A complete history of Illinois from 1673 to 1884

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CHAPTER.

PAGE.

I. GEOLOGY OF ILLINOIS - 1

Preface

Although Illinois, whose grassy plains have been styled the Eden of the new world, contains the oldest permanent settlements in the Valley of the Mississippi, and in her strides to empire is destined to become the first State of the Union, her history has been strangely neglected. Fragments have been written at different times, but only of detached periods, and embracing but a small part of the two centuries which have elapsed since the first explorations. To supply this deficiency and furnish a history commensurate with her present advancement in power and civilization is the object of the present work; whether it has been accomplished remains to be seen.

Not having taken any part in the shifting and instructive drama enacted by those who have directed the affairs of State, no rankling jealousies have been engendered to distort conclusions ; no undue predilections to warp the judgment. Measures have been estimated by their results ; men by their public acts. While no disposition has existed to assail any one, it must be remembered that none are faultless, and to speak well of all is the worst of detraction, for it places the good and the bad on a common level,

A principal aim has been to render the work complete. A large amount of matter has been inserted never before published in connection with the history of the State ; yet important facts, though familiar, have always been preferred to new ones of

XII PREFACE.

minor significance. The main consideration, however, has been to render it truthful. In the wide field which has been gleaned, every available source of information has been carefully consulted, and it is believed a degree of accuracy has been secured which will compare favorably with that of other similar efforts. Still there will always be room for improvement, and any corrections which may be offered by parties who have witnessed or been connected with events described, will be thankfully received and inserted in future editions of the work, the object being to make it a complete repository of reliable facts for the general reader, the politician, the lawyer, and all who may wish to become acquainted with the history of our noble State.

To the many in different parts of the State who have furnished information, or aided us by valuable suggestions, we return our thanks, especially to Messrs. Rummel and Harlow, Secretaries of State, for the use of public documents, and to the proprietors of the State Journal and State Register, for access to their valuable files.

Springfield, Dec. 19th. 1873.

PUBLISHER'S PREFACE.

Something more than ten years have elapsed since the History of Illinois, so faithfully and intelligently written, was submitted to the great reading public. And while, in that time, it has found its way quite generally into the homes of residents of the State, and been warmly welcomed by scholars and readers everywhere ; and while it has been most potent in extending among the people a knowledge of the early explorations of this part of the Mississippi Valley, of its rich and boundless geological deposits, the remarkable fertility of the soil and the diversity of its products, it is also true that the story of its early settlement, of the great political struggles ending in the firm establishment of civil and political freedom, of its rapid growth, of the schemes of internal improvement, of its seasons of financial embarrassment and consequent distress of the people, of the wise statesmanship of its leaders, the establishment of its system of free schools and its charitable institutions ; and then of its truly phenominal development from a group of frontier settlements to a great, populous, intelligent and wealthy State, as here so graphically told, is well calculated to excite the keenest interest, and to awaken in the mind of every true lllinoisan a just and honorable pride in his State. Here, too, is found a faithful account and a just estimate of the great civil, political and military men, the brilliancy of whose achievements and renown have shed imperishable lustre and honor upon the State.

XIV PUBLISHER S PREFACE.

To meet the pressing demand for the work, and at the same time answer the just expectation of an intelligent public, the publisher has found it necessary to cause the text to be carefully revised and corrected in the light of the latest research, and to extend and enlarge the work by the introduction of new matter of the greatest general interest and utility.

Presented in its present form, printed upon the finest laid paper, profusely illustrated and beautifully bound, and at a cost within the reach of all, the History of Illinois may well be regarded as the People's Book, especially designed for their information and education, and in every way worthy the people and the State.

Chapter I. GEOLOGY OF ILLINOIS

Oil the geological structure of a country depend tlie i^ursuits of its inhabitants and the genius of its ci\alization. Agriculture is the outgrowth of a fertile soil; mining results from mineral resources; and from navigable waters spring navies and commerce. Every great branch of industry requires, for its successful development, the cultivation of kindred arts and sciences. Phases of life and modes of thought are thus induced, which give to different commimities and states characters as various as the diverse rocks that underlie them. In like manner it may be shown that their moral and intellectual qualities depend on material conditions. Wliere the soil and subjacent rocks are profuse in the bestowal of wealth, man is indolent and effeminate ; where effort is required to live, he becomes enlightened and virtuous; and where, on the sands of the desert, labor is unable to j)rocure the necessaries and comforts of life', he lives a savage. The civilization of states and nations is, then, to a great extent, but the reflection of phj^sical conditions, and hence the propriety of intioducing their ci^il, political and military history with a sketch of the geological substructure from which they originate.

Geology traces the history of the earth back through successive stages of development to its rudimental condition in a state of fusion. Speculative astronomy extends it beyond this to a gaseous state, in which it and the other bodies of the solar system constituted a nebulous mass, without form and motion. When, in the process of development, motion was communicated to the chaotic matter, huge fragments were detached from its circumference, which formed the i^rimary planets. These retaming the rotary motion of the sun, or central mass, in turn threw off other and smaller fragments, thus forming the secondary planets, as in the case of the moon which attends the earth. All these bodie»s are similar in form, have a similar motion on their axes, move substantially in a common plane and in the same direction, the result of the prqiectile force Avhich detached them from the jiarent mass. These facts are strong evidence that the sun, and the planetary system that revolves around it, were originally a common mass, and became separated in a gaseous state, as the want of cohesion among the particles would then favor the dissevering force. From the loss of heat they next passed into a fluid or plastic state, the point in the history of the earth where it comes within the range of geological investigation.

MTiile in this condition it became flattened at the poles, a form due to its dim-nal rotation and the mobihly of its particles. At a

HISTORY OF ILLINOIS.

further reduction of temperature its melted disk was transformed into a crust of igneous rock. A great many facts render it almost certain that the vast nucleus within this enveloping crust is still an incandescent mass. Compared with its enormous buft, the external covering is of only filmy thickness, the ratio of the two being as the pulp and peel of an orange. In this world- crucible are held in solution the Gl elementary substances, which, variously combining, produce the great variety of forms, energies and modes of being, which diversify and enliven terrestrial natiu-e. From the same source the i)recious metals have been forced into the fissures of the superincumbent rocks, whither the miner descends and brings them to the surface. Volcanoes are outlets for the tremendous forces generated in these deep-seated fires. As an evidence of their eruptive x)ower, Vesuvius sometimes throws jets of lava, resembling columns of tiame, 10,000 feet in hight. The amount of lava ejected at a single eruption from one of the volcanoes of Iceland, has been estimated at 40,000,000,000 tons, a quantity sufficient to cover a large city with a mountain as high as the tallest Alps. By the process of congelation, which has never ceased, the rocky crust which rests on this internal sea of fire is now sujjposed to be from thirty to forty miles in thickness. The outer or upper portion of it was the most universal geological formation, and constituted the floors of the primitive oceans. The rocks composing it are designated unstratitied, because they occur in u-regular masses, and igneous from having originally been melted by intense heat. The vast cycle of time extending through their formation and reaching down to the introduction of life on the globe, constitutes the Azoic age. The earth's siu-face, consisting of arid wastes and boiling waters, and its atmosphere reeldng with poisonous gases, were wholly incompatible with the existence of plants and animals. By the continued radiation of heat the nucleus mthin the hardened crust contracted, and the latter, to adapt itself to the diminished bulk, folded into huge corrugations, forming the' primitive moimtain chains and the first land that appeared above the face of the waters. The upheaval of these vast ijlications was attended with depressions in other parts of the surface constituting the valleys and basins of the original rivers and oceans. Through the agency of water the uplifted masses were disintegrated and the resulting sediment swept into the extended depressions. Here it settled in parallel layers and constitutes the stratified rocks. In some localities these are entirelj^ wanting, in others many miles in depth, while their average thickness is sujiposed to be from six to eight miles.

The plain, separating the stratified from the imstratified rocks, runs parallel mth the oldest part of the earth's crust, \\lien solidification commenced it was the surface, and as induration advanced toward the centre the crust thickened by increments on the inside, and, therefore, the most recently formed igneous rocks are the farthest below the surface. Stratification commenced at the same plain and extended in an upward direction, and hence the most recent deposits are nearest the surface, when not displaced by disturbing causes.

In the silent deptlis of the stratified rocks are the former creations of i^lants and animals, which lived and died during the slowdragging centuries of their formation. These fossil remains are fragments of history, which enable the geologist to extend his researches far back into the realms of the past, and not only determine their former modes of life, but study the contemporaneous history of their rocky beds, and group them into systems. The fossiliferous rocks are not only of great thickness but frequently their entire structure is an aggregation of cemented shells, so numerous that millions of them occur in a single cubic foot. Such has been the profusion of life that the great limestone formations of the globe consist mostly of animal remains, cemented by the infusion of mineral matter. A large part of the soil spread over the earth's surface has been elaborated in animal organisms. First, as nourishment, it enters the structure of plants and forms vegetable tissue. Passing thence as food into the animal, it becomes endowed with life, and when death occurs it retiu-ns to the soil and imparts to it additional elements of fertility. The different systems of stratified roclvs, as determined by their organic remains, are usually denominated Ages or Systems.

TheLaurentian System or Age is the lowest, and therefore the oldest, of the stratified series. From tlie effects of great heat it has assumed, to some extent, the character of the igneous rocks below, but still retains its original lines of stratification. A principal effect of the great heat to which its rocks were exposed is crystallization. Crystals are frequently formed by art, but the most beautiful specimens are the products of nature's laboratories, deep-seated in the crust of the earth. The LaOTentian system was formerly supposed to be destitute of organic remains, but recent investigations have led to the discovery of animals so low in the scale of organization as to be regarded as the first appearance of sentient existence. This discovery, as it extends the origin of life bacliward through 30,000 feet of strata, may be regarded as one of the most important advances made m American geology. Its supposed beginning, in a considerable degree of advancement in the Silurian system, was regarded by geologists as too abrupt to correspond with the gradual development of types in subsequent strata. The discovery, however, of these incipient forms in the Laurentian beds, renders the descending scale of hfe complete, and verifies the conjectures of physicists that in its earliest dawn it should commence with the most simple organisms.

The Huronicm System, hke the one that precedes it, and on which it rests, is highlj^ crystalline. Although fossils have not been found in it, yet from its position the inference is they once existed, and if they do not now, the great transforming power of heat has caused their obliteration. This, and the subjacent system, extend from Labrador southwesterly to the great lakes, and thence northwesterly toward the Arctic Ocean. They derive their names from the St. Lawrence and Lake Hiu-on, on the banks of which are found their principal outcrops. Their emergence from the ocean was the bu-th of the North American continent. One face of the uphft looked toward the Atlantic, and the other toward the Pacific, thus prefiguring the future shores of this great division of the globe, of which they are the germ. Eruptive forces liave not operated with sufficient iDower to bring them to the surface in Illinois, and therefore the vast stores of mineral wealth, Avhich they contam in other places, if they exist here, are too deep below the surface to be made available.

HISTORY OF ILLINOIS.

The Silurian Afje, compared with the more stable formations of subsequent times, was one of commotion, in which fire and water played a conspicuous i^art. Earthquakes and volcanoes furrowed the yielding- crust with ridges, and threw up islands whose craggy summits, here and there, stood like sentinels above the murky deep which dashed against their shores. The i)resent diversities of climate did not exist, as the teniperatm*e was mostly due to the escape of internal heat, which was the same over every part of the surface. As the radiation of heat in fntui-e ages declined, the sun became the controlling power, and zones of climate appeared as the result of solar domination. Uniform thermal conditions imparted a corresponding character to vegetable and animal life, and one universal fauna and flora extended from the equator to the poles. These hardy marine tj^ies consisted of Kadiates, MoUuslcs and Articulates, three of the foiu- sub-kingdoms of animal life. Seaweed, which served as food for the animals, was the only plant of which any traces remain. During the Silurian age jSTorth America, like its inhabitants, was mostly submarine, as proved by wave-lines on the emerging lands. There lay along the eastern border of the continent an extended ridge, which served as a breakwater to the waves of the Atlantic. The region of the Alieghanies was subject to great elevations and depressions, and the latter largely preponderating, caused the deposit of some twelve thousand feet of strata. Although mostly uncler water, there was added to the original nucleus of the continent formations now fouiul in oSTew York, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota, isiagara limestone, a Silurian formation, is found over a large extent of country in northern IlUnois, beyond the Uniits of the coal-fields. It is a compact grayish stone, susceptible of a high polish, and at Athens and Joliet is extensively quarried for building i)uri>oses, and shipped to different parts of the State. The new Capitol is being erected of this material. The Galena limestone, another Silurian deposit, is interesting, from the fact that it contains the lead and zinc ores of the State. St. Peters sandstone belongs also to the same system. Besides outcropping in a number of other localities, it appears in the bluffs of the Illinois, where it forms the islandhke plateau known as Starved Kock. In some localities, being composed almost entirely of silica and nearly free from coloring matter, it is the best material in the West for the nnmufacture of glass.

The Bevonian Age is distinguished for the jntroduction of Vertebrates, or the foiu'th sub-kingdom of animal life and the beginning of terrestrial vegetation. The latter appeared in two classes, the highest of the flowerless and the lowest of the flowering plants. The LepidodencUou, a noted instance of the former, was a majestic upland forest tree, which, during the coal period, grew to a hight of 80 feet, and had a base of more than 3 feet in diameter. Beautiful spiral flutings, coiling in opposite directions and crossing each other at fixed angles, carved the trunks and brandies into rhomboidal eminences, each of which was scarred with the mark of a falling leaf. At an altitude of 60 feet it sent ofl" arms, each separating into branchlets covered with a needle-like fohage, destitute of flowers. It grew, not by internal or external accretions, as plants of the present day, but like the building of a moiuuncnt, by additions to the top of its trunk. Mosses, rushes and other

GEOLOGY.

dmiiinitiye flowerlcss plants are now the only surviving representative of this eryptoganiic vegetation, Avhicli so largely predominated in the early botany of the globe. Floral beauty and fragrance were not characteristic of the old Devonian woods. No bird existed to enliven their silent groves with song, no serpent to hiss in their fenny brakes, nor beast to j)iu-sue, with hideous yells, its panting prey.

The vertebrates consisted of fishes, of which the Ganoids and Pla'coids were the principal groups. The former were the forerunners of the reptile, which in many resi)ects they closely resembled. They embraced a large number of species, many of which grew to a gigantic size; but with the exception of the gar and sturgeon, they have no living representatives. The Placoids, structiu-all}' formed for advancement, still remain among the •highest types of tlie present seas. The shark, a noted instance, judging from its fossil remains, must have attained ' 100 feet in length. Both groups lived in the sea, and if any fresh water animals existed their remains have either perished or not been found. So nimierous were the inhabitants of the ocean, that the Devonian has been styled the age of fishes. In their anatomical structure was foreshadowed the organization of man; reptiles, birds and maumials being the intermediate gradations. The continental sea of the preceding age still covered the larger part of North America, extending far northwest and openuig south into the Gulf of Mexico. In its shallow basins were deposited sandstones, shales and limestones, which westerly attained a thickness of 500 feet, and in the region of the Alleghanies 1,500 feet. The great thickness of the latter deposits indicated oscillations, in which the downward movement exceeded the upward. Shallow waters, therefore, interspersed with reefs and islands, still occul^ied the sites of the Alleghanies and Eocky Mountains, which now^ look down from above the clouds on the finished continent. The St. LaAA-rence and the Hudson may have existed in miniature, but the area of land was too small for rivers and other bodies of fresh water of considerable extent. In the disturbances closing the Devonian age additions were made to the smiace in Iowa, Wisconsin and Illinois. The two resulting formations in this State are the Devonian limestone and the Oriskany sandstone. There are outcrops of the former in the bluffs of the Mississippi, Rock and Illinois rivers. It contains a great variety of fossils, and is used for building material and the manufacture of quicklime. The latter appears in Union, Alexander and Jackson comities, and is used to some extent in the manufacture of glass.

The Carboniferous Age opened with the deposition of widely extended marine formations. Added to the strata previously deposited, the entire thickness in the region of the Alleghanies, now partially elevated, amounted to 7 miles. Wide areas of permanent elevation occui-red between the 34:th and 45th degrees of latitude, end)raciug most of the territory between the eastern continental border and tlie States of Kansas and Nebraska. Farther westward, and resulting fiom the gradual emergence of the Pacific coast, was an inteiior sea whose shallow waters still fiowed over the site of the Pocky Mountains. The winter temperature near the poles was (iO degrees. A stagnant and stifiing atmosphere rested upon the area now constituting the United States and British

HISTORY OF ILLINOIS.

America. The McKenzie river, now filled with icebergs, theu flowed through verdant banks to a coral sea, having the same temperature as the Gulf of Mexico at the i)resent day. The most prominent feature of the age was the formation of coal. Being carbonized vegetable tissue, the material furnished for this purpose was the vast forest accumulations pecidiar to the period. Vegetation, commencing in the previous age, had now attained an expansion which greatly exceeded the growth of prior or subsequent times. Invigorated by a warm, moist and winterless climate, and an atmosphere surcharged with carbonic acid gas, vast jimgles spread over the marshy plains, and impenetrable forests covered the upland slopes and higlits. The gTacefid lepidodendron, now fidly developed, was one of the principal coal producing plants -, subserving the same pm-pose and associated with it was the gig;mtic conifer, a member of the pine family. The ancient fern, another coal lilant, grew to a hight of 80 feet. Its trunk, regularly fretted with scars and destitute of branches, terminated in a croMTi of foliage rivaling that of the palm in profuseness and beauty. The sigillarid, however, as it contributed most largely to the production of coal, was the characteristic plant of the period. The trunk, which rose from 40 to GO feet high from its alternate flutiugs and ribs, appeared like a clustered column. At an altitude of 25 or 30 feet it sei^arated into branches, covered ^vith a grass-like fohage intermingled with long catkhis of obsciu-e flowers or strings of seed, arranged in whorls about a common stem. The structure of the trunk was peculiar. One, 5 feet in diameter, was surrounded with a bark 13 inches in thickness; within this was a cylinder of wood 12 inches in thickness, and at the center a pith 10 inches in diameter. Such a tree would be useless as timber, but the bark, of which they largely consisted, was imi)er\ious to mineral solutions, and valuable for the production of coal. The calamites, growing Mith the sigillarids, covered with dense brakes the marshy flats. Their hollow stems, marked vertically with flutings and horizontally with joints, grew in clumps to a liiglit of 20 feet. Some species were brancldess, while from the joints of others sprang branches, subdividing into whorls of branchlets.

The vast accumulatiou of vegetable matter from these and other carboniferous plants, either imbedded in the miry soil in which it grew, or swept from adjacent elevations into shallow lakes, became covered with sediment, and thus was transformed into coal. It has been estimated that 8 perpendicular feet of wood were required to make 1 foot of bituminous coal, and 12 to make 1 of anthracite. Some beds of the latter are 30 feet in thickness, and hence 3(30 feet of timber must have been consumed in theu* production. The process of its formation was exactly the same as practiced in the manufacture of charcoal, by burniug wood under a covering of earth. Vegetable tissue, consists mostly of carbon and oxygen, and decomposition must take place, either under water or some other impervious covering, to prevent the elements from forming carbonic acid gas, aiul thus escaping to the atmosjdiere. Conforming to these requirements, the immense vegetable growths formmg the coal-fields subsided with the surface on which tliey grew, and were buried beneath the succeeding dei)osits. Kova Scotia has 76 different beds, and Illinois 12; and consequently, in these localities there were as many different fields of

GEOLOGY.

verdure overwhelmed in the dirt-beds of the sea. Thus, long before the starry cycles had measured half the history of the unfolding- continent, and when first the exi^anding stream of life but dimly reflected the coming- age of mind, this vast supply of fuel was stored away in the Tocky frame-work of the globe. Here it slumbered till man made his appearance and dragged it from its rocky lairs. At his bidding it renders the factory animate ■with humming spindles, driving shuttles, whirling lathes, and clanking forges. Under his guidance the iron-horse, feeding- upon its pitchy fragments, bounds with tireless tread over its far reaching traclv, dragging after him the products of distant marts and climes. By the skill of the one and the power of the other, the ocean steamer plows the deep in opposition to Mdnds and waves, m along its watery home a highway for the commerce of the world.

Prior to the formation of coal, so great was the volume of carbonic acid gas in the atmosphere that only slow breathing and cold-blooded animals could exist. Consequent upon its conversion into coal, all the preceding species of plants and animals perished, and new forms came upon the stage of being -with organizations adapted to the improved conditions. In the new economy, as at the present time, stability is maintained in the atmosphere by the reciprocal relations subsisting between it and the incoming types. The animal inspires oxygen and expires carbonic acid gas ; the vegetable inspires carbonic acid gas and expires oxygen, thus preserving the equilibrium of this breathing medium. The coal-fields of Eiu-ope are estimated at 18,000 square miles, those of the United States at 150,000. The Alleghany coal-field contains 60,000 square miles, -with an aggregate thickness of 120 feet. The Illinois and Missouri 00,000 square miles, and an aggregate thickness in some localities of 70 feet. Other fields occm- in different localities, of various thicknesses. In IlUnois, three-fourths of the surface is underlaid by beds of coal, and the State consequently has a greater area than any other member of the Union. There are 12 different beds, the two most imi>ortant of which are each from 6 to 8 feet in thickness. The entire carboniferous system, including the coalbeds and the intervening strata, in southern Illinois is 27,000 feet in thickness, and in the northern part only oOO.

Next to the immense deposits of coal, the Burlington, Keokuk and St. Louis limestones are the most important formations. They receive their appellations from the cities whose names they bear — where their lithological characters were first studied — and in the vicinities of wliicli they croj) out in Illinois. The Burlington furnishes inexhaustible supplies of building stone and quicklime, but is mostly interesting on account of the immense number of interesting fossils which it contains. Along its northern outcrop Crinoids are found in a profusion unequalled by that of any locality of similar extent in the world. Though untold ages have ela])sed since their incarceration in the rocks, so perfect has been their preservation, their structure can be determined with almost as much precision as if they had perished but yesterday. The Keokuk is extensively used for arcliitectural ])urposes, and furnished the material for the celebrated Mormon Temple at Nauvoo, the new Post-oifice at Springfield, and the Custom Houses at Galena and Dubuque. It contains some of the most interesting crystals found in the State. These consist of hollow splieres of quartz and chalcedony of various sizes, and lined on tlie inside with crystalets of different minerals. Tons of specimens have been taken from Hancock coimty and distributed over the United States and Europe, to ornament the cabinets of mineralogists. The St. Louis is almost pure carbonat of lime, and the best material in the State for the manufactiu-e of quick-lime. It is largely quarried at Alton.

Tlie Age of Beptiles is distinguished for changes in the continental borders, which generally ran within their present limits. The sub-maruie outlines of the Bay of Xew York, and the coiu-se of the Hudson, indicate that the adjacent shores during the early part of this age were beyond their present limits. Southward the sea line ran within the present shore, the distance increasing from 00 miles in Maryland to 100 in Georgia, and 200 in Alabama. The Texan gulf-shore, and that of the peninsula and State of Cahfornia, Avere parallel, and mostly within their present positions. These borders were fringed with deposits, while inland the trough of the old continental sea was becoming more shallow. The altitude of the Alleghanies had nearly reached theii" present highi. The Eocky Mountains, in the transition from the close of the present to the beginning of the subsequent age, began slowly to emerge from the waters under wliicli they had hitherto slumbered. The Gulf of Mexico formed a deex) bay extending to the mouth of the Ohio, and, protruding itself northwesterly, covered the region of the Rocky Mountains. It may have connected with the Arctic Ocean, but observations have been too limited to trace it with certainty beyond the head waters of the Missouri and Yellowstone. These are, therefore, among the more i-ecently formed rivers, and cannot be compared with the primeval St. Lawrence and Hudson. The Mississippi was a stream of not more than one-half its present length and volume, falling into the gulf not far from the site of Cairo. The Ohio drained substantially the same region it does at the present time. In the earlier part of the age the geographical distribution of fossils indicates a common temperature, from Behring Strait in the ]!^orthern to that of Magellan in the Southern Hemisphere. In the latter part, however, a difference is perceptible, indicating also a difference of temperature and the commencement of climatic zones. This change, caused by the i)artial upheaval of mountain chains north of the Equator, and the decline of internal heat, marked a new era in the physical history of the globe. As the result, ciuTents commenced tlowing in the ocean ; the constant monotony of previous ages was broken by the pleasant diversities of changing seasons ; life was imparted to the atmosphere, and the breeze came forth laden with the breath of spring; the tempest madly burst into being and began its work of destruction, and the trade-winds commenced blowing, but it was reserved for a future age to make them the common carriers of the ocean's commerce.