population of the State of Illinois by Counties, according to the United States census, from the year 1800 to the year 1S80, of organization and name o/County Seat: . Counties. 1800. j 1810. | 1820. j 1830. 1840. 1850. 1860. 1870. 1880. | When organized. County Seats. Adams Alexand, r ......... 2,186 1,390 14, 476 313 26, 508 484 41,323 4,707 56, 362 10,564 69, 148 1 January 13, 1825 14,80!) March 4, 1819 Qu.injT Bond tfO\ 060 705 183 144 19S 9,815 11, 67f 13 152 12,942 12,2(1- 14, S73 January 4, 1317 - 11,527 March 4,1837 13,044'February 1, 1839 (/roenvme!!777777 Hell-idem Ml. Sterling Bureau"".'"' 777..77777 777 777 777! Calhoun Carroll Cass ! &fi"::.:::::::::z:::::::::::::::::::: :::::::::::::::.. Clark ""'931 ijogb '75.1 2,330 ,007 ' 475 878 453 228 718 231 586 2,13 619 203 532 ,280 26,'426 6,141 11,733 11,325 14, 629 10, 492 11,987 9,336 10,941 34; 415 6, 562 16,705 11,580 32, 737 20, 363 18,719 15, 875 16 285 33,189 7,471 i^M 40, 869 28,232 21,900 16195 18,718 February 28, 1837 Princeton January 10,182' Hardin Febuarv22, 1839 Mt, Carroll March 3, 1817 -, Virginia February 20, 18'tt Urbana February 15, 1.3:1:1 Tavlorville March 22, 1.319 Marshall December 23, 1324 Louisville ... December 27. 1.3-21 carlvle o8iw.77!.\7!7...7.!.7.777!.7.777 777 7.77 616 14, 203 25 235 27 01.1 December 2.1, 18311 Charleston Cook 1 2'Jl 4: ' :;7 144,9.14 349966 607,719 January 11, 1J3I Chicago Crawford j ' 2,999 Cumberland j ! 3,117 ru 11,551 8,311 13 889 12 223 16,190 December 31, 1816 Robinson Majority Point DeKalb ! 097 247 540 002 19,086 10, 820 2:1,,-,:, 14.76S --,i7:i March 4, 183777777! Sycamore 17 OulMarch 1,1839 CJinton D,F|^ ::;;:: ! 535 290 7,140 14,701 15.S.17 February ri,1317 TusenU 19 is? February 9. 1*1!) Wheaton ^^577.77.7777777777777 777 "3,444 Ktfingham t:;!!:' 221 1 10, WS 5,454 7 316 2l! 45? 7,565 1.1,05:1 2jio04 January's, 1823 1> Novem1,er23,1sl4 IM^Fobruaryll, IR31 Paris Sam7777!77. Favette , 2,704 J32S 075 11, !89 19,613 23,213 February 14, 1821 Vandalia Ford 1,979 9, 103 15 101 F,.bni..,rV.17, 13.19 Kir ::::::::::::=::..:::::..:::::::::::::::::. .^ Gallatin ] 3155 4,083 1,841 7,40,1 iis-i 1 112 1 760 'tis' i508 4 is II 12, 612 33,291 11,134 16 i-.,,. January '2, 1818 41,219 January 23, 1823 12, si;-- September 14, 1312 Lewisto \vn77.7.7.777 Shawneetown Greene 7,674 1 951 429 16,093 20,277 23,014 January 2;i, 1821 Carrollton Hancock. !7777777777.7.77777! 777 777 '483 941 946 378 362 r.,12 887 10,379 9, 915 29 061 9 v!" 14,938 13, 014 16, 7.1.8 February 17, 1841 16,712 February 8, 1821.1 35 31 > January 18, 1825 r, o,l March'2, 1839 Morris MeLeansboro Sfc^!7777 Henderson ' '.... : 612 12! ,132 10,755 January 20, 1841 Oquawka 807 January n, 182.1 C mbridge Iroquois , Jackson l,142j 1,828 69.1 500 472 149 862 220 12^ 325 9589 8,364 2.% 782 ass || I'Ybrilary 26,1833 January in, 1816 -elirnaryll, 1831 Watseka!. 702 109 12, 965 17,864 Iar<-h!iii,]S19 Mt. W Vern'on"77777.7 jersey...7777777.7777777 777 777 : 535 354 12,051 15, 054 IS) 548 February 28, 18:1!) Jerseyville Johnson Mil 1.596 626 114 9, 342 11,248 13, 079 September H, 1^2 Kane 501 703 30, 062 39,091 44| 956 annarv li 1 ., 1836 Kankakee 15. 412 2 1! 3.12 24, 901 1 1. ls.11 Kankak'e'e 'cit7-.7!!7.7. 73 13. 074 12,399 13,08l!Fehruary19,'l841_ Yorkville ". 274 (160 279 28, 663 39,122 Galesburg 654 226 18,257 21,014 21^299 March I, i> : Waukegan LaSaiie777. 777777.77777. 77!!! !!!!!!'.'.'.' 348 815 48.332 60,792 70,420 January H. 1831.~~__ ' Mtan.l Livinjorton !.... 777; Y" 092 035 759 121 292 552 9,214 17,651 11,637 12,533 27,171 31,471 13,663 27' 194 38,450 January 16. 1821 Xawrenceville February 27, 183!) Dixon February.27, 1837 Pontiae Logan :::!!!::: ::::7:::::!:: 333 128 14, 272 23,053 25,041 February!), 183!) , : 1.122 039 988 13, 738 26,481 30, 071 Janna-y 19, 1829 Decatur Madiso p n!..7...'.......'....!'.7.!7.'.7...!.!.7!7!!!!!!! !!! ih'," 6/221 .326 1 433 355 441 21,60-2 31, 351 32, 726 44 131 37,705 60.141 January 17, 1329 September 14,1812 Carlinville E,lwardsville &EEEEEEEEEE E = ^. 742 849 12, 739 13,437 20,622 23,091 15,030 January 24, 1823 Salem Lacon Mason 1 i! 921 10,931 K, 184 Havana... 1 09 6213 9581 10,' 443 j February 1843.777! McHenry 7.7.77.777777.77 777 !!!!!!!!. ITS 616 978 20,069 22, OS,, 26,509 23, 762 24^914 Ianuary25, 1828 lanuary 16,183i; WooTtoc'k 16.1 163 28, 772 63,968 m 115 1) mher -. Bloomington7'.!!!7.7!.7 Mena?d.777:7.7.7.!77.7.7!777 777 7"7! 431 349 9,584 11, -:;r. 13 028 February 15, 139 Petersburg Mercer Monroe Montgomery 1 Morgan Moultrie ......... 1*7 14 aat ,481 1 ,'547 240 1 234 15,042 12,832 13,979 22,112 6, 385 1*71* 12,932 25,314 28 463 10,3.85 li 28, 016 s$ January 13, 1825 June 1,1816. February 12, 1821 January 31, 1823 February! i, 1843 Aledo Waterloo Hillsboro Jacksonville Sullivan Ogle i 479 021 22,888 27,49? 29,946 January' 16, 1836 Oregon Peoria 153 1.2).i; 222 547 278 47.640 13,723 16',008 Januar'y 13, 1821 January 29. 1827 pike 77777777.7.' '." 777 77.7 7.7." ii.wi 'i 728 KtoEEEE 77:77777 7;:::::: 7 m .... ( :!: 4 Putnam mo, 13 Randolph 1,101,7,275 3.-I92I 4429 944 60C sin 97: 264 m 071 .6 I '?27 a', 943 S 21)' 855 15,' 583 33,761 13,2,56 9,507 IS 555 25; 691 January 27, 1841 Monticello January 31, 1821 Piltsfield April 1, 1816 (Jolcouda March 3, 1843 Mound City January 13, 1825 Hennepin April 28, 1809 .Chester Riebland ^^!-"77777777!77!7 ::::::::! 7!7!7::77 Bpngamon s-huyier ;;:;::..; 77; 2,95!) 'liiV 972 01? rls's 22S 573 9,711 21,005 9, 331 32,274 14,684 12. 803 29, 733 12,714 46, 352 17,419 15, 546 38,314 15, 9 52, 902 16,249 February 24, 1S41 February 9, 1831 February 21, 1847 January 3o, 1821 January 13, 1325 Olney Itoek Maud Harrisburg Springfield ftofoiy 2,972 21.1 669 914 807 9,069 14, 613 10, 530 25, 476 10,74.1 February 16, 1839 30,282 January 23,1827 Wincnester!.'.'!!!!!! 777.7 Shelhyville 573 71< 9,004 10, 751 ll,20!i March 2,1839 *st. ciaYr7'7777777!7.7777j"i^55y'v;o7T'5,248 7 07s 1 631 37,694 61 068 f.1,850 April 28, 1809 Belleviii'e".""".'.'.!!!"'."."." Stephenson ' 777 ""4,716 3,239 m fcii m 25,112 21, 470 30,608 27, 903 16, 518 31, 97n March 4, 1837 M.U79 January 31, 1827 18,UKl January 2. 1818 Freeport Pckin Jonesboro verm n iiion'77.'.7.'.77.: .7.777.7 :;;;7:: :; ..::... Wabash Warren 5,336 2,710 308 !2ir 739 492 690 176 7', 313 18,336 ao*sn 8,841 23, 174 41,' 600 January IS, 1326 9, 94o|December27, 1824 22,9to January 13, 1825 Danville Mt. Carmel \Vahim;t,'ii i''i'n 1,075 2,553 810 133 953 825 13.731 12,223 17, M9 19,758 21,117 21,297 January 2, 1818 Mareh'26.1819 Fairfield .7.!'.7.'.'.V.V.'7!!.' whi,"77777 77.':.'." !!"! !7:7 .i's - 6.091 919 92T 12 403 16,846 23,089 December 9, 1815 Wniteside. .......... 7 ' will ;..! 777.7.77777 777 ..7.7 777 77.77 tt'illiam-on Wmn, -i,a';o 1 .1 -1 361 1 167 703 457 216 61 CJ 773 18, 7S7 29,321 12,205 21 491 27,503 43, 013 17,329 29, 301 30,' 838 53, 424 19. 32f 30, 518 January 16,1836 January 12, 1ST; February 28, 1839 18. 1836 M^ison.'.".!...... .Toilet Rockfor'd.!'.'.'.".'.'!'.'..'.'.'.!.'.....' Woodford 41.1 $20 18.95C 21, 630 February 27, 1841 Aggregate ' 2,318 12. ?82 55,162 157,445' 476, 183 851,470 1,711,911 2,539, S91 3,078,63,1 * St. Clair county was organized April 27th, 1790, by Arthur St. Cla r, then Governor and Commander-in-chief of " The territory of t west of the Ohio river, ' re-organized after Illinois had been established as a Territory, April 28th, 1809. -tales north- MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION Presidents. Secretaries of State. Secretaries of War. Postmasters-General NO. NAME. QUALIFIED. NO. NAME. APPOINTED NO. HAM*. APPOINTED. NO. NAME. APPOINTED. 1 George Washington A (ml 30, 7vi 79! 17 John C. Calhoun Mar. IX James Buchanan Mar. XII 22 William L. Marcy Mar. 0, 1845 2:; George -. Crawford.. . Mnr. 8,1849 4 Gideon Granger Nov. 28 ' Mar sill 2 John Adams .'.'.'..Mar.' 4^ 7M7 19 John M. Clayton Mar. sei 24 diaries M. Conrad Am.'. 15, IS5O " " Mar' 3 Thomas Jellerso i Mar 4, Mar. 4, 4 James Madisoa Mar. 4, 8(15 809 Daniel Webst-r July 2 20 Edward Everett Nov. 21 William L. Marev Mar. I860 1X52 863 2.-, .lelterson Davis Mar. 5, 1853 20 John B.FIovd Mar. 0.1857 27 Joseph Holt Jan. 18, 1801 6 Return J. Meigs, Jr Mar! 1 1X14 817 XI 22 Lewis Cass Mar. s:,7 28 Sim.,,1 i am.-ron Mar. 5, 1801 G John McLean '.......Iiine 2 6 James Monroe...'.:'.:::::::::^!.;: 4_; M7 821 23 Jeremiah S. Black Dec. 1 24 William H. Si-ward Mar. 800 861 2:i K'Uun M. Staiilon Ian. 15, 802 " Mar. 4, Xi 5 7 William T. Barry'.'.'.'..'.'.'.'..Mar'. i is 6 John Qiiinev Adams !!!! Mar! '4, x-25 " April 15, si;:, Mar. 7 Andrew Jackson....... ....Ma, 4, April 1 25 E. B. Wa-hburne Mar. Sill! U.S. Grant, ad infmi...Anir. 12, S07 L Thomas, - " ...Feb. 21, xiix 8 Amos Kendall Mav Mar ii 8 Martin Van Bnreri '.'.'.'.'.'.'..Marl 4' 9 Win. ll.-nrv Harii-on....Mar. 4, X37 - II 20 Hamilton fish Mar. 1 " Mar. 873 in John M. Sehofield Mav 2s, xox II John A. Kawlim .Mar. 11, si!!) 9 John M. Kiles May 2 10 Francis Granger Mar. Is 1,1 lo John Tvler April 0, sll 27 William M. Evarts Mar. 1 12 Wm. W. I'.elkliap Oet. 25, si,9 ' " Apiil lsl[ *l James K. Polk Mar. 4, 12 Zaeharv T.ivlor Mar. 5, 13 Millard Filimore July In, xl'l s-,0 2* .lamesti. Blaine Mar. 29 Frelinghuysen, F. T Dec., xx i 881 Mar. 4, 873 ;:: MphousoTaft Mar. 8,1870 :\ .lames D. Cameron Mav 22, 1X70 llChas. A. Wieklifle Sept. 1 12 Cave Johnson Mar 13 Ja-'ob Collamer Mav. 1X11 si:, Is 1:1 14 Franklin Piei-.-e Mar. 4, s:/t ',:, Geo. W. McCrary Mar. 12, 1877 14 Nathan K. Hall July 23 1', James lliieiiamm Mar. 4, 857 30 Alexander Kunsev. Deo. In, 1H79 15 Sam'l T). Hubbard Aug 3 Is' 2 16 Abraham Lincoln .Mar. 4, 861 Secretaries of the Treasn 37 Robert T. Lincoln Mar. 4, 1881 10 James Campbell Ma?' 17 Aaron V Brown M-ir 17 Andrew Johnson, Auril 1% 18 Ulysses S. Grant Mar. 4, s.';, s'':,) 873 1 Alex. Hamilton Sept. 1 2 Oliver Wolcott...'.'.'.'.'.'..'.'.'.'..Feb. 7..!' Secretaries of the Navy. IX Joseph Holt Mar. 1 In Horatio Kini: Feb 1 20 Montgomery Blair Mar. S..I 19 Rutherford R. Hayes ....Mar. 5, 20 James A. GaHield Mar. 4, xx ! " " Mar. Samuol Dexter Jan. 707 8ul 1 Benjamin Stoddert -May 21, 1798 * !' '..'- Mar: < Is!'-! 21 Chester A. Arthur Sept. 20, ss| Albert GaHatin May 1 -el 2. RobertSmiih I'.'.'.'.'.'.'.jn'lv ir,\ ixol 22 Alex. W. Randall ".'.'.'.'.'." July' L !m d t( ^J;| r - \ 813 3. .1. Croivnin-hiold .Mai-. 3, 1SU5 23 John A. J. Cresswell Mar. is.,, Geo. W. Carnpbeii'."!"!"!Feb] si ( 4 Paul llamilt m Mar. 7, Mill Mar. 1873 Vice-Presidents. Alexander J Dallas Get Wm. H. Crawford Oct. 22 |s| 1 1816 817 5 Wi Ham Jones Ian. 12, 1813 " " .. Alar 4 1X13 24 Marshall Jewell Aug > 25 James X. Tvner Julv 1 -20 David M.-K Kev Mar. 1 1x74 1x70 1 John Adams Tune 3, 7s ' B. W. Orowninshield Dee. 19, 181 1 " Dec. 2, 2 Thomas Jefferson Mar. 4, 3 Airon Burr Mar. 4, 793 sol Richard Rush ...'"..'.'.'." .Mar Samuel D. In^ham Mar. 821 823 1820 Mar. 4, 1817 7 Smith Thompson Nov. 9, 1818 Mar. 5,1X21 27 Horace Mavnard June 28 Thomas L.' James Mar. 29 Timothy O. Howe Dec., ix'o lss| IsXl 4 Goorce Clinton Mar. 4, 1 Louis M, 'Lane Aug 8 Samuel L. Southard Sept. lo. Is2:s " " Mar 4 5 Eldridge Gerry "'.""'.'...'.'.'Mar.' 4, *John Gaillard Nov. 25, SII'J Sll si 1 1 William J. Diiane May 2 1 Roger B. Tanoy Sept. 23 1 Lovi Woo.lbnrv Juno! x:> ; 1833 1834 Mar. 4. 182"> 9 John Branch Mar. 9,1829 in Lovi Woo.lbiiry May 23, lx:il 6 Daniel D. Tompkins Mar. 4, xl7 " ' .' Mar. 1837 " ' Mar, 4, 1x33 Mar. 5, XM 14 Thomas En ing Mar. 11 Malilon Diokerson lime :io, ix.il 7 John C. Calhoun Mar. 4, s .,, 833 837 sll IS 11 1843 is II 12 James K. Paul ding".'.".'.'. June 25,' 1838 13 Georue 10. Badger Mar. 5, 1841 April G, 1841 8 Martin Van Buren Mar. 4, 9 Kiehard M. Johnson Mar. 4, 10 John C. Spen. -or Mav. 7 George M. Bibb luue 1 1 Edmund Randolph Sept. 2fi 789 10 John Tyler Mar. 4, *Samne'l L. Sou-hard Auril 0, 841 sll x Kobert J. Walker Mar. 19 Wm. M. Meredith Mar. 1X15 1849 14 Abel P. Upshur Sept. l:;,]sll 15 David Hensliaw Inly 21, IS43 2 William Bradford....'.'.'.'.'.' Jan' 2 3 Charles Lee Dec. 7M *Willie P. Mangum Mav 31, -12 20 Thomas Corwin July 2 1850 10 Thomas W. (;i mer I'Vb. 15,1844 11 George M. Dalla< Mar. 4, 12 Millard Fillinonl Ma'. R, *William H. King July 11, 13 William K.King Mar. 4, *David R. Atohison April is, xr, 848 893 BUS -21 .James Gutlinc Mar. 22 llowellCobb Mar. 23 Philip F. Thomas Dec. 1 24 John A. Dix Jan. 1 2.i Salmon P. Chase Mar. 1853 1 s:,7 son S',1 1801 17 John Y. Mason Mar. 14, 1S-U is Geo ire Bancroft Mar. Ill, 1X45 Johu'V. .Mason Sept. !i, 1X40 19 Uiiliuii 11. Preston Mar. 8,1841) 20 William A. Graham Tilly 22,1850 4 Theophilus Parsons !".".' Feb.' 2 5 Levi I.ineoln Mar Kobert Smith Mar. 7 John Breekiuridge Aug. 8 ucsar A. liodney Jan. sn;, *.lesse D. Bright Dee. 5, 14 John C. Breckinriilge... Mar. 4, i:, Il.-iiinibal llamlin...'. Mar. 4, 16 Andrew Johnson Mar. 4, *l.afave-te S. Foster April 15, *B.-niamin F. Wade Mar. 2, 17 Sehuvl-r Col fax Mar. 4, 18 Henry Wilson Mnr. 4, Thomas W. Ferry Nov. 22 19 William A. Wheeler Mar. 5, 20 Chester A Arthur Mar. 4, 857 si;l ST, set S09 873 877 881 20 Wm. Pin Fessenden lulv 27 Hugh MeCalloeh Mar. April 1 2S George R. Boutwell Mav. 1 29 Wm. A liichavdson Mar 1 30 Bcnj. II. Bristow June 31 Lot M. Mori-ill luly 32 John Sherman Mar. 33 William Wi -mom Mar. 34 Chas. G. Folger Dec., 864 805 1869 1"73 1.-7I 1870 1877 ss| 21 John P. Kenne Iv Inly 22, ls:>2 22 .lam.-s C. Dobbin Mar. 7,1853 23 Isaac Toueey Mar. o, 1857 21 Gideon Welles Mar. 5,1801 " Mar. 4, 1S05 ' April 15, is,;-, 25 A.lolph E. Borie Mar. 5, IHiil 2, Ceo. M. Kobeson June 25, ISi-.ll " Mar. 4 1X73 27 b'ieh. w. Thompson Mar. 12, 1x77 M Nathan Gofl; Jr. ton. 6,1881 9 William Pinkney'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.Dec.' 1 10 Kiehard Uush '.'.'..'.."'.>" 1 11 WilMam Wirt.'.'.".'.'..V.'.'.'.'.'.':Nov: 1 " ....... ......Mar.' 12 John M. Jierrien Mar 13 Roger B. Taney July 2 XI N'I s|4 -17 S17 S2I 828 Sl-l S3] s 'i .21 David Davis Oct. 13, 1881 ' 2:1 W. H. Hunt .Mar. 4, 1881 30 W. E. Chandler April, 1882 11 Benjamin F. Bufier!~!Ijio 1 883 'Acting Vice-Presidcnt and PreFident Secretaries of War. i- F ,r" C d " ^'I'- s.;, pro tern of the Senate. Secretaries of the Interior. ll! Henry 'D. Gifpi[V...'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.!JaZ' 1 s'io 1 Henry Knox ..Sept. 1780 1703 1 Thomas Ewing Mar. 8, 1849 April sll XII Secretaries of State. Timoth y Pjckerin'g'':::.'.'.'jan.' James MeHenry Jan^, 2' 17:'-' 17:i_. 2 Alex. H. Stuart Sept. 12, 1X50 3 Robert MeClellaud Mar. 7 Is;,:; 18 JJugh S. Legare Sept. 19 John Nelson July "u John V Mason Mar 1 1 Thomas Jefferson Sept. 20, 1789 Mar. 4, 17W Samuel Dexter May ]: Uoger Griswold Feb. IS '] 5 Caleb B. Smith Mar. 5, 1X01 John P. Usher Jan. 8, 1803 21 Nathan Clifford (let. 22 Isaae Toueey lime sir, 848 2 Edmond Randolph Ian. 2 1791 3 Timothy Piekering Dor. lo, I7'.r> 4 John Marshall .'.".'.'.'.'.May 13,' 1800 B James Madison Mai-. 5, ixm Henry Dearborn ..Mar. William Eustis...'..".'..'....".Mar'. John Armstrong Jan. Mar. ISiil 1-", 1809 Is!-: 1813 7 James Harlan .'.'.'.'.'.'.. .'.'.'..'."Mav i\ I8H 8 0. H. Browning Julv 27.lxoo 11 Jacob D. Cox..! Mar. 6, 1809 2:: Itever.lv Jonnson Mar. John J Crittenden July -21 Caleb Cu.hing Man 25 Jeremiah 8. Slack Mar. 20 Edwin M. Slanton Dec. MB s ,3 S'io Mar. 4, 1805 G Robert Smith Mar. 6, 1809 9 James Monroe Sept. 10 Win. H. Crawford Aug. l -1 1 Is]., M Columbus D.-hino Nov. 1,1870 41 * Mar. 4, 1873 27 Kdward Bates Mar. T. J. Coffey. nd int June .'.1 7 James Monroe April 2, 1S11 " Mar. 4, 1813 8 John Quiney Adams Mar. fi, 1817 11 George Graham nd Inter 12 John C. Calhoun Oct. " " Mav. 1817 1- :l 11 Zachariah Chandler Oet. I:>. 1X75 I2<3arl Seburz Mar. 12,1877 13 Samuel . I. Kirkwood Mar. 4, sxl 28 James Speed Dee. " '.'.'..'.'.'.'..'.'.'.'.'.'. April 1. | s,::, " " ' Mar. 5] 1x21 9 Henry Clay Mar. 7, 1825 13 James Barlx.ur Mav. 14 Peter B. P.uter Mav 1 128 14 Henry M. Teller \pril, 1882 20 llenrv Stanberv lulv 3'i William M lOvarts July s,:,; sis 11 Martin Van Huron Mar. 0, 1X211 5 John H. Eaton Mar. 1829 31 E. lioi-kwood Iloa- .Mar. 11 Edward Livingston Mav 21, lx:ll 12 Louis Mr-Lane Mav 29 1833 13 John Forsyt.h June 27, Is:;-, Mar. 4 is::7 14 Daniel Weh.ter Mar. 5, 1*41 Lewis Cass Aug. 18S1 1841 |sll Postmasters-General. 32 Amos T. Akerman June 33 George it. Williams liee. 1 31 Edward Pi'-rropont...'.'..Aiiri'l 2t 35 Alphonso Taft Mav 870 871 B7 876 17 Joel R Poius It Mar. 18 John Bell Mar. " April 1 Samuel Gsgood Sept. 26, 1789 2Timolhy fiokering Ujg. 12.1791 " Mar 4, 1793 April fi, 1*11 19 John C. Spencer Oct. IM1 3 Joseph Habersham F. b. 25, 17;i:> 30 Charles Devens Mar m 5 Hugh S. Legare Mav 21, S!:' Abel P. Upshnv Ju:v 21. si: 20 James M. PO-UT Mar. 21 William Willdns, Feb. 1 i -i:: Mar. 4. 1797 Mar. 4. 1S01 37 Wavue Mat'Vengh Mar ! SPEAKERS OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. F. A. Muhl.nberg Pennsylvania Jonathan Trumbull | Connecticut F. A. Milhlenberg Pennsylvania 1st C -ngress 2d Congress.... April 1, 1789, to March 4, 1791 October 24, 1791. to March 4,171)3 December 2, 1711.1, to March 4, 17D.1 17.50 1740 1801 1809 Jonathan Dayton New Jersey Massaehusetts'.'.!!!!'.!'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.!'.'!!!!!'.' 4th Congress 5thCon|res, lieeetnl.er 7, 179,1 , t" .March 4, 1797 .Mav i:>, 171)7, t" March :i, 1799 December _'. 1791), to March 4, Isol 1760 1823 Nathaniel Macon North Carolina sth Connress December 7. lx"l. to March 4, L8U3 October 17, Iso:;, to -Mar.-h 1, lso.1 December 2. Iso:,, i,, .March 1. INC 17,17 1837 Joseph B. Varnum Henry Clay '.'.'.!!!' Langdon Cheves!! !....! Henry Clay Massachusetts Kentucky ^^"VZZZ 10th Congress IHli Congress 12tli Congress l:!th Congress 13th Congress 11th Cotiuress 15th Congress _ 1-07, t., March 4, ismi Mav 22. 1 si in, to .March 4, isll November 4, 1811. to March 4, 1813 May 24, isl. i, t., .human- 19.1x14 lanuaiv 19, Ixl 1, to -Mai'vh 1, ixl.1 December 4, l.sl.1, to M-rch I, 181.1 ember 1, lsl7, to March 4, 1819 1750 i'fn 1821 1852 i's'iV Philip P. Barbo'u'r'."!.!'. '. '. !...'.'.'.'.'.'.!!. Homy Clay John W. Taylor S^EEEEEE Virginia 10th Congress 17th Coiinres* 18th Congress lath Congress 2(lth Congress 21st Connress 2-'d Congress November 15. I8a>, t" Mar.-h 4, 1821 December 4, 1x21. to March 4. 1823 December 1, 1x2:1, to March 4. 1825 Dec. inbi'l-5. 1x2.1, I" March 4. 1x27 December :i, 1x27, t" Mar, h 4, ]XL:' December 7, 1x29, to March 4. lx:il December-., lx:n. to March -li lx:;:i 1784 1783 1784 as 1857 John Bell '."".'.'.'.'.'.'.!'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'."."'.'!!!.".!!!!. James K. Pol i Tennessee, 2d Session 23d congress..'.'.'.'..!!!!!!!!!!!!!! _'4th Conmvss 2.1th Congress 1 i.-ce or L', ix:;:i. to June :>. IK'A June 2, 1834, to Mar. h 4, is:!:, December 7, 18:::,, to Maivh 4, lx:;7 September.',, 18:',-. to March 4,1X39 1797 1795 1869 1849 Robert M. T. Hunter Virginia December In. l.vls, to .Maivh 4, 1841 1809 John Woite Kciilucky Mav 31 1841, to March 4. Isl:! 1846 Jol,n\V. Jones John \V. Davis Virginia.. ndiana ,'Sth Congress )th Congress December 4, 1x1:1, to March 4. Isl:. December 1, 1x4.1. to March 4, 1x17 1805 1799 1848 Robert C. \Vinthro|. ft UMsaohQBeiu December 0, 1817. to March 1. 1x41) 1809 Howeil C.,l,l, Linn lioyd Georgia Kentucky H-t Congress !2.l CJongress !:id Congress Dccmb,r22, 1,819. to M,.r, 1,4,1851 December 1, ls:i, to Mar.-h 4. 1 8.1:1 December 5, I8S3, to March 1, 1-55 IMS 1800 1808 1859 Nathaniel P. Hanks Massachusetts Febril.-irv 2 Ix.lo, 10 Jla-ch 4, 1x57 1816 James L. Orr South Carolina ), mber7, lx.17, to .Maivh 4, ls.19 1873 Wra. Pennington New Jersey Galusha A. Grow Pennsylvania Bohuyler Colfax Indiana )0th Congress 17th C ngress -. i8th Congress February 1, Ism, t Maivh 4, 1801 illy 4, isr.l, to March 4, Is.;.! lecetnber 7, Isi :i, to Maivh 4, Isr:, 171)6 18-23 1823 1862 Kith Congress ilarch 4, 18(17, t., March 4, IMHI James G. Elaine Maine larch 4, 18011, to March 4, 1871 1830 March -I, 1871, to Mai'.-h 1, 1x73 Michael C. Kerr Samuel J. Ramlall In.liana Pennsylvania, 2d Session 44th Congress 44th Congress December 0, 1875, to August 20, 1870 >e,'.cmbcr4. Is7n, to March 4, 1877 Ictober 1.1. 1x77, to March 1, 1879 its 1876 46th Congress March 18, 1879, to POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES AT EACH CENSUS, FROM 1790 TO 188O, FROM THE OFFICIAL CENSUS. nd Territories. 1790. 1800. I 181O. 1820. 1830. ] Wyomi The Territories Total Population HISTORY OF EDWARDS, LAWRENCE AND WABASH COUNTIES, ILLINOIS. CHAPTER III. GEOGRAPHY, AGRICULTURAL RESOURCES RAILROAD FACILITIES. EDWARDS COUNTY. AXD stone, as may be seen from the outcroppings along the banks. Between two seams of sandstone shale low vein of coal appears, and in an early day was taken out in small quantities by the blacksmiths for their forges at Albion. Soil and Agriculture. The soil on the rolling upland is a chocolate-colored clay loam, well charged with HE county of Edwards was erected in 1814, j humus from decomposed vegetable matter, and is very and was the sixth county formed in what is I productive, being specially adapted to the culture of the best quality of wheat, of oats, and the grasses. The bottom lands along Bonpas creek are heavily timbered, but when cleared and brought into cultivation are very now the State of Illinois. At its organi- zation it embraced nearly all the eastern portion of the territory of Illinois, and a part of the territories of Wisconsin and Michigan, boundary extending to Upper Canada. one of the smallest counties ts northern I productive, and constitute the best corn lands in the southern part of the State. At this time wheat is the the State, and is staple product of the county. In an early day, corn bounded as follows : On the north by Richland, east stood at the head of the list in acreage. A little later, by Wabash, south by White and west by Wayne \ pork became the leading product, and furnished the county. It is about twenty-one miles from north J greater revenue to the farming community. It should to south, and is eleven miles in width, and contains be noticed here that horticulture is among the leading industries. Both the soil and climate are admirably adapted to the culture of all kinds of fruit. Hydrography On account of most of the surface 141,280 acres of land, about five-eighths of which is under cultivation. Population. The population of the county is com- posed mainly of people of English descent, and according j being more or less undulating, the natural drainage of to the census of 1880, numbered as follows : Albion, West Salem, Shelby,. French Creek and Dixon, . 3,301 . 1,857 . 1,521 Albion, the capital of the county, is situated a little south of the centre, on the Louisville, Evansville, and St. Louis railway, and about four miles west of the line the county is necessarily good. The main water course is | the Bonpas, extending along the entire eastern boundary. In an early day.it formed a means of transit for many of the products of Edwards and Wabash counties. Flat boats have been floated down this creek from as far north as west Salem ; and in about 1840, as many as twenty boats, within a year, have passed through the Bonpas, and thence down the Wabash and other rivers to the southern markets. The other streams of lesser note are the little Wabash in the northwest, Big creek of the Peoria, Decatur, and Evansville road. It is nicely j in the southwest, French creek in the south, and Bear located on high rolling ground, and the surrounding country is among the best in southern Illinois. At this writing, it contains a population of about one thousand inhabitants. Topography. The surface of the uplands is quite rolling, but there are some limited areas of rather flat timbered lands above the level of the creek bottoms, forming what is known as terrace lands. Originally creek in Shelby precinct. The latter discharges its waters into the little Wabash. Sugar creek, and the head waters of Fox river are also important factors of the drainage system iu the northwest part of the county. One point that the farmers of Edwards have not fully realized the value of, is that of surface drain- age by tiling. Experience has taught those who have tried it, that it matters not how much nature may have the main surface was covered with heavy timber, but [ done in the way of draining the soil, if one would reap interspersed here and there with prairie patches, ranging ! the greatest benefits from the farm, he must have it well iu area from one section to four or five square miles iu j underlayed with tile, which has the effect of keeping the surface. The largest of these is the Bold nghouse Prairie, j surface porous, warm, and alive. There is but little if situated a little south and west from Albion. A peculi- I any land in the county not susceptible of improvement, arity of some of these prairies is, that the soil is cold and I and fine farms and farm buildings are seen on every somewhat unproductive. The principal kind of timber j hand, forming a picture pleasant to behold, on the uplands is the white oak, but when once cleared j from the laud the black oak takes its place. On the low grounds, near the streams, may be found in large abundance the water-oak, sweet gum, ash, soft maple, and other varieties. There is but one point in the county where the surface rises to anything like high LAWRENCE COUNTY was organized in 1821, and was originally a part of Edwards. It embraces an area of upwards of 280 square miles, or 183,526 acres. The following is taken from bluffs, and this is on the Little Wabash in Shelby pre- j the assessor's report for 1882. Acres of wheat, 40,413 ; cinct. Here the banks are quite steep and rise to the I corn, 36,046 ; oats, 5,903 ; meadow, 10,596 ; other prod- height of about sixty feet. This is underlaid with sand- I ucts, 2,443. Acres inclosed in pasture, 24,076 ; in or- HISTORY OF EDWARDS, LAWRENCE AND WABASH COUNTIES, ILLINOIS. chard, 2,516; of woodland, 61,533, showing a total of 183,526 acres. The county is bounded on the north by Crawford county, on the east. by the Wabash river, south by Wabash county, and west by Richland county. It lies nearly equidistant from St Louis and Indianapolis, the distance being about one hundred and twenty-five miles, j and forms one of the eastern tier of the counties. The Population is composed of various nationalities, and according to the census of 1880, was numbered 13,633. The county is divided into nine townships, viz., j Christy, Lawrence, Allison, Denison, Lukin, Bridgeport, Petty, Bond, and Russell. Lawreneeville, the county seat, is situated on or near the west shore of the Embarras river, and is centrally located. The Wabash, St. Louis, and Pacific railway extends through its territory from north to south, and the Ohio and Mississippi road passes about three-fourths of a mile south of town. Land Surface. The greater portion of the county j was originally covered with heavy timber, though there are a few small prairies in the south and northwest. The surface is generally rolling, but in no part is it sufficiently broken to be unfit for cultivation. The ele- vation above the water courses, is nowhere very great; on the uplands its altitude will range from fifty to one hundred feet. The most elevated lands are the Perkin's hills, situated in the north part of Christy's township. Drainage and Climate. The principal water courses, j besides the Wabash, are the Embarras river, traversing the northeast with its affluents, Brushy Fork and Indian creek, which drain the north and central portion, and Raccoon creek and the eastern fork of the Bonpas ; which drain the south. East of Lawreneeville, and situated between the Embarras and Wabash rivers j there is an extensive marsh from to two to four milts in width, and about ten miles in length, called Purgatory swamp. On the east and north of this low belt, there is quite an area of bottom prairie ; the northern or upper portion is known as Allison's prairie, and the lower por- tion as Russellville prairie. The climate is healthful and pleasant, being a happy medium between the extremes of heat and cold, and thus well adapted to the culture of fruits and the various kinds of cereals. Soil and Timber. The Wabash and Embarras rivers are skirted with broad alluvial bottoms and level table lands, ranging from two to four miles in extent, j Some portions of the latter are quite sandy, and con^ti- tute the terrace prairies between the Wabash and Pur- gatory swamp. During the seasons of high water, this portion of the county is more or less inundated ; the cultivation of the land is thus impeded, and the farms are therefore of less value in the market. The uplands are generally rolling, and in a state of nature, were heavily timbered, though at this time much of the land has been brought under a good state of cultivation. The principal products are: wheat, barley, corn, oats, and the grasses. Perennial Springs and artificial mounds are found in different parts of the county. At the foot of the Perkin's hills there are several of these springs, that furnish an abundance of excellent water. J. C. Foster, who resides in section 27, Petty township, utilizes them by convey- ing the water through pipes to his house and farm, situ- ated one-half mile away. One of these springs forms quite a branch, and when united with the wa er that flows from the surrounding springs, the discharge is borne away into Paul's creek. At what was known sev- eral years ago as the " clay-banks," east of the Embarras, in Lawrence township, there are also numerous springs, besides several Indian mounds, relics of a pre-historic race ; by excavating, it is found that the earth forming these mounds is of an entirely different composition to that of the land surrounding them, proving beyoi.d question that the mound-builders once inhabited this region. WABASH COUNTY. Was created in 1824, having formed a part of the great territory of Edwards county, and received its name from the river washing its eastern boundary. In area, number of population, and products, it closely re- sembles the present county of Edwards, being bounded as follows: on the north by Lawrence and Richland counties ; on the east and south by the Wabash river ; and west by Edwards county, Bon pas creek forming the boundary line between the two counties. It has an area of upwards of 140 000 acres of land, about half of which is under cultivation. The general outline of the county is in the form of a V ; its greatest length from north to south is twenty-two miles, and from east to west, sixteen miles. It embraces two full, and thirteen fractional parts of congressional townships, and is divided for political purposes into seven voting precincts, known as Wabash, Frieudsville, Lancaster, Lick Prairie, Bellmout, Mt. Carmel, and Coffee. ^ Population. According to the census of 1880, the population of the county numbered 9,908, composed of persons of English, German, IrUh, French, and African descent ; the English element largely predominating. Mt Carmel, the county seat, situated on the Wabash liver, is the largeSt town, having a population of 2,040 in 1880. Bellmout, next in size, numbered 350 ; Allen- dale,- 290. Topography. The surface of the country is somewhat varied, and for general description may be readily divi- ded into the uplands and the bottoms ; the former con- stitute about two-thirds of the area. By looking on the map of Wabash county, it will be seen that the territory is nearly included or surrounded by two considerable water courses, the Wabash river and Bonpas creek ; each of these streams are embraced by a large body of bottom land, including nearly one-third the area of the county- These uplands are more or less undulating, while there are small areas of rather flat timbered land above the level of the river bottoms, forming a second bottom or terrace land. At Mt. Carmel there are quite prominent HISTORY OF EDWARDS, LAWRENCE AND W ABASH COUNTIES, ILLINOIS. bluffs, the city being situated about one hundred and forty feet above the level of the river. Hydrography. The county is well supplied with water courses, the whole eastern and southern boundaries being washed by the Wabash, and the entire western portion drained by Bonpas creek and its tributaries. Raccoon creek empties into the Wabash from the northeast, and the Little Bonpas discharges its waters into the Bonpas from the northwest. Besides the foregoing, there are several smaller branches, the principal of which are : Coffee, Greathouse, Crawfish, and Jordan creeks. Soil and Agriculture. In the vicinity of the Wabash bluffs the clayey soil peculiar to the uplands is modified by the sandy marls of the Loess upon which it rests; yet these soils are quick and productive, yielding large crops of all the cereals cultiva'ed in this climate. The soil of the uplands is of a chocolate-colored clay loam, similar in all respects to the upland soil of Edwards county, and : it is upon this land that the best quality of wheat is | produced. In a state of nature it was but meagerly j covered with timber, and was therefore not considered valuable, but by good cultivation it has been found to | be, fur certain agricultural purposes, the best land in ; the county. The bottom lands along the Wabash and Bonpas are tracts of heavy timber, the land being a deep alluvial soil, with sandy subsoil ; when cleared and ; placed under good cultivation, it is the most productive land in the county, yielding most bountiful crops of maize, oats, and gras;es. Transportation Facilities. The first means employed for transportation of the surplus products of this part of I the country were rafts and rudely-constructed flat-boats, on the Wabash, along the eastern boundary of the then 1 Edwards county. The first steamboat that navigated the Wabash as fjr north as Mt. Carmel was the ' : Commerce," in about 1819. It came from Cincinnati, and was comman- ded by Jacob Strader ; its farthest passage north w s to Terre Haute. Only now and then did steamers navigate the Whba&b, until 1832, when steam-boating on the river was conducted with much regularity. Prior tot! is, one boat during the year was about the extent of steam navigation. From 1832 until 1856 the river traffic was quite active, but as soon as the railroads commenced op- I erations, the business fell off, the railroads having almost ! the entire monopoly as common carriers. Railroads. Railroading is comparatively a new in- dustry ; many centuries have adrled their contributions to science, yet during only about fifty years have rail- roads been known. Scientists of all ages have grappled with the various problems of government and political economy, social life, and questions of demand and supply, and left the records of their labors for our instruction ; the accumulated wisdom of centuries furnishes much material from whence we can draw such knowledge, but railroads are institutions of to-day this is the " Iron j Age," wherein distance is virtually wiped out and "push" ! has become the watch-word of the nineteenth century. '* The first railway constructed in the Mississippi valley was in 1837, and WJS known as the Illinois and St. Louis railroad; it was built by Governor Reynolds, Vital Jarrot and a few others, and extended from the Missis- sippi bluffs on the east, at the old town of Pittsburg, to East St. Louis a distance of about six miles. It was constructed with a wooden rail, and the cars were moved by horse-power. It was only used for conveying coal from the mines at Pittsburg to the St. Louis markets. In 1837, under the popularly so-called Internal Im- provement scheme of Illinois, grading was commenced from Mt. Carmel, in Wabash county/westward, 'simul- taneously with like work from Alton, eastward, along the proposed line of the Illinois Southern cross road, which recognized Alton and Mt. Carmel as its termini, by Messrs. Bonham, Shannon, and Goforth, who had the contract from Mt. Carmel to Albion. They subse- quently associated with themselves in this work John Brisenden, Sr. They employed in all nearly four hundred hands. West from Albion, and in the limits of Edwards county, like work was done under a contract let to Messrs. Hall and Kiuner. The grading of near twenty miles of road was com- p'eted in 1839, and then the work was dropped. Ou the third of June, 1849, under act of the Legislature of the preceding session, the roadway was sold to the high- est bidder. General William Pickering bought it for the insignificant sum of three hundred dollars. It was not until 1871 that the property again attracted atten- tion, and became the route of the present Air Line. Iii February, 1872, } the first train crossed the Little Wabash into Edwards county, and a few weeks after- wards they were running into Albion, the county seat. What wonderful progress has been made in railroad fa- cilities and transportation since that time. In all parts of our land may now be heard the shrill whistle of the iron horse, but Illinois, the great Prairie State, leads the van in the number of miles of rail in this age of improvement. Wabash, St. Louis and Pacific, more widely and com- monly known as "The Wabash," has a greater number of miles of track in these counties than any other railroad. Through a system of consolidation, unpar- alleled in America, it has become the giant among railroads. This consolidation, it is estimated, has added over $50,000,000 to the value of bonds and shares of the various companies now incorporated in the Wabash sys- tem. The road takes its title from the river which forms the eastern boundaries of Lawrence and Wabash counties. The road extended through the above counties U now a part of the great Wabash system The follow ing is a brief history of this branch of the road. The northern portion was first known as the Paris and Dan- ville road, and was chartered March 23, 1869. It was put in operation from Danville to Paris, Illinois, in Sep- tember, 1872; from Danville to Robinson, August, 1*7.5; from Danville to the Ohio and Mississippi junc- tion, May, 1876. It commenced running passenger trains to Vincennes, over the O. & M. railway track in May, 187(5 ; commenced running freight trains from the HISTORY OF EDWARDS, LAWRENCE AND WAS ASH COUNTIES, ILLINOIS. O. & M. Junction to St. Francisville, over the St. F. & | L. road, in April 1880, and commenced running all trains into Danville, over the Wabash railway track, ( from Tilton Junction to Danville, August 1, 1879. In August, 1875, a receiver was appointed, it operating un- der said management until June, 1879. October of the same year it passed into the hands of the Danville and Southwestern Railroad Company. The southern portion of this branch of the road, now in the hands of the Wa-' bash, was originally called the Cairo and Vincennes rail- road, and was organized under an act of the General Assembly of Illinois, approved March 6, 1867, which was amended by act approved February 9, 1869, grant- ing further powers to the corporation. The main line from Cairo to Vincennes, was opened for business De- cember 26, 1872. It was subsequently sold 1880. A traffic agreement between the purchasers and the D. & S. and St. F. & L. railways, was entered into May 1, 1880, for operation of the St. F. & L. railroad, extending from St. Francisville, on the C. & V. road, (o a junction with the D. & S. railway at Lawrenceville, a distance often miles. This was the status of these roads until within the last eighteen months the roads have been consolidated, and become a part of the Wabash, St. Louis and Pacific system. In the three counties it con- tains more than fifty miles of main track, passing through the towns ofGrayville, Mt. Carmel, St. Francisville and Lawrenceville, besides several smaller towns. Ohio and Mississippi. This roid extends from east to west nearly on an air line through the central part of Lawrence county, passing through Alison, Lawrence, Bridgeport and Christy township. The principal stations are Summer and Bridgeport. In 1848 the Legislature, of Indiana, passed an act in- corporating the Ohio and Mississippi railroad, empow- ering it to locate, construct and maintain a road leading from Lawrenceburg, on the Ohio river, to Vincenne.3, on the Wabash, and contemplating an eastern extension to Cincinnati, Ohio, and a western arm to East St. Louis, as soon as the States of Ohio and Illinois would grant the right-of-way. In 1849 the Ohio Legislature, and in 1851 the Illinois Legislature extended the contemplated aid by acts of their respective bodies, and in 1857, the entire length of the road was opened through for busi- ness. The panic of that year greatly affected the pros- perity of the road, so that in 1858, creditors brought suit for foreclosure of mortgages and sale of property, pending which, a receiver was appointed, under whose directions the road was maintained until its reorganiza- tion was effected. Parties desiring the establishment of the road on a firmer basis bought largely of its stock, organized a new company, and held control until 1874, when it again became embarrassed, and after much liti- gation, was placed in the hands of a receiver, John King, Jr., vice president of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad, acting in that capacity. Under its present management, the road has been put in excellent condi- tion ; the credit of the company has been maintained, and the floating debt has been materially reduced. Louisville, Evansville and St. Louis. This railroad ex- tends across the counties of Edwards and Wabash, nearly central from west to east, the principal stations being Albion, Bro'wns, (cr) Bellmont, and Mt. Carmel. The length of track in the counties is estimated to be, includ- ing sidings, about twenty-five miles. It is the consoli- dation of two divisions of road, known as the Indiana and Illinois divisions. This was among the first con- templated railroads in the State of Illinois, and first bore the name of the Alton, Mt. Carmel, and New Al- bany Railroad Company. It first presented itself in 1857, and the county of Edwards took steps toward ap- propriating their swamp lands to aid in constructing the road. About this time a portion of the road-bed was made, but for the lack of funds and co-operation, on the part of the company, the road was abandoned. It is said that General Pickering came into possession of it at one time for the sum of a few hundred dollars. The Indiana division was organized under the general laws of the State, February 4, 1869, by the name of the New Albany and St. Louis Air Line Railroad Company, and on the first of July, 1870, its name was changed to the Louisville, New Albany and St. Louis Air Line Railroad Company. The Illinois division was organized July 14, 1869, under a special act, and known as the St. Louis, Mt. Carmel and New Albany Railroad Com- pany. Said two companies were consolidated July 24, 1872, under the name of the Louisville, New Albany and St. Louis Railroad Company. Both divisions were , subsequently sold under foreclosure. They again reor- j gauized, the Indiana division in February, 1877, under : the name of the Louisville, New Albany and St. Louis Railroad Company. The Illinois division reorganized in January, 1873, by the name of the St. Louis, Mt. 1 Carmel and New Albany Railroad Company. August 15, 1878, these companies again consolidated under the name of the Louisville, New Albany and St. Louis Rail- j road Company, At this writing it is called the Louis- ville, Evansville and St. Louis Railroad Company, which name it assumed about eighteen months ago, but I is more fajniliarly known as the Air Line Railway. j Peoria, Decatur and Evansville. This road extends j through Edwards county from north lo south, passing j through the towns of West Salem, Browns and Grayville. I It has a length of track in the county, including switches, 1 of about twenty-eight miles. The history ot this road is briefly as follows : About the year 1867, the Pekin, Lincoln and Decatur Rail road Company was organized. A preliminary survey was at once made, and in 1869, the line was located, and a contract made for its construction. Work was com- menced late in 1869, and the line from Pekin to Decatur ' completed by October, 1871, at which time the Toledo, Waba h and Western Railway Company commenced I to operate it under a lease. August 1, 1876, it was taken out of the hands of the above road, on account of HISTORY OF EDWARDS, LAWRENCE AND WABASH COUNTIES, ILLINOIS. the non payment of iaterest, and ths corporation name chauged to Pekin, Lincoln and Decatur Railroad Com- pany. ID September, 1879, the company made arrange- ments to run into Peoria over the Peoria, Prkin and Jacksonville railroad track. November 17, 1879, it consolidated with the Decatur, M#ttoon and Southern Railroad Company. In February, 1880, it leased the Grayville and Mattoon road, and the July following bought said road. Since which time the line has been completed to Evansville, Indiana. Much of the road has recently been supplied with new steel rail, and all the equipments are of a character to indicate that it is in a prosperous condition, and that the managers propose to make and maintain it a first-class road. CHAPTER IV. GEOLOGY* IN account of the similarity of the general for- mations and characteristics of Edwards and Wabash counties, we have seen fit to class them together in their surface descrip- tion and economical geology. They lie contiguous to each other, and are among the smallest counties in the State, their aggregate area being about four hundred and twenty-five square miles. Both counties,' originally, were covered with heavy timber, with small prairies interspersed within their territory. The surface of the uplands is generally rolling, but there are some limited areas of flat timbered lands above the river bottoms, which form what may be termed terrace lands. EDWAEDS COUNTY. The outcrops of rock in this county are few and wide- ly separated. The prevailing rocks are the sand-tones and shales intervening between coal strata Nos. 11 and 13. At the railroad cut near Albion, and on the small creek that intersects the town, the following beds may be seen : Feet. Inches. 8hal and shaly sandstone with pebbly bed 20 to 25 Sandstone, locally hard and concretionary 8 to 12 Streak of bituminous shale 3 Hard nodular limestone 2 'Shale, with bands of argillaceous iron ore 4 to 6 Hard shaly sandstone 3 to 4 The main quarry rock here is concretionary sandstone, and it is sometimes quite hard and affords a very dura- ble material for foundation wall purposes. Above this there are some layers of even bedded sandstone, that when first quarried are of a soft nature, but harden after exposure, and thus become fair building stone. On the west bank of Bonpas creek, about four miles north of Grayville, the bluff rises to an elevation of about a hundred feet. In this is found a thin vein of * For much of the data of this chapter we are indebted to the State Geological Export of Professor A. U. Worthou, its editdr. coal at an elevation of about thirty-six feet above the bed of the creek, which is underlaid by sandy shales and sandstone. The coal is about eight inches thick, of good quality, and is underlaid by a light-colored fire-clay The sandstone and shale below this coal are the same as the beds above the fossiliferous shale in the Grayville section, and the fossil-bed of that locality would no doubt be found here a little below the creek bed. The | thin vein of coal found here has also been met with in sinking wells in the upper part of the town of Grayville. | The same beds outcrop again about a half mile above, and on the same side of the Bonpas. At the base of the bluff there is from ten to twelve feet of blue shales, which passes upwards into a sandy shale and sandstone twenty feet in thickness, with a partial outcrop of thin coal and bituminous shale still higher up. This coal probably corresponds to the ten-inch seam, No. 15, of the Coffee creek section. A coal vein was opened many years ago on Mr. Nail- or's farm, six miles northwest of Grayville, which was successfully worked for some time, the coal being used to supply the local demand. This is undoubtedly the same vein that is worked southwest of Mount Carmel. It is said to be about thirty inches thick, and the coal is very hard, partaking of the block character. At the ford, on the little Wabash, northwest of Albion, on the S. W. qr. of section 7, may be found an outcrop of this coal associated with the following beds: Feet. In. Brown ferruginous clay shales ........... II Brash coal ..................... Clay shale* .................... Brash soil .................... Shale with hands of iron ore ............ Gray sandy shale ................. 7. Iron conglomerate ................. The shale of No. 5 of the above contains considerable ' clay iron ore of fair quality, amounting to nearly one- ; half the thickness of the bed. If the quantity of iron in this shale should prove continuous for some distance into the bluff, it would, perhaps, justify the establishing I an iron furnace in the vicinity. About a mile further up the river, at another ford, the same outcropping of coal may be seen. This is found in connection with a thin bed of nodular argillaceous limestone of a light gray color, turning to a yellowish-brown when exposed to the weather. The following section may be found on the northwest qr. of section 22, T. 1 S., R. 10 E , about five miles northwest of Albion. Sandy shale and thin-bedded Bituminous shale Nodular argillaceous li Feet. In. andstone . 10 to 12 1 to 1 6 2 to 3 Gray sandy shale with bands of ironstone ...... 3 to 4 Thin-bedded sandstone has been quarried here for wall purposes, and it has proven to be excellent material for such uses. On the east side of the town of Albion, at Hartman's mill, a boring for oil was made some years ago. The following is a reported section : HISTORY OF EDWARDS, LAWRENCE AND W ABASH COUNTIES, ILLINOIS. The following section at Seal's mill on Blockhouse creek, in the east part of the county, is reported by Prof. Cox: Drift Gray shale with clay iron ore . . Silicious iron ore Blue argillaceous shale Black bituminous shale Impure limestone Coal in the bed of the creek . . All the beds represented by the foregoing sections belong between coals Nos. 10 and 13, and do not attain an aggregate thickness to exceed two hundred feet. WABASH COUNTY. The geological formations of this county belong to the Quaternary and upper Coal Measures. The former is more fully developed along the bluffs of the Wabash than elsewhere, and consist of the buff and yellow marly sands and clays of the Loess, and a moderate thickness of the gravelly clays of the Drift formation. In the vicinity of Grayville, and in some of the valleys of the smaller streams, stratified clays appear at the lowest levels known, which may belong to an older de posit than the Drift. A heavy bed of this kind is re- ported to have been passed through in boring southwest of Mt. Carmel, but it was found to be overlaid with sandstone, and as no rock of this kind is known in the county of more recent age than the Coal Measures, the theory is placed in the scale of doubt. It is not impro- bable, however, that there are valleys along the Wabash, as well as the Mississippi and Ohio, that were filled, originally, with Tertiary or Cretaceous deposits, some of which still remain, and are now hidden by the more recent accumulations of Loess and Drift. For more than two hundred miles above St. Louis, evidences may be found to verify this theory. Indications of the exis- tence of such beds have been found on the Ohio as far north as Louisville, and on the Mississippi as above stated. The reported sandstone above the clay in the boring for coal, is most probably a Coal Measure bed, and the clay beneath it may be a soft clay shale of the same age. At Mt. Carmel the loess and drift clays are about thirty feet in thickness, being about the average depth in the vicinity of the river bluffs, while on the uplands, remote from the river, their average thickness is not more than fifteen or twenty feet, and at points, much leas. In Edwards county, the Quaternary beds present the same general character, and are considerably thicker in the bluffs on the lower course of the Bonpas, than in the central and western portions of the county, where is found from ten to twenty feet of buffer brownish gravel- ly clays overlying the bed rock. Near the town of Grayville, the creek banks show outcrops of five to ten feet of stratified clays of various colors, and seemingly derived from the decomposition of the clay shales of the Coal Measures, and above these are found twenty to thirty feet of loess, covering, possibly, a nucleus of gravelly drift clay. f To the north and west the loess is not conspicuous, and in well-digging, the bedrock is found after passing through ten or fifteen feet of brown drift clays. Coal Measures la the bluffs of the Wabash, at Mt. Carmel, there is an outcrop of sandstone forming the lower portion of the bluff, underlaid by a blue clay shale, but partially exposed. Feet. Loess and drift clays 30 Soft, shaly, micaceous sandstone 13 Massive sandstone, partly concretionary 20 Blue clay shale, partial exposure 3to6 Springs of water issue from the base of this sandstone, indicating the impervious character of the underlying beds. The base of the above section is some fifteen or twenty feet above the low water level of the river, and the intervening beds of which are probably shales, are not exposed. The following table of beds passed through in boring for coal was given to the State Geologist by Mr. J. Zimmerman. The bore was commenced just above the low water level of the river, and about fifteen I feet below the base of the foregoing section. No. ndstone . nd sandstone . Shale Sandstone Clay shale Sandstone Micaceous sandstone . . . Hard, fine sandstone . . . ^Fireclay? Coal and bituminous shale Fire clay . . No. 10. Argillaceous No. 11. Blue shale* , No. 12. Fire clay . . No. 13. Calc. shale i No. 14. Calc. shale, with black str No. 15. Blue clay shale No. 16. Blue fire clay No. 17. Coal ire clay rgillaceous limestone . ard sandstone, pa-ting . ard gray limestone . . ard gray limestone . . ry hard limestone . . No. 24. Calcareous shale No. 25. Band of ironstone .... No. 26. Variegated shale .... No. 27. Hard gray limestone . . . No. 28. Variegated shale No. 29. Hard gray limestone . . No. 3. Variegated shale .... No. 31. Hard gray limestone . . . No. 19. No. 21. No. 22. This boring was commenced near the horizon of No. 11 coal, and the beds passed thorough probably extend nearly to No. 7. The following is the report of a well sunk for oil, one mile and a half southwest of the court- house, commencing in a creek valley ; HISTORY OF EDWARDS, LAWRENCE AND W ABASH COUNTIES, ILLINOIS. Feet. In. At Mr. Reed's place, on section 8, tp. 1 S., range 12, No. Sandstone blue limestone at the foot of the hill, one foot thick, un- Clay? derlaid by a thin coal. Bluish shale and sandstone is No. No. Sandstone Bituminous shale found in the hill, forty feet above. The well at the No. Sandstone 6 house passed through soil and drift ten feet, clay shale No. No. x Bituminous shale Sandstone 6 four feet, sandstone twenty-nine feet. No. Bituminous shale At Little Rock, on the Wabash, sec. 19, tp. 1 N., No. Sandstone No. Bituminous shale range 11 VV. : No. No. No. Sandstone Bituminous shale, showing oily soot 4 Shale and covered slope 81) Sandstone.solid bed 30 No. Very hard limestone The sandstone of this section is probably the same No. No. Bituminous shale Sandstone strata as that found at St. Francisville, in Lawrence No. Coal No. 9 county. No. No. 2* Limestone The following beds, one mile and a quarter north of No 21 Sandstone Friendsville, are reported by the state geologist from No. 22. Mixture of sand and limestone No. 23. Yellow shale memoranda furnished by Mr. J. Zimmerman : Ft. In. No. 24. Sandstone t No. 25. Clay shale, with pyrite Soil and clay 18 Impure coal-probably bituminous shale 2 No. 27. Bituminous shale Clay shale, with iron nodules 3 No. 23. Sandy shale Gray sandstone, in even beds, four to eight inches thick 15 No. 30. Micacious sandstone No. 31. Coal, No. 7. ? Sandy shales 11 Hard sandstone in two layers 2 8 Dark bituminous shale 3 No. 34. Compact limestone Coal, said to be good 2 No. 35. Bituminous shale The above section, is made from the sinking of Mr. No. 40. Bituminous shale McNair's well. Another well sunk in the same neigh- By comparing this section, with that made for the coal, it will be seen that there is a wide discrepancy in the descriptions given of the strata passed through in each. The oil well boring, was sunk to the depth of about seven hundred feet, yet no coal was reported below the three foot seam found at the depth of four hundred and fifty-five feet, which probably repr.sents coal No. 7 or 8 of the general section. The sandstone No. 2 of the oil well boring may be the same as No. 4 in the other, but there is very little correspondence in the lower strata, considering that the distance between the two points is scarcely two miles. A few miles northeast of Mt. Carmel, at Hanging-rock, there is an outcrop of massive sandstone similar to that at the town, which projects into the bed of the river at low water, and rises above it to the height of 35 feet. An abandoned coal shaft, about three miles southwest of Mt. Carmel, on Mr. Simond's place, was reported to have a seam of coal averaging three feet in thickness, and located from 30 to 35 feet below the surface. The following is the reported section : Drift clay and soil . . . 5 6 Argillaceous shale 30 The following is reported by Prof. Cox : "On sec. 5, tp. 10, range 12, there is a bed of light blue clay, very plastic, exposed in the bank of Crawfish creek, as the following section shows : Soil, calcareous shale and limestone Coal Blue Clay Sandstone in the bed of the creek borhood, after reaching the same strata of coal, a boring of nine feet below the coal was made, when a material of milk-white substance resembling fire-clay was ob- tained. The following section is reported at Hamiker's old mill on the Bonpas, a little north of west from Allen- dale: Feet. Soft, thin-bedded sandstone and shales 15 Ferruginous conglomerate 3 to 4 Hard black shale 2 to 3 No coal is reported as laying beneath. Since the last report was made by the state geologist a shaft has beeu sunk about five miles west from Mt. Carmel, on the Air Line railway. The depth of shaft is forty feet, and the thickness of the vein is four feet. Through the kindness of Mr. J. Zimmerman, who is one of the Coal Company and a practical geologist, we are furnished the following interesting facts relating to the coal deposits in Wabash county. He says: "In addition to the coal seam above mentioned, there are others which indicate a possible great future for the mining interests of the county whenever energy, enter- prise and capital shall be directed to their development. An outcrop of twenty inches of coal (one half cannel- splint, the residue cubical), a short distance below the Wabash railway crosing at Sugar creek, thickens up within a half mile westward, to forty-two inches. This seam underlies most of the county, but the dip of rocks being in that vicinity twenty-eight feet per mile south- westward, it will be found only at considerable depths over most of the county. A boring for petroleum, near Mt. Carmel, commenced geologically below both these seams, disclosed at a depth of 420 feet, a seam of three HISTORY OF EDWARDS, LAWRENCE AND W ABASH COUNTIES, ILLINOIS. 53 feet thickness, and at 569 feet a seam of coal twelve feet in thickness. In same boring, at 325 feet, salt water was found, and another stratum of the same, a short distance above the twelve feet vein of coal. It has been flowing ever since." ECONOMICAL GEOLOGY. Coal. From the state geological survey we glean the following: The upper coal seam in the Coffee creek section was the only outcrop in either of the fore, going counties that promised to be of value for practical coal mining. The coal in this seam ranges from thirty inches to three feet in thickness, and probably underlies a considerable portion of the south part of Wabash county and the southwestern part of Edwards. Sev- eral shafts have been sunk about three miles south, west of Mt. Carmel, where coal was obtained from thirty to thirty five feet below the surface. This coal strata affords a hard, splinty or semi-block coal of fair quality. The roof seems to be good, and if the thickness of the vein should prove to be uniform, there is no reason why it might not be sucessfully mined. This is probably the same vein worked in the southeast part of Edwards j county several years since, for the supply of Albion and ; adjacent region. To reach No. 7, the lower seam, a j depth of probably from two to three hundred feet will have to be attained. Although these counties have not developed this vein, time will undoubtedly prove that it can be made a paying investment. Building Stone As indicated in the sections hereto- fore given, it will be sfeen that a fair quality of building stone may be obtained from the sandstone outcropping in various portions of these counties. The best is pro- ! bably that from the even -bedded sandstone above No. j 11 coal, that is found in the central and northern portion of Edwards and north and northwest of Wabash. In | the latter county, in the vicinity of Oriole, quarries have been opened where a good, evenly-bedded rock is ob- tained, the thin layer affording a good flag-stone, and the thicker beds utilized for foundation walls, etc. This j ledge probably underlies all the highlands and ridges in the northwest part of the county. These will be de- | veloped as the demand for building-stone increases. The ledge in the river bed at Rochester has been but slightly quarried, and at Walden's place quarries have been I worked between this place and Mt. Carmel, where a fair quality of sandstone has been obtained from a bed that, in appearance, resembles the ledge in the Mt. Carmel bluff. Sandstone of a fair quality is obtained at several j points in the vicinity of Albion, some of which is con- j cretationary and very hard, yielding a durable stone. No lime-stone suitable for building purposes is found ! in either county, although that obtained at Rochester Mills, and at Mr. Reel's place, north of Mt. Carmel, has been used to some extent in the neighborhood of the outcrops. Iron Ore. Bands of Argillaceous iron ore are found disseminated more or less throughout many of the shale beds, in these counties, but in such limited quantities that it can prove of but little value. Eight miles north- west of Albion, at the ford, on the S. W. qu. of Sec. 7, T. 1 S., R. 10 E. there is a better showing for this ore than found elsewhere in this region. The shale bed is four feet thick, and about one-half of this thickness is a clay iron ore of a fair quality. At the foot of the bluff several tons of ore may be collected from the debris, where it has been washed out of the shale by the river current. Twenty inches of coal of fair quality overlies ferruginous shale. Potter's Clay is found in the bank of Greathouse creek, near Mt. Carmel. This is said to be of fair quality, and could be worked with success. Good brick clay is abundant in nearly all localities, while sand suitable for all building purposes is found in the river bluffs and creek valleys. LAWRENCE COUNTY. This county contains an area of about three hundred and sixty-two square miles. The surface is generally rolling, and is thus well prepared for natural drainage. Originally it was mainly covered with heavy timbers, interspersed here and there with small prairie belts. The elevation above the water courses is nowhere very great, the uplands ranging from fifty to about a hundred feet in altitude. Loess and Drift. At various places along the Wabash river may be found beds of brown clay and yellowish marly sands, averaging from ten to twenty f>-et in thick- ness. These probably represent the age of the Loess. They are underlaid by gravelly clays intermingled with small boulders, ranging in size from an inch to a foot or more in diameter. Away from the river bluffs, on the uplands, there may be found these gravelly clays from fifteen to twenty feet above the bed rock ; and in sink- ing wells, especially in the northern portions of the county, a sufficient supply of water can only be reached by goicg from ten to upwards of forty feet below the Drift clays into the shales or sandstone beneath. In the vicinity of Lawrenceville there is usually from five to six feet of brown gravelly clay resting upon the btd rock ; but before reaching this you pass through a strata of brown or buff-colored clay, quite free from gravel, and about twelve feet in thickness. Stratified .Roc/fo. All the formations that outcrop in this county below the superficial deposits heretofore mentioned, belong to the upper Coal Measure, and in- clude a vertical thickness not to exceed two hundred feet. At St. Francisville, on the Wabash, there appears an Outcrop of massive gray sandstone, which is believed to be the same as that found in Wabash county, at Hanging-rock bluff, and is the lowest rock seen in this county. The section here is as follows : Feet. Shale 8 Impure iron ore 1 Thin-bedded sandstone nnd sandy shale 16 Massive gray sandstone 20 to 25 Uneiposed to river level 10 to 13 HISTORY OF EDWARDS, LAWRENCE AND WABASH COUNTIES, ILLINOIS. On the Embarras river, just below the dam at Law- renceville, may be found the following section : Feet. Brown and bluish-gray argillaceousShale 10 to 12 Bituminous and partly calcareous shale with bands of iron ore and numerous fossils 4 to 5 Black slaty shale 3 to 5 Dark gray limestone in river bed 1 A repetition of the above section is found two miles east of Lawrenceville, but the bluff is much higher and a larger thickness of strata is exposed, giving the follow- ing section : Feef. Mieaeious sand stone and shale 20 to 25 Bluish-gray calcareous shale, with iron bands and fosssils 4 to 6- Black laminated shale, with concretions of blaek lime- stone 4 to 5 Brittle dark-gray limestone Ij^to2 Blue and brown shale, partly ar gillaceous and bitu- Two wells were sunk on Mr. Plummer's farm, in the S. E. qr. of Sec. 25, T. 5 N., R. 12 west. The one near his house, passed through eighteen inches of coal at a depth of eighteen feet. The other, located a quart* r of a mile to the north, was sunk to the depth of forty-three feet, rav-ingmistly through sandstone and shale. At Mr. Porter's place, which adjoins Mr. Plummer's on the south, a well was sunk to the depth of fifty-six feet, with the following showing : Feet. Drift clay, soil, etc 18 Sandstone 11 Blue shales, bituminous at the bottom 27 The coal vein passed through in the well of Mr. Plummer must lay above the sandstone in the Porter well, which had probably been eroded away at that point by water currents during the Drift-epoch. At a well half a mile west of Mr. Plumraer s, a bed of cel- lular iron ore occurs in the sandstone near its base, and was passed through in this well about sixteen feet below the surface. The iron ore was reported to be two feet thick in the well, but at the outcrop, a quarter of a mile away, its thickness was only about six inches. But for its being so sandy it might be valuable for smelting pur- poses. In the bluffs of the Embarras river, on the N. W- qr. of Sec. 33, T. f>, R. 12, a massive sandstone exposure | indicates the following section : Ft. In. Massive sandstone . 8 to 10 Ferruginous conglomerate . . . . Zto3 Coal (probably local) .' '8 Slope covered to the river level 10 to 12 A hundred yards above where this section is visible, the sandstone continues down the river level without indications of coal. It is probable that the thin coal vein, just over the line in Crawford county, on Brushby creek, is of the same formation as the above, and as it is there from forty to fifty feet above the creek level, it indicates a westerly deflection of the strata equal to about six or seven feet to the mile. On the Embarras j fjr sDme distance above this pjint, no rocks are known to outcrop, and below there is not much exposure be- tween this and the dam at Lawrenceville. On the south side of Indian creek, three miles south of Lawrenceville, and at several places in the neighbor- hood, a coal vein is found and worked sufficiently to supply the local demand for coal. The seam ranges from twelve to eighteen inches in thickness, and is mined by stripping along its outcrop in the banks of the small streams. The following sections and notes have been reported by Prof. Cox : At Leed's quarry, on Indian creek, one mile west of St. Francisville road, is found the following section : Ft, In. Gray shale 6 Carbonaceous shale C Shale 8 Sandstone, in even beds 3 This sandstone is suitable for good building stones, and was utilized in the brdge abutments on Embarras river. On the north bank of the above river, at Shaker mill, the following section was found : Ft. Soil and Drift 5 Thin bedded Sandstone, 2 to 8 inches 8 Massive Sandstone 13 Section on Indian creek, three miles south of Law. renceville : Ft. In. Soil and Drift 10 .Argillaceous shale, with iron bands 25 Impure coal 8 Fire-clay and grey shale 5 Bluish sandstone in bed of creek ? The approximate section of rocks out-cropping in the county is as follows : Brawn and gray sandstone, the lower part in massive beds 60 10 75 Coal, No. 12 1 to 1^ Shales, with bands of argillaceous iron ore 30 to 35 Coal, No. 11 Oto 1 Sandstone, t*p thin-bedded and shaly, bottom massive . . 30 lo 3.1 ECONOMICAL GEOLOGY. Building Stone. In the foregoing section both the sandstones afford building stone of fair quality for cer- tain purposes, and large quarries have been opened in the upper seam, in the vicinity of Summer, for the use of the Ohio and Mississippi railroad. Small quarries are operated in various localities in the northern and central part of the county. Leed's quarry on Indian creek is probably in the lower bed, and the rock obtained there is in thin even beds, ranging from four inches to a foot in thickness. The limestone at Lawrenceville, and at the bridge two miles east on the Embarras, is somewhat argillaceous, and, therefore, is not to be depended upon where it is subjected to the section of frost and moisture. This is the only limestone developed in the county,', and is not adaped f >r either the lime-kiln or building purposes. Coal. On account of the thinness of the seams of coal reached in the county, it can ouly be mined by stripping. It is a very good quality, but worked only in a small way. HISTORY OF EDWARDS, LAWRENCE AND W ABASH COUNTIES, ILLINOIS. Just north of the county line in the edge of Crawford county, at Nettle's coal mine, the vein is about 18 inches thick, aud is overlaid by about a foot or more of hard bituminous shale resembling canuel coal. The man- ner of mining it is by tunnelling into the bank along the line of outcrop, but no penuanaut entry was constructed, and when work stopped the roof caved in and filled the opening so that a new entry was required as often as the work was resumed. If the well sunk at Lawrenceville has been conducted by experts, and an exact record kept of strata passed through, the question would have been determined whether any thick vein of coal exists within four hun- dred feet of the surface, in the county. Nothing, how- ever, has been positively determined, further than the fact that two coal seams of uncertain thickness were found, one at a depth of about 340 and the other at 440 feet below the surface. It is evident that deep mining is the only means of obtaining this fuel to any great ex- tent within the limits of this county; and if the coal de- mand would justify reasonable expenditure in sinking deep shafts, fair returns might reasonably be expected. Iron Ore. The shales intervening between coals 11 and 12 contain numerous bands of argillaceous iron ore, but are of little practical value. At the base of the upper sandstone a ferruginous bed is frequently met with i sometimes appearing as a conglomerate of iron nodules in sandstone. In a well on section 25, T. 5 N., R. 12 W., this conglomerate was reported to be two feet thick, aud consisted partly of a very good quality of brown hematite ore, but other portions were too much mixed to be of value for the production of iron. CHAPTER V. FLORA. |lN speaking of the flora of these counties, it is not the purpose of this work to treat ex- haustively on the plants of the respective counties, but rather to give a list of the native trees and grasses found within their limits. " Mere catalogues of plants growing in any locality," says a popular writer, " might without a little reflection, be supposed to possess but little value ;" a supposition, however, which would be far from the truth. The care- ful and intelligent husbandman looks at once to the native vegetation as a sure indication of the value of uncultivated lands. The kinds of timber growing in a given locality will decide the qualities of soil for agri- cultural purposes. So too, the artisan in wood, will find what materials are at hand the best suited for his pur- poses. By the botanist, the state of Illinois is usually considered under three divisions ; the heavily timbered regions of the south, the flora which is remarkable for its variety ; the central portion, consisting mainly of prairie, and the northern section composed of both prairie and timber. Below we append a list of the native forest trees and shrubs of these counties. For this data we are indebted to the State report, the list of which was kindly furnished by Dr. J. Schenck of Alt. Carmel, Wabash county : Acer rubrum, L., red or swamp maple. Acer dasyc.irpum, Ehrhardt, white or sugar maple. Acer saccharinum, common sugur maple. Acer saccharinum, var nigrum, black sugar maple. Aesculus glabra, smooth or Ohio buckeye. Alnus serrulata, smooth alder. Amorpha fruticosa, false indigo. Asimina triloba, common paw paw. Betulalenta, cherry or sweet birch. Betula nigra, river or red birch. Oarpinus Americana, ironwood; hornbeam. Carya oliva'formis, pecan nut. Catalpa speciosa, Warder; Indian bean. Carya alba, shellbark or shagbark hickory. Carya microcarpa, small-fruited hickory. Carya Sulcata, Nutt; Western shellbark, hickory. Carya tomentosa, mockeruut; wliite-hearted hickory. Carya procina, pignut or broom hickory. Carya amara, bitternut or swamp hickory. Celtis occidental!*, hickory ; sugarberry. Cehis MisMssippiensis, Mis.-issippi hackberry. CvpbHlanthus occidental!*, button bush. Cercis Canadensis, red-bud ; Judas-tree. Cornus Florida, flowering dogwood. Cornus sericea, silky Cornell ; kmnikinnik. Cornus paniculatn, panicled Cornell. Corylus Americana, wild hazelnut. Corylus rostrata, beaked hazelnut. Crategus tomentosa, black or pear thorn. Crategus tomentosa var., Mollis. Cratcegus punctata, Jacq. Cra'cegus cordata Washington thorn. Crateegus Crus-galli, cockspur thorn. Diospyros Virginiana, common persimmon. Euonymus atropurpureus, burning-bush; wahoo. Euonymus Americanus, strawberry-bush. Fagus ferruginea, American beech. Fraxinus Americana, white ash. Fraxinus pubescens, red ash. Fraxinus viridis, green ash. Fraxintis quadrangulata, blue ash. Gleditschia triacanthos, honey-locust. Gleditschia monosperma, Walt; one-seeded or water locust. Gymnorladus Canadensis, coffee tree. Hydrangea arborescens, wild hydrangea. Hydtangea proliBcum, shrubdy St. John's wort. Ilex decidua, Walt. Juglans cineren, butternut. Juglans nigra, black walnut. Juniperus eommunis, common juniper. Lindera Benjoin, spice-bush; Benjnmin-bnsh. Liquidambar Styraciflua, sweet gum tree. Liriodendron Tulipifera, tulip-tree; poplar. Mortis ruba, red mulberry. Negundo aceroides, box-elder. Syssa multinors, Mack gum ; tupelo. Ostrya Virginica. hop-hornbeam, leverwood. Plalanus occidental!*, sycamore; plne-tree. Populus heterophylla, cottonwood; downy poplar. Populus moniiifera, necklace poplar ; cottonwood. I'oj.uliis tremtiloides, American aspen. jno&yerticillata, black elder; winterberry. Prunes Americana, wild yellow or red plum. Prunus insita. Bullace plum. Prunus serotinn, wild black cherry. Pyrus coronaiia, sweet-scented crab apple. Pyrus ingu tifolia. narrow-leaved crab apple. Ptclea trifoliata, wafer ash ; shrubby trefoil. Quorcus alta, white oak. Qucrcus ^tcllatii, Wans; post oak. Qtiercusanacrocarpa, burr or overcup oak. Quorcus macrocarpa, var. oliviformis; olive-fruitod overcup oak. Quorous lyrata, Wait. ; lyre-leuvod uuk. m HISTORY OF EDWARDS, LAWRENCE AND W ABASH COUN1IES, ILLINOIS. Quercus hicolor, var. Michmixii, Engelm ; Inrge-fruited swamp oak. Quercus muhlenberidi, Engelm ; chestnut oak. Qiiercua tincto. ia, blue'* or tanner's oak. Quercus coccinea, ocarlet oak. Quercus rubera, red oak. Queicus falcata, Michaux ; Spanish oak. QuercuH palu>tris, pin or water oak. Quercus nigra, black-jack or barren oak. Quercus phellos, willow oak. Quercus imbricaria, laurel or shingle oak. Rhus tophina, staghoru sumach. Rhus glabra. smooth sumach. Rhus copallin, dwarf sumach. . Salix tristis, dwarf gray willow. Salix discolor, glaucous willow. Salix criocephala, wooly-headed willow. Salix petiolaris, long-stalked green osier. Salix nigra, black willow. Salix rigida, stiff-leaved willow. Sambucus Canadensis, common elder. Sassafras otflcinale, sassafras. Spiraea opulifolia, L., nine barks. Spiraea salicifola, L., meadow sweet. Slaphylea trifolia, bladder nut. Symphoricarpus occidentalis, wolf or buckberry. Symphoricarpus vulgaris, Indian currant. Taxodium disticlium, American bald cypress. Tilia, American bas\vood . linden. Tilia heterophylia, white basswood. tlimus fulva, slippery elm. Ulmus Americana, American or white elm. Ulmus alata, winged elm. Viburnum prnnifolium, black haw. Viburnum iiudum, white rod. Zanthoxylum American, prickly ash. The plants are many and rare, some for beauty, while others are most valuable for their medi'-inal pro- perties. The pinkroot, the columbo, ginseng, boneset, pennyroyal, and others are utillized as herbs for me- dicine. Among the plants of beauty are phlox, the lily, the asclepias, the mints, golden rod, the eyebright, gerardia, and hundreds of other varieties which adorn the meadows, the timber, and the brook-sides; besides the above there are many varieties of the climbing and twining vines, such as the bitter-sweet, trumpet-creeper, woodbine, the clematis, the grape and others, which fill the woods with gay festoons, and add grace and beauty to many a decayed monarch of the forrest. GRASSES. In speaking of these we purposely exclude the grain plants, and confine ourselves to those valuable grasses which are adapted to the sustenance of the lower animals. Timothy grass or cat's tail, naturalized. Agrostus .ulgaris, red top or herb grass. - Muhlenbergia diflusa, nuniUe will. Calamgiastis Canadeusi-, blue joint. Dactylis glomerata, orchard grass. Poa Pratensis, Kentucky blue grass. Poa Compressa, true blue grass. Festuca Elator, meadow fescue. Bromus Leculinus, cheat chess; foreign. Phragmites Communis, the reed. Arundinaria Macrospei ma, or cane. Solium Perenni, perennial ray grass. Anthoxanthum Odoratum, sweet-scented vernal grass. Phalaris Arundinacea, reed canary grass. Paspalum Setaceum. Panicum Sanguinale, crab grass. Panicum Glabrum, smooth panicum. Panicum Capillare, witch grass. Panicum crusgalli, barnyard grsss. S. t:iria Glan.-a, foxtail. Setiiria Viridis, bottle grass. 8el3t.iaIta.Hca, millet. AuJrunogim *:oparius, brown-beard grass. In the above lists we have given the botanical as well as the common terms, believing such a course best to pursue in the study of plants, and more beneficitl to the student or general reader. Some plants may have been omitted, yet we think the lists quite complete. CHAPTER VI. F the ruminating animals that were indigenous to this territory, we had the American Elk (Cervus Canadensis), and still have the deer of two kinds ; the more common, the well-known American deer (Cervus Virginianus), and the white-tailed deer (Cervus Leucurus). And at a pe- riod not very remote the American Buffalo (Bos Ameri- canus), must I'ave found pastures in this portion of the state. The heads, horns and bones of the slain animals were still numerous in 1820. The Black Bear (Ursus American us) were quite numerous even in the memory of the older settlers. Bears have been seen in the counties within the last thirty years. The Gray Wolf (Cauis Occidentalis) and Prairie Wolf (Canis latrans) are not unfrequently found, as is also the Gray Fox (Vulper Virginianus), which still exists by its superior cunning. The Panther (Felis concolor) was occasionally met with in the earlier times, and still later and more common, the Wild Cat (Dynx rufus). The Weasel, one or more species ; the Mink (Putorius Vison) ; American Otter (Latra Canadensis) ; the Skunk (Mephitis Mephitica) ; the Badger (Taxidea Americana) ; the Raccoon (Pro- cyon Lotor) ; the Opossum (Didelphys Virginiana). The two latter species of animals are met with in every por- tion of the United States and the greater part of North America. The coon-skin, among the early settlers, was regarded as a legal tender. Of the Squirrel family we have the Fox, Gray, Flying, Ground and Prairie Squir- rel (Scirus Ludovicanus, Carolinensis, Volucella, Stria- tus and Spermaphilus). The Woodchuck (Arctomys Monax) ; the common Musk Rat (Fiber Zibethicus). The Bats, Shrews and Moles are common. Of the muridse we have the introduced species of Rats and Mice, as also the native Meadow Mouse, and the Long-tailed Jumping Mouse (Meriones Labradorus), frequently met with in the clearings. Of the Hare, the Lupus Sylvaticus (the so-called Rabbit) is very plentiful. Several species of the native animals have perished, being unable to endure ' the presence of civilization, or finding the food congenial to their tastes appropriated by stronger races. Many of the pleasures, dangers and excitements of the chase are only known and enjoyed by most of us of the present day through the talk and tradition of the past. The Buffalo and the Elk have passed the borders of the Mississippi to the westward, never more to return. HISTORY OF EDWARDS, LAWRENCE AND WABASH COUNTIES, ILLINOIS. 57 Of Birds may be mentioned the following :* Among the Game Birds most sought after are the Meleagris Gallopavo (Wild Turkey), and Cupidonia Cupido (Prairie Hen), which afford excellent sport for the hunter and arc quite plentiful ; Pinnated Grouse (Bonasa Umbellus) ; Ruffled Grouse (Ortyx Virgini- anus) ; Quail (Philohela Minor) ; Woodcock (Galliuago Wilsonii) ; English Snipe (Macrorhamphus Griseus) ; Red-breasted Snipe (Gambetta 'Melanoleuca) ; Telltale Snipe (Gambetta Flavipes) ; Yellow Legs (Limosa Fe- doa) ; Marbled Godwit (Scolofax Fedoa, Wilson) ; Nu- menius L")ngirastris (Long-billed Curlew) ; Numenius Hudsonicus (Short-billed Curlew) ; Rallus Virginiauus (Virginia Rail) ; Cygnus Americauus (American Swan) ; Cygnus Buccinator (Trumpeter Swan) ; Anser Hvper- boreus (Snow Goose) ; Bermicala Canadensis (Canada Goose) ; Bermicala Brenta (Brant) ; Anas Boschas (Mallard) ; Anas Obscura (Black Duck) ; Dafila Acuta (Pintail Duck) ; Nettion Carolinensis (Green-winged Teel) ; Querquedela discors (Blue-winged Teel) ; Spatula Clypeata (Shoveler) ; Mareca Americana (American Widgeon) ; Aix Sponsa (Summer, or Wood Duck) ; Aythaya Americana (Red-head Duck) ; Aythaya Val- lisneria (Canvass-back Duck) ; Bucephala Albeola (But- ter Ball) ; Lophodytes Cucculatus (Hooded Merganser) ; (Pelecanus erythrorhynchiis), Rough-billed Pelican ; Colymbus torquatus), The Loon ; (Aegialatis vociferus) ; Killdeer Plover ; Ball Head, Yellow Legged and Up- land Plover; (Tantalus loculator), Wild Ibis, very rarely visit this locality ; Herodus egretta), White Heron ; (Ardea Herodus), Great Blue Heron ; (Botaurus lenti- ginosus), Bittern ; (Grus Canadensis), Sand Hill Crane ; (Ectopistes migratoria), Wild Pigeon ; (Zenaidura Caro- linensis), Common Dove; (Corvua carnivorus), American Raven ; (Corvus Araericanus), Common Crow; (Cyanu- rus cristatus), Blue Jay; (Dolichonyx oryzivorus), Bobo'link; (Agelaius Phoenicians), Red-winged Black Bird ; (Sturella magna). Meadow Lark ; (Icterus Balti- more), Golden Oriole ; (Chrysometris tristis), Yellow Bird ; (Junco hyemalis), Snow Bird ; (Spizella Socialis), Chipping Sparrow ; (Spizella pusilla), Field Sparrow ; (Melospiza palustris), Swamp Sparrow; (Cyanospiza cyanea), Indigo Bird ; (Cardiualis Virginianus), Car- dinal Red Bird ; (Pipilo erythrophthalmus), Cheewink ; (Sitta Carolinensis), White-bellied Nuthatch ; (Mimus polyglottus), Mocking Bird ; (Minus Carolinmsis), Cat Bird ; (Harphorhynchus rufus), Brown Thrush ; (Trog- lodytes ifdon), House Wren; (Hirundo horreorum), Barn Swallow; (Cotyle riparia), Bank Swallow; (Progne purpurea), Blue Martin ; (Ampellis cedrorum), Cedar Bird ; (Pyrangra rubra), Scarlet Tanager ; (Pyrangra a.^tiva), Summer Red Bird ; (Tardus migratorius), Robin, came less than forty years ago ; (Sialia Sialis), Blue Bird ; (Tyrannus Carolinensis), King Bird ; (Sayornis fuscus), Pewee; (Ceryle alcyon), Belted Kingfisher; (AntroetomuB vociferus), Whippoorwill ; (Chordtiles popetue), Night Hawk; (Chtetura pelasgia), Chimney Swallow; (Trochilus colubris), Ruby-throated Humming Bird ; (Picus villosus), Hairy Woodpecker ; (Picus pu- bescens\ Downy Woodpecker; (Melanerpes erythroce- phalus), Red-headed Woodpecker ; (Colaptes auratus), Golden-winged Woodpecker; (Conurus Carolinensis), Carolina Parrot ; ( Bubo Virginianus), Great Horned wl ; Syrnium(nebulosum),barredowl; (Nycteanivea),Snowy Owl ; (Cathartes aura), Turkey Buzzard; (Falco colum- barium), Pigeon Hawk ; Nauclerus furcatus), Swallow- tailed Hawk; (IcteriaMississippiensis), Mississippi Kite; (Buteo boroalis), Red-tailed Hawk; (Haliatus leucoce- phalus), Bald Eagle; (Falco fulvius), Ring-tailed Eagle. We give the following classification of birds into three divisions, as found in the " Transactions of the Illinois State Horticultural Society " of 1876 : 1st. Those of the greatest value to the fruit-growers in destroying noxious insects, and which should be encour- aged and fostered in every way. Blue Birds, Tit-mice or Chicadees, Warblers, (small summer birds with pleasant notes, seen in trees and gardens), Swallows, Vuros, (small birds called green necks). All birds known as Woodpeckers except sap, Suckers (Picus varius). This bird is entirely injurious, as it is not insectivorous, but feeds on the inner bark cumbium (and the elaborated sap) of many species of tree?, and may be known from other Woodpeckers, by its belly being yellowish, a large black patch on its breast, and the top of its head a dark bright red. The male have also a patch of the same on their throats and with the minor margins of the two central tail feathers white. This bird should not be mistaken for the two other most valuable birds which it nearly resembles, to wit : The Hairy Woodpecker (Picus Villiosii et vars) ; and the Downy Woodpecker, (Picus pubescens et vars). These two species have the outer tail feathers white or barred with black and have only a small patch of red on the back of the head of the males. The Yellow Hammer or Flecker (Colaptus auratus), is somewhat covered with yellow, and should not be mistaken for the sap-sucker. It is a much larger bird. The Red-headed Woodpecker (Melanerpes erythrocephalus), sometimes pecks into apples and devours cherries, and should be placed in the next division (2d). The Wren, Ground Robin (known as Cherwick), Meadow Lark, all the fly- catchers, the King Bird or bee-catcher, Whippoorwill, Night Hawk or Goat Sucker, Nut-hatcher, Pewee or Pewit. All the Blackbirds, Bobolinks, Finches (Frin- gillidie), Quails, Song Sparrows, Scarlet Tanager, Black, White and Brown Creepers, Maryland Warblers, Indigo Birds, Chirping Sparrow, Black-throated .Bunting, Thrushes, except those named in the next class, and all domestic fowls except geese. 2d. Birds of Doubtful Utility. Which include those which have beneficial qualities but which have also noxious and destructive qualities in the way of destroying fruits, and whose habits are not fully determined. Thus the Robin, Brown Thrush and HISTORY OF EDWARDS, LAWRENCE AND WABASH COUNTIES, ILLINOIS. Cat Bird are very valuable as cut- worm eaters, but also very obnoxious to the small fruit growers. The Jay (Blue Jay) not only destructive to grain and fruits, but very noxious in the way of destroying the nest eggs and young of smaller and better birds, Robin, Brown Thrush and Cat Bird, Shrike or Butcher Bird, Red-headed Woodpecker, Jay Bird or Blue Jay, Crow and the small Owls (Screech Owls), Pigeons and Mocking Bird. 3d. Birds that should be Exterminated. Sap-sucker, or Yellow bellied Woodpecker (see above) ; Baltimore Oriole, or Hanging Bird, Cedar Bird, or Wax-wings (Ampelis cedrorum), Hawks and the larger Owls. The names, and a carefully prepared list of the animals of a country, state, or county, are always of interest to the inhabitants, and especially so to the scientist and student of natural history. After inquiring into the political and civil history of a country, we then turn with pleasure to the investigation of its Natural History, and of the animals which inhabited it prior to the advent of man ; their habits and the means of their subsistence become a study ; some were animals of prey, others were harmless, and subsisted upon the vegetable products of the country. The early animals of this part of the state ranged over a wide expanse of country, the habits of which will be fully found and set forth in all of our zoological treatises. CHAPTER VII. J PIONEERS AND EARLY SETTLERS. INCIDENTS AND ANECDOTES OF EDWARDS, LAAVRENCE AND WABASH COUNTIES. |0 rescue from oblivion the incidents of the past, and to preserve the names of the hardy few, who in fact were the real instruments of paving the way toward making the wild forests habitable, is one of the main objects of the historian. In a little time the gray hairs of the pioneers, who still live as tottering monuments of the good old times, will be gathered to their fathers ; their children engrossed by the busy trans- actions of life, will neglect to treasure up the doings and recollections of the past, and posterity will search in vain for land-marks and memorials thereof. How necessary then that no time be lost in gathering together the frag- ments of our infant history, which still exist, and thus rescue it from entire forgetfuluess. A little less than three-quarters of a century ago this beautiful country was in a state of nature, and the only inhabitants were the uncivilized Indians and the wild game of the forest. The white man came, and lo! the transition ! Beautiful fields of grain wave in the gentle breeze, and neat villages and farm houses dot the land- scape. In that early day the means and facilities for tilling the soil would be considered a burlesque on farm- ing to-day. When they turned the sod with the old | wooden mould-board plow and gathered the harvest with the reap-hook, the threshing was as slow and laborious as the reaping, the process being by tramping out the I grain by the use of cattle, or beating it from the straw j with a flail. Presto change ; nearly seventy-five -years have glided by, and we cast 'our eye upon the landscape and what a transformation ! The old mould-board has given way to the elegant sulky plow ; the reap-hook is transformed into the wonderful mechanism known as the self-binder, and the tramping of the cattle, and the thud, thud of the flail have yielded to the steam engine and the hum of the gigantic thresher. It is thus that the results of the labors and hardships of the pioneers, combined with the efforts and genius of their children, are written not ouly in history, but more unmistakably engraved upon every highway in the land. Let the | reader stop for a moment and reflect, if he would do justice to those who have led the way and so nobly done their part. Do not chide or jeer them for their odd, old-fashioned ways, but keep in mind, that it is to them that we, " Young America," are indebted for the surrounding comforts which our land yields to-day. But a few years more, when we have grown gray and i feeble, shall we be pointed out by the busy, bustling throng of a more advanced age, as the old fogies, and as among those who have passed their days of useful- ness. EDWARDS COUNTY. FIRST SETTLEMENT AND E*ARLY SETTLERS. Tradition relates that the first white men to penetrate the wilds of Edwards county, were three brothers by the name of Daston, as early as 1800. They were great hunters, and spent most of their time in hunting and trapping. They made little or no improvements, and all that is known of them by the pioneers who made per- manent settlements, is that their cabins were left stand- ing in sections 10 and 15, in township 15, 1 north, range 14 east, when the first permanent settlers came to the county. Prom whence they came or where they went, tradition is silent. The first families to make a permanent settlement in the county were those of Jonathan Shelby, Thomas Carney, John Bell, Lot Sams, and Isaac Greathouse ; these all made their advent here in 1815. Shelby and Carney came together with their families and located near each other in township 1 north, range 10, now Shelby precinct. They were from Tennessee, and made the long journey to Grayville with their families over- land, in wagons, the only method then for traveling. They halted at Grayville, where they remained one year, when they remov. d to the northern part of the county, as above stated. Mr. Shelby located in the northwest quarter of section 34, where he erected a cabin and commenced the life of the pioneer in the wilds of Edwards county. He was an active and energetic man, HISTORY OF EDWARDS, LAWRENCE AND WABASH COUNTIES, ILLINOIS. and in a few years had under cultivation several acres the Southern States, and located in the edge of Big of land, and was surrounded with the comforts of a ! creek timber, where he erected a small cabin and cleared good home. In 1831, he moved to section 18, on the a patch of land on which he raised a meager crop of Little Wabash, and four years later constructed a water corn sufficient for the wants of his family. His cabin grist mill on this stream, it being the first water-mill in Shelby precinct. He was one of the first justices of the peace in the county, which office he Ixeld for many years. was erected just in the margin of the timber overlooking quite a prairie belt, which subsequently received the name of Birk's Prairie. His family consisted of his He died about 1838. ! wife, four sons and three daughters, and their mode of Mr. Carney also located in section 34, and subse- I living was of the most primitive character. Their quently b?came one of the leading farmers of the times cabin contained but one room, which served the purpose of kitchen, eating and sleeping room. The family remained here but,s6out three years, or until about the time of the Errgfish colony settlement, as Mr. Birk was of the pu*e type of the backwoodsman and could not tolerate civilization. To use his own language as re- lated by one of the pioneers, "He did not wish to live where neighbors were so plenty ; that to see three neigh- bors within a day's ride was sufficient for him." Walter Anderson, who came about the same time, located in section 30, township 2 souih, range ten east. He had the confidence of the people, and in 1832, he was elected to the county commissioners' court, which position he held until 1838. Mr. Carney was always a public-spirited man, and to him belongs the honor of constructing the first mil! in his neighborhood. This was in 1832. The mill was propelled by horse-power, but it answered the wants of his neighbors. About 1844 he moved with his family to the State of M ; ssouri, where he died a few years ago. John Bell was of German descent, but was born in South Carolina. In an early day he moved to Ken- j He had the honor of planting the first orchard in the tucky, and from thence to Tennessee. From this State county, on his little clearing, in 1817. He remained he enlisted in the war of 1812, where he served about but a few years, when' he moved to some other portion one year; and in 1815 he moved with his family to ', of the State. John Hunt located in the same settlement Illinois and settled in section 27, township 1 north, i and remained here until his death ; but one of his de- range 10 east, where he resided until his death. He i scendants is now living in the count)', a grandson, was a plain, unassuming man, and a good neighbor. James T., who resides about a mile from his grand- One son, H. C. Bell, resides in section 10. j father's old home. Others who lived in this settlement Lot Sams was a native of North Carolina, but had i were, Hugh Collins, Rollin and Joseph Lane, and Wil- been a resident of Kentucky aid Tennessee. He came Ham Ham. They were all natives of some of the with his family to Illinois in 1815, and located in sec- I Southern States, and remained only a few years after tion 35, township 1 north, range 10 east. His mode of coming. travel to this State was by pack horses ; upon these he made the whole distance with his little family. In 1821 In the fall of 1816, quite a sensation was created among the few settlers of this part oi^he country, caused precinct, has the honor of bearing his name. Isaac Greathouse came from Kentucky in 1815, and with his family, located in this part of Illinois, where he he located in section 25, where he died in the fall of j by the killing and mutilating of the body of one Joseph 1863. At his death he had accumulated considerable i Boltinghouse. He was a single man, the family then property, and the little hamlet of Samsville, in Shelby | residing in White county. In the fall, Joseph drove to the Big creek timber, quite a quantity of hogs to feed and fatten from- the mast, then so plenty in this part of the county. He built him a camp, a little south of the followed the pursuit of farming for a short time ; but | creek, on what is now the Churchill land. While here the Indian depredations drove him into one of the forts. : a band of Shawnee Indians prowling through the Being tired of the Indian warfare on the frontier he country espied his camp, and finding that he was alone, returned to his native State, where he remained several took him by surprise, and murdered him upon the spot. years. Again, in 1821, he moved to Illinois and settled When found his body was lying close to his camp in a permanently in the S. W.i of the N. W.} of section 13, j mutilated condition, and his head, which had been Salem precinct. He was a plain farmer, never aspiring j severed from the trunk, was suspended upon a pole near to office of public trust. He died at the old homestead, j by. Tradition relates that the murderers suffered dearly Enoch, the eldest of the pioneer children, is a wealthy for the crime. They were captured near the Wabash farmer residing in section 18, township 1 north, range ; river, stones were lashed to their bodies and they were 1 1 east. Francis, another son, lives in section 13. The | sunk in the river. The following spring, James and father of Isaac was one, if not the first English settler Daniel, brothers of the above, moved to the county from in this part of the State, west of the Wabash river, a , Gallatin, now White county, and located in section 26, sketch of whom will be found in the chapter of Mt. township 2 south, range 10 east, a little south of Big Carmel precinct, and pioneer history of Waba>h county, creek, in the edge of the timber, overlooking the prairie In 18 1C a settlement was formed in the southwest part that subsequently took their name. Daniel was a man of the county on or near Big Creek, the first of whom of family, and his brother James resided with him. was " Captain" J eremiah Birk, who came from one of They cleared and improved a good farm, and became HISTORY OF EDWARDS, LAWRENCE AND WABASH COUNTIES, ILLINOIS. prominent citizens of the county. In about 1837, they all moved to the State of Arkansas. Thomas Riley, a native of Ireland, settled near the Boltinghouse's, the same year, 1817. Mr. Riley was then a single man, but subsequently married Sarah Morris, a daughter of one of the pioneers. He improved a good farm, where he resided until his death, which occurred about 1852. His father-in-law, Isaac Morris, came from the south and settled in section 5, township 3 south, range 10 east, in the same year.as the above. He had a large family, and wasagenuine backwoodsman. Hespent the most of his time in hunting, and was noted for his exaggerated tales and hair-breadth escapes while in the woods. He remained in the county until his death, which occurred many years ago. His children are scattered to the many points of the West, none of his descendants being now residents of this part of the county. Another pioneer of 1817, was Clem Martin, who located in section 33, township 2 south, range 14 west. He came from the souther^ States, partaking of the spirit of emigration to the new Eldorado, then so popular with the poorer class of the south and southwest. Mr. Martin was what would be termed to-day, a man of eccentric for peculiar ways. He was outspoken and fearless in character, somewhat rough and uncouth in manners, and thus made enemies when he might have had friends. For some reason the family stood in rather bad odor in the new settlement ; this was undoubtedly due to the wild, unpleasant ways' of his children. He died in the county many years ago.. It is said that some of his descendants are living in White county. About this time, in 1817, a n.ew era dawned upon the settlements made in what is now Edwards county. Morris Birkbeck and George Flower, both well-to do Englishmen, made a tour of the west in search of the "beautiful prairies" they had heard and read about, in the new world, with the view of establishing a colony of their countrymen within the same, should the reports given meet their expectations. Mr. Flower crossed the Atlantic, landing on American shores in the spring of 1816. He spent one year in making inquiries and be- coming acquainted with the people, country and insti- tutions of our republic. One year later Mr. Birkbeck and family came to the United States, and in company with Mr. Flower, they made a tour of the west. The country pleased them, and it was agreed between Mr. Flower and Mr. Birkbeck that the former should return to England and induce immigration to their chosen spot, Edwards county, while the latter was to attend to pro- curing the necessary lands, and otherwise to prepare for the reception of their countrymen. Of the first emigrants their names, time, and manner of coming, we quote from the account as given by Mr. Flower in his history of the English settlements in Edwards county. He says, " Early in March, 1818, the ship Achilles sailed from Bristol with the first party of emigrants, destined for our settlements in Illinois. Mr. Charles Trimmer, of Yeatly, Surrey, a young farmer, and a neighbor and acquaint- ance of Mr. Birkbeck, with forty-four men and one married woman, sailed in this ship. The men were chiefly farm laborers and mechanics from Surrey. Many of them had for years worked for Mr. Birkbeck, others were from his neighborhood, and were personally ac- quainted or knew him by reputation. This party was j under the special care and leadership of Mr. Trimmer. About an equal number, composed of London mechanics and tradesmen from various parts of | England, formed, another party that sailed in the same ship. These were under the guidance and direction of ! Mr. James Lawrence, merchant tailor, of Hatton Gar- j den, London. Mr. Lawrence being a man of property, | a resident of the city, and well acquainted with the usages at the docks, custom-house, shipping, etc., became actually the head of the whole party." Another pro- minent p irty in this ship's company was Mr. Hugh Ranalds, from Hammersmith, near London. He was then a single man, but subsequently married Mary C Flower, a sister of George Flower. According to the account given by Mr. Flower, the emigrants landed at Philadelphia early in June, 1818. They made'their way to Edwards county overland, some in wagons, others on horseback over the mountains to Pittsburg, then descended the Ohio river in flat boats to Shawueetown, and from thence on foot, in wagons or on horseback, to Mr. Birkbeck's cabin, situated on Bolting- house prairie, the place being subsequently named Wan- borough, after Mr. Birkbeck's old home in England. He had received notice of their coming and had made the best preparation possible for their reception. A square of rough log houses had been erected, each cabin being supplied with two doors with a small sash window in each door. This hamlet was subsequently denominated " The Barracks," and was open to all new-comers. It was here that the first ship's company eighty-eight in number were accommodated, all men, excepting three women. Mr. Flower, in his reminiscences, says of this novel state of affairs in the new found land, " I mu>t leave to imagination the various feelings of its motley in- mates, some of whom were used to the refinements of civilized life; all to the comforts of a home however humble ; some without money, and all for a time, with- out occupation ; without vegetables ; corn bread and salt pork their only diet'; whisky their sole luxury and consolation, and some not able to get that. It was for a time a fermenting mass. Strange and conflicting emo- tions exhibited themselves in ludicrous succession. Some laughed and joked, some moped and sulked, while others cursed the fates that brought them there. All things worked out right in time. The activity and energy of the national character soon displayed itself, and all be- came fairly satisfied with the condition of things." Mr. Birkbeck had laid out the town of Wanborough in five-acre lots, and on these were built cabins, rented by some, and bought by others as the means of the im- migrants would permit. In a short time an ox mill was HISTORY OF EDWARDS, LAWRENCE AND WABASH COUNTIES, ILLINOIS. erected for grinding their corn, and the necessary black- smith shop was added to the village. This formed the nucleus of the neiv-founded colony. In April, 1819, another ship-load of emigrants swelled the numbers of the already prosperous little community. Of this accession Mr. Flower sayp, " My own immediate family and friends occupied the cabin, and my domestic servants and othor emigrants going out to join us, fille.l the steerage ; my live stock of cows, hogs and sheep from the choicest breeds of England, took all the spare room on deck." Among those who came in this ship were, Mr. and Mrs. Flower, parents of George Flower . the latter 's two bisters, his brother William, a mere lad' his two sons, Miss Fordham and the servants of Mr. FJower. These constituted the immediate family party of Mr. F. Prominent among others seeking the prom- ised land were Francis Rotch and brother, friends and acquaintances of Mr. Birkbeck ; an elderly gentleman of means, Mr. Filler ; Dr. C. Pugsley and family ; Adam Corrie ; John Wood, then a single man ; John Ingle and family ; David Bennett and Jamily ; Mr. White and family ; a carpenter and buildf r from London, and Cap- tain Stone and family. These, with some others, formed an emigrant party of upwards of sixty, who were bound fur the '' prairies " of Illinois. On arrival upon American shores, thty divided into parties preparatory for their long and tedious journey to the wilds of the west. Their manner of traveling was similar t f > those who had preceded them one year before. Mr. Fordham, under the instructions of Mr Birkbeck, had in the meantime been busy in preparing for the rer ception of the new emigrants. He had made frequent excursions into the prairies to assist in the preparatory arrangements, as well as making more distant journeys to Cincinnati and Louisville, for many articles needed by the settlers, which he loader! upon flat boats and sent down the Ohio river to be conveyed to the new settle- ment. The emigrants, for a time, were obliged to oc- cupy the log cabins of the hollow square of Wanborough, until other and better arrangements could be made. The increase of population far exceeded the privilege of comfortably receiving them, though all was done that could be for their comfort and convenience. It must be rembered that this part of the country was in a state of nature, and that buildings and improvements could not be made with the facilities they are to-day. Mr. Fordham had also built two cabins on the land of Mr. Flower, and it was at one of these cabins that Mr F. deposited his family after the long and tedious trip from the seaboard. We here give the language of Mr Flower relating to his arrival at his new-found home. He says, " I entered the praii ie with my carriage at the same spot from which we had, one year before, first seen it. The prairie grass completely enveloped my horses, and they lain rioiisly dragged the heavy-laden vehicle. The ciibin built for me hove in sight, which was to be our home in the new found land. It was well sheltered by wood from the north and east, with an arm of the praiiie lying south in a gently descending slope for a quarter of a mile, and was as pretty a situation as one could desire. The cabin, however, could boast of no comforts. It contained a clap-board roof, held down by weight-poles, a rough puncheon floor, and had neither door nor windows. Two door-ways were cut out, and \ the rough logs were scutched down inside. All the chips and ends of logs left by the backwoods' builders lay strewn upon the floor. We were now face to face with , the privations and difficulties of a first settlement in the wilderness." From Mr. Flower's statement it seems that one of their greatest privations was the lack of good water. A well had been sunk on his land, but it was a quarter of a mile away. He further says that, " The i floor of their cabin being cleared, a fire was kindled in a hole where a hearth was to be. One of us had a half ; mile trip for water. Then for the first time we knew the blessing of an iron tea kettle. Our first meal was spread upon the floor from such provisions as the ' car- I riage afforded, cheese, crackers, tea, etc. The tea we drank alternately from one or two tin cups. Some sit- ting, some kneeling, some stretched at length, resting on ! an elbow upon the floor ancient fashion, was the way I we*took our first meal. But then I was in my own house, on my own land, in a free and independent republic, and could cast my vote into a hollow tree for coon 'or 'possum to be president of the United States if I so de- sired." It will thus be seen what privations and discomforts the pioneers underwent, although some of I them at the time of their settlement were accustomed to 1 all the comforts of life that wealth could give. Mr. , Flower and Mr. Birkbeck both were representative men i in England, and each commanded quite a fortune when j they landed in this county. Whether their philan- thropic efforts have been fully appreciated, the present genera-ion of Albion and vicinity must answer. The for- mer lived to see the " prairies " and surrounding 1 country largely populated with prosperous farmers of his own countrymen. The little colony which he had been accessory in planting, had become among the most pros- perous and independent of the great prairie State. After seeing and enjoying the results of his patriotic efforts, he passed the portals of this life at the city of Grayville, January loth, 1862. For some reasons, his and Mr. Birkbeck's relations in social or business matters were not altogether agreeable, but that is a personal matter and belongs to no part of history. Mr. Birkbeck dur- ing his life time looked well and took good care of the interests of his countrymen, who had virtually placed themselves and families under his care and advisement. Wanborough, for a time, grew and prospered as a town. Albion springing up and getting the precedent as a county seat, in 1821, was a death blow upon the little town of Wanborough, the parent town within the pres- ent limits of Edwards county. Mr. Birkbeck became one of the leading men of the State, and it is said that through his efforts, and a few others, Illinois never has had the stain if slavery placed upon its escutcheon. 83 HISTORY OF EDWARDS, LAWRENCE AND WABASH COUNTIES, ILLINOIS. From his sound judgment and clear ideas with regard to governmental affairs, Governor Cole saw fit to choose him as his Secretary of State in 1824. This office he held but a short time, when he returned to his little colony. It was only about a year following that he met with a sudden and tragic death, the circumstances of which are so well and vividly portrayed in a journal of that day, that we copy the same for the readers of this history: " Oa June 4th, 1825, Mr. Birkbeck went to Harmony, Indiana, taking a packet of letters for us to Mr. Robert Owen, who being on the eve of departure to England, had kindly promised to deliver them. On Mr. Birkbeck's return occurred the melancholy circumstan- ces of his death. In attempting to cross Fox river, with his son Bradford, they found the " flat " on which they expected to be carried over, had been taken away. They, therefore, entered the stream with their horses with the intention of swimming the river. Bradford's horse plunged and threw him into the seething water. Being a good swimmer, he, although encumbered with an over- coat, besides being weak from a recent illness, had nearly reached the opposite shore, when he heard his father's voice calling for assistance; and turning himself around he saw him struggling in the middle of the stream, and returned to him. Upon reaching him his father caught hold of him, and they both sank together. Upon coming to the surface, Bradford desired his father to take hold of his coat in another place, which he did, and again they both sank. At this time only Bradford arose ; he finally reached the bank in safety, but he left his father beneath the waves. After some time his cries brought a person to his assistance who endeavored to re- cover the body of his father. It was all in vain, and it was not until the following day that the body was re- covered from the angry waters. When found his um- brella was grasped in his right hand, the position he held it when he went down. His body was taken to New Harmony, and there interred with every mark of respect that the living could give. So passed away the soul of one who had labored, faithfully, many years of his life, to benefit his fellow-man." A prominent pioneer of 1817, was Alan Emmerson, who was born in Kentucky. When a young man he emigrated to Indiana, where he married. Oa coming to this State he located in section 4, township 2 south, range 10 east. His family then consisted of his wife and four children. He built a snug little cabin on the quarter section of land he had entered, and here commenced the hard labors of the pioneer. In a short time he was elected justice of the peace, being among the first to hold that honorable position in what is now Ed- wards county. He served several terms upon the board of County Commissioners, and for several years was the p'esiding Judge of the county court. He was also elected County Treasurer and Assessor, and was otfe term in the State Legislature. In factfor many years prior to his death, he was almost constantly serving the peo- ple in some public capacity. He lived to a good old age, he and his wife both passing away in 1876, Centennial year. But one of the family is now living, Jesse, who resides in Albion, and is among the wealthy and influ- ential citizens of the town. Rev. John Depew came in the same year as Mr. Em- merson. He was an immigrant from the South, and on arriving in the county he located on land adjoining Mr. Emmerson. He was a zealous Methodist divine, and the first of that persuasion in this part of the country. It is remarked of him that he was a good neighbor, an ! honest and conscientious man, and practiced what he preached. Being at a neighbor's house one dav, and asked to take dinner with the family, he refused one of the delicacies of the early times wild honey, as he had learned in the mean time that the Sabbath had been desecrated in felling the bee-tree. He remained here but a few years, when he moved to Marion county. In 1818, three months after Wanborough was established, Albion was founded. Mr. Flower, in his reminiscences says, that the emigrants were con- tinually flowing in, and it became necessary to furnish them with suitable and comfortable quarters. They would first visit Mr. Birkbeck, who had but small accommodations, and would then call upon Mr. Flower, who at the time, was Lss prepared to receive them than Mr. Birkbeck. At this stage, says Mr. Flower, "we were experiencing the many inconveniences of a popu- lation in the wilderness, in advance of necessary food and shelter. Do as you will, if you are the very first in | the wilderness, there are many inconveniences, privations, | hardships, and sufferings that cannot be avoided. My own family, one day, were so closely run for provisions, that a dish of tender buds and shoots of the hazle-brush was our only resort." Mr. Lawrence and Mr. Trimmer, who led the first ship's company, made their settlement in Village Prairie, so called from the Piankashaw Indians, who had for- merly located there. Other emigrants kept coming in, some on foot, some on horseback, and some in wagons. Some sought employment and accepted of such labor as I they could find. Others struck out on their own respon- i sibility and made small beginnings for themselves, while ! others dropped back into the towns and settlement in Indiana. At this time Mr. Flower had been unable to ~ prepare for the reception of the emigrants, his whole i time having been occupied in making his own family j comfortable. One evening, after he had completed his surroundings for the comfort of his family, Messrs. ; Lawrence, Ronalds, and Fordham called at the cabin of ] Mr. Flower. The question of making suitable prepara- tion for the incoming tide of emigration was discussed.and measures were to be adopted for the laying out and build- ing a town, as a center for the useful arts, and conven- iences necessary for a prosperous agricultural district. The subject was considered in all its various bearings, and there in the darkness of Mr. F's. cabin (they were then not even supplied with a candle) the village of Albion was located, built and peopled, iu imagination. HISTORY OF EDWARDS, LAWRENCE AND WABASH COUNTIES, ILLINOIS. 83 But one day was suffered to elapse between the decision and execution of what had been purposed. The gentle- men, before mentioned, had remained over night with Mr. Flower, and it was decided in the morning that Messrs. Fordham and Flower should start north from the latter 's dwelling, while Lawrence and Ronalds were to go south from Village Prairie, at a given hour on the fol- lowing morning, and at their place of meeting should be the future town. Mr. Flower says : " We met the next day in the woods, according to appointment. The spot seemed suitable, the woods being rather open and the ground level." With one accord, it was decided that ths spot upon which they then stood should be the center of the town. They were then standing upon the ground now enclosed in the public square. It was thus that the town of Albion was born. The first building was a double log cabin, utilized for a "tavern," and was built by John Pitcher, who, with his family, consti- tuted a portion of the first emigrants in 1818. Among these emigrants were Abraham, Isaac and Jacob Pen- fold, all excellent mechanics. The second buildings in the town were a house and blacksmith shop for the fam- ily and use of Jacob Penfold, who was the first black- smith of Albion. These families have all passed away long ago ; one, a daughter of Abraham Penfold, is yet living in Albion, the wife of " Uncle Johnny Woods." She has lost her eyesight, but is active for one of her age. Another of the emigrants, of 1818, was Joel Church- hill, an intelligent and educated young man from Lon- don. He entered quite a large tract of land about five miles south of Albion, now Dixon precinct, built a log house, and commenced the life of a pioneer in the timber of Big creek. In 1824 he married Eliza Simpkins, from which union eleven children were born. Being of a business turn of mind, Mr. Churchill re- moved to Albion, and engaged in the commercial busi- ness. Here he erected a brick store-room, and built ' a stone dwelling. By good business tact he had, in a few years, increased his mercantile affairs to consid- erable proportions, besides establishing a large manufac- tory for pressing and shipping castor oil. He died at Albion in 1872, having led a busy and prosperous life. His widow and two sons are prominent citizens of Albion. One of his sons, Charles, has had the honor of represent- ing the district in the State Legislature. John Tribe came from England one year later than Mr. Churchill. He was then a single man, and first located at Wanborough. He subsequently married, and reared a large family. In later years he moved to Albion, where he carried on the business of wool-carding until his death, which occurred in the summer of 1880. Mr. Flower, in his memoirs, says of him : " He has not made that accumulation of property that many men have, that came with as little as he, but this is probably because he has not given himself up to the one idea of acquisition and accumulation. As he has labored moderately through lite, he has always reserved a little time for observation, reflection, and reading. His house is small, his living plain and simple. He reserves a small room for himself, where he receives any friends who may call. On his table are placed writing materials, | books, periodicals and newspapers. In his garden are a i few of the choicest flowers, that would grace the j grounds of Buckingham palace. Is not a New York millionaire poor, compared to Mr. Tribe?" That he was a man of more than ordinary intelligence and reading, is fully attested by the evidences given by the citizens of Albion of to-day. Many a time has the writer in interviewing the old citizens of the town for in- | formation for this volume, heard them exclaim: "How ! unfortunate that this book had not been written a little earlier, before the death of 'Uncle Johny Tribe;' he was a perfect walking encyclopedia, and could have told you all about it." Mrs. Tribe is yet living in Albion, and eight of the children are residents of the county ; one son, William B., is the present Circuit Clerk of Ed- wards county. John Woods, Sr., of Surrey, England, came in the fall of the same year as the above. He was a man of family, having a wife and five children. He settled at Wan- borough, where he remained for several years, when he moved to Albion, and thence to Shawneetown, where he died. One son, John Jr., is a merchant in Albion, and one of the oldest surviving settlers in the county. For nearly forty years he served as County Treasurer and Assessor, and is yet active for one of his years. As previously stated, Richard Flower and his wife, father and mother, of George Flower, came from Eng- land, with the latter in 1818. They stayed one year at Lexington, Kentucky, and the following spring moved to Albion. Mr. Flower was what would be called wealthy in those days, being worth between one and two hundred thousand dollars. He built a mansion much after the style and architecture of the farm-houses in England. Thirty acres of woodland were preserved in connection wilh the house, the under-brush was cleared away and the entire ground sowed with blue grass. This gave the grounds an appearance of a beautiful and commodious park. Hence, it received the name "Park House." Mr. Flower, in speaking of it, says : " Old Park House, near Albion, will long be remembered by old settlers and distant visitors for its social reunions and open- handed hospitalities. Here the family party of children and grandchildren met at dinner on Sundays. An Eng- lish plum pudding was a standing dish that had graced my father's dinner table from time immemorial. Here all friends and neighbors, that had any musical tastes or talent, met once a fortnight for practice and social enjoyment. Strangers and visitors to the settlement re- ceived a hearty welcome. It may be truly said that, for thirty years, ' Old Park House ' was never without its visitors from every country in Europe, and every i State in the Union." The following is a short sketch of some of the settlers in Albion and Wanborough, as given by Mr. Flower: HISTORY OF EDWARDS, LAWRENCE AND WABASH COUNTIES, ILLINOIS. Brian Walker and his friend William Nichols, from Yorkshire, came to Philadelphia in 1817, and to the settlement, at Albion, in 1818- Mr. Walker, when he landed at Philadelphia, had but one guinea in his pocket. How much there was left of that guinea when he arrived in Illinois, there is no record. He and his friend Nich- ols settled on land side by side, situated on the skirts of a prairie, one mile east of Albion. They worked hard, opened land, built their houses, married, reared large families and became possessed of abundance. They, with most of the other early settlers, have passed away. William Wood of Wormswold, Leicestershire, a small farmer, with his wife and one son, Joseph, left England for the prairies of Illinois in the spring of 1819. Ac- companying him were two young men, John Brissenden of Kent, and William Tewks, from Leicestershire; also Miss Mea, afterward Mrs. Brissenden, and Joseph Butler and family, from Kent. 'Ihe party kept together, and came the usual route from Philadelphia to Pitts- burg, and descended the Ohio in an ark. When near their journey's end Mrs. Wood was taken ill, and on reaching the mouth of the Wabash, died. On a point of land at the junction of the Ohio and Wabash, on the Illinois side, far from any settlement or habitation, her grave was made between two trees, on which her name and age were carved, and thus were her remains left alone in the wilds of a new country. Who can image a more melancholy situation for an old man, left virtually alone, just at the end of his toilsome and weary journey, to lose his life-long partner, just as the promised land they had so much doted on, was heaving in sight? Mr. Wood being a man of great vigor and good sense did not yield to discouragement as many might have done. After reaching his destination, Albion, he soon opened a good farm, planted an orchard, and lived for several years enjoying the fruits of his labors. His son Joseph, in after years, became one of the wealthiest and most thrif- ty farmers in the c lunty. John Brissenden, after working for a time, and having acquired a little money, settled on a tract of land by the side of his old friend Wood. His was the usual way to competency of the early settlers. He cleared his farm, married, reared a large family, and in time built a fine house, besides having an interest in a mercantile house in Maysville, Clay county. He died some years ago, leaving a good property to his heirs. William Tewk's career was simply a repetition of Mr. Brissenden's. For a time he was a carrier between Albion and Evansville, Indiana. He acted in the capacity of itinerant commission man between both places, making the purchases which his wagon brought home. He drove one of the wagons himself, and met with an accident, which proved fatal, about twenty years ago. John Skeavington from Nottinghamshire, England, came in the same year and located on the prairie near Mr. Bri.*senden, and cultivated a good farm. Like his neighbors, he commenced with but little if any means, but before, his death, had amassed a good competency. Several of his descendants are good and respectable citizens of Edwards county. William Harris, also from England, came with the migrants of 1819. For many years he followed team- ' ing with an ox team. Mr. Flower says of him : " William Harris' team was a sort of institution in the county for many years. I would charter Billy Harris' wagon for a loiig journey across the prairie. It, was strong, large, I well covered, and, when well fitted up with bedding and provender, was comfortable enough. Myself and family have taken many long and pleasant journeys in it. It was the best conveyance for our rough county at that I day no hill too steep, no bog too deep for Mr. Harris' ! strong ox-team. Not railroad-like, but more indepen- j dent, and in some respects, more comfortable." In later | years Mr. Harris located on a farm near Albion, where he resided in peace and plenty. Samuel Prichard, who sailed in the Columbia in the spring of 1819, had a family consisting of his wife, four sons and four daughters He belonged to the society of Friends, possessed a good property, was liberal minded, and well educated. He was an acquaintance of Mr. Birkbeck's in England, and on coming to the county he located near Wanborough, on the road leading to Albion. He contracted a fever soon after coming, and lived but a short time. His descendants are yet living here. William Clark and family came about the same time as Mr. Prichard. Mr. Clark also belonged to the society of Friends, and was a valuable acquisition to the colony. He settled on one of the little prairies lying between Al- bion and the Little Wabash, and it was owing tohis capital and enterprise that the first wind-mill was constructed in the county. Three other parties came at the time of Mr. Clark, David and George Kearsum, and a Mr. Sampson, none of whom are now living at least none are residents of the county. Another early settler was William Hall, from Surrey. He had a large family, and located on the prairies west of Wanborough, where he improved a good farm. Mr. Hall was a well educated man, a close observer and one of more than ordinary intelligence. He kept a record of all important passing events, and it is to his journal and notes that Mr. Flower acknowledges indebtedness for many points obtained in the furtherance of his history of the English settlements. We here insert a letter written by Mr. Hall to a friend in England relat- ing to the sad death of one of his boys while engaged in hunting wild turkeys. He says : " Preserve this letter, dear John, as a monument of the instability of all human felicity. The very dav I wrote it, on the fatal morning of the 24th of April, 1822, I heard the sound of my two sons passing through the porch, into which my bed-room opens. One of them I knew by his light step and cheer- ful voice, to be my beloved Ned, the other was unfortu- nate Robert. About half an hour after, I heard the report of a rifle in the woods. I lay about a quarter of HISTORY OF EDWARDS, LAWRENCE AND W ABASH COUNTIES, ILLINOIS. an hour longer, until it was light enough to dress. When I went out of the door it was just five o'clock. Upon going to the back of the house, where I heard most unearthly cries of distress, I saw po>r Robert rolling on the ground and writhing in the utmost agony. I im- mediately concluded he was dreadfully wounded, and it was some time before he could speak. He exclaimed, Oh, father, I have killed Ned, and I wish I was dead myself! I uttered an in voluntary exclamation, and sank down myself upon him. The noise brought out his mother, and the scene which followed cannot be described. Two of the neighbors, aroused by Robert's cries, assisted me in conveying him and his mother and laying them upon the bed. I went with them in search of the body, which was not found for some time. At length it was brought in, and buried in a spot which my poor boy had selected for his garden. It seems they had sighted a turkey, when Robert dispatched his brother one way, and lay down himself behind a log, to endeavor to call up the bird within gun shot, with his turkey-call. After a little while, he heard a rustling but a few yards away, and soon afterward saw what he concluded to be the turkey. He took aim, fired, and leaped up, shouting for Ned, and ran in triumph to p'ck up his game. Think of his feelings, when he found it to be the corpse of his brother weltering in his own blood." Mr. Hall died many years ago, and the family have moved to other scenes. One daughter, widow of Walter L. Mayo, it is said is now a resident of Leavenworth, Kansas. The first English settlers in Village Prairie, were John Brenchly and wife, and John Lewis and family. In speaking of them Mr. Flower says : " Mr. Brenchly had been a distiller in the old country ; not a man of country habits, or possessed of much capital. Mr. Lewis was a man of excellent educalion, but with small pecuniary^means. These were both difficult cases for a new settlement. In a few months they both left their quarter sections in the prairie. For a year or two, Mr. Brenchly lived chiefly by his labors as accountant, etc., and finally moved to Philadelphia. Mr. Lewis remained longer, and for a time, rented the first brick tavern in Albion, built by Richard Flower, Senior. The family subsequently moved to Cincinnati. " Speaking of the Lewis's," says Mr. Flower, " reminds me of an accident that nearly proved fatal to one of the family. I had dismounted from my horse, and hitched him by the bridle to the handle of the well-windlass, that was situated near the kitchen door at the Park House, and had run over to my cabins about seventy yards distant. Soon afterward a servant came running in haste, exclaiming that Mary Lewis had fallen into the well. The child, about twelve years of age, had been standing on the well-top ; the horse became sud- denly frightened and pulled the windlass and curbing from the well, and the child had dropped in. The well was about forty feet deep and contained ten feet of water." Assisted by two or three parties at hand, the little girl was rescued from her perilous situation, though pretty well exhausted through fright and drown- ing. This well has a further history connected with it. It was of large diameter, the sides and bottom being of smooth sandstone. At the sinking of it, the digger, William Truscott, had nearly completed his work, and was engaged in sweeping at the bottom of the well, just preparatory to coming to the surface. Suddenly a dread- ful hubbub was heard in its vicinity the mingled voices of a man and beast in agony of distress came forth and attracted every one within hearing to the spot. The cause was at once apparent. A large, fat hog had strayed to the mouth of the well, and had slipped his hind feet over, and was struggling with might and main to recover himself. While in this position, squealing for aid, the man below looked up in terror and loudly roared for help. Seeing that the hog was gradually losing his hold, he flattened himself against the stone sides and waited the dread results. Down went the animal to his instant death ; for a moment all was silent. Shouts from the top were given, asking if the digger was hurt ? A faint voice said, " Oh, yes, do haul me up." The man was brought to the surface, nearly dead with fright. The hog was subsequently removed from the well, but was split open on the back from head to tail, as if the process had been performed with a sharp knife. One of the great fears that the pioneers labored under at their coming, was that the place they had chosen would have to be abandoned on account of the inability to ob- tain good water. Wells were sunk to considerable depths, but no water could be obtained only as they filled by the surface flow. We are informed that to-day, water can be reached almost anywhere, at the depth of ten or fifteen feet. Science and theory has thus far failed to give any satisfactory or intelligent reason for this phenomenon. In 1820, Thomas Spring and his family, left Derby- shire, England, for the beautiful prairies of Illinois. The second son, Archibald, was left at a medical college, in Baltimore, to finish his studies. The family proceeded to Wheeling, Virginia, by laud, when Mr. Spring waa taken with a fever and died before reaching his destina- tion. His three sons, Henry, Sydney, and John came on with their mother, and located on Birk's Prairie. Sydney afterwards married here and reared a large | family He subsequently removed to Graysville, White j county. Henry, in after years, became a merchant in j Olney. Archibald, after completing his studies, came , to Edwards county, and for many years was a successful i physician in Albion, where he remained until his death. | Others who came about the same time were, James | Carter and family, Gilbert T._Pell JU Mr^Kenton, Mr. ! Coles and family, Mr. Peters, Thomas Simpkins and family, Mr. Gillard, Henry Bowman, then a single man, Oswald Warrington and family, James and Robert Thread, Mr. Orange and family, Henry Birkett, Mr. Stanhope, Francis Hanks and family, J. B. Johnson HISTORY OF EDWARDS, LAWRflNCE AND W ABASH COUNTIES, ILLINOIS. William Hallnm, Thomas Shepherd, Henry, John and he served as Representative, from 1826 to 1828. Again Henry Cowling, Edward Coad and family, Joseph, | in 1832, he is sent to the State Senate, served one term, Thomas and Kelsey Crackles, John May, William Cave, and in 1838, is re-elected to the same position, where he Thomas Swale, Moses, John and George Michels, Ellis remained until 1840. He died at the old homestead, in Weaver, and many others. A prominent settler of 1821, was William Pickering, from Yorkshire. He came a single man, but subse- quently married Martha Flower, and first made his set- tlement at Village Prairie. He was an active and energetic man, and in a few years rose to distinction in the spriug of 1854. Three of his sons, born of his second marriage, are now living at the old farm. Benjamin Ulm was a native of Ross county, Ohio, and came to the county in 1820, and is one of the few survivors of the early settlers. He now resides in sec- tion 32, township 2 north, range 14 west, and has ever the State. Governor Washburn says of him : " Gen. been considered one of the staunch citizens of the William Pickering was a well-known man among the old Whig politicians of Illinois, of his day. He was a representative man in the party, in the southeastern part of the State. I often met him in conventions, and kuew him well in the Legislature. He had a con- tinuous service in the State Legislature, as the member from Edwards county, from 1842 to 1852, a service of exceptional length. He was a man of great intelligence and public spirit. He had a fine presence, and was thoroughly English in look and manner. He was an intimate friend of Mr. Lincoln, who, on his accession to the Presidency, appointed him Governor of Wash- ington Territory." Mr. Pickering died at his home, near Albion, about eight years ago. One sou is living at the farm a little west of Albion. James O. Wattles was another distinguished early settler. It is said that he was a good lawyer, and when engaged in reading his briefs or other papers, he did so with the paper upside down. This was caused by a peculiarity of the eyesight. He was elected Judge of I dollars a good price in those days. I built him a the fifth Judicial District of Illinois, by the General i forge, which he rented at first and afterwards purchased. Assembly, and commissioned January 19, 1825, and I With the proceeds of the horse, he purchased iron and was legislated out of office, January 12, 1827. He I went to work. This was the beginning of Alexander moved to New Harmony, Indiana, about the time of the j Stewart, who, after several years of labor and industry, settlement of Robert Owen, at that place. j added to his blacksmith shop a store. Business and ccunty. One who figured very prominently, for many years in the civil matters of the county, was Walter L. Mayo. He was eltcted Clerk in 1831, and served continuously in this capacity until 1870. He was a genial, popular, whole souled man, and had the confidence of all who knew him. He amassed a good competency, and subse- quent to 1870, he moved with his family to Leaven- worth, Kansas. While returning to Olney, Illinois, to transact some business, he was way-laid, as supposed, in East St. Louis, and nothing has ever been heard of the cause of. his untimely and sudden death. Alexander Stewart, who has seen the town of Albion grow up almost from its infancy, is among the early prominent business men of the English settlement. Mr. Flower in speaking of him says : " Nearly forty years ago, (it is now nearly sixty) a young Scotchman in his teens, rode up to my house and wished me to pur- chase his horse, saddle and bridle, which I did for sixty Ex-Governor, Augustus C. French, also commenced his life in the west, at the town of Albion. He was a graduate from one .of the eastern colleges. On his ar- rival at Albion, he possessed but his education and wits to make a livelihood. He first taught school at two dollars a quarter for each pupil, and in the meantime commenced the study of law, in which profession he gained some reputation. Subsequently he was elected to the Legislature, and in 1846, was elected Governor of the State. Prior to this, however, he had removed to another part of the State. Henry I. Mills was a prominent settler of early times. He was a native of Ohio, but had for several years lived at Vineennes, Indiana, before coming to Illinois. He first located in section 28, on the prairie that bears his name. His family then consisted of his wife and two capital increasing, he soon went largely into the produce trade of the country, of which pork, corn a%d wheat, are the staples. He is also proprietor of a large flour- ing-mill at Graysville." It is but a short time .since the writer saw Mr. Stewart, who is yet living and enjoying the comforts and luxuries of a good home, the legitimate results of ardent, honest labor. He is now somewhat feeble, and has withdrawn from active life, yet is a living monument 01 what frugality and industry may accomplish, as his possessions may be counted by tens-of-thousauds. One peculiarity of the ups and downs of the English colony is, that those who came with an abundance, died, after years of struggle with the various freaks of fortune, with far less than they brought with them, while those of little or no means have made comfortable homes, and children. He soon became popular among the early attained a degree of wealth which is commendable to settlers and as early as 1820, was promoted to the office j their many years of industry, of Sheriff, which position he held until 1826. In 1838, he was appointed School Commissioner, being the second EARLY MARRIAGES. The following list includes the marriage licenses grant- officer for this position in the county. Twelve years i e d in the county ' after its organization to 1817, as prior to this, we find him in the State Legislature, M here j appears upon the license record : HISTORY OF EDWARDS, LAWRENCE AND WAEASH COUNTIES, ILLINOIS. (17 Name. Pate of license. By whom married. Date of mrrge. J,vne"pholp\'u, tl January llth, 1815, William Smith, J. P. Jan. llth, 1815 Jane Bathe. Feb. llth, 1815, James Shaw, Esq. Feb. 14th, 1815 Ramnel Putnam to Relief Chafee, March 15th, 1815 J. Mclntosh, J. C. C. Mar. 16th, 1815 Joseph Robertson to Sally Barney, May 17th, 1815, Rev. Jm'h Ballard, May 18th, 1815 Jam's Ford ice to Susnn (Jar.l, June 10th, 1815, " " June 29th, 1815 John Barger to Catharine Minor, July 4th, 1815, Rev. Jno. Mclntosh Philip Plouzh to Sallic Arnold, July 6th, 1815, it it if July 7th, 1815 Thomas Trueloek to Jemima Ramsey, July 8th, 1815, it ii it July 9th, 1815 Havward Putnam to Otroltna James, July llth, 1815, Jeremiah Ballard to Elizabeth Barney.July 31st, 1816, Seth Gard, J. C. C. Aug. 2nd, 181 Jarvis D:ilo to Francis Chafee, Dec. 2nd, 1815, " " " Dec. 3rd, 1815 Daniel Keen to Mary Compton, Dec. 13th, 1815, ii ii it Dec. 14th, 1815 .Toeph Ballard to Patty Putmau, Deo. 27th, 1815, .. .. Dec. 28th, 1815 James Mr-Daniel to Martha Wesncr, Advertisement, Rev. Dvd. MeGahey , Dec. 13th, 1815 George Miller to Elizabeth Shook, ., .. Dee. 25th, 1815 Nancy Beaton, without license James Shaw, J. P., Mar. 18th, 1816 John Walder to Nancy Dawson, July 4th, 1816, Robert Baird, J. P. July 4th, 1816 William Woodland to Mary Stepteford, July 18th, 1816, Gerv.Hazletoi.J. P , John Flinn to El eta Payne, Aug. 21st, 1816, G. W. Smith, J. P., Aug. 22nd, 1816 Gervaae Hazleton to Eliza Osgood, Aug. 22nd, 1816, G. W. Smith, J. P., Aug. 22nd, 1816 Samuel Brinbery to Mary Jones, June 16th, 1816, Rev. Dvd. MeGahey, June 18th, 1816 John Compton to Jane Barney, Sept. 4th, 1816, Rev. Jm'h Ballard, Sept. 4th, 1816 Alpheus Peckard to Catharine Gray, Sept. 22nd, 1816, Rev. Dvd. MeGahey, Sept. 22nd, 1816 Jeremiah McRinney to Catey Westner, Sept. 29th, 1816, it a ii Sept. 29th, I b 16 Benjamin Imterson to Susan Decker, Sept. 30th, 1816 G. W. Smith, J. P., Sept. 30th, 1816 Charles Dubois to Sally Gollaher, Oct. 3lst, 1816, ii it *i Oct. 31st, 1816 Ephraim Armstrong to Ruth Gard, Nov. 12th, 1816, ii it ii Nov. Hth, 1816 James Baird to Martha Stenare Dec. 18th, 1816, ii it ii James Davidson to Elizabeth Young, Dec. 30th, 1816, ii i. ii Dec. 30th, 1816 As early as 1815, it seems that parties who contem- plated matrimony could be required to give a bond to carry out in good faith, said intentions. The following is a copy of one of the bonds given in 1815 : " Know all men by these presents that I, John Ballard, am held and firmly bound unto Nathaniel Claypool, clerk of Edwards county and Territory of Illinois, in the just and full sum of five hundred dollars, by which payment well and truly to be made, I bind myself, my heirs and assigns for and in the whole, sealed with my seal, and dated this 31st day of July 1815. The condition of the obligation is such, that whereas the above bound John Ballard has this day made appli- cation for license to join together in bonds of matrimony with Miss Betsy Barney. Now if the said John Ballard does well and truly marry the said Betsy Barney without any fraud, partiality or illegality attending the said marriage, then this obligation to be void, otherwise to be and remain in full force and virtue in law." Bondsmen, Jeremiah Ballard and Seth Gard. THE DEEP SNOW. The deep snow occurred in the winter of 1830-31. At that period this part of Illinois was sparsely settled. The roads were merely trails or bye-paths; and the houses of the settlers were log-cabins of a rude style of architecture, and the larder was not well supplied with sufficient provisions to carry the settler and his family through the winter. This being the case, much suffering occurred. The " deep snow " is one of the land-marks of the early settler. It is the mile-stone, so to speak, from which he counts in dating events. He sometimes relies upon it in recounting the date of his coming, his marriage, and the birth of his children. The deep snow was an important and very extraordinary phenomenon. Nothing has equalled it in this latitude for the last century if the Indians' traditions are cor- rect as to what occurred before the advent of the white man. The Indians had a tradition that about seventy- five years before, a snow fell which swept away the im- mense herds of buffalo and elk that then roamed over these prairies. This tradition was verified by the vast quantity of buffalo and elk bones found on the prairies in different localities when first visited by white men. The snow began falling early in autumn, and con- tinued at intervals, throughout the entire winter. The snow falls would be succeeded by heavy sleet, forming crusts of ice between the layers of snow, strong enough in many places to bear up the deer and hunter. Fre- quently for weeks the sun was not visible, and the cold was so intense that not a particle of snow would melt on the sides of the cabins facing the south. For weeks people were blockaded or housed up, and remained so until starvation compelled them to go forth in search of food. Great suffering, hunger and untold hardships were endured by the people. Game, such as deer, prairie chickens, quails, rabbits, &c., before that time had been abundant, but for years afterwards was very scarce, having perished in the snow. As the snow would thaw, deer were often caught and killed without the aid of fire arms, being unable to get through the snow or walk on top. Later in winter, when the mass of-snow or ice had become compact, fences that were staked and ridered were driven over with heavily loaded vehicles, and, in fact, the old settlers say in places could not be seen. The snow in many places, where not drifted, was three to five feet deep. In the spring, when this immense amount of snow melted, the river streams and marshes became flooded. ^ THE " SUDDEN FREEZE." The writer, in conversing with a lady, an old settler, elicited from her the following facts and recollections relative to the wonderful and extraordinary atmospheric phenomenon, which occurred a little after noon one day in January, 1836. The lady says, she and her family HISTORY OF EDWARDS, LAWRENCE AND WABASH COUNTIES, ILLINOIS. had finished their noon-day meal, and were sitting around aud in front of the old-fashioned large open fire- place, enjoying its generous warmth, chatting and dis- cussing the state of the weather, as during the morning it had been snowing and raining a little : presently the lady in looking from the window in her cabin, noticed a heavy black cloud lying off to the west, which seemed to be rapidly approaching. Needing some water she took a bucket and went to the well, at a distance of about 100 yards, lowering the bucket with a long " sweep " then used in drawing the water, filled it, and started for the house. Before reaching the house the wind and rain struck her ; blew and upset a portion of the water on her clothing; the cold air seemed to cut like a knife, and before she reached the house, her dress and apron were frozen stiff in a solid sheet of ice. Ponds which a mo- ment before were free from the ice, were frozen in a few minutes. Many persons were frozen to death who happened to be caught away from home ; and many others, before they could get to a place of shelter, had their faces, ears, hands and feet frozen. Immediately preceding the storm, the ground had been slightly cov- ered with snow, which from rain falling in the morning had become "elushy." Cattle, that were in the fields, were held fast by the " slush" freezing about their feet; and it became necessary to cut away the ice to liberate them. Ducks and geese were imprisoned in the same way. It was scarcely ten minutes after the cold wave swept over the place, that the water and melting snow was hard enough to bear up a man on horseback. Thus have we briefly sketched a few of the incidents that occurred in the early history of the county. LAWRENCE COUNTY. The French led the van in the settlement of the Illi- nois territory. Their primary object was commerce with the Indian tribes; and to this end they established trading posts, and manifested to the untutored savage initial evidences of civilization. Secondary to this, the French missionaries, by their pious devotion, their spotless character and their quiet, unassuming and dis- interested lives, gained the favorable attention and re- spect of the natives. The suavity of the manners of the French, and the softness of their outward bearing and presence, and moreover their compliance, to some extent, with the Indian modes of life, gained for them the rude respect of the aborigines and operated as a safeguard against that savage outrage which was often mercilessly visited upon the American and English settlers. In the early part of the seventeenth century a French settlement and trading post was established at Vincennes, on the Wabash, then one of the great avenues from the St. Lawrence to the Illinois country. From this French colony the first settlements in Lawrence county originated. By a French rule settlers received allotments of land, which they located at pleasure. Many of them chose their portions in what is now the county of Lawrence. Little is known of them except their names on record. They were required to be resi- dent settlers prior to 1783. The following is a list of these grantees, mainly French but partly Anglo- American : J. B. Dumais, Francois Bosseron, Roux, Paul Gamelin, Pierre Barthe, Pierre Carnoyer, Francois Brouillat, Joseph Durharm, Joseph Huniot, Madame j Denoyon, Louis Denoyon, August Du Gal, J. B. Vil- i lery, Toussaint Denoyon, Francois Bosseron, Jr., Joseph I Tougas, Antoine Bardeleau, Luirent Bazadon, Alexis ! Ladavont, Joseph Durocher, Madame Cornoyer, Francois i Pettier, Louis Raveilate, Philip Dejtan, Pierre'Grimayoe | Lezate Clairmout, Widow Maria, Heirs of Dubois, Jean Leguarde, Jean Baptist Culy, Pierre Godairie, Nic. Bal- lenjeau Alexander Valle, Jacques Lallemoille, Ambrois Degenet, Jacques Couteaux, Jean Sauvage, Baptiste Bonate, Joseph Tougas, Jacques Louis, Jean B. Vaudry, Louis Boisjean, Jean B. Racine, Jean C. Thiriot, Ga- i briel Boulon, Pierre Levriet, Etienne St. Marie and i Francois St. Marie; Jacob Howell, Hannah Dalton, Solomon Small, Lawrence Slaughter, John Bailey ; Moses Decker, Henry Speek, probably Germans ; Moses Henry, John Culberton, G. R. Clark, heirs of Ezekiel Johnson, Israel Ruland, Andrew Robinson, Francis Hamlin, V. T. Dutton, Thomas Hall, Christopher Wyatt and Nicho- las Varner. The title to the lands occupied by parties named in the foregoing list originated by donations made by ; French commandants of Vincennes prior to 1764, also ! by English commandants, 1764-1778, by Virginia im- provement rights, and lastly by grants of the United States, their so-called head of family rights and militia rights. Winthrop Sargent, acting as governor in place of Arthur St. Clair in 1790, granted small tracts of land to Luke Decker, Robert Buntin, Henry Vander- burgh and Samuel Bradley. The court at Vincennes, by | authority delegated to it by M. Le Gras.Col. John Todd's , lieutenant, about 1780, granted to Pierre Luerez, father ' and son, ten leagues (30 miles) " deep," of which they i sold various tracts to other parties. Isaac Decker | bought 2000, John Powell 5000 and Thomas Flower 20,000 acres of them. Pierrie Gamelin came in for a large share also, which enabled him to sell 27 000 acres to Nicholas Perrott and 41,000 acres to Thomas Flower. What may be termed modern settlement in Lawrence 1 county dates back to the beginning of the present cen- I tury. The immigration and settlement prior to that time might, in most instances at least, more properly be j called speculation. At all events they were not " ac- i tual," in the moral sense of the term, so as to be ! permanent, though they may have answered legal re- i quirement. But before proceeding to speak of the ; modern settlements, it may be pertinent to add some- thing concerning the early marriages, performing as they did indirectly an important function in the settle- ment and development of the county. The records | show the following marriages solemnized in the county HISTORY OF EDWARDS, LAWRENCE AND WABASH COUNTIES, ILLINOIS. (ill during the first years of its existence. A number of \ licenses issued at that time seem to have been wasted, | inasmuch as there is no evidence of the proper binding j of the nuptial knots in many instances : Squire Thomas Anderson solemnized the marriage of Mr. Benjamin Norton and Nancy Thorn, on the 20th of June, 1821. It is to be hoped that their path through life was freed from thorns, and strewn with roses instead. Andrew Cams and Nellie Anderson joined hands for life on the 27th of June, Squire Benjamin McCleave officiating. Thomas Gordon and Sarah But- ler, June 30, married by J. C. Clark, a minister of the gospel ; Samuel Mundell and Nancy Adams, July 19, by H. M. Gillhara, J. P. ; P. Bourdelon and Julia Aupin, July 31, by Rev. J. C. Clark ; Jetson Gowen and Nancy Morris, August 6, by James Westfall, J. P.; John Smith and Elizabeih Baird, September 9, by H. M. Gillham, J. P, ; Jonathan Phelps and Sally Gowen, by Daniel Travis, September 26 ; John Armstrong and Susannah Lemons, October 17, by Squire Anderson ; John Hun- ter and Mary Robinson, December 13, by same ; Wil- liam Martin and Syrithia Clark, December 13, by John Martin, M. G. ; Henry Jones and Ibby Lester, Dec. 20, by Joseph Baird, J. P. ; Aaron Wells and Catherine Vanosdall, Dec. 25, by Squire Anderson ; James Miller and Nancy McBeans, January 4, 1822, by 'Squire Baird ; Samuel V. Allison and Matilda Mills, Feb. 8, by same ; Joshua S. Johnson and Mary Gardner, April 23, by J. C. Ruark, J. P. ; Samuel Herron and Martha Leech, Sept. 14, by J. C. Clark, M. G. ; Robert Barney and Casiah Pargin, July 3, by Benjamin McClean, J. P. ; Jacob Parker and Peggy Dockery, September 2, 1822, executed by Squire McLean ; Henry Reineyking and Matilda Chenowith, September 21, by Squire Ander- son ; Joshua Dudley and Barbery Clark, October 19, by same ; Nathaniel Hysmith and Elizabeth Matthews, Nov. 11, by J. Baird, J. P. ; Oliver W. Phelps and Hannah Mason, January 4, 1823, by S. H. Clubb, J. P.; Elihu Cole and Letty Morris, Jan. 22, by Squire An- derson ; John Organ and Jane Gilbert, Feb. 4, by same; Peter Cisco and Eliza Chandler, Feb 11, by James Nabb, J. P. ; John Snider and Nancy Allison, March 17, by Joseph Baird, J. P.; Benjamin Sumner and Sally Laws, June 7, by S. H. Clubb, J. P. ; Charles Martin and Betsey Spencer, July 18, by Rev. Clark; Thomas Parson and Eliza Huston, July 28, by William Kinkard, J. P. ; Andrew McClure and Betsey Allison, September 24, by Joseph Baird, J. P. ; James Leeds and Judy Mattox, Oct.lo, by B. McCleave, J. P. ; Philip Lewis and Polly Craven, Nov. 12, by same; John Summers and Emily Woodrow, Dec. 4, by Squire Kinkade 13 marriages during the first half-year of the county's existence, 9 in the full year, 1822, and 13 during the year 1823. Settlements for the purposes of permanent residence, improvement and agriculture were made along the Wa- bash opposite Vincennes, and principally at St. Fraucis- ville. These were made by French immigrants from Vin- cenes and Canada. An American settlement was formed at Russellville prior to 1812, and another atCenterville in 1815, called the Christian settlement, as most of that community were members of the Christian church. Those in the interior of the county were formed at a later date, after the storm of war had passed entirely away and the Indians had become reconciled to the advance of civilization. Although less characteristic and definite, they continued to be formed into neigh- borhoods, as acquaintanceship, agreement in religion, or color or eligibility of locality suggested. The negro settlement was in the vicinity of Pinkstaff station, and the Lackey neighborhood, some distance east of this locality. Charlottesville, on the Embarras, is the site of the Shaker colony formed in 1819. The Corrie purchase, resulting in the acquisition of a large tract of laud in Decker's prairie by John and William Corrie, of Scotland, was made in 1818; shortly after this date it was settled by the Corries and their connections. Ruark's prairie, in the southeastern part of Lukiu town- ship, was settled by a family of that name. The French settlement of St. Francisville contained within it the elements of permanence, both in respect of locality and the habits of its members. The native lan- guage is still used, interchangeably with the English, in many households. Joseph Tugaw, properly Tougas, was the pioneer and first permanent settler, not only of this vicinity, but also of Lawrence county ; he came from Vincenues, and located on the present site of St. Fran- cisville about the year 1803 or 1804 ; his two brothers, William and August Tougas, and John Longlois were- with him there, but soon moved to what afterward be- came Rochester, in Wabash county, and were the first settlers in that vicinity. About the year 1809 or '10, came Francis Tougas, another of the four brothers, who assumed a leading part in the pioneer life of Lawrence and Wabash counties. They immigrated from Vin- cennes, and were marvels of physicial strength and stat- ure ; Joseph was a leading spirit, and the center of in- fluence in the settlement of which he formed a part ; in 1814 he was the only slave-owner, except John Stillwell, * in all that vast region, then known as Edwards county. In that year he was the only resident in said county who owned a " mansion house." Its taxable value was $300.00. In the year 1812 he constructed a picket or stockade fort for the protection of himself and his neighbors against the Indians ; it consisted of an enclo- sure formed by placing large stakes or pickets in the earth side by side. The enclosure was some twelve or fourteen feet high, and was a sort of city wall ; for within were a number of log dwellings, for the use of the fami- lies that sought protection there ; in two of the corners of the stockade were watch-houses, projecting beyond the enclosure, at the sides and at some distance above the ground, so as to command a view of the enemy that might be approaching. At night the heavy oaken doors were swung to and barred, the guards took their places in the watch-houses, and the drowsy inmates lay down HISTORY OF EDWARDS, LAWRENCE AND WAS ASH COUNTIES, ILLINOIS. to rest. Among the cabiqs within the enclosure was the negro hut, occupied by the slaves of Joseph Tugaw. Soon after his arrival, probably about 1805 or '06, Tu- \ gaw established a ferry on the Wabash, at St. Francis ville; the boat with which it was operated was sufficient | to carry two carts. The pioneer died at the home of ; his first choice, which afterward became the site of St. I Francisville, of which his widow, Frances, was the original proprietor. Francis Tugaw settled about a mile and a half north of the village. Joseph and Amab Potvine, nicknamed and usually called Arpas, came from Vincennes about 1804 or '05 ; the former had three children, the latter was a bachelor; they settled a short distance west of the village. About the year 1806 or '08 the French settlement was augmented by the immi- gration from Vincennes of Andrew and Charles Lacoste ; Pierre Gremore, L. Bonaut, Philip Deschaut, Andrew Godaire and Joseph Venve ; the latter settled south of St. Francisville, in the edge of Wabash county. At a little later date, but prior to 1813, the families of John Shirkey and Charles Moyes were added to the settlement. The latter received the pseudonym of Coy, meaning "spot." It originated from the circumstance that Moyes, on one occasion, went under the yoke from which Coy, his ox, had dropped dead, and assisted the other ox in hauling the load. Nearly all the early French set- tlers were familiarly known by some nickname, wnose history would explain a laughable circumstance in the simple lives of these early French pioneers. The settlement opposite Vincennes, at Wesport, never attained to much prominence, and was mainly accessory to the ferry established to accommodate travel to and from Vincennes, along the Cahokia and Kaskaskia traces. These highways from the Wabash to the Mis- j sissippi had been worked out by the Indians and buffa- ! Iocs long before the advent of civilization. The ferry I was operated, about the beginning of the present cen- j tury, by Joseph La Motte, a Frenchman and Indian trader, whose round log cabin stood alone and solitary on the west bank of the Wabash. On more than one occa- sion was he obliged, single-handed, to defend it and his family against the attacks of the Indians; one night they climbed upon the roof, and though he was the only male inmate, he frightened them away by directing, in a loud voice, a number of persons to assume certain po- sitions, and to do certain acts toward repelling the attack. But though the assailants left without doing material damage to the house, or bodily harm to its in- mates, they led away its owner's horse. On another oc- casion, in 1809 or '10, anticipating an attack by some Indians he observed cross the river to Vincennes, he sent his wife and children out into the wood, and stood ready, single-handed and alone, to defend his habitation and his life ; the looked-for onset was made, and the valor withw hich he defended himself and his home is sufficient- ly attested by the fact that, during the onset, he received seven bullet wounds; at day-break the Indians gave up the attack and left, but not without a number of injured in their ranks. Imagine the anxiety and horror that must have filled the souls of the wife and children as they sat in their solitary retreat, and listened to the sharp echoes of the rifles, as they sank to silence along the shores of the Wabash ! La Motte was afterward killed by the Indians on the creek and in the prairie that still bear his name, in Crawford county. After his death his widow opera- ted the ferry till about 1812, when it passed under the management of her fon-iu-law, James Gibson. Across the way from La Motte's lived a family named White. Also in that vicinity dwelt a family of Buntons, three of whom, the mother and two of three daughters, were, one afternoon, massacred; the remaining daughter, whose name was Jane, escaped and secreted herself in a corn- field till night, when she swam the Wabash to Vincennes. This brave girl, at the time of the massacre, was fortu- nately wearing on her head a handkerchief, after the manner of the French, whom the Indians were not wont to disturb, so long as they betrayed no affiliation with the Americans. If not suffered voluntarily to escape, she was probably reserved for more clemency of treat- ment, as captivity. About a mile below the ferry, at the "Ford," lived a French family, named Senette. Somewhere also, in this vicinity, was the home of Chas. Boneaut. Some distance above the ferry landing, on the bluff known as Dubois' hill, lived the family of that name ; they had three sons, Toussaint, Lawrence, and Killgore; the family became conspicuous in the civil and business affairs of the county. Toussaint was drowned while crossing Indian creek. On Dubois' hill, in troublous Indian days, lived an old negro, called "Billy o' the Bow," and his dusky conjugal companion, Seeley by name ; they lived together in a house not made with hands a hollow sycamore tree till their in- dependent life together was brought to a close by a bullet from the rifle of some lurking Indian. Going north along the river till the vicinity of Russellville is reached, the settlements are of a more recent date. This vicinity was settled about the year 1809 or "10 by some Baptist families from Kentucky. Most con- spicuous among them were the Allisons, of whom there were four families, whose respective heads were Samuel and his two sons, Frederick and Ezra, and his brother Jonathan. Of these, the first possessed the element of pioneer the most prominently. He was fond of the pursuit of game, and frequently brought down, and dressed the saddles of as many as fifteen deer between sun and sun. When the redoubtable Tecumseh had impressed upon the remnant tribes in the Wabash valley, a sense of their supposed wrongs, and they began a career of de- predation and pillage, the necessity of some means of life and property became apparent. A stockade fort was accordingly built in the spring of 1812, on Samuel Allison's improvement, now within the northern corpor- ate limits of Russellville, called Fort Allison. The construction of this defensive arrangement was similar to that at St. Francisville, above described. Besides the Allisons, the families of Thomas Mills, William Stock- HISTORY OF EDWARDS, LAWRENCE AND WABASH COUNTIES, ILLINOIS. 71 well, McBane, William Hogue, Daniel and Henry Kuykendall, and the colored families of Anderson, Morris, and Tannann were early inmates of the fort. Stockwell and Anderson were shot by the Indians, the former on returning from Fort La Motte, the latter somewhere in the neighborhood of Fort Allison. The wife of Anderson wanted a cannon mounted on Dubois hill to deal out indiscriminate slaughter among the Indians. During the days of " forting," 1812-1815, a party of thirteen Rangers, one rainy day, were passing from Fort La Motte to Fort Allison, and, when within half a mile of the latter, were fired upon by a number of Indians. They suffered no bodily harm or incon- venience, save that of the strange circumstance that the handkerchiefs they were wearing about their necks were, in two cases, shot away. The party on leaving Fort La Motte, discharged their guns, as a precaution against wet priming, and, when fired upon, were unable to return the attack. As Austin Tann was returning, one day, from Small's Mill on the Erabarras, with a sack of meal, he was pursued by a band of Indians on ponies. He was riding a large horse and took refuge in the marsh, southwest of Russellville. His pursuers were unable to follow him with their ponies, and he escaped with the loss only of his grist. The pious community that settled at Russellville, established the pioneer church of Lawrence county. It was organized in 1817, and built a house of worship, in 1821. It was named Little Village church, which name was also given to the burial place that lay adjoining it. " Little Village " was an Indian hamlet that stood on the site of Russellville. This vicinity was an important one in the rude un- written annals of savage life. This is shown by the ex- istence of mounds, commonly in groups, scattered along the river for the distance of a mile and a half from Russellville south. Investigation shows that they were burial places, but whether they were used for ordinary interments or designed as monuments to the memory of those who had distinguished themselves in council or in battle, may be treated as a matter of conjecture. Among the characters of note, buried in this vicinity, was Little Turtle, the sworn enemy of the pale face, and the father of Captain William Wills, who had been taken captive, when a child, and who was killed in the Chicago massacre, iu 1812. Around his neck, in life, he wore a neatly carved figure of the -animal, whose dame he bore, and when he died it was buried with him, and was a few years ago exhumed. Among the tribes, rem nants of whom, at the advent of the white man, roamed over the territory of the county, in savage sport and pastime, by marsh and stream, and river and timber- skirt, were the Miamis, Pottawotamies, Delawares, Shawnees and others. The latter through Tecuraseh, claimed the whole of the W abash valley, and endeavored to annul the title of government to such territory as it had acquired from other tribes. The dramatic interview between Ttcumseh and Gov. Harrison in this behalf, has passed into history, and was witnessed by Austin laun, an early colored pioneer. Communication between the east and west shores of the Wabash, in the vicinity of Russellville, was had at an early day by means of a terry established and operated by a man named Lana- fere. Though most of the early settlements were made along the Wabash, a few found their way into the in- terior, along the Cahokia and Kaskaskia traces, and the Euibarras river. On the banks of this stream, about a mile and a quarter above its mouth, in 1805 or 1806, settled John Small. Shortly after this date, he built a frame water mill, which became familiarly known as I Small's mill. After Small's death his widow married I a man named Brown, and the mill was, in laier years, called Brown's. It was among the very earliest, if not ; the first frame building, in the territory of Lawrence ! county. The dam was built of hewed logs, supported by j rock and earth. It was a most important economic in- stitution in those early days, and commanded trade from a wide extent of country. It was doubtless watched by the lurking Indians with an eye of unrest, as he read ! in it the sad prophecy of coming events. Tradition tells of many adventures with the natives at this point. Tecumseh and his fifteen hundred warriors encamped in this vicinity during the war of 1812. Some distance I above the mill, in a little log cabin, at a locality called l " Muscle shoals,'' lived William Harriman with his wife | and Tour children. Seneca Amy, a young man, lived with them. Mrs. Harriman, for two successive nights, i dreamed that she saw her children hurribly butchered. ] She told her husband that she regarded the dreams as prophetic of their fate, unless they sought some place of ' safety. He endeavored to quiet her fears, but became himself apprehensive on account of a sulky disposition manifested by the natives whom he met, and yielded to her importunities. The family had gone to the river edge, when young Amy started back for a gun they had forgotten. He had not advanced far, when he saw the cabin surrounded by Indians, and, unobserved, dodged into the brush and escaped. They immediately followed in pursuit of the family, and shot Harriman seated in a pirogue, and tomahawked the mother and children. Tradition says there were also other victims of this massacre, which took place about the year 1812. The girls are said to have been beautiful, and to have had magnificent heads of long hair. Still farther up the river, it is said, another family fell victims to savage ferocity. One day two men left the. block-house, at the mill, and went down to the marsh to shoot duck. They I were attacked and one of them was shot and toma- hawked and scalped. John and Levi Compton, of the ] timber settlement in Wabush county, and Israel Potvine and Francis Tugaw buried him at the foot of a white oak I tree, upon which they chopped a cross, yet to be seen. ! In 1805 or 1806, Wil.iam Spencer built a double log i house, where the Cahokia trace crossed the Embarras. j It was subsequently moved farther down the river to Small's mill. Shortly after this, Nathan Rawlings settled on Indian creek, at the crossing of the trace. 72 HISTORY OF EDWARDS, LAWRENCE AND WABA8H COUNTIES, ILLINOIS. With the exception of these few outpost settlements, room, whfre Judge Wilson was presiding, and hallooed the interior of Lawrence county remained unbroken ! out: " Judge Wilson, Judge Wilson, adjourn the court. wildernes till 1815, when the storm of war having I A most grievous outrage has been committed ; a nigger passed away, immigration, which for three years had i has hit a white man with a rock ! " The negro settle- been entirely checked or confined to the fortifications j ment, in the course of time, worked its way further along the Wabash, set rapidly in. The doors of the forts were also thrown open, and their inmates went forth to the avocations of peace. In this year the " Christian neighborhood," now the vicinity of Center- ville, was settled by people of the New Light, afterward the Christian faith, principally from Tennessee. Among them were the Harrises, Howards, Rigses, Ashbrooks. Johnsons, Leneves, Turners, Andersons, Adamses, Lemons, Berries, and others equally worthy of mention. This was an important centre of industry, good neigh- borhood, and education in that early day. The " Cen- ter School-house," a double log building designed for school and church purposes, was put up in 1816 or '17, and in point of antiquity and importance, deserves a place at the head of educational and church efforts in the State of Illinois. Henry Palmer and Eli Harris, both of whom came to the settlement in 1815, were re- spectively the pioneer minister and teacher. The colored inmates of Fort Allison began a settlement in the neighborhood of Pinkstaff station, and as they were law-abiding like their fair-complexioned fellow-citizens, so they shared equally with them the blessings of pro- tection and civil liberty. The soil of Illinois as a State is free from the taint of slavery. The sentiments of her people, with their broad liberality, and respect for the rights of man could never tolerate an institution whose essential features were a violation of those rights ; rights south, and is now mainly within the northern confines of Lawrence township. The next important settlement was that of a colony of Shakers, on the Embarras river, formed in 1819. The tenets and regulations of the sect were strictly carried out by this community. In their mode of life they were communistic, and their affairs were managed by a board of three trustees. The colony numbered about forty individuals, male and female, who lived separate and apart from each other. Their most important act was the building of the old " Shaker mill," the particulars of whose his- tory may be learned ffom the chapter on Bond Town- ship. The breaking and washing away of the mill dam about two years after their settlement, was the signal at which they Left for other parts, principally Shakertown, Indiana, whence they came. The four years interven- ing between the return of peace, in 1815, and the forma- tion of the settlement just mentioned brought many home seekers to the shores of Lawrence county, who penetrated into the interior. Their names will be found in their appropriate places in the township histories. They were a brave and hardy set of men, and nobly triumphed over the difficulties incident to life in a new country. Disease lingered in the marshes, the wild beasts stood ready to pounce on the fold, and the Indian, though nominally at peace with the pale face, was a walking embodiment of latent hostility that made the home of whose sacredness depends not upon the character of the I the settler a place of constant anxiety and unrest. owner, but upon the character of the rights themselves. James Baird was shot by an Indian while working in Most of the immigrants who brought slaves with them to the territory of Illinois, liberated them, as though her broad lauds and spreading prairies were a moral rebuke. An effort was made, in 1816 or '17, by two Tennesseeans, William and John Leach, father and son, to establish a slave farm or plantation on an extensive fcale in the neighborhood of Little Raccoon creek. This germ of the dark institution was crushed by the admission of Illinois into the Union as a free State. Not only did she guarantee liberty to those within her own borders, but in after years by her most gifted son, to every one within the broad limits of .the United States. Though a feeling of equality, regardless of race or color, was a prevailing sentiment among the pioneers yet it is not btrange that something of prejudice should have per- his field south of Russellville, in 1815 or 1816. In 1819 a family of McCalls settled some distance north of Law- renceville. At that time, or (shortly after, a party of Delaware Indians, from a camp on Brushy Fork, came to McCall's cabin and demanded whisky. He refused compliance with their demand, and they murdered him. Kill Buck, a chief, Captain Thomas and Big Panther were convicted of the crime, but from motives of policy were suffered to go unpunished. Some time subsequent to 1824, the wolves one night almost entirely devoured a cow and the calf she had just given birth to, belonging to Renick Heath, then residing at the old Shaker mill. Eight wolves were found gormandizing on their flesh in the morning, and were with some difficulty driven off. An amusing and instructive incident, bearing upon the vaded the minds of some individuals. And in this con- | habits of the panther, is related by Mr. Heath, one of the nection it may be pertinent to mention an incident re- few pioneers who yet remain to tell the romanticrstories lated by Hon. O. B. Ficklih, not only as illustrating this i of early life in Illinois. One night a wolf was heard point, but as throwing light upon the administration of I barking violently some distance off. It continued till justice in the county's infancy. During a wrangle at | daybreak, when Mr. Heath, gun in hand, went to inves- a drinking place in Lawrenceville, a negro hit a white j tigate. He saw the wolf at some distance jumping up man with a rock, and severely injured him. Knowledge | and from side to side, as it kept up a constant barking. of the affair came to the ears of one of the early resident I He continued to advance, and when within a short dis- justices of the place, who rushed headlong into the court I tance of the wolf, was greatly surprised to observe a pan- HISTORY OF EDWARDS, LAWRENCE AND W ABASH COUNTIES, ILLINOIS. 7:1 ther, which had been the object of so much ado, leap from a limb. Both animals made good their escape. Beneath the tree lay the fresh, partially devoured body i of a raccoon, upon which the panther is supposed to ' have been feeding, when the wolf rudely obtruded. The former animal, when attacked, is readily induced to j ascend a tree, less perhaps as a refuge from, than as a j convenient means of attacking, an adversary. Game, | in the days of which we are writing, was abundant j almost to an extent exceeding our belief. The wild [ fowls were so numerous, that while they were an abun- j dant and convenient supply of food, they were a serious drawback to early husbandry, not only as destroying the fruits, but as discouraging the efforts of labor. Wheat fields were frequently completely destroyed by I them. Hunting was an important pursuit, and supplied j directly or indirectly the luxuries as well as the neces- saries of life. Every man was either by choice or necessity a hunter. Conspicuous among the former were Samuel Allison and Peter Paragin. Allison was not only an expert hunter, but was also skillful in Indian warfare. A day's hunt would frequently yield him fif- teen saddles of deer. If not the first American settler in Lawrence county, he was among the most conspicuous. One of his daughters-in-law, an English lady, whose maiden name was Rebecca Moody, made bullets in an | old oven for the colonists at the battles of Bunker Hill ; and Cowpens. Paragin was the pioneer of the north- ! western part of the county. He pushed his way into , the wilderness far in advance of his fellows, and by his i triumphs over the beasts of the forest, lent two names ! to the geographical vocabulary of the county. " Paragin slough " commemorates the killing of two bears, and " Eagle Branch " is an epitome of the story of the cap- ture on that stream of an eagle of extraordinary size. Not only did the flesh of wild animils serve for the set- tler's table, but their skins supplied the necessity of cloth- I ing. A pioneer with buckskin breeches, a homespun i coat, and a coonskin cap was an embodiment of these lines of Pope : " Happy the man whose wish and care Content to breathe his native air An important early industry was bee-hunting. The destiny of the Indian is to recede before the approach of the white man ; it is the province of the honey-bee to act on the rever-e, and precede the advance of civilization. The approach of the honey-bee was always a sad har- binger to the Indians, for they knew the pale faces were not far behind. At an early period bees were very numerous in Illinois, in the groves and along the skirts of timber; hence the product of the hive became a desirable commodity in trade and commerce ; and when the farmer wished a little " land office " money, this was an article that would readily command it. They would take their beeswax, deer-skins and peltries to the water- courses, and descend in their canoes or improvised boats 10 constructed for the purpose, to New Orleans and other markets. Bee-hunting excursions were an annual occur- rence. In the spring, when the wild flower unfolded its petals, the search would begin. It was not only an avocation, but it was a science or trade, and an expert bee-hunter could find ready employment. The principal early agricultural industry was cotton-raising. Allison Prairie was the cotton-field of the Wabash Valley. Its cultivation began some time prior to 1820, and con- tinued for several years. Cotton gins were not uncom- mon, and the spinning-wheel was in every cabin. The raising of cattle and hogs was likewise an important industry. Wild grass and mast for their sustenance were abundant. Illinois has always assumed an honor- able part in the matter of education, so materially con- cerning the welfare of a free people ; and as soon as an immigration set in the school teacher was abroad in the land. Among those who taught in the cftunty limits from 1817 to 1819 were Mrs. Clark, Agnes Corrie, George Godfrey, I-aiah Lewis, Larkin Ryle, John Martin, Jas. Swainey, Borden and Fleming. The school teacher and the minister went hand in hand, and, in many instances, performed the same office. The same rude log structure served alike for the school and as a house of worship. The early resident ministers were : Revs. Blithe Mc- Corcle, Mr. Stone, John Clark, Richard B. McCorcle, William Ramsey, John Dollahan, Samuel Borden, Wil- liam Kincaid, Daniel Travis, and others, among whom was " Squealing Johnny " Parker, as he was called. He styled himself a " Two-see Baptist." Travelling preach- ers frequently came into the territory, and among them were James Hughes, John Rodgers, David McDonald, Elijah Gooden, Peter Cartwright and Lorenzo Dow. One of the most needed and poorly supplied blessings of pioneer life were mills. Long and hazardous journeys were necessary to secure the grinding of a bag of meal. Small's mill, on the Embarras, built in 1805 or 1806, was one of the earliest in the State of Illinois ; but, considering the difficulty of reaching it through dense forests and swollen streams, it was scarcely a convenience except to a few. We have thus set forth briefly the dangers and hard- ships of those who paved the way for whatever is grand in morals or government or magnificent in struc- ture in the county of Lawrence. Let the reader compare the present with the past, and then let him reflect how rapid has been the march of progress and how marvellous has been the change. WABASH COUNTY. The county of Wabash is an offspring of Edwards county ; yet the first settlements made within the vast boundaries of the latter were within the limits of what is now Wabash county. The first settlers were a few French families, who located on the Wabash river, near the point known as 74 HISTORY OF EDWARDS, LAWRENCE AND W ABASH COUNTJE8, ILLINOIS. Rochester, in Coffee precinct. This was about 1800. families. In the time of the Indian troubles, at a pre- Prominent among these was the family of Tougas, also concerted signal, the families of the settlement would named Lavulette. This occured from Mrs. Tougas take refuge in the fort, where they would remain until marrying a man by the name of Lavulette, and some of it was pronounced safe to leave. In about 1817, Mr. the children of Mrs. Tougas, assumed the name of their ' Compton moved to township 2 south, range 14 west, and step-father. There were four brothers, August, William, i settled in section 13, where he spent the remainder of Joseph, and Francis. They were all well formed, athle- tic men, and possessed of such material as to brave the his days. He was a representative man, and had the honor of being a member of the first Constitutional Con- wilds of the frontier. The former is said to have been I vention in 1818. From 1818 to 1820, he was in the six and one-half feet in stature. During the Indian State Senate. He died about 1844, at the advanced troubles, they remained and trafficked with them. The I age of eighty years. One son, Joseph Compton, is a Indians both feared and respected them. The word of i citizen of Coffee 'precinct, and U said to be the first August among the treacherous Piankashaws was law, j white child born in the county. and it is said that he even went so far as to inflict pun Joshua Jordan was also from Virginia, and at his ishment upon some of the tribe for petty theft. An . coming had a family of four children. While a resident Indian is bound to respect and admire his superior in I of that State, for a time, he was a tenant of George strength. In this capacity, August had demonstrated j Washington, and was with the General at the memora- to their picked warriors, that he was their superior, by . ble Braddock's defeat. On coming to Illinois, he located friendly hand to hand, athletic sports with them. It i in section 12, near Mr. Compton. He remained here was through this means that they stood in such awe and several years, when he removed to Barney's prairie, fear of him. While others were massacred and pillaged, where he resided until his death. he was never disturbed. In 1838 he sold his posses- A pioneer of 1804, was John Stillwell, a native of sions at Rochester and moved to Mt. Carmel, where he ! Kentucky. He had a family of two sons, Samuel and engaged in the hotel business. He continued in this ! James. Besides his family he had a negro slave by the calling for several years, when he returned to Coffee pre- ! name of Armstead. From the records of 1822, we find cinct, where he died in 1849. His eldest daughter, that the slave was liberated in that year. Mr. Stillwell Mrs. Stewart, is now a resident of Texas. One daugh- j located on the southwest quarter of section 12, where ter, wife of Captain Sharp, lives in Mt. Carmel. William [ he improved quite a farm for those days. He con- was a man of a family when he moved from Vincennes structed a stockade during the Indian troubles, for the to the county, locating near the mouth of Coffee creek, protection of his family and stock. It is said that he with the rest of the family. He remained here a few I was a very eccentric man. Although one of the wealth- years, when he moved to the banks of Raccoon creek, j iest citizens among the early settlers, he took pleasure in Lawrence county. Two years afterward he removed j in wearing the poorest of clothes, and bearing the most to near Vincennes. After a short stay here he re- shabby of appearances. It is related of him, that at turned to Coffee precinct and permanently located in sec- j one time he lost his hat, and from that time forth he tion 10, township 2 south, range 13 west. This was about | went bareheaded, until such time as he said his hat should 1816. He built and operated a horse mill, which was j have lasted. Many are the peculiarities related of him, one of the first in the county. He died on his farm at the j by those who knew him personally or by reputation, age of 75 years. Joseph and Francis Tougas, subse- [ Hemovidto Bellmont precinct in 1820, and perma- quently located at St. Francisville, in Lawrence county. \ nently located in section 21. Enoch Greathouse was a pioneer of 1804, and set- tled on the land now occupied by the city of Mt. Carmel. He was a native of Germany, and on coming to the States he first stopped in Pennsylvania, sub- The first American settlement was made in what is now Wabash precinct, in about 1802. Those having the honor of striking the first blow toward civilization in this part of the county, were Levi Compton and Joshua Jordan, brothers-in-law. The former was a j sequently moved to Kentucky, and from thence to native of Virginia, but as early as 1791, he moved to Illinois. He had a family of a wife and four children, Kentucky, and from thence to Illinois in the year above I also one grand-child. In 1817, he sold his property at stated. He then had a family of a wife and six chil- j Mt. Carmel, and moved to the now extinct town of Cen- dren. He first located on the Wabash river, in section j terville, where he died long ago, at the age of 110 years. 26, township 1 north, range 12 west, where he constructed | Several of his descendants are citizens of this and a cabin and improved a few acres of land. Not liking | Edwards county. Mrs. Sylvester Greathouse, of Mt. the locality, he removed to section 12. It was here, in Carmel, is a great-grand-daughter. 1814, that he built what was probably the first John Degan was one of the early French settlers of horse-mill in the county. A fort was also built here Coffee precinct, and came a short time after the Lavu- about 1810, which was known as Compton fort It was ; letts. He was originally from Detroit, Michigan, and enclosed with a palisade and contained dwellings, grana- in his movement westward he first stopped at Vincennes, ries, booths, etc., for the convenience of the inmates, and and from thence to the French settlement in Wabash was sufficient in size to accommodate about one hundred county. He first located at Rochester, his family then HISTORY OF EDWARDS, LAWRENCE AND WAS ASH COUNTIES, ILLINOIS. 75 consisting of his wife and two sons, Henry and William, and a step-son, Frank Burway. Two years later he permanently settled in section 10, where he engaged in ' stock raising. He died here in 1848, leaving a family, some of whom are yet living at or near the old home. Joseph Burway and Joseph Pichinant were also early French settlers. In 1815, they were both killed by the j Indians in the Coffee bottoms. They had gone in search of their horses, and while tramping through the bot- \ toms, were surprised by the red-skins and massacred. ; Only one, Burway, carried a rifle, Pichinant being mar- ried. Three other pioneers were in the bottoms at the time, and heard the report of Burway's rifle, followed by a volley of several guns. They surmised the cause, and soon roused the settlement to action. On going to the point where the firing was heard, the dead and muti- lated bodies of the unfortunate men were found. The Indians were pursued, but were not overtaken. From ; the evidences on their trail, Burway had fought desper- ' ately before he was killed, as several dead Indians were found along the trail. Francis Degan, brother of John before mentioned, came with his family in about 1811, and settled on the ! bluff, a little below Rochester. He had two sons, Augustus and Francis, Jr. The latter is yet living, and is one of the prominent citizens of Coffee precinct. John Wood came from Kentucky, in the spring of 1809, and erected a small cabin in section 36, township I 1 north, range 13 west, now Friendsville precinct. He j then returned to Kentucky, and in the fall moved his family to his new made home. He soon cultivated a little farmland was one of the first to plant an orchard j in the county. A year latter, he and his few neighbors were obliged to erect a fort to protect their families against the marauding bands of Indians. The neigh- ' borhood was always on the sharp look-out for the red j skins, but strange to say, this settlement was never dis- turbed by them. John Wood Jr., is the only survivor of the pioneer family. He resides on the farm where his father first settled. Joseph Wood, a son of the latter, came here in an early day prior to his father, and set- tled in section 30, township 1 north, range 13 west, where he remained until his death, leaving quite a family. William Barney located in the same settlement about the same time as Mr. Wood. He was from Western New York, on the banks of the Genesee. He ex- ! changed his live stock for a raft of lumber at the Alle- ; gheny river, and upon this he and his family floated down to the mouth of the Wabash. Here he sold his ' raft, and purchased a keel boat and poled his way to Ramsey's rapids. The male members went overland through the timber toselect a site for a home. A broad stretch of prairie came to view, and it was here that they pitched their tent, and soon afterwards threw up a cabin. Since which time this part of the county has been : known as Barney's prairie. HU cabin was erected near where the Friendsville Academy now stands. Judge j Barney became an influential man in the county, and was always among the foremost in lending a hand to improve and develop the county. He was one of the three first County Commissioners, which position he held for several years. A fort was erected near his place in 1811, which took the name of Barney's Fort. It was large and commodious, sufficient to accommodate all the families in the settlement. A well may yet beseen, which was dug within the fort, a relic of ye olden time. In 1812, the fort was felt to be insecure, and all the parties moved over into Indiana and passed the winter in a block-house. In the spring they returned to their homes, and although the Shawnees were plenty and still hostile, yet the settlers of Barney's prairie were unmo- lested. Mr. Barney died many years ago, on his farm in section 23, a little southwest of Frieudsville. Shortly after Mr. Barney's advent here, his three sons-in-law moved into the settlement. They were Ran- som Higgins, Philo Ingraham, and Wilbour Aldridge. The former was a large athletic man, and possessed of more than ordinary courage. He built one of the first water-mills in this region of the country. It was sit- uated on Barney's Prairie creek, and was constructed as early as 1813. One of his sons was accidentally killed by one of the rangers while target shooting at Barney's fort. His remains were buried in the Friendsville cem- etery, and it was the first interment made there. Philo Ingrah'am located in section twenty, near Mr. Barney, where he lived until 1840, when he moved to Clay county. Mr. Aldridge settled on the northwest quarter of section 24. Nathaniel Claypole emigrated here in 1814, and set- tled in section thirty-two, Friendsville precinct. He was a prominent citizen, and very popular among his acquaintances. He was appointed the first County and Circuit Clerk after the organization of Edwards county, and died while in office, in 1815. Thomas Pulliam came in the same year as the above, and located in section thirty-two, township two north, range 12 west. His name appears upon the records as the assessor of Em- barras township as early as 1817. He lived here on his farm until his death, which occurred long ago. Near Pulliam 's lived John and Moses Decker. Their settle- ment was also made in 1814. The prairie upon which they located bears their name. One of the most prominent settlers of 1813 or '14 was Seth Gard, who came from Ohio, and permanently located in section twenty-eight, now Lick Prairie pre- cinct. The locality where he settled was known as Card's Point, and the post-office established there in an early day, is still known by that name. Judge Gard was a man of great force of character, and endowed with more than ordinary ability and cool judgment He possed a quiet vein of humor, a keen sense of the ridic- ulous, and thorough convictions of right and justice. He was a representative man in every sense of the word, and his counsel was sought on every hand by the early settlers When Edwards county was organized, he was HISTORY OF EDWARDS, LAWRENCE AND WABASH COUNTIES, ILLINOIS. chosen to represent its people in the Territorial Legisla- ture, which position he occupied until the admission of! the State, in 1818. He was appointed one of the judges j of the first County Court, and was one of the members of the Constitutional Convention at Kaskaskia, in 1818. ' In fact, he was in public life until he became too infirm to longer bear the responsibilities incurred thereby. Aaron Waggoner, a nephew of Judge Gard, came with \ him and located near his premises. He was a stone- j mason by trade, and proved a useful acquisition to the little colony. In the same year, Jacob Claypole settled I in section four, township one north, range thirteen west. William Jordan, Nathaniel Osgood, Benjamin Rey- i nolds, and Henry I. Mills settled in what is now Lan- caster precinct in 1814. The former was from Kentucky j and had a family of four children. In about 1818, he erected a large distillery on his premises. He remained on his farm until his death. The Osgood family came from Ohio. It consisted of a married son, Nathaniel, and four other children. Reynolds was from Kentucky, and had a family of three sons, John, Richard, and Harrison, and four daughters. In 1820 he built a j horse-mill and distillery on his farm. He lived here until his death. Col. Henry I. Mills remained here but | a few years, when he moved over into Edwards county, j a sketch of whom has already been given. John Ar- nold, son-in-law of William Jordan, came with the latter from Kentucky, and settled near his father-in-law. He was among the early Justices of the Peace, and in 1832, was commissioned captain in the Black Hawk war. He subsequently moved to Wayne county, where he died. Tarlton Borin was a settler of 1815. He permanently located in Lancaster precinct. In about 1828, he es- tablished a tannery, which was a great convenience to the settlement. One daughter, Mrs. Cunningham, re- sides in the precinct. John Mclntosh, an influential pioneer, was a native of Virginia, born of Scotch parents. As early as 1785, he emigrated from Kentucky, and from thence to Illinois, in 1814. He then had a family of six children. He first stopped in the Compton fort a few months, when he moved to section 23, Wabash precinct, where he re- mained but a short time, removing to Coffee precinct. Not liking this section of the country, he returned to Wabash precinct, where he made a permanent settle- ment in section 23. He was a representative man, and popular with the people. On the organization of Ed- wards county, he was appointed one of the three mem- bers of the County Court, which position he held for several terms. In 1816, he was selected counsel for that court in the place of Thomas C. Browne. He was a public spirited man, and did much in aiding to organize and regulate the affairs of the county. His death oc- curred at his farm in 1829. Some are residing in the county. Charles Garner, a son in-law of Judge Mclntosh, also came from Kentucky, in 1814, and settled in section 23, Wabash precinct. Other settlers of this precinct, in 1815, were Benjamin Hul- bert, Henry Leek, Samuel Simcoe, John Armstrong, Joseph Gardner, and Peter Keen. The former came from New Jersey, having a large family of children when he made his advent here. He located in section 13. Henry Leek was a son-in-law of Hulbert, and was noted as a great hunter, and a skilled mechanic. He remained but a short time, when he moved to other parts. Armstrong came from Tennessee, and settled in section 15. He had six sons, one of whom, Abner, was appointed the first sheriffof Edwards county. Another son, Thomas, represented Wabash county in the Legis- lature one term, and was also Judge of the County Court. Gardner settled in section 9. Peter Keen came to the county on a prospecting tour in 1814, when he returned to his family in Ohio. The spring following he came to the county, and after shifting about for a few years he permanently settled in section 14, town- ship 1 north, range 13 west. He remained here until his death in 1850. Two of the pioneer children are yet living, Shulamite and Ira. The latter resides at Friendsville, and is eighty two years of age. William Mclntosh settled in the north part of Mt. Carmel precinct, as early as 1814. He owned a large tract of land known as " Mclntosh " Reserve." He erected quite a large mansion, for those days, situated near the Wabash, at the foot of the rapids. He was a single man, but had colored servants to conduct his household affairs. He died many years ago. A prominent early settler was Henry Utter, who came ! to the county in about 1814 or '15, and located in Friendsville precinct. He was elected a member of the Legislature in 1818, the year of the State's admission ' into the Union. In 1824, he was again elected to fill the same position. In 1821, he was one of the members | of the county board. Some of his descendants are liv- ing in the county. Gervase Hazleton was one of the first settlers at old Palmyra. The first courts were held at his residence. He was the third County Clerk of what was then Ed wards county, serving from 1821 to 1823. I A settlement was formed at Campbell's Lauding, in Coffee precinct, as early as 1810. One of the most prom- | nent settlers was James Campbell, of Scotch descent. He came from Kentucky, and had quite a large family, I besides owning thirteen slaves, whom he set at liberty some time after coming to Illinois. It is said that eleven of them were subsequently kidnapped and sold back into i slavery. At one time the family was obliged to flee across the river to save being massacred at the hands of the Piafikashaws. Others of the settlement were, Henry Painter, Henry Gambrel, a man by the name of Parks, John Cannon, and his son in-law, John Starks, and John Grayson. The latter located in section 31. He was a man of push and enterprise, and was the first to erect a water-mill in this part of the county. Some of his de- i scendants are residing here. A portion of the Cannon ! family were massacred by the Indians, an account of which will be found in this chapter. Daniel Keen and David Wright also located in this HISTORY OF EDWARDS, LAWRENCE AND WABASH COUNTIES, ILLINOIS. 77 settlement iu about 1815. The former was a sou of Peter Keen, heretofore mentioned. He became an" in- fluential citizen iu the neighborhood, and was elected a member of the county board, which office he filled for several years. Wright came from Ohio. He was then a widower. He afterwards married Sarah Mclntosh, and settled in section 22, range 13 west. Robert E. Wright, a son, now r< siding at Mt. Oarinel. Other early settlers of Coffee precinct may be mentioned, Elijah Compton, Walter Garner, James Lansdowu, John Craddock, Charles P. Burns, who was one of the first Justice of the Peace ; Daniel Groves, John McCleary, Thomas Baird, Reuben Blackford, Henry Bignon, Jas. Chism, Elias Jordon, the Cowlings, James and John Gray, James Kennerly, John Nesler, and others. In 1816, quite a little colony left Alleghany county, New York, to make their homes upon the wild frontiers. Among these with their families, were George W. Hig- gins, John Higgios, Willis Higgins, Edward Brines, Henry Utter, Lemuel Haskins, David Moss, John Harrison, Benjamin Smith, and Levi Couch. They secured boats at the Alleghany river and floated down to the Ohio, and thence to Evansville. Here they pro- cured keel-boats and came up the Wabash, landing at Old Palmyra. Of this little band of emigrants, five families settled in Lancaster precinct, John Higgins, Couch, Moss, Harrison and Smith. The others located in Friendsville. Others of an early date who located in Lancaster precinct were, Isaac Harues, Henry Cusick, James McMullen, George and David Pugh, George and Andrew Knight, James Rollins, Jessie Jones, Geo. Glick> Elias Baily, Rozander Smith, Samuel Fisher and others. The first settlers of Bellmont precinct were John and Jacob Arnold, Staly D. McKlure, and a man by the name of Mpturey. This was in 1816 The latter settled in section 24, town 1 south, range 14 west. John Arnold came with his family from Kentucky. He was a distinguished hunter and had no fixed abiding place- He subsequently moved to Missouri, James, his brother, a single man, afterwards married and settled in section 5, township 2 south. McKlure was also from Kentucky. He located in section 28, towiship 1, range 13 west, where he remained until his death. Other early settlers of Btllmont precinct were, William Wilson, George Wheeler, William Tanquary, Jonathan Gilkin- son, William Deputy, Robert James, and Samuel Riggs, Andrew T. Dyar, Joseph Ballard, Christ Ernsc, Samuel Fettinger, Rodarn Kenner, William Hunter, John Proctor, William Weir, A. W. Cory, Joseph Sloan and John Frair. Cornelius Vanderhoof was a settler of Wabash pre- cinct as early as 1816. S. E. Goff settled in section 14, of the same precinct at about the same time. Among others who made early settlements in this precinct may be mentioned, John W. Buchanan, William Johnson, Mrs. Margaret Filpot, Hugh Calahan, John Andrew, Joseph Wright, John Buchanon, John Snider, Thomas Cisel, Isaac Smith and James Payne. One of the prominent early settlers of Mt. Carmel precinct, was the Rev. Thomas S. Hinde, a native of Virginia. He came from Ohio to Illinois, in 1817, and in connection with others, founded the city of Mt. Car- mel. He was a man of strict moral convictions, and did i much good in the age which he lived Hediedat Mt Car- mel in 1846. Other early settlers of Mt. Carmel precinct were, Rev. William Beauchaimp, Hiram Bell, Joshua and James Beall, Isaac Ingersoll, Edward Ulm, Scoby Stewart, Aaron Gould, Joseph Jones, James Townshend, James Black, Abraham Russell, William Simonds, William Stone, Beauchamp Harvey, John Tilton, Capt. James Sharp and others. Capt. Sharp is yet living, and is a citizen of Mt. Carmel. John Dale settled in Friendsville precinct, in 1815, on section 20. He was a farmer and mechanic, and was noted for his cleverness in horse trading. In the same year, Henry McGregor located here not far from Dale. Among others of early times, who came to this precint were, John Smith Jr., William and James Pool, Josiah Higgins, Ephraim Reed, the Knapps, John Shadle, Charles and John McNair, the Osgoods, George Lither- land, William Brown, John White, Benjamin Taylor, I Z. Warner, David Daily and some others. Philip Hull settled iu Lick Prairie precinct, in 1815, I section 28. Ephraim Armstrong from Tennessee,, locat- ed in section 30, near Hall. Samuel Mundy, Louis Armstrong, William Ulm, James Wiley, Jacob Gupton, Calvin Morgan, Benjamin T. Hill, Adam Baird, Fred- j erick Miller and John Moore were also early settlers in ! the precinct. Pioneer Mills. Among the first were the " band Mills." A description of one will not prove uninterest- ing. The plan was cheap. The horse power consisted of a large upright shaft, some ten or twelve feet in hight with some eight or ten long arms let into the main shaft and extending out from it fifteen feet. Auger holes were bored into the arms on the upper side at the end, ! into which woooden pins were driven. This was called the '' big wheel," and was as has been seen, about twenty feet in diameter. The raw hide belt or tug was made of skins taken off of beef cattle, which were cut into str'ps three inches in width ; these were twisted into a round cord or tug, which was long enough to encircle the cir- cumference of the big wheel. There it was held in place by the wooden pins, then to cross and pass under a shed to run around a drum, or what is called a "trunnel head," which was attached to the grinding apparatus. The horses or oxen were hitched to the arms by means of raw hide tugs. Then walking in a circle the machin- ery would be set in motion. To grind twelve bushels ! of corn was considered a good day's work on a band I mill. The most rude and primitive method of manufactur- g meal was by the use of the Grater. A plate of tin ! is pierced with many holes, so that one side is very rough. The tin is made oval, and then nailed to a i board. An ear of corn was rubbed hard on this grater HISTORY OF EDWARDS, LAWRENCE AND W ABASH COUNTIES, ILLINOIS. whereby the meal was forced through the holes, and fell down into a vessel prepared to receive it. An improve- ment on this was the Hand mill. The slones were smaller than those of the band mill, and were propelled by man or woman power. A hole is made in the upper stone, and a staff of wood is put in it, and the other end of the staff is put through a hole in a plank above, so that the hole is free to act. One or two persons take hold of this staff and turn the upper stone as rapidly as possible. An eye is made in the upper stone, through which the corn is put into the mill, instead of a hopper. A mortar, wherein corn was beaten into meal, is made out of a large round log three or four feet long. One end is cut or burnt out so as to hold a peck of corn, more or less, according to circumstances. This mortar is set one end on the ground, and the other up, to hold Ihe corn. A sweep is prepared over the mortar so that the spring of the pole raises the piston, and the hands at it force it so hard down on the corn that after much beating, meal is manufactured. The trials, inconveniences, dangers and hardships of the pioneers would fill volumes. As early as 1811, each settlement was obliged to have its fort or block-house to flee to at a moment's warning for protection from the marauding bands of Indians. Several of these forts have already been mentioned. The Greathouse fort was situated on Greathouse creek, in section 30, township 1 south, range 13 west. From 1811 to 1815, this fort was occupied by more or less families. Tradition relates of an episode, that occurred at fort Ramsey in about 1812. In the most troublesome times the women and children were placed in the forts, while the men would work in the fields, gun in hand, ready for any emergency. Others were detailed to scout around and to keep a sharp look- out for the murderous red skins. One Ramsey was too fearless to go into the fort, declaring he could protect himself. The rangers had been out on a scout, and on return thought they would give him a scare, his cabin being not far from the fort, they gave a terrific war whoop, fired their guns, and came thundering toward the fort. Captain Higgins, inside, cried out, " The Indians, the Indians. Every man to his post! At this moment the ponderous gate swung open, and an army seemed to be entering. The women screamed, believing that they all would soon be scalped. Cries, prayers, and snatching of babies by women in undress continued for some time to the amusement of the Rangers. The joke turned out far more serious for the women than it did for Ramsey. The only means of grinding their meal in the forts, was by crushing it in a mortar. Families would take turns in performing this slow and arduous task, for it must be remembered these were times when a small army had to be fed. Harrison Ingraham, who died in Clay county, Illinois, a few years ago, in an ar- ticle of the Pioneer Times, published in one of the Mt. Carmel papers centennial year, says that he was born in Fort Barney, and that he has heard his mother relate that the day before he was born, she went to the fields and plucked, wheat, rubbed it out with her hands, crushed it in a mortar, and made a cake to set before her friends on that occasion. This was said to be the first wheat bread manufactured in Wabash county. A circumstance occurred in 1815, which threw the early settlers into a fever of fear and excitement. It was what has passed into history as THE CANNON MASSACRE. The account of the sad affair as related by one of Mr. Cannon's daughters a few years ago, is substantially as follows : Mr. Cannon and his sons cajne across the Wabash from the Indiana side, and constructed a cabin near Campbell's Landing in Coffee precinct, on the ground where the Painter grave-yard is now located. No signs of Indians were seen while they were engaged in the work, and they supposed they had all left. After com- pleting the cabin, they crossed the river to bring over the family. Late in the afternoon of the same day, they all moved over and settled in their new home. While building their house, they had found a bee-tree, and after becoming fairly settled, the men went into the timber to cut it. While thus engaged a band of Indians suddenly j fell upon them. Mr. Cannon was instantly killed, and the others fled for their lives. Samuel, a son, was soon overtaken and dispatched by the murderous foe. They cut off his head and otherwise mutilated the body, leav- ing it where he fell. Mrs. Cannon, a daughter, and a son- in-law by the name of Starks, were captured and carried off by the Indians. They were, however, subsequently ransomed. Mr. Cannon and his son were buried by two neighbors, Samuel Mclntosh and Henry Gambrel. They were wrapped in a horse skin and placed in one grave. This was the first interment made in the Painter burial ground. HABITS AND MODES OF LIVING OF THE PIONEERS AND FIRST SETTLERS. The pioneers were destitute of many of the conven- iences of life, and of some things that are now con- sidered necessaries ; but they patiently endured their lot and hopefully looked forward to better. They had plenty to wear as protection against the weather, and an abundance of wholesome food. They sat down to a rude table to eat from tin or pewter dishes ; but the meat thereon spread the flesh of the deer or bear; of the wild duck or turkey ; of the quail or squirrel was su- perior to that we eat, and had been won by the skill of the head of the house or of that of his vigorous sons. The bread they ate was made from corn or wheat of their own raising. They walked the green carpet of the grand prairie or forest that surrounded them, not with the air of a beggar, but with the elastic step of a self-re- spected freeman. The settler brought with him the keen axe, which was indispensable, and the equally necessary rifle ; the first his weapon of offense against the forests that skirted the water-courses, and near which he made his home ; the HISTORY OF EDWARDS, LAWRENCE AND WABASH COUNTIES, ILLINOIS. second that of defence from the attacks of his foe, the cunniug child of the forest and prairie. His first labor was to fell trees and erect his unpretentious cabin, which was rudely made of logs, and in the raising of which he had the cheerful aid of his neighbors. It was usually from fourteen to sixteen feet square, and never larger than twenty feet, and was frequently built entirely with- out glass, nails, hinges or locks. The manner of building was as follows: First large logs were laid in position as sills ; on these were placed strong sleepers, and on the sleepers were laid the rough- hewed puncheons, which were to serve as floors. The logs were then built up till the proper height for the eaves were reached ; then on the ends of the building were placed poles, longer than the other end-logs, which projected some eighteen or more inches over the sides, and were called " butting pole sleepers ; " on the project- ing ends of these was placed the " butting pole " which served to give the line to the first row of clap-boards. These were, as a matter of course, split, and as the gables of the cabin were built up, were so laid on as to lap a third of their length. They were often kept in place by the weight of a heavy pole, which was laid across the roof parallel to the ridge-pole. The house was then chinked, and daubed with a coarse mortar. A huge fire-place was built in at one end of the house, in which fire was kindled for cooking purposes, for the settlers generally were without stoves, and which furnished the needed warmth in winter. The ceiling above was sometimes covered with the pelts of the rac- coon, opossum, and of the wolf, to add to the warmth of the dwelling. Sometimes the soft inner bark of the bass wood was used for the same purpose. The cabin was lighted by means of greased paper-windows. A log would be left out along one side, and sheets of strong paper, well greased with coon-grease or bear-oil, would be carefully tacked in. The above description only applies to the very earliest times, before the rattle of the saw-mill was heard within our borders. The furniture comported admirably with the house itself, and hence if not elegant, was in most perfect taste. The tables had four leg*, and were rudely made from a puncheon. Their seats were stools having three or four legs. The bedstead was in keeping with the restj and was often so contrived as to permit it to be drawn up and fastened to the wall during the day, thus afford- ing more room to the family. The entire furniture was simple, and was framed with no other tools than an axe and auger. Each was his own carpenter; and some displayed considerable ingenuity in the construction of implements of agriculture, and utensils, and furniture for the kitchen and house. Knives and forks they sometimes had, and sometimes had not. The common table-knife was the pack- knife or butcher-knife. Horse-collars were sometimes made of the plaited husk of the maize sewed together. They were easy on the neck of the horse, and if tug traces were used, would last a long while. Horses were not used very much, however, and oxen were almost exclu- '. sively used. In some instances carts and wagons were constructed or repaired by the self-reliant settler ; and the woful creakings of the untarred axles could be heard at a great distance. The women corresponded well with the description of the virtuous woman in the last chapter of Proverbs, for they " sought wool and flax, and worked willingly with i their hands." They did not, it is true, make for them- i selves " coverings of tapestry," nor could it be said of them that their "clothing was silk and purple;" but they " rose while it was yet night, and gave meat to their household," and they "girded their loins with strength and strengthened their arms." They "looked well to the 1 ways of their household, and eat not the bread of idle- ! ness." They laid " their hands to the spindle and to the ' distaff," and " strength and honor were in their cloth- | ing." I In these days of furbelows and flounces, when from | twenty to thirty yards are required by one fair damsel i for a dress, it is refreshing to know that the ladies of j that ancient time considered eight yards an extravagant amount to put into one dress. The dress was usually made plain with four widths in the skirt, and two front ones cut gored. The waist was made very short, and across the shoulders behind was a draw-string. The sleeves were enormously large, and tapered from shoulder to wrist, and the most fashionable for fashion, like love, rules like the " court and grove" were padded so as to resemble a bolster at the upper part, and were known as " mutton-legs," or " sheep-shank sleeves." The sleeve was kept in shape often by a heavily starched lining. Those who could afford it used feathers, which gave the sleeve the appearance of an inflated balloon from elbow 1 up, and were known as " pillow-sleeves." Many bows and ribbons were worn, but scarcely any jewelry. The tow dress was superseded by the cotton I gown. Around the neck, instead of a lace collar or ele- j gant ribbon, there was disposed a copperas-colored neckerchief. ! The women manufactured nearly all the clothing worn I by the family. In cool weather gowns made of "linsey woolsey " were worn by the ladies. The chain was of cotton and the filling of wool. The fabric was usually plaid or striped, and the differing colors were blended according to the taste and fancy of the fair maker. Colors were blue, copperas, turkey-red, light blue, etc. Every house contained a card-loom and spinning-wheels, which were considered by the women as necessary for ' them as the rifle for the men. Several different kinds of cloth were made. Cloth was woven from cotton. The i rolls were bought and spun, on little and big wheels, j into two kinds of thread; one the "chain," and the other the " filling." The more experienced only spun the chain ; the younger the filling. Two kinds of looms : were in use. The most primitive in construction was called the " side-loom." The frame of it consisted of HISTORY OF EDWARDS, LAWRENCE AND WABASII COUNTIES, ILLINOIS. two pieces of scantling running obliquely from the floor to the wall. Later, the frame loom, which was a great improvement over the other, came into use. The men and boys wore "jeans" and linsey-woolsey shirts. The "jeans" were colored either light blue or butternut. , Many times when the men gathered to a log-rolling or barn-raising, the women would assemble bringing their spinning-wheels with them. In this way sometimes as many as ten or twelve would gather in one room, and the pleasant voices of the fair spinners were mingled with the low hum of the spinning-wheels. "Oh! golden early days!" Such articles of apparel as could not be manufactured were brought to them from the nearest store by the mail- carrier. These were few, however. The men and boys, in many instances, wore pantaloons made of the dressed skin of the deer, which then swarmed the prairies in large herds. The young man who desired to look capti- vating to the eye of the maiden whoni he loved, had his " bucks " fringed, which lent to them a not unpleasing effect. Meal-sacks were also made of buckskin. Caps were made of the skins of the wolf, fox, wildcat and muskrat tanned with the fur on. The tail of the fox or wolf often hung from the top of the cap, lending the wearer a jaunty air. Both sexes wore moccasins, which in dry weather were an excellent substitute for shoes. There were no shoemakers, and each family made its own shoes. The settlers were separated from their neighbors often by miles. There were no church-houses or regular ser- vices of any kind to call them together ; hence, no doubt, the cheerfulness with which they accepted invitations to a house-raising, or a log-rolling, or a corn-husking, or a bee of any kind. To attend these gatherings they would go ten and sometimes more miles. Generally with the invitation to the men went one to the women to come to a quilting. The good woman of the house where the festivities were to take place would be busily engaged for a day or more in preparation for the coming guests. Great quantities of provisions were to be prepared, for dyspepsia was unknown to the pioneer, and good appetites were the rule and not the exception. At all the 1-g-rol lings, and house-raisings it was cus- tomary to provide liquor. Excesses were not indulged in, however. The fiddler was never forgotten. After the day's work had been accomplished, out doors and in, by men and women, the floor was cleared and the merry : dance began. The handsome, stalwart young men, | whose fine forms were the result of their manly outdoor | life, clad in fringed buckskin breeches and gaudily j colored hunting shirts, led forth the bright-eyed buxom ' damsels, attired in neat-fitting linsey woolsey garments, ! to the dance, their cheeks glowing with health, and j eyes speaking of enjoyment, and perhaps of a tenderer ! emotion. The amusements of that day were more athletic and rude than those of to-day. Among the settlers of a new country, from the nature of the case, a higher value is set upon physical than mental endowments. Skill in woodcraft, superiority of muscular development, accu- racy in shooting with the rifle, activity, swiftness of foot, were qualifications that brought their possessors fame. Foot racing was often practised, and often the boys and young men engaged in friendly contests with the Indians. Every man had a rifle, and kept always in good order ; his flints, bullet-molds, screw driver, awl, butcher-knife and tomahawk were fastened to the shot-pouch strap or to the belt around the waist Target-shooting was much practised, and shots were made by the hunters and settlers, with flint-lock rifles, that cannot be excelled by their descendants with the improved breech-loaders of the present day. At all gatherings jumping and wrestling were indulged in, and those who excelled were thenceforth men of no- toriety. Cards, dice, and other gambling implements were unknown. Dancing was a favorite amusement. It was participated in by all. At their shooting-matches, which were usually for the prize of a turkey, or a gallon of whisky, good feeling always prevailed. If disputes arose, they were settled often by a square stand-up fight, and no one thought of using other weapons than fists. The picture here drawn of the pioneers, their modes of living, their customs and amusements, while lacking entire completeness, we feel is not inaccurate and un- truthful. CHAPTER VIII. CIVIL HISTORY. EDWAKDS COUNTY. HE formation- of Edwards county dates back to 1814, and is the sixth county organized within the present territory of the State of Illinois. It embraced an immense area, in- cluding about one-third of the State, besides a large portion of the State of Wisconsin and a part of Michigan. As another writer said, " In the presence of the stupend- ous changes in this State, it is hard to imagine that sixty nine years ago, when Edwards county was organ- ized, neither Cook county or Chicago had any existence, but the present Cook county was in the jurisdiction of Edwards county, and its county seat at Palmyra at the falls of the Big Wabash, a town which has long since ceased to be." The following is a copy of the original paper prepared by the Territorial Legislature creating Edwards county . "An act for the division of Gallatin county. Sec. 1. Be it enacted by the Legislature, Council, and House of Representatives of the Illinois territory, and it is here- by enacted by the authority of the same, that all that HISTORY OF EDWARDS, LAWRENCE AXD WAR A fill COUXTIES, ILLINOIS. .81 tract of country within the following boundaries (to wit) : Beginning at the north of Borapast (Boupas) creek on the big Wabash, and running thence due west to the Meridan line, and due north till it enters the line of j Upper Canada to the line that separates this territory from Indiana territory, and thence with the said dividing i line to the beginning, shall constitute a separate county to be called Edwards, and the seat of justice for said county shall be at the town now called Palmyra, on the Wabash, provided the proprietor or proprietors of said land shall give to the said county, for the purpose of erecting the public buildings, a quantity of land at said place, not less than twenty acres, to be laid off into lots and sold for the above purpose. But, if such proprietor or proprietors refuse or neglect to make the donation aforesaid, then in that case it shall be the duty of the Court of Common pleas, who shall be appointed for said county, to fix up jn some other place for the seat of j justice as convenient as may be to the different sett e- ments in said county. Sec. 2. Be it further enacted that the Court of Com- j mon Pleas shall sit in said county at the following periods (to-wit.) The court for the civil and criminal business on the fourth Mondays of March, July, and November, yearly and every year, and three other courts shall be holden on the fourth Mondays of Jauu- ; ary, May, and September 4 yearly and every year. Sec. a. Be it further enacted that it shall and may be ; lawful for the governor of this territory immediately to constitute the militia in this county, thus laid off into one battalion, the commanding officer of which shall have the same power to order out the militia as is now proposed by the Lieutenant-Colonels of the respective regiments. Sec. 4. And be it further enacted that the said county of Edwards is hereby entitled to one representative in the House of Representatives of this territory, who shall be elected agreeably to law and be entitled to all the : immunities, powers, and privileges prescribed by law to the members of the House of Representatives. And whereas the next general election for representatives to the legislature, will not take place before the month of September, in the year 1816, and in consequence thereof the said county will be unrepresented in the House of Representatives until the time for remedy thereof. An election is hereby directed to be held in the seat of justice for said county, on the first Thursday in March next, and continued open three days, and to be conducted in all other respects by the persons and in the manner prescribed by law, at which said election the persons entitled to vote, may elect a representative to the House of Representatives, who shall continue in office until the 10th day of October, 1816, and shall during his con- tinuance in office be bound to perform the same duties, and entitled to the same privileges and immunities that are prescribed by law to a member of the House of Re- presentatives. Sec. > r >. Be it further enacted that whereas the counties 11 * of Gallatin and Edwards compose one district for the purpose of electing a member of the Legislative Council, the citizens of said county entitled to vote may at any election for a member of the Legislative Council to re- present said district, proceed to vote for such members ; and it shall moreover be the duty of the sheriff of the said county of Edwards, within ten days after the close of said election, to attend at the court-house of the county of Gallatin, with a statement of the votes given in the said county of Edwards, to compare the polls of the respective counties, and it shall be the duty of the sheriff of Gallatin county to attend at such time and place with a statement of the votes of Gallatin county, and upon counting the votes of the respective counties, it shall be the duty of the said sheriff of Gallatin and Edwards counties to make out and deliver to the person duly elected a certificate thereof. If the said sheriff, or either of them, shall refuse or fail to perform the duty required by this section, such delinquent shall forfeit and pay the sum of two hundred dollars, to be recovered by 'action of debtor indictment, one half to the use of the territory, and the other half to the person suing the same. Sec. 6. Be it further enacted that the citizens of said county of Edwards are hereby declared to be entitled, in all respects, to the same rights and privileges in the election of a Delegate to Congress, as well as a member to the House of Representatives of the territory, that are allowed by law to the other counties of this territory, and all elections are to be conducted at the same time and in the same manner, except as is excepted in this law as is provided for in other counties. This act shall commence and be in force from and after the passage thereof. Approved this 28th Nov., 1814. RISDON MOORE, Speaker of the House of Representa- tives. BENJAMIN TALBOT, President of the Council, pro tern. NINIAN EDWARDS. NAT. POPE, Secretary of Illinois Territory. It will thus be seen that the grand old county of Edwards, which once contained many millions of acres within its boundaries, has become one of the smallest counties in the State. It received its name in honor of the Hon. Ninian Edwards, first territorial governor of Illinois territory. COUNTY GOVERNMENT AT PALMYRA. Palmyra, the county seat named in the act, was accepted by the county court as the proper point for establishing the capital of the county, upon the propri- etors of said town offering to donate twenty acres of ground for said purpose. The town of Palmyra was created the 22d day of April, 1815, by the joint act of Seth Gard, Peter Keen, Gervase Hazletou, Levi Comp- ton, and John Waggoner, which was known as Seth Gard & Co. It was situated at a sluggish bend on the river within the confines of two fractional lots, numbers HISTORY OF EDWARDS, LAWRENCE AND WABASH COUNTIES, ILLINOIS. four and five, in township 1 south of the base line, in range 12 west of the second meridian. For some reason the proprietors of the town withheld the deed of donation to the county until the 7th of May, 1816. From the county court's record of the February term, 1815, we find the following in relation to the acceptance by the court, and the boundaries of the twenty acres donated to the county : " Ordered that the court accept the donation of twenty acres made by the proprietors, lying in the following manner, viz. : Beginning at the northwest corner of the public .square, and running north and west, so as to include a square of twenty acres. It is also ordered, that no person cut any timber off the said twenty acres except it be for public use." The subject is brought up again at the April term following, as the action of the court was not satisfactory to the donors of the land. The record reads, " Judge Card, as a branch of this court objects to the manner and form in which the donation was received by the court from the proprietors on the 6th February last. The objection was heard and agreed to by Judge Mcln- tosh ; therefore, it is ordered that the former donation made by the proprietors be made null and void, and agreeable to the act of the legislature in that case made and provided on the 28th day of November, 1814, it is ordered that the donation be, and is hereby rescinded in the following manner, viz. : Commencing at the north- west corner of the public square and running due north j forty-eight rods, three and a-half feet, thence west twenty- two rods, thence south parallel with the first line, thence at right angles east and north to the place of beginning, j so as to include the twenty acres ; and whereas one or more lots hath been given to Solomon Frear, etc., for building upon, the said proprietors bind themselves to give the court one to the same value, if the said Frear should build and hold the said lot." At the third meeting of the county court it was or- ; dered that N. Claypoole be appointed agent for the county of Edwards, to advertise and sell the lots that the court should think proper, for the use of defraying the ex- \ penses of the public buildings, on twelve months' credit, by taking bond and approved security, the sale to con- tinue until all lots were sold. At a subsequent meeting of the court an order ia made that the lots shall not be sold for less than $15 per lot. Palmyra was only a frontier town of the most primitive character, the build- ings being constructed wholly of logs, and the site was most unfortunately chosen. It was situated on low ground, surrounded by sloughs and marshes, and was therefore one of the most sickly portions of the West. It was for this reason, perhaps, that lots brought such a meager price in the market. The First County Court.* The following is a synopsis of the doings of the first county court, the session being held at the house of Gervase Hazleton, Monday, Jan. 2o, 1815: " At a county court of Edwards county, begun and held in the town of Palmyra, the seat of justice of William Barney was one of the members of the county court, Kin was not i.reH..nt:.t it- fir-t -.s-i..,,. said county and territory of Illinois, agreeable to an Act of the Legislature passed at Kaskaskia November 28th, 1814 Members present: JOHN MclNTOSH, ) T * : N. CLAYPOOLE, Clerk. SETH GARD, j Juages. ABNER ARMSTRONG, Sheri/." After being duly sworn, the clerk and sheriff pro- duced their bonds with security, which was approved by the court, when they proceeded to business as fol- lows: The first order of the court was for the establish- ment of a ferry from the town of Palmyra across the Wabash river to the opposite shore, in the name of Hazleton & Co., the rates being fixed as follows : " Each wheel of a cart, carriage or wagon, 18?c. ; and each horse drawing the same, 12} cents. For every man and horse, from the first day of December until the last day of May inclusive, be 25 cents ; and from the first day of June until the last day of November inclusive, be 12} cents ; and for every footman and each head of cattle, 6} cents; and each head of sheep and hogs, 3 cents." The second order reads : " That a road be reviewed from Palmyra for the nearest and best route to the county line dividing Edwards county and Gallatin; on a direct line to Shawneetown ; and that Levi Compton, Ransom Higgins and John Campbell be and are hereby appointed to review the same, and make return against the 6th day of February next." The next order pro- vides for a road to be reviewed from Palmyra to the nearest and best route to Vallies' Ford on the river Wabash. John Compton, Wm. B. Smith and Alex- ander AVood were appointed reviewers. The foregoing constituted the first day's business. On convening the court the day following, Robert Baird was appointed to " cess and take in all land and county tax in the county of Edwards." One of the most important actions of the court was the dividing of the great county of Edw.irds into two townships. The order reads : " That the county of Edwards be and is hereby divided into two townships, by a line running with the Embarras creek, and all that county above to be included in one town- ship, and be called Lamot township ; and all the country south of the said Embarras creek, to include the other township and called Palmyra township." It will be seen from the description of the foregoing boundaries, that Lamot township comprised a territory of very great dimensions, and was probably the largest township on record in this or any other state, as it embraced all thaf country between the eastern and western boundaries of Edwards county, and extending from the Embarras to Upper Canada. At the same session, Ransom Higgins and John Still- well were appointed supervisors of the poor for Palmyra township ; and Thomas Kennedy and James Baird for Lamot township. The court also ordered, " that the jail for Edwards county be let to the lowest bidder on Mon- day, the 6th day of February next, at 3 o'clock p. si." Until the completion of the jail, it would seem that the prisoners were confined under guard within certain HISTORY OF EDWARDS, LAWRENCE AND II .1 A'.l.sV/ COUNTIES, ILLINOIS. limits, as the following action of the court would verify : " Ordered, that no person in the prison bounds go further ! than the southwest corner of Lot No. 3, in block M, and thence wiih an alley to the southeast corner of lot No. 5 ! in block B, and thence north to the northeast corner of ' lot No. 6 in block D, thence west with an alley to the ! corner of lot No. 2 in block O, thence south to the place of beginning." Subsequent Proceedings. At a special meeting of the court, held Feb 6, 1815, the reviewers of the road from Palmyra to the line dividing Edwards and Gallatin counties made their report, when the court decided that said road would be of public utility, and Joseph Wood was appointed supervisor of so much of the road as lay between Crawfish and Coffee Creeks, including the prai- ries Pulliam and Banker. August Laviolette (Lavu- lette) was appointed supervisor of that part of the road lying between Coffee creek and Boupas ; and Thomas Jjeavins, supervisor of that part between Bonpas and the county line. The reviewers of the road between Palmyra and Vallie's Ford also reported, which being accepted, Joshua Jordan was appointed supervisor of the same. The first license for the sale of spirituous liquors was granted to Robert Erwin, on payment to the county of the sum of two dollars ; the rate fixed for the sale was twelve and a-half cents per half pint. This was done at a special term, April 4th, 1815. At the same session, Francis Vallie was licensed to establish a ferry across the Wabash river, from his house to the opposite shore, the rates fixed as follows : For every man and horse, 25 cents ; footman, 12J cents; for each wheel of cart, car- riage or wagon, 18J cents ; for each head of cattle, 6J cents ; for each head of sheep or hogs, 3 cents William B Adams was appointed constable for Pal- myra township; Thos. C. Browne was appointed prose- cuting attorney for EJ wards county; Robert Beard was recommended by the court to the territorial governor for county surveyor, and Gervase Hazleton was recom- mended for justice of the peace. The following are the rates of the first tax levy, as fixed by this court : " Each ferry, $8 ; each horse, mare, mule or ass, 50 cents ; each stud horse at the rate he stands the season ; every bond servant, $1.00, and 10 cents for every hundred dollars worth of land." The first case before the court came up at the August term, 1815, and is 'thus placed of record : ' "Richard Easton, assignee of Andrew J. Walker, vs. John Wal- drup." The case was ordered to be continued until the next session of court. At the beginning of court session in February, 1816, it would seem that this honorable body had grown in importance and dignity, as the record reads : " Present The Worshipfuls John Mclutosh. Seth Card and Wil- liam Barney." As there is nothing in the records to show wherein this court received any emoluments for their services, we are led to infer that the title of" Wor- shipful " was the only compensation to which this august body was entitled The first business transacted was ordering an allowance of fifty dollars salary to the sheriff, Abner Armstrong, for one year's salary. On the petition of James Martin, he was licensed to keep a public house in the town of Palmyra, by paying the sum of one dollar for the use of the county. The " tavern " rates were fixed as follows : " For half pint of whisky, 12Jc. ; night's lodging, 12}c. ; for each diet, 25c. ; horse to hay all night, 25c. ; each horse feed, 12Jc. ; each quart of cider, 121c. ; pint of rum, wine or brandy, 50 cents." The same session Thomas C. Browne, prosecuting at- torney, was allowed ten dollars attorney fees for the county in the year 1815. Following the above is an order that Levi Cumpton, John Tome and Gervase Hazleton be appointed to contract for the building of a court-house in Palmyra, and that said commissioners take no action in the matter until further instruction. The first business on the following morning the commis- sioners, by an order from the court, are instructed to contract for the building of the house upon the best possible terms, and have the work done immediately. Later in the day the following appears : " Ordered that the order this day made directing the commissioners appointed to contract for the building of the court- house be set aside." John Shadle was allowed twenty dollars for putting a shingle roof on the jail, which was to be completed by the next term of court. " Ordered that the sum of eight dollars be allowed to Gervase Hazleton for the use of his house for the court's last year's session. 'Ordered that the sum of $235 be allowed to David Wright, as full compensation for the building of a jail in Palmyra, and that the treasurer pay the same as soon and as fast as money comes into his hands, this being the senior claim against the county." Settlement was made with the county treasurer Feb- ruary 16, 1816, with the following showing: Amt. received by treasurer for 1815, including claims by sheriff 8179 62}$ Amt. rec'd from Seth Gar.l for purchs Amt rec'd from tavern license ey of lot in Palmyra 31 00 At the May meeting of thia year Lamot township was divided with boundaries as follows : "Beginning at the Wabash river at the corner between townships Nos. 5 and 6, and running with said line due west to the meridian line, thence with said line to the township line between Nos. 2 and 3, thence with the fifth township lines to the Wabash ; and that the same be known by the name of Embarras township." At the same session Abner Armstrong filed his bond as collector of the revenue of the county of Edwards. John Mclutire was appointed counsel for the court in the place of Thomas C. Browne, at the August'tern, 1816. The following appears on the record of the November term following : On the petition of Adam Gollahart and HISTORY OF KDWAKDS, LAWRKXCK AND WABASH COUNTIES, ILLINOIS. William Douglas, trustees to the Shakers, it is ordered that a writ of ad quod damnum be issued in their name to view a mill-seat on Erabarras river, on the southwest quarter of sec. 28, tp. 5, range 12, and that a writ be directed to the sheriff commanding him to summon twelve good and lawful men householders to meet on the premises Friday, the 8th day of November, 1816. The su bscquent action of the court granted the prayer of the peiitioners, and the mill was located on the river, in the southwest qr. of sec. 28, tp. 5, range 12, being the first water flouring mill authorized to be built in the county. A reward was offered at the rate of twenty five cents for male wolf scalps and two dollars for female scalps. George Barney received the first reward under this law. At the above session the record reads : " Ordered that the sum of one dollar and fifty cents be allowed George Barney for killing two wolves." SECOND COURT. * John Mclntosh, William Barney, Robert Frazer, commissioners. At the February term, 1817, important charges were made in the subdivision of the county i nto townships. It was ordered that the county be di- vided and laid off as follows:" 1, township called Coffee township, to begin at the mouth of Bonpas creek, and running up the Wabash river to the line between towns one and two, and with that line to the meridian line, and all that part of the county south of the line between towns one and two compose township No. 1 ; and that part of the county between the upper boundary of Coffee township and the base line running west to the meridian line, compose township No. 2, called Palmyra township; and that part of the county Ijing between the upper boundary of Palmyra township, and the line between- towns one and two north of the base line running due west, compose township No. 3, called Prairie town- ship ; and that that .part of the county lying north of Prairie townthip to the northern boundary of the coiTnty, compose township No. 4, called Embarras township." Robert Frazer was appointed assessor in Coffee town- ship, Samuel Marshall in Palmyra township, ^"eth Gard in Prairie township and Thomas Pulliam in Embarras township. At the same session the rates of taxation were fixed as follows : Each mare, horse, mule or ass- ' $60 Each stud-horse, the rates he stands the season Each bond-servant or >lave , 1 00 Each young man not having taxable property to the amount of two hundred .1,, liars 1 00 li.Mil..-ii .Ionian's ferry 1 00 Samuel Marshall's ferry 1 no i alette-i terry 2 00 <}*rvise Ha/.leton's ferry 400 Francis Vallies' ferry 3 00 Joseph LavuU-It.'V iVnv 2 00 "All town lots, houses iu town, out-lots and mansion- houses in the country above the value of two hundred dollars and upwards, all water and wind-mills, at thirty cents on the one hundred dollars' worth." A peculiar feature appears in the record of this ses- sion, trom the fact that the clerk states : " At a county court begun and held at the court-house in Palmyra," etc., while there is nothing in the prior proceedings of the court to show that any court-house had ever been constructed, or any moneys appropriated for the same. At a subsequent day's meeting of the same session, the following appears : " Ordered that this court adjourn to the house of Gervase Hazleton, and that the house be considered the court-house for one year, and he ac- knowledges the receipt of six and one-fourth cents a full cousideration for the use of said house for the courts and elections, and the clerk and sheriff are to have the use of one room for their office in his house." THIRD COURT. William Barney and Samuel Marshall, 1817 to Spring of 1818. ; There is nothing in the records of this term of court I to show that there were more than the above-named ; members constituting it. It must be borne in mind that | the act of congress creating the state of Illinois was passed in April, 1818, therefore this court only had ju- i risdiction of public matters to that time under the "laws of the territorial government. While the affairs of the state stood in atatu quo from the time of the passage of the act until the adoption of the constitution and or- ganization of the state, the several justices of the peace within Edwards county constituted the county court, and transacted the affairs peculiar to that body. At the October meeting, 1817, the following order was made: "Ordered that the sura of fifty dollars be allowed to Levi Comptou, late treasurer of the county, for taking lists of land tax for the years 1815-16, and that 4 ie same be certified to the auditor of public , accounts. Three writs of ad quod damnum for the purpose of reviewing mill-seats were applied for at this session. ; John Grayson desired to erect a mill on Bonpas creek, in the northwest quarter of section 34, township No. 2, range 14, west; Joseph Wright asked the privilege to build a mill on the Bonpas, in section 26, township 2 south, range 14 west; Leonard White desired to con- 1 struct a mill on the Little Wabash, in section 7, town- i ship 1, range 9. The Court ordered that all the hands living north- i west of the " Old Trace " and Indiana creek, who had been fined for not working on the road leading from Small's mill to the Beaver Holes, be exonerated from the payment of said fines. It was further ordered that it be certified that Wil- liam Bodger is a man of good demeanor and moral char- lecte March 23 ' Present, Gervase Hazleton, Joseph Baird, Ran- COURT HOUSE. HISTORY OF EDWARDS, LAWRENCE AND WABASH COUNTIES, ILLINOIS. 85 som Higgius, William Smith, John Gravson, Samuel Newell, and James Martin. At this session five parties were granted license to ] vend domestic spirits, and the amount of twenty-eight dollars was allowed for wolf scalps. It was also ordered that the clerk of this court pro- cure such weights and measures aa the law directs. John Hunt, Robert Anderson, Daniel Keen, Robert Bell, and John Higgins, were recommended to his Ex- cellency, Ninian Edwards, for Justices of the Peace of Edwards county. Abner Armstrong, sheriff of the county, was allowed I fifty dollars for official services for the year 1817. At the July session the following order was made: " Ordered, that Guy W. Smith, John D. Wolverton and John Shadle, be agents, for this county, to contract for [ building a court-house, and selling the county lots in the \ town of Palmyra ; and that the county agents give pub- j lie notice in one of the Vincennes papers, and the paper published at Shawneetown, at least twenty days previous to the day of sale." At the following day's session, an order was passed that the county agents should not sell any lots for less than twenty dollars. Guy W. Smith was empowered to execute deeds to the said lots. The commissioners appointed to contract for the build- ing of a court-house were instructed as follows, relating to plans and specifications of the said building: "To be a frame, of good and sufficient timbers, 36 feet wide by 44 feet long, and 20 feet high from the foundation to the wall plates, and to be well weather-boarded, with good seasoned poplar plank of a proper thickness, a good and sufficient roof of good sound shingles, with a balcony eight feet square and twelve feet high, and a steeple 23 feet in height. The building to be let to the lowest bidder, who shall be bound in a bond with such security as the said commissioners may deem sufficient for the just and true performance of the contract, with- in six months from the first Monday in September next, when the building of said court-house is to be let." At the November session, on the application of Wm. Beauchamp, agent for Thos. Hinde and William Mc- Dowell, it was ordered that they be permitted to estab- lish a ferry across the Wabash at the mouth of White river from their land to the opposite shore. Augustus Tougas was permitted to keep tavern and vend spirits for one year, from the first of July, 1818, by paying a tax of two dollars. "Ordered, that Edward Burns be allowed the sum of seventeen dollars extra for building a bridge across Crawfish creek. At a special meeting of the court in April, 1819, the county was again sub-divided into townships having the following names : Enabarras, Palmyra, Coffee, Bon- pas and Prairie township. The judges of election for the several townships, were respectively as follows : John McClelland, Samuel New- ell, William Denison, Seth Gdrd, William Barney, Hezekiah Clark, Levi Compton, Elias Jordan, Philip Plough, Robert Anderson, Hugh Stewart, Alan Em- merson, James McMillan, Shadrach Ruark, Richard B. McCorkle. FIRST COUNTY COMMISSIONERS* COURT. John Armstrong, Robert Frazer, John Higgins. 1819 1820. The court convened June 7, 1819, the only business of the day being the appointment of Jesse B. Browne, County Clerk, and William Beauchamp, County Treas- urer. On the following day the order for the appoint- ment of the latter was rescinded, and Scoby Stewart ap- pointed in his stead. Jesse B. Browne was allowed thirty dollars for ser- vices as County Clerk for the year 1818. Reuben T. Baker was licensed to keep a tavern, and to vend spirits in Mt Carmel ; John Pitcher was granted a like license in Albion. At the September term, 1819, John Small was allowed sixty dollars for making three seals for the county of Edwards, under the territorial government, he promis- ing, by his attorney, to alter the aforesaid seals to State seals when required. It was also ordered that the rates of toll across the Bonpas bridge should be as follows : Empty cart Loaded cart Empty wagon-two horses Loaded wagon " " Team of four horses wagon empty . Team of four horses wagon loaded 1 00 Each neat head of cattle 6% cents Each head of sheep or hogs 3% " December 6, 1819, the proprietors of Albion petitioned to establish a mill on Bonpas creek in section 30, town- ship 1, range 14. The greater portion of the time of the court at this session was occupied in establishing new roads in various parts of the county. "Ordered, that John Youngman be allowed four dol- lars for the use of his house as a court-room, beginning the 25th day of March, 1819, and ending the same day and month, in 1820." At the March term, 1820, Guy W. Smith was allowed seventy dollars for taking the census of Edwards county, in the year 1818. Abner Armstrong was allowed eight dollars for furnishing four "ticket" boxes. The Clerk of the Court was allowed thirty dollars for his services for the year 1819. SECOND COUNTY COMMISSIONERS* COURT. John Higgins, Henry Utter, William Clark. 1820 1821. John B. Griffith was allowed ten dollars for making fires and furnishing water for the court. At this session appears the first allowance to any member of the court for official services. The order reads: "Ordered, that John Higgins, Esq., be allowed the sum of five dollars for a part of his services as County Commissioner for the year 1819." The first petit jury appointed by the HISTORY OF EDWARDS, LA WHENCE AND W ABASH COUNTIES, ILLINOIS. authority of this court, were as folltfws : George Field, Zeba French, John Phipps, Charles Garner, Aaron Gould, Enoch Greathouse, Daniel Greathouse, Seth Gard, Thomas Garder, John Gray, James Gray, John Grayson, Ransom Higgins, John Higgin?, John Han- nison, Asa Hannison, Gervase Hazleton, Lemuel Has- kins, Benjamin Halbert Isaac Harness, Ptlick Hull, Havilah Green, John Graves, and Daniel Graves. COUNTY GOVERNMENT AT ALBION. THIRD COUNTY COMMISSIONERS* COURT. Henry Utter, George May. 18211822. For this term but two commissioners' names appear in the records of the proceediugs of the court. It was in this year that the county seat was located at Albion. Mu'ch bitterness of feeling sprang out of this change, and for a time a county war between the factions was im- minent. It is said that several companies of militia were raised and drilled in the eastern part of the county, and they were about to march on Albion and take pos- session of the records by force of arms. Before any overt act had been committed the matter was compro- raised. No action of the court appears on the record book from March 7, 1821, to December third following. This discrepancy is explained by the fact that the court records were spirited away and hidden for a time while the warfare, relating to the removal of the county seat, was in progress. There were three rival towns besides Palmyra, that were clamoring for the seat of justice ; Albion, Wanborough, and Centerville. The following is the report made to the County Commissioners' Court to permanently locate the county seat : " To the Com- missjoners" Court of Edwards county, State of Illinois Pursuant to an act of the Legislature in the last session, dated February 1, 1821, entitled an act to provide for the removal of the Seat of Justice of Edwards county, having met agreeable to law, and fixed on Albion as the permanent Seat of Justice; and we also designate and appoint the Public Library room, in said town, as a temporary house to hold court until the public buildings are prepared. Given under our hands and seals this tenth day of April, 1821, DAVID TADE, A. G. L. WIGHT, AARON WILLIAMS. J L. s. J On the same day, the commissioners appointed to as- j sess the damages to the town of Palmyra in consequence i of the removal of the county seat, made their report, i The judgment was one-hundred dollars damages, and that said amount be (qually distributed among the pro- j prietors of the town of Palmyra. (signed) A. G. S. WIGHT, WILSON LAGOW, AARON WILLIAMS, DAVID TADE. The first session, held at Albion, was commenced the 3rd day of December, 1821, and the following is the first action of the court : "Ordered, that although the report of the commis- sioners appointed to fix the county seat of this county was never properly made, received or recognized by this court; the report being in no particular in compliance with the law, yet as the proceedings of this court at Pal- myra have been decided by the judge of the Circuit Court to be illegal and void, refusing to latify the proceediugs thereof; therefore, to avoid the dilemma to which the people of this county may be reduced, the future sessions of this Court shall be held at Albion until the Legisla- ture determine otherwise." It was further ordered that that part of Edwards coun- ty lying on the east side of B jnpn creak, f jrm one p irt of election precinct to be called Palmyra, and that all elec- tions for said precinct shall be held at the town of Pal- myra. Henry I. Mills, sheriff, was allowed four dollars, which sum he had paid to four men, for guarding James Mar- tin who had been convicted of larceny. Henry Cusiek was allowed three dollars and seventy- five cents for guarding James Allen to Crawford jail, who had been commited for horse stealing, At the June term, 1822, the following appears : " Ordered that Thomas Pulliam be allowed seventy- six dollars for keeping John Stratton, from the time he was sold (probably a pauper) at the court-house, until the first Monday in May, 1822. FOURTH COUNTY COMMISSIONERS* COURT. Cyrus Danforth, Samuel Munday, Ephraim Phor. 1822-1824. It seems that at the convening of this court there existed a contest for the county clerkship, as this order appears upon the record. '' Whereas, Jesse B. Browne and Ger- vase Hazelton are at this time both executing the duties of clerk of the County Commissioners' Court of Edwards county, and the Commissioners of said county are not in possession of such legal evidence as that they can at this time determine which of the said persons are entitled to Hhe said office. It is therefore ordered by the court that Jesse B. Browne do perform the duties of clerk of the court until the same be legally determined." David Tade was allowed twenty dollars for twelve days services attending the legislature for the purpose of ob- taining an act to permanently locate the county seat of Edwards county. " Ordered, that Dr. Ezra Baker be allowed 8120.00 for medical attendance on John L. Jones, a poor tran- sient person." At the July term in 1823, the certificate of Association of the " Albion Library Company " was ordered to be placed on record. The company was composed of twelve members, Richard Flower being the chairman. At the March term in 1824, William White was al- lowed thirty dollars for making a coffin, and erecting a HISTORY OF EDWARDS, LAWRENCE AND WAS ASH COUN1IES, ILLINOIS. 87 gallows for the execution of Shadrach Perry, who had been accessory in the committing of a capital offence. Perry was subsequently pardoned by the govornor. June 7th, 1824, Henry I. Mills, sheriff, was allowed $38.25 for grand jury rooms and candles found and pro- vided for the Circuit Court in the years 1823-4. At the above session Hiram Bell, County Treaesurer, settled with the court for the year 1823, when it was found that he had a balance of $36 86 in his hands due the county. FIFTH COUNTY COMMISSIONERS' COURT. Elias Jordan, James Hunt, Moses Bedell, 1824-1825. At the first meeting of the court, the following action was taken relating to the county buildings : " It appearing to the court that the building com- menced for the court-house and gaol will be insufficient for the purpose intended, it is ordered that the same shall be raised two stories, with a cupola and pediment, and that a contract to that effect be made." September 7th, 1824, John B. Johnson was allowed $22.87 for services as coroner in viewing the body of \ Jones Hobson. " Ordered, that the lots remaining unsold, donated to the county of Edwards by the proprietois for the erec- ; tion of the public buildings, be offered for sale on the third Monday in Obtober, 1824." SIXTH COUNTY COMMISSIONERS* COURT. James Hunt, Joel Churchill, Alan Emmerson, 1825- 1826. The rate of taxation for 1825, was fixed as follows : , One half per cent, on all town lots, carriages for the con- ' veyance of persons, distilleries, stock in trade, horses three years old and upwards, neat cattle three years old and upwards, clocks, watches, sheep six mouths old and upwards, hogs one year old and upwards, leather, small wagons, road wagons, carts, household furniture, to wit ; bedsteads, bed curtains and bed furniture, tables, bu- reaus, side-boards, silver-plate ; libraries containing twen- ty-five books or more, whiskey beer, and rifle gins. Henry I. Mills was ordered to take the census for 1825. - At this session John Robinson was allowed $1.60 for repairing the market-house for the convenience of hold- i ing the April term of -circuit court, 1825. The county ' revenue for this year was $832.92i. " Ordered, that Henry I. Mills be allowed the sum of $11:.62, for his services in the cases of Kennedy, Mere- dith and Bottinghouse for murder ; and in the cases of Joseph Toville, John Hall, William Wood, Daniel Or- ange, George Flower, Eliza Andrews, Wm. Orange, Campbell, et al, wherein, the people failed, and for other services rendered as per account presented." SEVENTH COUNTY COMMISSIONERS* COURT. James Hunt, Alan Emmerson, Chas. Stennett, 1826- ; 1828, At the September term, 1826, the court ordered that the Circuit Court be next held in the building erected for a court-house, in the town of Albion. The 4th of December following, the coroner, Moseg Thompson, was allowed $14 98 for holding an inquest on the body of Richard Flower. The deceased came to his death by the crushing of his skull, caused by the throw- ing of a bone from the hand of one James Kennedy. EIGHTH COUNTY COMMISSIONERS* COURT. James Hunt, James Hean, Chas. Stennett, 1828-1830. At the December term, 1828, James Gordan, Sheriff of Edwards county, was allowed $91.75, for services in the Circuit and County Commissioners' courts, and his commission in collecting the tax for 1828. On his set- tlement with the court for the revenue collected in the above year, he was found indebted to the county the sum of $428 89. James Hunt, a justice of the peace, reported a fine against John Crabtree for assault and battery. The fine was paid over to the court, but the clerk fails to state the amount of the fine in his record. From the following it will be seen that the court-house was utillized for boih school and church purposes. In the March term, 1829. "Ordered that Thomas Elton be permitted to keep a school in the court-room, he agreeing to glaze the windows, and when the roof shall be repair- ed to repair the plastering, and keep the same in repair during the time ha occupies it." ' Ordered, that public worship be permitted to be held in the court-room on Sundays, and that Jesse B. Browne be authorized to take charge of the key and see that no damage is done." In 1830, the county comprised eight road districts with the following named persons as supervisors : First district, George Woodham ; second district, Robert Daugherty; third district, William Triscut ; fourth district, George Walser ; fifth district, Thomas Caruey ; sixth district, John Cowling; seventh district, John Elder; eighth district, Sidney Spring. NINTH COUNTY COMMISSIONERS* COURT. James Hunt, Alan Emmerson, Charles Stennett in 1830-1832. At the September term, 1830, Alexander Stewart was allowed $1.75 for making hand-cuffs and one night's guarding the jail. From the records of this session it would seem from the amounts allowed for guarding the jail, that either the jail was in a very poor condition or an extra number of criminals were confined therein. At the same session Jesse B. Browne was allowed $3 25 for shoes and socks furnished Belle Tate, a run- away slave. James Jordan, Sheriff, was allowed $3.81 for clothing furnished to the same party. " Ordered, that Joel Churchill be permitted to vend goods, wares and merchandise in the town of Albion for one year by paying fifteen dollars into the county treasury." Gibson Harris, Hugh Ranalds, and Moses HISTORY OF EDWARDS, LAWRENCE AND WAS ASH COUNTIES, ILLINOIS. Smith were also licensed to vend goods, etc. The commissioners appointed to adjust the finances between Edwards and Wabash counties in pursuance of the division of said counties in 1824, made their report to the County Commissioners' court, June 6th, 1831, and in substance was as follows : That the county of Wabash pay to the county of Edwards the sum of $787.83, it being the half of the debt existing at the time of the division of Edwards county. Commissioners, Joel Churchill and Abner Armstrong. TENTH COUNTY COMMISSIONERS* COURT. James Hunt, Charles Stennett, Thomas Carney. 1832- 38. Thomas Hunt was allowed two dollars for candles furnished the Circuit Court for year 1831-32. September 2d, 1833, George Flower was authorized to receive from the State Treasurer one hundred dollars, amount of an appropriation granted by the General Assembly to Edwards county for the purpose of building a bridge across Bonpas creek on section 22, town 1 north, range fourteen west. At the September term in 1834, Elias -Waver was allowed $135.00 for making, painting and hanging window blinds to each and every window in the court, Chouse at Albion, the same to be paid in specie. On the 7th of December, Sidney Spring was authorized by the court to act in conjunction with the county surveyor of White county to establish the southern boundary line of Edwards county, beginning at the southwest corner of section 18, township 3, south of range east, and from thence east along said line to the Wabash river as the case may be, and that said survey be made in pursuance of the statute in such cases made and provided. " Ordered, that Henry Bowman be and is hereby appointed commissioner and agent of the school lands situated in the county of Edwards." At the March term of court 1837, J oel Churchill was authorized to receive from the bank of Illinois the sum of six hundred dollars, the same being deposited there by the commissioner of the sale of the Gallatin saline land for the use of Edwards county agreeably to an act of the legislature, approved January 16th, 1836. The county treasury must have been in excellent condition in 1837, as the treasurer was authorized to loan several hundred dollars of the county money at the special May term of that year. ELEVENTH COUNTY COMMISSIONERS' COURT. James Hunt, Leonard C. Bond, John Tribe. 1838-40. Ed wards county not beingsupplied with a poor house, the paupers were let to the lowest bidder. The following order appears at the September term ; " Ordered by the court that Ann Hickson, a pauper of the county, be let to the lowest bidder for six months, and thereupon the coroner proceeded to cry her ofl', and Alviu R. Kenner agrees to feed, lodge and comfortably clothe the said Ann Ilickson for the sum of $1.35 per week, and the court agrees to pay the said sum quarterly in county orders." TWELFTH COUNTY COMMISSIONERS' COURT. Leonard C. Bond, John Tribe, J. W. Stevenson. 1840 -1842. At the September term of 1840, the clerk of the county court was ordered to notify the clerk of the Cir- cuit court that grand and petit jurors be allowed seven- ty-five cents per day for services, and that the clerk of the Circuit court may grant his certificates of allowance to the said jurors. The rate of taxation for the year 1841, was fixed at twenty cents on every hundred dollars worth of real or personal property. Charles P. Burns was allowed seventy dollars for assessing property for the above year. The total amount collected was $656 89 ; the amount of delinquent tax, $36.60. THIRTEENTH COUNTY COMMISSIONERS* COURT. J. W. Stevenson, John Tribe, Britain Walser. 1842- 1849. At the special April term, 1843, the court ordered that the respective road supervisors cause each able-bodied male person between the ages of twenty-one and fifty years, to perform four days road labor. In this year the treasurer of the county was instructed to pay the State bank of Illinois, paper which had been collected for revenue up to that time, at the rate of fifty cents on the dollar. In 1847, the county constituted four precincts, Albion, Mills, Shelby and Boltinghouse precincts. Of the former Alan Eratnerson, Briant Walker, and Alexander West were appointed judges for the April election. Of Mills precinct, William A. Montgomery, John Contrecht, and Peter Hinkle. Shelby precinct, John Bell, John War- moth, and Niel Shelby. Boltinghouse precinct, James Hean, Simon Johnson and Laban G. Russell. FOURTEENTH COUNTY COMMISSIONERS* COUET. Alan Emmerson, J. H. Stevenson, Matthew Rice. 1849-1850. The greater portion of the time of the above court was occupied in regulating and adjusting the road officers of the county. The only important action of the commissioners was the authorizing of the Albion and Gray ville Plank-road company the right of way through the county on the highway commonly used in going from Albion to Gray- ville. This right of way was to continue for thirty years, with stipulations for toll over said road as follows : Not to exceed for a horse and rider, a half cent per mile ; one horse and vehicle, one cent and a half per mile ; four houses and vehicle, three cents per mile. The officers of the road were, President, John Brissenden ; Directors, Alan Emmerson, S. Thompson, Alexander Stewart, John Butler, Daniel Bulkley and John B. Jolly. HISTORY OF EDWARDS, LAWRENCE AND WABASH COUNTIES, ILLINOIS. FIRST COUNTY COURT.* Alan Emmerson, judge, Matthew Rice, James Hunt, associate justices. 185'J-1853. At the June term a notice is placed on record wherein the clerk was ordered to post notices to the effect, that sealed proposals would be received until the tenth of June, 1851, for the build- ing of a frame court-house to be thirty-six feet square,