Illinois in 1818

Front matter

.iffiSSISiffl JIHHI

twm

mWm im

Table Of Contents

Chapter Page

Organic Act Creating the Illinois Centennial Commission xv

History of the Centennial Commission xvii

Section 2. It shall be the duty of the Illinois Centennial Commission

1 — To arrange for and conduct a celebration in honor of the Centennial of the admission of the State of Illinois into the Federal Union.

2 — To compile and publish a commemorative history of the State.

3 — To report to the Fiftieth General Assembly the arrangements for such celebration.

4 — To make a complete report to the Fifty-first General Assembly.

Section 3. The Illinois Centennial Commission shall expire when it shall have completed its duties and shall have made a complete report thereof to the Governor and the Fifty-first General Assembly, including a complete statement of its receipts and expenditures.

Section 4. Whereas, an emergency exists; therefore, this Act shall be in full force and effect from and after its passage.

Approved January 21, 19 16.

XV11

THE ILLINOIS CENTENNIAL COMMISSION

Many citizens of the state of Illinois urged that the year 1909, the one hundredth anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln, be observed with some fitting and permanent memorial ; but, though the nation and the state, and indeed many foreign nations observed the great anniversary with patriotic assemblies, and eloquent addresses, Illinois did not erect a permanent memorial in the form of an impressive temple or shaft to the memory of her greatest citizen, nor did she give to the world a complete and authoritative history of the life and achievements of Abraham Lincoln.

When the Lincoln centennial year had past, thoughtful persons began to look forward to the centennial anniversary of the admission of the state of Illinois into the federal union. Among those who early appreciated the significance of the occasion and the opportunity which it offers the people of Illinois to show to the world the wonderful development of the state in the first one hundred years of its existence as a commonwealth of the American republic, no one was more interested than the late Honorable Campbell S. Hearn of Adams county, a senator in the Illinois General Assembly.

Senator Hearn introduced in the Forty-eighth General Assembly a resolution creating a commission, the duty of which was to arrange for and prepare plans for a fitting celebration of the state's one hundredth birthday. This commission under the resolution was to be composed of fifteen members: five state senators and five representatives in the General Assembly; E. J. James, E. B. Greene, and J. W. Garner of the University of Illinois; and Otto L. Schmidt and Jessie Palmer Weber of the Illinois State Historical Society.

The commission met and organized July 23, 19 13. Campbell S. Hearn was elected chairman and Jessie Palmer Weber, secretary.

Senator Hearn died August 28, 19 14. He gave to the commission during the first year of its organization enthusiastic, faithful, and self-sacrificing service, not sparing himself when pain and sickness came upon him. During his illness he often expressed the hope that he might live to participate in the observance of the centennial. While this hope was not realized, yet his name will ever be associated with the commission, its labors and results, as the originator of the bill creating the commission and its chairman for the first year of its activity.

Senator Hugh S. Magill, Jr. succeeded Senator Hearn as chairman.

The commission has been subject to some vicissitudes caused by doubt as to the legality in form of the resolution which created it. This uncertainty was the result of the fact that the Centennial Commission was one of the state commissions whose legality was questioned by the so-called "Fergus suits." Changes in the personnel of the commission were made because in the opinion of the attorney-general of the state, members of the commission appointed as members of the legislature, could not serve as members of the Centennial Commission on the expiration of their legislative terms. A later decision of the attorney-general declared that under the constitution of the state, members of the General Assembly are not eligible to appointment to any civil office in the state, and thus are excluded from membership in the Centennial Commission.

Happily these matters have been adjusted by the passage of a law approved by Governor Edward F. Dunne, January 21, 19 16, authorizing the appointment by the governor of a commission of fifteen members. Under this last mentioned act the present commission was appointed. It held its first meeting February 26, 1916, and elected its secretary, the chairman having been under the act of organization designated by the governor.

There have thus been three organizations of the commission. The personnel of the first commission 1913-1915 was: State Senators Campbell S. Hearn, Hugh S. Magill, Jr., Logan Hay, Henry W. Johnson, Kent E. Keller; Representatives John S. Burns, John Huston, C. C. Pervier, James F. Morris, George B. Baker; President E. J. James, Professor E. B. Greene, Professor J. W. Garner of the University of Illinois; Otto L. Schmidt and Jessie Palmer Weber of the Illinois State Historical Society.

The following members composed the second commission: State Senators E. S. Smith, chairman, John Dailey, M. W. Bailey, Kent E. Keller, Edward J. Hughes; Representatives John S. Burns, John Huston, William J. Butler, Thomas Boyer, Homer J. Tice, and the same representatives from the University of Illinois and the State Historical Society.

The commission under its present organization is composed of the following members: Otto L. Schmidt, chairman, Jessie Palmer Weber, secretary, Edward Bowe, M. J. Daugherty, Oscar W. Eckland, Rev. Royal W. Ennis, Evarts B. Greene, Hugh S. Magill, Jr., J. B. McManus, John Schultz, Thomas F. Scully, Rev. Frederic Siedenburg, Charles H. Starkel, John E. Traeger, Peter A. Waller.

On its organization in July, 191 3, the commission outlined a general and comprehensive plan for the centennial observance. Committees were appointed which immediately began their work. The principal features of the celebration as planned are general local celebrations throughout the state, a great official celebration at the state capital with impressive exercises and distinguished guests, and a pageant depicting the history of Illinois, which will be historically true and artistically beautiful.

It is hoped that there will be erected a centennial memorial building which will be an enduring monument of this great historic anniversary. It is impossible that this building can be completed but the laying of the corner stone of it can be made a part of the ceremonies of the centennial celebration.

One of the greatest and certainly the most enduring of the state's observances of the centennial anniversary will be the publication of a centennial memorial history, on a scale not before attempted by a state of the union. This history will consist of the volume hereby presented, Illinois in 18 18, which is preliminary to the Centennial History, which will consist of five volumes, namely :

Volume I. Illinois, Province and Territory, 1673- 18 18 Volume II. The Frontier State, 1818-1848 Volume III. The Era of Transition, 1848- 1870 Volume IV. The Industrial State, 1870- 1893 Volume V. The Modern Commonwealth, 1893- 19 18

XX

These volumes are being prepared by several editors especially fitted for the work. The whole series has been prepared under the supervision of Professor C. W. Alvord.

The first chairman of the publication committee was Dr. Otto L. Schmidt. When Dr. Schmidt was by the governor appointed chairman of the Centennial Commission, Professor E. B. Greene became chairman of the committee on publications. It is hoped that the entire history may be completed and published during the centennial year.

Nations and states best prove their devotion to their ideals by the reverence they pay to their history and to the memory of their heroes. The Centennial Commission offers to the people of Illinois the centennial memorial history with the hope that through these volumes the memory of the pioneers of the state, those who founded it, and set in motion its official machinery, may be forever preserved from oblivion.

Jessie Palmer Weber Secretary of the Commission

XXI

EDITORIAL NOTE

A leading purpose of the Illinois Centennial Commission in planning for the coming celebration of the one hundredth anniversary of the admission of the state to the union has been to mark the year by some work of permanent value. In accordance with this idea, the General Assembly has been asked to appropriate the necessary funds for the erection of a centennial memorial building, in which provision may be made for the concentration, safe keeping, and orderly arrangement of the public archives and other historical records. Of equal importance is the plan for the Centennial History to be issued in five volumes covering the history of Illinois from the coming of the first Europeans to the present time. In addition to these five volumes of narrative history, it was decided to publish the present preliminary volume giving a view of the state at the beginning of the centennial period.

In all this series of publications two principles have been kept in view. They are intended, first, to tell the story accurately and in a scientific spirit. It is needless to say that they do not pretend to be "definitive;" but they are based on a careful use not only of the familiar printed sources, but also of rare newspapers and a large amount of manuscript material. In many cases, they will change materially the accepted views on the subjects with which they deal. For the assistance of serious students who may wish to pursue their inquiries further each volume is provided with footnotes and a bibliography. A second and not less important object agreed upon from the outset is that of making books which will have sufficient human interest and literary quality to interest the intelligent general reader. In further application of this principle, it has been thought necessary to limit the number and length of footnotes much more closely than would be thought appropriate in a monograph primarily intended for students. Generally speaking, citations have been given for quotations, but in many other cases when the sources of information appeared to be fairly obvious to the special student, detailed references have been omitted. For much of this information the reader is referred to the bibliography.

The illness of the general editor, Professor Clarence W. Alvord, and other circumstances alluded to by the author have made it necessary for the undersigned, as chairman of the Publication Committee, to assume a responsibility as to the final form of the manuscript and various other matters involved in the publication of this volume which would not otherwise have been required. In the discharge of this responsibility, errors of judgment have doubtless been made for which neither the editor nor the author should be held accountable. It is hoped, however, that the final result will be in some measure worthy of the great commonwealth whose history it commemorates.

The Publication Committee is under special obligations to certain institutions and individuals. The preparation of this volume and of those to follow would not have been possible without the cooperation of the State Historical Library and the Illinois Historical Survey, a division of the Graduate School of the University of Illinois. The Trustees of the State Historical Library have accepted the centennial publications as a temporary substitute for their regular series of Collections and the members of their editorial staff have devoted themselves largely to the service of the Centennial Commission.

Other institutions which have responded generously to the appeals of the commission by furnishing illustrative material and in various other ways, are the following : The Illinois State Historical Library, The Chicago Historical Society, The Missouri Historical Society, The Minnesota Historical Society, Harper and Brothers, The A. H. Clark Company, and The Bobbs- Merrill Company.

The commission is also indebted for similar services to Mr. W. O. Converse, Springfield; Mr. Ray I. Barry, Mr. William Wilkinson, and Dr. W. H. Smith, Roodhouse; Mr. Thomas M. Cisel, St. Francisville ; Mr. Herbert W. Fay, De Kalb; Mr. Walter Colyer, Albion; Hon. W. T. Norton, Alton; Mr. W. E. Stevens, Avon; and Judge Frank Perrin, Belleville.

Mrs. Jessie Palmer Weber of the Illinois State Historical

Library and Miss Caroline M. Mcllvaine of the Chicago Historical Society have been exceedingly helpful in many ways and especially in the gathering of illustrative material.

Miss Lucille M. Allen, historical clerk of the Illinois State Historical Library, Miss Leila O. White of the Centennial Commission staff, and Miss Agnes Wright of the Illinois Historical Survey have given valuable assistance at various stages of the work.

To Dr. Theodore C. Pease and Miss Ruth E. Hodsdon, assistant editor of the Illinois Historical Collections, the committee is especially indebted for expert service in seeing the volume through the press.

I desire, finally, to place on record my high appreciation of the fine public spirit shown at every stage of our work by the chairman of the commission, Dr. Otto L. Schmidt of Chicago.

evarts boutell greene Urbana, Illinois April 9, 19 1 7

Author's Preface

The state of Illinois is about to celebrate the centennial of its admission to the union. If the observance of this anniversary is to be of any permanent value to the commonwealth, it should furnish the occasion for a survey of progress during the century that has passed in order that future development may be built upon a solid foundation. The full significance of one hundred years of statehood cannot be understood without a knowledge of the Illinois of 1818, when the state had its beginnings. This work is an attempt to portray the social, economic, and political life of Illinois at the close of the territorial period, and, in addition, to tell the story of the transition from colonial dependence to the full dignity of a state in the union. It opens with a description of certain elements, then dominant in the whole northern part of the state, which have long since disappeared from its boundaries — the Indians and the fur trade. The next chapter contains a discussion of the system by which the United States disposed of the soil to settlers and a survey of the extent to which such disposition had been effected by the close of 18 18. An examination of the distribution of population, with an attempt to locate the extreme frontier of settlement in the year of admission, leads to a study of the settlers themselves — who and what manner of people they were and whence they came. The two succeeding chapters deal with economic, social, and intellectual conditions, which are depicted principally by means of extracts from contemporary newspapers and books of travel.

The first half of the book is primarily descriptive ; the latter half, narrative. Chapter 7, which furnishes the transition, consists of a rapid sketch of political developments during the territorial period designed to bring out the political situation in 181 8. The movement for admission is then narrated from its inception under the influence of Daniel Pope Cook to the passage of the enabling act by congress. Chapter 9, dealing with the campaign for the election of members of the convention, contains extensive quotations from newspaper communications, and finds its principal significance in the slavery issue. The work of the convention in framing a constitution for the embryo state is then discussed on the basis of a careful study of its journal recently rescued from oblivion. The last chapter tells of the establishment of the state government — the first election and the first session of the legislature — and finally of the passage by congress of the act which made Illinois one of the United States of America.

When the work on this volume was begun, I was connected with the University of Illinois. My departure from the state and the assumption of obligations to the University of Minnesota and the Minnesota Historical Society delayed and made difficult the completion of the work ; and that it has been accomplished at all is due largely to the assistance which I have received from others. I am especially indebted to Dr. Wayne E. Stevens and Mr. Ralph Linton, who furnished most of the material for the first chapter ; to Dr. Frances Relf , who served as my assistant in the assembling of material and the drafting of the other chapters; and, above all, to Dr. Otto L. Schmidt, the chairman of the Illinois Centennial Commission, whose personal support alone made much of the essential material available and enabled the work to go on during the interval between the two commissions. After the manuscript left my hands it received extensive revision at the hands of the editor, Professor Clarence W. Alvord, and his staff. Because of the illness of Professor Alvord, the work of seeing the book through the press has been supervised by Professor Evarts B. Greene, with the assistance of Dr. Theodore C. Pease. The selection of the illustrations and the compilation of the bibliography and index have been handled by the editorial staff.

Solon J. Buck

St. Paul, Minnesota February, 191 7

Chapter I

One hundred years ago, the Illinois country formed the far western edge of the wave of American civilization which was slowly advancing across the continent from the Atlantic seaboard. Less than a third of the area included within the boundaries of the state of Illinois, when admitted to the union in 1818, was occupied by permanent settlements of white men. North of an east and west line drawn through the mouth of the Illinois river, the vast treeless prairies, interspersed with wooded valleys along the streams, were still the domain of the Indian and the fur trader. The irresistible westward movement of the Canadian Voy- American people, seeking new homes in the [Fr 9 m Haii, Forty wilderness, had carried them across the AlleiiHnois W sfate°H?s e torica^ ghanies, down the Ohio valley, and into the region of mingled forest and prairies in southern Illinois. Already extensive cessions of land in the northern part of the state had been secured from the Indians; and, although they continued to live and hunt in the ceded as well as the unceded districts, their elimination as a factor in Illinois history was soon to be completed. Nevertheless, no account of Illinois in 181 8 would be complete without some consideration of these remnants of the aboriginal inhabitants and their relations with the white men.

When the French explorers first came to the Mississippi valley, they found a confederacy of five tribes inhabiting the country which was named, after them, the Illinois. During the eighteenth century, these tribes were almost annihilated by the surrounding peoples. By 1818, the Cahokia, Michigamea, and Tamaroa had disappeared as distinct tribes; the Kaskaskia, much weakened, lingered on in a reservation of 350 acres left them by the whites near the town of Kaskaskia; while the remnants of the Peoria still lived near the former habitat of the confederacy on the Illinois river.

Next to the Kaskaskia, the nearest neighbors of the white settlers in the south were the Kickapoo, who were scattered along the valley of the Sangamon from the headwaters of the Kaskaskia river to the Illinois. They also appear to have had one or two villages west of the Illinois. Farther north were the Sauk and Fox, who although not completely amalgamated, mingled with each other a great deal and sometimes lived in the same villages. In spite of the nominal cession of all their lands in Illinois, the principal villages of these tribes were still located near the mouth of Rock river with other villages extending along both banks of the Mississippi and into the interior. Generally speaking these tribes may be said to have occupied the western part of the triangle between the Mississippi and the Illinois and between the Mississippi and the Rock rivers. The greater part of the domain of the Winnebago was in what is now Wisconsin, but a small wedge-shaped portion of it extended into Illinois between the Rock river and the eastern watershed of the Mississippi. Some of the villages of this tribe were located on the Rock. The whole northeastern part of Illinois was occupied by the Potawatomi with the associated bands of Ottawa and Chippewa. They had villages on the Rock, the Fox, the Kankakee, the Illinois, and also in the interior between these streams and in the neighborhood of Chicago. 1

The best available evidence as to the population of the Indian tribes living in Illinois in 18 18 is an estimate made by the secretary of war in 181 5, but unfortunately the figures refer to the tribes as a whole and not merely to the groups living in Illinois.

Tor condensed information about the different tribes, consult Hodge, Handbook of American Indians. See also American State Papers, Indian Affairs, vol. 2; Wisconsin Historical Collections, vols. 11 and 20; Morse, Report on Indian Affairs; Blair, Indian Tribes of the Upper Mississippi Valley ; Schoolcraft, Narrative of an Expedition; Brown, Western Gazetteer; Michclson in American Anthropologist.

According to this estimate the Potawatomi were the most numerous, having forty-eight hundred souls. The Sauk numbered thirty-two hundred and the Fox twelve hundred, making a total of forty-four hundred for the two tribes. The Winnebago were credited with twenty- four hundred souls but only a few of these lived south of the boundary line. Nearly all of the sixteen hundred Kickapoo, on the other hand, were within the limits of Illinois. The Kaskaskia tribe had been reduced to sixty souls and the Peoria were not included in the count at all. In each instance it was estimated that about one- fourth of the members of the tribe were warriors.

All these tribes belonged to the Algonkin linguistic group with the exception of the Winnebago, who were of Dakota stock. The material culture, social organization, and religious beliefs of the different tribes were fairly uniform. They were people neither of the forest nor the plain, but lived along the water courses and in the groves much as did the first white settlers. Their time was divided about equally between hunting and agricultural life. "They leave their villages," says Marston, "as soon as their corn, beans, etc., is ripe and taken care of, and their traders arrive and give out their credits and go to their wintering grounds ; it being previously determined on in council what particular ground each party shall hunt on. The old men, women, and children embark in canoes, and the young men go by land with their horses ; on their arrival they immediately commence their winter's hunt, which last about three months

They return to their villages in the month of April and after putting their lodges in order, commence preparing the ground to receive the seed." 2

2 Blair, Indian Tribes, 2:148-151. The most detailed accounts of Illinois Indians in the early nineteenth century are to be found in two memoirs dealing with the Sauk and Fox, published in this volume. The first is in the form of a "Letter to Reverend Dr. Jedidiah Morse, by Major Morrell Marston, U.S.A., commanding at Fort Armstrong, 111., November, 1820," and was first published in Morse, Report on Indian Affairs. The second is "An account of the Manners and Customs of the Sauk and Fox Nations of Indians Tradition," by Thomas Forsyth, Indian Agent, January 15, 1827. Much of the material in the following paragraphs is drawn from these memoirs and from appendix B of the same volume, containing "Notes on Indian social Organization, mental and moral Traits, religious Beliefs, etc." The volume contains also a very comprehensive annotated bibliography. See also Hodge, Handbook of American Indians.

The principal crop was Indian corn, of which they often had extensive fields. Speaking of the Sauk and Fox near Rock Island, Major Marston says : "The number of acres cultivated by that part of the two nations who reside at their villages in this vicinity is supposed to be upwards of three hundred. They usually raise from seven to eight thousand bushels of corn,

besides beans, pumpkins, melons, etc The labor of

agriculture is confined principally to the women, and this is done altogether with the hoe." 3 While corn formed the staple of the Indians' diet, they made some use of wild vegetables and roots. They ate meat of many varieties, preference being given to venison and bear's meat. They cared little for fish but ate it when other food was scarce. "They most generally boil everything into soup," says Forsyth in his memoir. "I never knew them to eat raw meat, and meat seems to disgust them

when it is not done thoroughly The old women set

the kettle a boiling in the night, and about day break all eat whatever they have got, they eat in the course of the day as often as they are hungry, the kettle is on the fire constantly suspended from the roof of the lodge, every one has his wooden dish or bowl and wooden spoon or as they call it Me-quen which they carry along with them when they are invited to feast." 4

The ordinary garments of the Indian men were a shirt reaching almost to the knees, a breechclout, and leggings which came up to the thigh and were fastened to the belt on either side. In earliest times all their clothing was made of leather, but by 1818 this material had been generally replaced by trade cloth. The shirt and leggings were often dyed a deep blue or black, while the breechclout was usually of red cloth; all were more or less elaborately decorated with bead and quill work. The women wore a two-piece garment, short leggings reaching to the knees, and moccasins; they also employed the customary Indian ornamentation of quills and beads. Both sexes wore the robe, and later the trade blanket. The men painted their faces in various ways, while the women painted very little or not at all. Except when on the warpath the men of most of the tribes let their hair

"Blair, Indian Tribes, 2:151. 'Ibid., 2:229.

Wa-Baun-See, Pottawatomi Chief

[From the Lewis Portfolio, owned by Chicago Historical Society]

grow long, wearing the scalp lock braided and a band of otter skin or a woven sash bound around the brows. The women ordinarily wore their hair in a single braid down the back.

The principal manufacturing operations of these tribes were tanning, weaving, and the making of pottery; although the last named industry had practically been given up by 1818. The central Algonkin were not familiar with the use of the loom, but they twisted a twine from the inner bark of the linden, and with this wove excellent bags of various sorts, which they used for a great variety of purposes. These were decorated by weaving in geometric designs and conventional representations of animals. They also made reed mats sewed with twine, which were used as covering for the floors, and as roofing for the winter houses. The pottery was of a rather inferior sort, burned in an open fire, or simply sundried, and decorated with a few incised lines. With the coming of the whites, this native ware was rapidly replaced by the trade kettle.

All the tribes living in Illinois used two types of houses, one for summer, the other for winter. The summer houses as described by Forsyth, were "built in the form of an oblong, a bench on each of the long sides about three feet high and four feet wide, parallel to each other, a door at each end, and a passage thro the center of about six feet wide, some of those huts are fifty or sixty feet long and capable of lodging fifty or sixty persons. Their winter lodges are made by driving long poles in the ground in two rows nearly at equal distances from each other, bending the tops so as to overlap each other, then covering them with mats made of what they call puc-wy a kind of rushes or flags, a Bearskin generally serves for a door, which is suspended at the top and hangs down, when finished it is not unlike an oven with the fire in the center and the smoke omits thro the top." 5

The basis of the social organization and government of these Indians was the clan, all the tribes being divided into a large number of gentes or groups based on descent in the male line and strictly exogamous. Each clan took its name from some

5 Blair, Indian Tribes, 2:227.

special animal or thing to which the members thought themselves related. Thus the gentes of the Kickapoo were Water, Bear, Elk, Bald Eagle, Tree, Berry, Fox, Buffalo, Man, Turkey, and Thunder. The heads of these clans acted as civil chiefs, although the braves or principal men had considerable influence in matters of war and peace. The authority of the chiefs was hereditary, descending to the oldest male of the family, but it was not by any means absolute. So loose was the organization of a tribe that the office of chief entailed more trouble than advantage and was sometimes refused. Indeed the power of an individual chief depended primarily on his personal influence rather than on the prestige of his office. The function of the council appears to have been not so much judicial as administrative — the determination of matters of tribal policy — and in its deliberations substantial unanimity was necessary for a decision. "There is no such thing," says Forsyth, "as a summary mode of coercing the payment of debts, all contracts are made on honor, for redress of civil injuries an appeal is made to the old people of both parties and their determination is generally acceded to." 6 Atonement for murder was made in the manner customary among primitive people, usually by payments or presents to the relatives of the dead. Even war was a matter of individual initiative rather than of tribal concern. Any individual might become a war chief for the time being, if he had sufficient influence to induce a party of warriors to follow him.