Territorial History of Illinois - From 1780
Madison County ILGenWeb Coordinator - Beverly Bauser
The following eight articles were written by "An Old Resident," and published in the Alton Telegraph in 1848. These articles detail the first pioneers who were brave enough to venture into the Illinois Country, where they faced many hardships, including attacks from the Native Americans.
HISTORICAL TIMELINE:
In 1778, General George Rogers Clark defeated the British at
Kaskaskia, securing the Illinois Country for Virginia.
In 1783, the Treaty of Paris extended the U. S. boundary to
include the Illinois Country.
In 1784, Virginia
relinquished its claim to Illinois.
In 1787, the
Northwest Ordinance placed Illinois in the Northwest Territory,
with Arthur St. Clair as the Governor.
On July 4, 1800,
Congress created Indiana Territory, which included Illinois.
In 1803, the United States purchased approximately 872,000
square miles west of the Mississippi River (called Louisiana)
from the French.
On May 14, 1804, William Clark and his
troops departed from Camp Dubois (at the mouth of the Wood
River), in future Madison County, to join Meriwether Lewis for
their westward explorations.
Note: To view the above map in its entirity, please click here.
HISTORY OF ILLINOIS, NO. 1
By an Old Resident
Source:
Alton Telegraph, April 7, 1848
In a few continuous numbers,
we propose to place before the readers of the Illinois Journal,
as being the oldest newspaper in the State, some sketches,
historical and biographical, of the pioneers of Illinois. We
allude, particularly, to those of American origin – of the
Anglo-Saxon stock – for, in a historical sense, the French were
the first to enter and form settlements near the Illinois and
Mississippi Rivers. Our plan does not propose a complete, or
even a consecutive series of the scenes through which they
passed, but only sketches or gleanings, as may come in hand. The
amount we may glean, and the particularity of our sketches, will
depend on our leisure and other circumstances. The period
through which we propose to range is comprehended in what may be
denominated the “Territorial History of Illinois from 1780."
The military expedition of General George Rogers Clark, and
the conquest of Illinois from the British in 1778, made known
its fertile prairies to the people of the Atlantic States. This
excited the spirit of emigration to the banks of the
Mississippi. Many who accompanied Clark as soldiers returned in
after years as colonists.
At the period to which I
allude, with the exception of the French villages of Cahokia and
Prairie du Pont in St. Clair County; and Kaskaskia, Fort
Chartres, Prairie du Rocher; and Village a Cote in Randolph
County; the whole State was the hunting grounds of the savages.
There were, however, half a dozen French families on the Wabash,
opposite Vincennes, and trading posts at Peoria and one or two
other places where were to be found a few Frenchmen or half
breeds, with their Indian wives. The Indians were by no means as
numerous as the fertile imagination of some have made them. At
the commencement of the eighteenth century, their whole number,
as counted up by the Catholic Missionaries who visited and
officiated in all their villages, did not amount to five
thousand. A few hunters and an occasional trader visited
Kaskaskia before Clark made his formidable appearance, took
possession of the place, and literally scared its panic; struck
inhabitants into submission and a firm and perpetual friendship.
The first Americans that came to the country were from
Virginia, from the south branch of the Potomac, and from the
district of country near Wheeling. In 1781, James Moore, James
Garrison, Robert Kidd, Shadrach Bond, with families, and
probably many others, came in a colony from Western Virginia.
Mr. Moore was a native of Maryland, but had removed to the south
branch of the Potomac, and thence to the vicinity of Wheeling.
Kidd and several others, and amongst these Larkin Rutherford,
were soldiers under Clark in 1778, and after returning to
Virginia, came back as emigrants. Of James Moore, we have little
knowledge, as he died early, but his sons – the late General
James Moore and J. Milton Moore, and Enoch Moore, who is still
living, with numerous descendants – are well known in Monroe
County.
Shadrach Bond Sr., as customarily distinguished –
Judge Bond – was a native of Maryland, near Baltimore, but
subsequently removed to Virginia. He was an uncle of the late
governor Bond, who bore his first name. He was a man of
respectable talents, of sound judgment, great firmness,
excellent moral character, and took a leading part in the first
religious meetings held by the early pioneers, by reading
printed sermons and portions of the Scriptures on the Lord’s
day. These meetings were frequently held at his house, which was
in the American Bottoms, and near the present road from
Waterloo, by Columbia, to St. Louis. In the Indian War that
followed, it was made a “station,” and known as the “Blockhouse
Fort.”
Another colony of Americans arrived from Western
Virginia in 1785. Amongst these were Captain Joseph Ogle, James
Worley, James Andrews, and several other families. Captain Ogle,
as he was always called, many of whose descendants now live in
St. Clair County, deserves especial notice. He originated from
the south branch of the Potomac, and was amongst the Zanes and
others in the first attempt to settle the country in the
vicinity of Wheeling. Withers, the historian of Western
Virginia, says, “In 1769, Colonel Ebenezer Zane, his brothers
Silas and Jonathan, with some others, from the south branch of
the Potomac, visited the Ohio for the purpose of making
improvements, and severally proceeded to select positions for
their future residences.” Captain Ogle was already trained in
Indian warfare, and probably he and his brother, Jacob, who was
killed at the siege of Fort Henry in 1777, were amongst the
“others,” who accompanied the Zanes.
Fort Henry was
situated one-fourth of a mile above Wheeling Creek, the garrison
numbered 42 fighting persons, old and young. The storehouse was
well supplied with muskets, but sadly deficient in ammunition.
In the month of September 1777, about 400 Indians, headed by the
notorious S___ Girty, were found concealed in a cornfield, and
Captain Mason, with 14 men, was sent out to dislodge them. Their
numbers were then unknown, for only a dozen or more had shown
themselves. These made a retrograde movement towards the creek,
where the main party lay in ambuscade, until Mason and his small
party were surrounded, and assailed in front, flank, and rear.
The Captain rallied his men, attacked the Indians, and broke
through their lines, but in the desperate conflict, more than
half the men were killed, and their leader, severely wounded,
concealed himself, with two of his men, in the fallen timber,
who were all that survived. Soon as their critical situation was
known in the fort, by the firing of the Indians, Captain Ogle,
with 12 men, went to his rescue. This devoted band, eager to
relieve their companions, fell into the ambuscade, and more than
half were slain. Three other volunteers left the fort to aid
Ogle and his party, and his brother, Jacob Ogle, was mortally
wounded, and Captain Ogle and the surviving men had to seek
shelter in the woods. Captain Ogle, in running through the
cornfield, had several Indians in close and eager pursuit, who
were but a few yards behind him. The fence over which he had to
pass was ten rails high, and as not a moment’s time could be
spared in this emergency, he arranged, while running, to strike
his foot on the fourth rail, and by a tremendous effort, pass
over. In this he was entirely successful, but was so much
exhausted that he fell on the outside, and crawled into the
weeds under the fence. In a moment, two Indians mounted the
fence and sat on the adjacent panel, their dark eyes peeling
into the brush and timber beyond. He retained his rifle, and it
was loaded, his finger was on the trigger, and his eyes fixed on
his enemies, watching their motions, determining, should he be
discovered, to shoot one and rush on the other with his knife.
After several minutes, the Indians appeared to relinquish the
pursuit, returned to their party, and the fearless Captain made
his escape.
The fort now contained but 13 men and boys,
with a large number of women and children, when it was invested
by Girty with his savage army. Colonel Shepherd, who commanded,
received a challenge from Girty to surrender, and replied, “Not
while a man of boy lives to defend it.” The Indians attacked the
fort with their whole force – the females loaded the rifles,
while the men and boys took deadly aim at the assailants. Their
store of powder soon became nearly exhausted, but a keg was at
the house of Colonel Zane, about sixty yards from the gate of
the fort, but what man or boy would hazard his life to obtain
it? At this crisis, in which the fate of the whole garrison
depended, Elizabeth Zane, a young lady, just returned from
school in Philadelphia, volunteered to obtain the supply. The
Indians offered no molestation as she went out, but as she
returned with the keg in her arms, they suspected her errand,
and poured at her a shower of balls. But in the wonderful
Providence of God, she escaped unhurt. The attack continued
throughout the day, that night, and the next day, when
reinforcements, raised by Captain Ogle, came to their relief,
and drove off the savages.
Captain Ogle was a man of
unblemished morals, of uncommon firmness, and self-possession of
which his watching the Indians while lying under the fence is an
illustration. He was a great friend to liberty and human rights.
He brought his slaves from Virginia and set them free in
Illinois. Their descendants are industrious, worthy people, and
own and cultivate farms in the northern part of St. Clair
County. He was benevolent, humane, and exhibited great moral
firmness and decision of character. He had no education from
books, and could not read or write, and yet his mind, by
self-culture, was well disciplined. He was well qualified, and
hence naturally became the leader and counsellor of the people
in the settlement where he resided. Mild, peaceable, and
kind-hearted in social intercourse, always striving for the
promotion of peace and good order in society, yet terribly
combative in defense of the frontiers from the tomahawk of the
ruthless savage. What the poet says of the fictitious Rolla, may
be applied with much pertinence to Captain Ogle: “In war, a
tiger chafed by the hunter’s spear. In peace, more gentle than
the unweaned lamb.”
He was strict in the fulfillment of
all his engagements, and expected from all his neighbors the
same honesty and punctuality. He professed to be converted to
God under the preaching of Elder James Smith, who made his first
visit to Illinois in 1778, and subsequently joined the
Methodists, being the first person to put his name to the Class
paper in 1793. He had two wives in successive periods, both
members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, as are many of his
numerous descendants. He had three sons – Benjamin, Joseph, and
Jacob – and several daughters. One daughter was the wife of the
late Charles R. Matheny, Esq., of Springfield. Captain Ogle
died, honored and beloved by all his acquaintances, in the
northern part of St. Clair County (where he had resided from
1802), February 24, 1821, at the age of more than fourscore
years. His three sons have all died within two years.
HISTORY OF ILLINOIS, NO. 2
By an Old Resident
Source:
Alton Telegraph, April 14, 1848
Amongst the colonists who
accompanied Captain Ogle, we mentioned James Worley. His history
is told in a few words. Of his early life, we now nothing. In
1796, a party of Osage Indians came over the Mississippi on a
marauding enterprise, stole some horses, and were pursued by the
Americans. Mr. Worley got in advance of the party, was shot,
killed, scalped, and his head cut off and left on the sand bar
in the river where the Indians re-crossed.
In the summer
of 1787, the little settlement was strengthened by the arrival
of James Lemen (whose wife was the daughter of Captain Ogle),
George Acheson, David Waddel, William Biggs, and several other
families. The same year the Indian hostilities commenced, and
continued for nearly ten years, with intervals of apparent
quietness. During this period, the Indians were hostile
throughout the frontier settlements of the northwest, and along
the lake country to the State of Pennsylvania.
The
American settlers in Illinois began to erect blockhouses of
“stations,” as they were called, for defense in 1788, where
occasionally, for a whole season, a number of families lived in
a sort of community form for mutual protection. A number of
cabins, equal to one for each family in the community, were
erected, usually on two sides of a square or area, which made a
large yard in common. The doors and apertures of the cabins
opened into the yard. A second story of logs was laid over the
first, especially on those cabins placed at the corners of the
enclosure – the logs projecting over a few inches so as to
afford convenient opportunity to shoot obliquely downward at the
assailants. The spaces around the yard were fitted up with
palisades – these were logs, a foot or more in diameter, and
twelve or fifteen in length, planted firmly in the ground and
closely joined together. The gate for the common pass way was
usually made of thick slabs, split from large trees, and hung
with stout, wooden hinges. In time of alarm, the few cattle and
horses owned by the people were brought within the enclosure.
With a supply of water and plenty of provisions, rifles and
ammunition, a corps of resolute white men would beat off five
times their number of Indians. In only a very few instances were
such “stations” overcome by an Indian army.
The Indian
method of besieging a fort is peculiar. They are seldom seen in
any considerable numbers. They lie concealed in the woods,
bushes or weeds, and toward autumn, in the cornfields adjacent,
or behind stumps and trees, they waylay the path or the field,
and cut off individuals in a stealthy manner. They will crawl on
the ground, imitate the noise and appearance of swine, bears, or
any other animal in the dark. Occasionally, as if to produce a
panic and throw the besieged off their guard, they will rush
forward to the palisades or walls or gateway, with fearful
audacity, yelling frightfully, and even attempt to set fire to
the buildings, or beat down the gate. Sometimes they will make a
furious attack on one side, as a feint to draw out the garrison,
and then suddenly assail the opposite side. More frequently, if
they have a strong party, the main body lies in ambuscade, while
a small number show themselves, as was the case at Fort Henry,
as noticed in our first number. Indians are by no means brave.
Naturally they are cowards, especially those of the Algenuin(?)
race, which included all those tribes which assailed the
settlements in the northwest.
In 1788, the war assumed a
more threatening aspect in Illinois. The principal cause of this
series of Indian wars, after peace with Great Britain, will be
given in a future number.
We now return to a brief sketch
of Mr. Lemen, from whom nearly all of that name in Illinois have
descended. James Lemen was born in Berkley County, Virginia, in
the autumn of 1760. His grandmother was an emigrant from the
north of Ireland. His father died when he was a year old. He had
one brother and two sisters. His mother married for a second
husband a pious Presbyterian, by whom he was partly brought up.
At the age of 17, he entered the American Army, in which he
served his country two years, under the immediate command of
Washington. He went north, and was at the battle of White
Plains. After receiving an honorable discharge, he went to
Western Virginia, where he became acquainted with the family of
Captain Joseph Ogle, whose eldest daughter, Catharine, he
married. Family traditions give some pleasant incidents of their
early acquaintance. Both had been educated religiously, and upon
their first acquaintance, both became impressed with the idea
that they were destined for each other. It proved that their
affection for each other was strong, rational, and remained
unimpaired through life.
James Lemen was quite
independent in his feelings and judgment, rigidly honest, and a
humane, benevolent man. He was determined, very conscientious,
very firm, but never quarrelsome or vindictive. In principle, he
was opposed to war, and yet when compelled from a sense of duty,
arising from necessity, as was the case when the Indians
assailed the settlements, he would fight like a hero in their
defense. Early in the Spring of 1780, he fitted out a flatboat,
near Wheeling, to transport his family and moveables down the
Ohio River. On the second night, the river fell, and his boat
lodged on a stump, careened and sunk, by which casualty he lost
all his provisions and furniture. Though left destitute, Mr.
Lemen was not the man to become disheartened. He persevered, got
down the Ohio River, and up the Mississippi to Kaskaskia, where
he arrived on July 10. He eventually settled at New Design. He
was an industrious man, strictly honest, and devoutly pious from
early youth, but did not make a public profession of religion
until some years after his arrival in Illinois. Himself, his
wife, and two others were the first persons ever baptized in
Illinois, which took place in February 1794. They raised a
family of six sons and two daughters, all of whom have had large
families, and their descendants are quite numerous in the
southern counties in this State. A large proportion who have
come to years of understanding, are members of Baptist Churches.
Four of his sons have been ministers of the gospel from early
life, as their father was from about the age of fifty years. His
third son, James Lemen, was a member of the Territorial
Legislature, a delegate to the Convention that formed the first
constitution, and subsequently, for several years, a member of
the State Senate. Robert, the eldest son, was for many years U.
S. Marshal, first of the Territory, and then of the State. James
Lemen, the father, was a man of method and system, an
enterprising farmer, at one period a Judge of the County Court,
under Territorial jurisdiction, and in various ways an
influential and useful citizen. He died of the winter fever,
after a few days’ illness, surrounded by all his children, in
December 1823, in the calmness and fortitude of the Christian
hero. His venerable widow survived until 1840.
HISTORY OF ILLINOIS, NO. 3
By an Old Resident
Source:
Alton Telegraph, April 21, 1848
[Note: This article was
extremely hard to read, resulting in blanks and possible
errors.]
A very common notion has been entertained in the
“old thirteen States,” and more especially New England, that the
pioneers of the West were a rough, half-civilized class;
ignorant, indolent, and altogether unfit to constitute the _____
of virtuous society. Proofs of this in the minds of strangers
are drawn, as the schoolboy says, a _____. Here are the reasons.
They lived _____ hunting, fought Indians, were hunting-_____,
shirts, moccasins and skin caps – envied a ____ with a belt,
powder huru, butcher-knife, and tomahawk, by their side, when
_____ading the forests or prairies – lived in log cabins – eat
their homely and often scanty meals from platters or wooden
trenchers, pound their corn in a handmill, or pounded it in a
mortar, and drank their milk from a tin cup. They were an
uncivilized, un-Christianized, barbarous, fighting, flory-_____,
whisky-drinking race, who ought to have been prevented from
making Territorial and State Governments “by law,” - they were
squatters, who settled on the public lands, that specially
belonged to the old “thirteen States,” and got preemption
rights, thereby depriving enterprising and respectable land
jobbers of the privileges of monopoly. These pioneers were very
unreasonable for not living in densely populated districts, and
being satisfied with the guardianship of their betters, who were
_______ to form the social compact, and make laws for their
Government.
Such have been the reasonings of thousands,
both statesmen and Christians. By the same mode of drawing
inferences, we, ____ the West, can prove to a demonstration,
that the pioneers of New England were ____ a backwoods race.
They lived on _____ hunted game, wore an uncomely dress, showed
a sun-browned, weather-beaten, ______; domiciled in log houses,
killed Indians, and what is more to the _______, organized
Governments, like Western Pioneers, and made their own laws, or,
as ________ historian, Hugh Peters affectionately “adopted the
laws of God until they did get time to make better.” There are
_____ direct, that the pioneer puritans were very uncivil
people, and wholly unfit to _______ settlements in a new
country. They ought to have stayed at home, minded their
betters, and waited until the country became populous,
intelligent, and ______.
Last summer, a venerable
clergyman ____ “down cast” – came to Chicago to ___ the great
internal improvement Convention. He had gotten, as he supposed,
to “””” renowned place, ______ the Far West. He opened his eyes
with a wide stare, raised his hands towards heaven in
astonishment, and prepared a written speech, expressive of his
amazement that the people were civilized – for they looked
almost like Christians, and read a prosy speech to show that all
this wonder of wonders was produced by the peculiarities of New
England puritanism. He was replied to by Senator Corwin of Ohio,
in a witty, amusing and satirical style, which proved a
“knock-down” argument to the old gentleman’s fancies. This story
illustrates the propensity uncommon, to judge that people at a
distance, and of whom we have no particular knowledge, are of
course so vastly out inferior in knowledge, common sense, and
virtue.
We have already described the “stations” the
people had to erect for their safety, and their constant
exposure to Indian assaults. From 1786 to 1795, an Indian War
prevailed through the frontiers of the northwestern territory,
and the settler in Illinois were sufferers to no small extent.
We are aware there are fixed impressions in the minds of many
humane, benevolent persons, whose notions of Indian character
have originated, or been strengthened, by occasional speeches in
Congress, made not exactly for “Banklim,”(?) but for the special
benefit of party, by newspaper editorials and fancy sketches –
that Indian assaults originate in the mal-administration of the
national Government or the culpidity of the whites in their
invasion of Indian lands. Nothing is further from the facts of
history. Much that has been written in favor of Indian humanity,
fidelity, and “attachment to the graves of their fathers,” is
poetry. Nearly every tribe of the
Algonquin race have been a
roaming, marauding people, delighting in war and eager for
plunder. There never was a war in Illinois between the real
aboriginals, and either the French or the American immigrants.
Black Hawk and the Sauk nation were intruders on Rock River,
long after the French explored, took possession of and
negotiated with the Indians who claimed it. And the depredations
on the settlements in Monroe County, from 1786 to the close of
the Indian War, were by Kickapoos and Shawnees, neither of whom,
according to Indian rights, were owners of the land in Illinois.
The whole country south of a line about the latitude of Ottawa,
when first discovered by the French, was claimed by the Illinois
confederacy, which consisted of the Kaskaskias, Cahokias,
Taumanvans, Peorias, Mascoutahs, and Michiganies. The last-named
tribe occupied the country on Fox River, and along lake Michigan
to Milwaukie. Their name is transferred to the lake. This
confederacy was conquered by the Iroquois or Five Nations, from
western New York, about 160 years ago, a confederacy that
subjugated two-thirds of the United States east of the
Mississippi, and claimed the right by conquest to dispose of the
conquered country, leaving the tribes and confederacies to
manage their internal affairs as they choose, and exacting
tribute as vassals. The Iroquois, by treaty, in 1701, sold the
whole of Illinois, south and east of the Illinois River, to the
British crown. The Illinois tribes had previously entered into a
treaty of amity with the French, authorized them to establish
trading posts and missions, and many of them became converts to
the Catholic faith. These tribes never made war on the French,
British, or Americans, as the country came by conquest under
each nation.
These facts are a sample of what may be
found in exploring the history of other Indian tribes. A large
portion of the notions entertained about Indians and their
wrongs, by numerous persons in the northern States, are wholly
fictitious. We have no patience in listening to the sickly
sentimentality of those who throw the blame of the border wars
upon the national government or the hardy pioneers, who they
fancy are obtruders on Indian rights, and thus sympathize with
the “poor Indians.” And let it be understood, the writer is a
warm and consistent advocate for sending the blessings of the
gospel, and of civilization to the “red skins,” not because he
is an honest, inoffensive being, but because he is ferociously
wicked, deceitful, and cruel, because he delights in war, and
because in each marauding enterprise he commits depredations for
the love of fighting, and an insatiate desire of plunder. And he
has been a steady advocate for the removal of the Indians from
within the boundaries of organized States and Territories ever
since the humans and truly national plan was laid in the cabinet
of President Monroe, and received the hearty cooperation of the
Great Patriot, whose recent death the nation mourns.
HISTORY OF ILLINOIS, NO. 4
By an Old Resident
Source:
Alton Telegraph, April 28, 1848
Amongst the individuals and
families who were sufferers by the depredations of the Indians
at the period of these “incidents,” were the names of Andrews,
Smith, Biggs, and McMahon.
James Andrews came to the
Illinois Country in 1785, in company with Captain Joseph Ogle
and others. The next year, his cabin was assailed by a party of
Indians – himself, wife, and daughter, killed and scalped, and
two other daughters taken prisoners and carried to the Kickapoo
towns on the Wabash. One of the girls was lost sight of amongst
the Indians, and it was never known whether she lived or died.
The other was ransomed by some French traders and restored to
her friends. She is still living, the aged mother of a large
family, within three miles of the writer.
James Smith was
a Baptist minister from Kentucky, who visited the settlement of
New Design the first time in 1788, and spent some weeks in
preaching the gospel to the destitute population. He was the
first preacher (in distinction from Roman Catholic priests) who
officiated as a minister on the prairies of Illinois. Previous
to this, and subsequently to, the people were accustomed to meet
at each other’s cabins on the Sabbath, sing hymns and read a
sermon of portions of the Scriptures. A revival of religion
followed the preaching of Smith, and a number professed to be
converted, but no church was organized. On his second visit to
Illinois in 1790, he was taken prisoner by the Indians. He had
been preaching in the settlement, and transacting business for
several days, and a number of persons were seriously disposed –
amongst whom was a Mrs. Huff. On May 19, in company with this
lady and a Frenchman from Cahokia, he was riding from the
blockhouse to another settlement called Little Village. A party
of Kickapoo Indians lay in ambuscade near their path, fired on
the party, killed the Frenchman’s horse, and wounded Smith’s
horse, which threw him. He had presence of mind to toss his
saddlebags, containing some money and some valuable papers, into
a hazel thicket, and attempted to escape by running down a
bluff. The Indians seized Mrs. Huff, who had an infant in her
arms, and commenced the work of murder, while the preacher,
having no means of defense, threw himself on his knees in prayer
to God for her. The Frenchman escaped on foot into the woods;
Smith, knowing that he could not escape (for he was a large and
gross man, unable to run), approached the Indians, baring his
breast and pointing to his heart, as though he defied them to
shoot him. He knew well how to manage Indians, rightly by
judging they would mistake him for a “grave,” and spare his
life. The woman and her infant they had already dispatched, and
loading Smith with packs of plunder they had stolen from the
people, they took up the line of march in a northeastern
direction through the prairies. The prisoner thus heavily
loaded, and under a hot sun, became fatigued and could not keep
up with the Indians. They held several consultations over him.
Some were for dispatching him at once, and pointed their guns at
his breast, but by bearing his bosom and pointing upward, he
signified the Great Spirit would protect him. At all opportune
moment, he knelt down and prayed, and then began to sing hymns,
which he did to relieve his mind from despondency. After various
consultations, the Indians came to the conclusion he was a
“Great Medicine,” took off his burden, and gave him water and
jerked venison, and treated him kindly. They took him to their
towns on the Wabash, from whence, in a few months, he obtained
deliverance through the French traders; the inhabitants of the
Illinois settlements paying one hundred and seventy dollars for
his ransom - a very heavy sum in those days of poverty and
privation.
William Biggs, with his family, came to
Illinois from the vicinity of Wheeling, Virginia in 1785. On
March 28, 1788, in company with a young man by the name of John
Vallis, he was going from Bellefontaine to Cahokia, when they
were attacked by sixteen Indians. The horse he rode was shot in
several places, reared, plunged, and threw him off the saddle.
He attempted to run, but became entangled in his overcoat and
shot pouch, was overtaken and made prisoner. Vallis was shot in
his thigh, but being on a large, fine horse, made his escape and
reached the settlement, but he died of the wound about six weeks
after. The Indians took Biggs to their towns on the Wabash,
treated him kindly, and proposed to adopt him into the tribe in
place of a brave who had been killed. He was a portly,
fine-looking man, and a young squaw, who was a handsome, neat
widow, manifested strong and persevering desires to adopt him as
her husband. She was a daughter of the principal Chief, and her
style of courtship was modest and decorous according to approved
Indian fashion. She combed and braided his long hair into a cue,
cooked his breakfast, and brought it to the door of his camp at
an early hour, followed from village to village, endured with
high-souled feeling and patience the jeers of her Indian
relatives for her devoted attachment, and deemed the excuse of
Biggs for not complying with her matrimonial proposals a very
silly one - that he had a wife and three children in Illinois.
At the Kickapoo village he met with Nicholas Koniz, a young
German about nineteen years of age, who had learned their
language and acted as a sort of interpreter. Koniz afterwards
obtained his release, went to Missouri, and settled ten miles
west of St. Charles on the Old Boon’s Lick Road, where he kept a
house of entertainment until his death. Mr. Biggs also became
acquainted with a British trader by the name of McCausland,
through whose kindness, and that of some French traders at
Vincennes, he negotiated his ransom for $200, including his
expenses, for which he gave his note payable in twelve months in
the Illinois country. He returned home by the way of Vincennes
and the Wabash and Ohio Rivers, after an absence of nine weeks.
Subsequently, Mr. Biggs became a resident of St. Clair County,
four miles northeast from Belleville, was a member of the
Territorial Legislature, a Judge of the County Court, and lived
and died in the confidence and respect of the community. In
1826, he published a narrative of his captivity, visited
Washington City, and obtained the amount paid for his ransom and
expenses, to which he was justly entitled from the Government.
The Indians rarely came into the settlements in the
winter months – their usual custom leads them to commit
depredations in the Spring and Autumn, though it was not safe to
be exposed at any period during the Summer. At times, for many
months, or nearly a year, no Indians would be seen, and then the
first notice would be the death of an individual or the massacre
of a family. One of the most afflictive instances was the murder
of the family of Mr. McMahon in 1795. No depredations had been
committed for many months, and the impression prevailed that the
war was over. People began to leave the “stations,” and improve
their own land. Mr. McMahon had built a cabin, and made a little
improvement in what is now called “Yankee Prairie,” about four
miles southeast from Waterloo, in Monroe County. This location
was nearly two miles from that of James Lemen Sr., his nearest
neighbor. Towards night, seven Indians were seen coming up a
ravine from an adjacent thicket, and approaching his cabin. Mr.
McMahon saw them, and justly suspected their intentions were
hostile. He had a large blunderbuss [short-barreled, large-bored
gun with a flared muzzle, used at short range], loaded with
twenty small rifle balls, and had he fired on them and barred
the door, he might have saved his family. Unfortunately, his
wife, being frightened, caught his arm and would not let him
fire. The Indians entered the cabin in a friendly manner, shook
hands with the family, and immediately caught and tied Mr.
McMahon so that he could make no resistance. His wife ran, but
they shot and dispatched her and four of the children with the
tomahawk. An infant slept in the cradle, which they did not
discover, but as it was the second day after the massacre before
the people found it, the little one was dead. The Indians
decamped with Mr. McMahon and one little daughte4r prisoners,
and took their customary course northeast through the prairie
and points of timber, leaving the Kaskaskia River on the right.
The first night, they securely tied the afflicted father, but
the second night he made his escape, leaving his little
daughter, and started homeward. For one day he lost his course,
but reached the settlement in safety, just as his neighbors were
burying his murdered wife and children. He calmly gazed on their
mutilated remains in the rude coffins in which they were about
being enclosed, as he came in sight, and with pious resignation
repeated the words of Scripture, “They were lovely and pleasant
in their lives, and in their death, they were not divided.” His
daughter was subsequently restored to her friends, grew up,
married a Mr. Gaskill, and became the mother of a large family
in Madison County.
HISTORY OF ILLINOIS, NO. 5
By an Old Resident
Source:
Alton Telegraph, May 5, 1848
It is necessary here to inquire
into the circumstances of the country and the national
government, and the policy pursued toward the Indians of the
northwest, that the causes of the border depredations already
narrated may be understood.
At the commencement of the
American settlements in the Illinois country, it was almost
literally without an organized government. Originally, Illinois
constituted a portion of Louisiana, and its civil organization
and laws originated from that source. The war between England
and Spain on the one part, and France on the other, from 1754 to
1782, produced great and essential changes on the continent of
North American, and no less in the Illinois country. France at
that period was under the curse of a traitorous and licentious
monarch in the person of Louis XI, through whose profligacy and
that of his mistresses and minions, the nation lost its
possessions in North American. By a secret treaty at Paris
(1762), the King gave Spain all Louisiana west of the
Mississippi River, together with New Orleans and the country
south of the Ibbeville pass; and by the treaty with Great
Britain of 1763, all Canada and the Illinois country were ceded
to the latter power. How much British and Spanish gold was
received to support the King and his minions in their
profligacy, the nation never knew. British power was not
exercised over Illinois until 1765, when Captain Sterling, in
the name and by the authority of the British crown, established
the provincial government at Fort Chartres.
In 1766, the
“Quebec Bill,” as it was called, passed the British parliament,
which placed Illinois and the northwestern territory under the
local administration of Canada. The conquest of the country in
1778, by Colonel C. R. Clark, brought it under the jurisdiction
of Virginia, and in the month of December of the same year, an
act was passed by the House of Burgesses of that State,
organizing the county of Illinois, and providing for the
administration of government under the authority of a Lieutenant
Governor, who was also commandant. During each of these changes,
the French laws and customs remained in operation.
Virginia, at an early period (1779) had by law discouraged all
settlements made by her citizens in the territory northwest of
the Ohio River. This has been the footing, and in many
instances, the legislative policy of the old States. The Great
West has grown up, not so much by the fostering policy of the
old States, as by the restless enterprise of the pioneers. The
spirit of adventure and migration has ever been stronger than
arbitrary laws. For several years, the position of things in
relation to the protection of government was precarious in the
northwest. The territory was claimed under the ill-defined
boundaries of royal charters, by Massachusetts, Connecticut,
Pennsylvania, and Virginia. But the latter State had the
additional claims of conquest and possession. These and other
difficulties were adjusted by each State transferring the right
of sovereignty and title to the wild lands (after some
reservations), to the national confederation. The cosstoir(?) of
Virginia to the Continental Congress was made in 1781, but it
was not till July 1787 the “Ordinance” was passed which provided
for a territorial government northwest of the Ohio River. But
the governor and judges were not appointed until 1788, and the
government was organized at Mariota in the month of July of that
year. Still, the Illinois country remained without an organized
government till March 1790, when Governor St. Clair and Winthrop
Sergeant, Secretary, arrived at Kaskaskia and organized the
county of St. Clair. Hence, for at least six years, there was no
executive, legislative, or judicial authority in the country.
The people were “a law unto themselves.” There was in reality no
authority to which they could apply for protection from Indian
assaults.
The war with Great Britain, in which many of
the northwestern Indians were employed as allies, ceased by the
adoption of the provisional articles of peace at Paris, on
November 30, 1782, and all hostilities with the mother country
ceased in January following. The definitive treaty was made in
September 1783. But a cessation of hostilities with Great
Britain was not necessarily a cessation of hostilities with the
Indian tribes. And while it was hoped the border wars were at an
end, none could foresee the result.
Soon, an unhappy
controversy arose between Great Britain and the United States,
about carrying out certain provisions of the treaty. Article 4
provided, “That creditors on either side should meet with no
lawful impediment to the recovery in full value, in sterling
money of all bonafide debts heretofore contracted.” The
Continental Congress had no power to compel the States to
observe this or any other article. Congress further agreed “to
recommend to each of the States to restore to the original
owners all the rights, properties, and claims, that had been
confiscated, belonging heretofore to real British subjects.” And
“His Britannic Majesty shall with all convenient speed, and
without causing any destruction, or carrying away any negroes or
other property of the American inhabitants, withdraw all his
armies, garrisons and fleets, from the said United States, and
from every port, place and harbor, within the same, leaving in
all the fortifications the American artillery that may be
therein.”
These articles were violated by both parties.
Some of the States made ex post facto laws, virtually debarring
the collection of debts in sterling money, and though Congress
recommended it, the States refused to restore confiscated
property. The British government, in the spirit of recitation,
refused to pay for negro slaves carried off, and remained
possession of the military posts of Oswego, Niagara, Presque
Isle, Sandusky, Detroit, Michillmackluae, and Prairie du Chleq.
Those posts were places of resort for the British traders.
Through their agency, the Indians of the northwest obtained
their supplies, and to these traders they sold their furs. There
is no documentary evidence that the British government
countenanced and encouraged the Indians in their hostilities to
the Americans, but there is abundant evidence that the traders,
who were British subjects, did. The traders were not benefited
directly by the border wars that followed, but the state of
hostilities kept off all Americans as competitors in the Indian
trade, and furnished a market to the British traders for
supplies of munitions of war, clothing, and other articles.
He celebrated and much abused treaty of the Hon. John Jay,
concluded in November 1784, and ratified by the President of
Senate of the United States in August 1795, adjusted the _____
in controversy with Great Britain, and produced the cession of
the military posts to the northwest, and with the treaty with
the Indians at Greenville, Ohio, the same summer, put an end to
the long series of Indian wars, and opened the period of
prosperity and growth to the northwestern territory. Jay’s
treaty did not obtain all that was claimed by the United States,
but it obtained all that could then be secured. No one but a
grave man, or a political desperado, devoid of every spark of
real patriotism, would have advocated a war with Great Britain
at that period, under the depressed circumstances in which the
nation was placed. And yet, for political purposes, and to break
down the administration of Washington, this treaty was opposed
with great vehemence and violence, especially in the House of
Representatives, where supplies were voted to carry it into
effect. The interests of the south were thought to be neglected.
It became the watchword for a political party then attempting an
organization, and political aspirants then were the same
selfish, intriguing demagogues, and could make the “worse seem
the better reason,” as at this day. The treaty went into effect
only through the influence and unbounded popularity of
Washington, and proved in the issue a great benefit to the whole
northwest.
HISTORY OF ILLINOIS, NO. 6
By an Old Resident
Source:
Alton Telegraph, May 12, 1848
Is the question asked, “Why did
not the national government protect the people of the Illinois
country and other portions of the northwestern territory from
the marauding savages?” The answer is, it was wholly deficient
in means, and until the adoption of the Constitution in 1780, it
was impotent in authority. The Continental Congress could not
levy a dollar, nor even provide troops, except by the action of
each State. Speele currency was hardly to be found in the
country; the people were impoverished by the seven years
struggle and privations of the Revolutionary War, and even after
the adoption of the Constitution in which ample provision was
made for national authority, the government was deficient in
means. The policy pursued towards the Indians was a wretched
one. It was a peace policy when the tribes were induced and
disposed to be hostile.
The national government was,
through its commissioners, in the attitude of a suppliant for
peace. On June 15, 1789, General Knox, Secretary of War, made to
the President of the United States a report relative to the
Indians in the territory northwest of the Ohio River. This
report alludes to “several murders, committed on the inhabitants
by small parties of Indians, probably from the Wabash Country;”
the alarm amongst the inhabitants along and both sides of the
Ohio for several hundred miles; the spirit of retaliation on the
part of the white people in carrying hostilities into the Indian
country; and urges “that unless some decisive measures are
adopted immediately to mitigate those mutual hostilities, they
will probably become general among all the Indians northwest of
the Ohio.” Two modes were pointed out by which the object could
be effected. 1. “Raising an army and extirpating the refractory
tribes entirely.” The General questions the right of the United
States “consistently with the principles in justice and the laws
of nature” to destroy the Indians, if even a sufficient force
could be raised, and that he questions. The regular troops of
the United States on the frontiers were less than 600 men, and
the Indians were estimated at from 1,500 to 2,000 warriors; and
the Secretary supposed it would require an army of not less than
2,500 men to ensure success. To raise, equip and provide for
such an additional force for six months, he estimates at the
additional expense of $200,000; “a sum for exceeding the ability
of the United States in advance, consistently with a due regard
to other indispensable objects.”
His second plan was to
form “treaties of peace with them, in which their rights and
limits should be explicitly defined, and the treaties observed
on the part of the United States with the most right justice, by
punishing the whites who should violate the same.”
This
certainly seems a humane paltry, and it was attempted to be
carried out to its full extent. Commissioners were sent to the
Indian tribes, councils were held, the “poor Indians” were
reasoned with, and advised and implored to be at peace with the
United States, and with each other. Treaties were actually made,
and wantonly violated on the part of the Indians before the ink
was hardly dry. Presents were liberally made, and they were
instructed how good and clever it was to live in peace with
their neighbors, and the war continued; families were butchered,
and thieving and marauding expeditions carried into
long-established white settlements.
The policy in the end
proved not less ruinous to the Indians than it did to the
frontier white settlements. This policy impressed them with the
notion that the United States government was a feeble, imbecile
concern, and unable to restrain or punish them. The British
traders along the lake country furnished supplies, and fostered
the impression of the inability of the government to protect its
frontier population. The character and policy of Indians were
wholly misunderstood by the administration. War and plunder are
the delight of savage ambition. The little marauding parties
that did such repeated acts of mischief and cruelty to the
settlements were exactly in accordance with the habits and taste
of the Indian tribes.
But the surprise at this day, is
that General Knox, a veteran Revolutionary officer, and a
sterling patriot, should have been so misled. General George
Rogers Clarke had taught the nation how to make Indians
peaceable and bring them to terms in his Illinois enterprise. He
never solicited peace from a single tribe, but made them think
he was indifferent about it and rather preferred to exterminate
them. He knew the Indians naturally are cowards, and by
operating on their fears, brought them to beg peace of him. By
this method, peace was made with the tribes of Illinois Indians
in 1778, and they continued at peace during the eruption of the
Kickapoos and Shawnees. The United States, during the first term
of Washington’s administration, tried the experiment of “moral
suasion,” and made an effectual failure, until repeated
disasters compelled the government to a policy radically
different from either measure recommended by General Knox. They
organized an army under the command of General Wayde, who
penetrated into the Indian country, burnt their villages,
destroyed their cornfields, and compelled them to beg for peace,
or to use the barbarous English employed more recently, the
government “conquered a peace.” We are surprised that the
sagacious Secretary of War did not foresee that permanent peace
could not be obtained of Indians by appeals to their
benevolence, philanthropy, or justice; and that the only method
to prevent their extermination was to send a strong force at
once into their country, make them feel the strong arm of
government, and bring them at once to subjection. A vast amount
of suffering would have been prevented, and preservation of life
might have been gained by such a policy.
The President,
in his official instructions to Governor St. Clair, dated
October 6, 1789, said: “I would have it observed forcibly, that
a war with the Wabash Indians ought to be avoided by all means
consistently with the security of the troops and the national
dignity. In the exercise of the present indiscriminate
hostilities, it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to
say that a war without further measures would be just on the
part of the United States. But, if after manifesting clearly to
the Indians the disposition of the general government for the
preservation of peace, and the extension of a just protection to
the said Indians, should they continue their incursions, the
United States will be constrained to punish them with severity.”
The peace begging policy of Washington was tried
effectually, the experiment proved a failure. The Indians, after
repeated periods of peace, continued their “incursions.” Many
hundreds of families were murdered. Two half-formed, deficient,
and ill-provided armies, under Generals Harmer and St. Clair,
were defeated, and at a great loss of blood and treasure, the
United States government had “to punish them with severity” by
General Wayne. Half of the expense and a tithe of the loss of
life would have “conquered a peace” at the commencement.
HISTORY OF ILLINOIS, NO. 7
By an Old Resident
Source:
Alton Telegraph, June 9, 1848
In a former communication, we
have shown that the character, talents, habits, and
qualifications for self-government of the pioneers of the West
have been mistaken, and greatly underrated in the older
communities of the Atlantic States. This is more particularly
the case in New England. Amongst all the great and good things
that have pertained to Yankeedom, the descendants of the
Puritans have some great and glaring faults. One of these is a
distinctive trait of character, and shows itself on all
occasions. It is the firm and obstinate opinion that, to them,
and their peculiarities of manners, religion, morals,
intelligence, enterprise, and industry, exclusively belongs the
credit of all that is good, noble, philanthropic, and virtuous
in the United States. This habit of self-glorification may do
well enough in him, but when it assumes the form of supervision
over their neighbors in our new settlements, who with equal
pertinacity think they know a few things, and are nearly as good
Christians and citizens, it becomes a little annoying.
The pioneers of Illinois originated, in most instances, from the
Southern and Middle States, through the medium of Kentucky and
Tennessee, and brought with them the habits and modes of
thinking common to those districts. In their manners and
customs, there were some strongly marked circumstances:
1. They were rough and unrefined in their persons, manners,
dress, and mode of living, yet king, generous, warm-hearted,
sociable, and given to hospitality.
2. They were hunters,
and stock-growers, and much of their subsistence was derived
from the range.
3. They were brave, prompt, and energetic
in war, yet liberal and magnanimous to a subdued foe.
4.
They exhibited great energy and a just spirit of enterprise in
removing to a wilderness country and preparing the way for the
future prosperity of their descendants, and the immigrants who
have poured into the country.
5. They were hospitable and
generous to each other and to strangers, ready to share with the
destitute their last resources.
6. They had a species of
faith in Divine Providence – a presentiment that their labors,
toils, and sacrifices were preparing the way for future
prosperity even to other generations. They were guided by
Providence, preserved amidst dangers, perils, sickness, and
savage assaults, and thus became the pioneers of civilization
and the founders of free government, and the establishment in
the hearts of the people of a pure and enlightened Christianity.
They turned the wilderness into a fruitful field, and opened the
country to a more dense population.
7. Their habits and
manners were plain, simple, and unostentatious. In utensils,
furniture, and dress, the most simple and economical possible
were all they could obtain. Not a single thing was used for
ornament, display, or show. No one paid taxes for the benefit of
his neighbor’s eyes.
It is no disparagement or reproach
to the pioneers of Illinois, or any other country, to say they
were inured to labor, to danger, and to rough living. Few others
could have encountered the dangers and difficulties of planting
the standard of religion and civilization on the wild prairies
of the West.
The dunes of the household were discharged
by the female sex, who attended the dairy, performed the
culinary operations, spun, wove, and made up the garments for
the whole family, carried the water from the springs, and
performed much other laborious service from which females, and
especially mothers, in a more advanced state of society are
exempted. Add to all this, each wife usually bred and raised
from ten to fifteen children, of which, in proof of the
healthfulness of the country, about nine-tenths of the children
born grew up to adult age. The statistics of hundreds of
families in the frontier settlements of the West furnish proofs
of this statement.
The building of forts, or “stations,”
and cabins, clearing and fencing land, hunting game in the
woods, defending the stations from Indian assaults, and
planting, cultivating and gathering the crops, of which the
Indian corn was the chief, were the appropriate business of the
men; though the other sex not unfrequently aided their fathers,
brothers, and husbands in field labor. In war, when the stations
were attacked, it was not unusual for females to mould bullets
and load the rifles at the stations.
And let not the
impression be made that females who are reared under such
circumstances are necessarily low-minded, vulgar, uncouth, and
ignorant. Far from it. We can point to some who were the mothers
of our most eminent statesmen, who in after life graced the
drawing-room, whose intellectual qualities were of a high order,
and who in point of elevation of character, vigor of intellect,
enabling feelings and uncommon sense, were immeasurably in
advance of the pale, sickly, effeminate, silly, sentimental,
boarding school triflers of fashionable life. As an
illustration, we will give an anecdote of Esther Fuller, who was
the wife of William Whitley – one of the pioneers of Kentucky,
and well known in the history of that State:
William
Whitley was a native of Rockbridge County, Virginia, born in
1749, and brought up to hard labor on a farm. He had very little
education from books, but his corporeal and mental faculties
were fully developed and of a high order. He married Esther
Fuller in January 1775, who had been brought up in the manner we
have described. They immediately commenced housekeeping in a
backwoods cabin, with a skillet, a few pewter dishes, a straw
bed, with scanty covering, with two or three stools for chairs,
and a rough slab on round legs for a table. But they were in
high health, and dependent wholly on labor for their future
subsistence. One day Whitley told his wife that he had heard a
fine report about a new country called “Kaintuck,” several
hundred miles to the West, where people were going, and he
thought they could get a living there with less hard work than
in Virginia, and perhaps get land of their own. “Then, Billy, if
I were you, I would go and see,” was the encouraging reply of
the young bride. In two days, she had his clothes in order, and
he was on his way to Kentucky with George Rogers and Clark. Such
were the men and women who were the planners of that great and
flourishing State, and such are the men and women now building
their cabins along the vales of Oregon and California.
HISTORY OF ILLINOIS, NO. 8
By an Old Resident
Source:
Alton Telegraph, June 16, 1848
The pioneers of Illinois
brought little other property than such as they could pack on
horses or carry on watercraft. A few implements of husbandry in
the most simple form, and such culinary utensils as were
indispensable, and confined to a very few articles; the rifle,
the axe, auger, saw, and very few other tools used by the
mechanic [laborer] were all that was deemed necessary. The
primitive Western log cabin, with its clapboard roof held on by
poles, its stick and clay chimney, its floor of split slabs
called puncheons, and its door, made of boards split from a log,
smoothed with a drawing-knife, united together with wooden
hinges and fastened with a wooden latch, was the uniform style
of architecture. Not a nail or any other piece of metal was
used; not a pane of glass kept out the air and storm from the
aperture left for a window; all was wood, and all constructed by
the backwoodsmen.
With the first immigration, there were
no regular mechanics, and for some years after, but few are
found in new settlements. The pioneer learns to make everything
he wants. Besides clearing the land, making fence, building his
cabin, corn-crib and stable, he must stack his plough, repair
his cart or wagon, make his ox yokes and harness for his horses,
tan his own leather, dress his deer skins, cobble his shoes and
those of his family, construct his own band or horse mill, and
not unfrequently becomes a rude blacksmith and gunsmith for his
neighbors. He learns to supply all his wants from the forest.
The tables, bedsteads, and substitutes for chairs are of his
rude manufacture. The stranger and traveler, accustomed to an
entirely different mode of life as he passes through the thinly
populated settlement, is struck and vexed with the peculiarly
uncomfortable situation and appearance of everything about this
people – their cabins are rude, and as he imagines,
distressingly uncomfortable. Their agriculture is quite
primitive, their implements and furniture coarse and unsightly,
and everything in his prejudiced imagination looks wrong and
wretched. The roads are mere “bridle paths,” the strams are
unbridged, he sees “no tall spire pointing to the skies,” and
hears not “the sound of the church going bell.” All in his
estimation is a “moral waste.” The people, he fancies, are
ignorant, indolent, and vicious, and should he be the
correspondent of some religious paper away East, a long and
doleful jeremiad is contained in his next epistle.
But he
is wholly mistaken in imagining the people to be ignorant,
indolent, and improvident. The backwoodsman has many substantial
comforts. In a few years, he is surrounded with plenty – his
cattle, swine, and poultry multiply around him. The fertile soil
yields prolific crops. His table is profusely supplied. He lives
in a brick house, his furniture is comfortable, and even
elegant, and hospitality and kindness are predominant virtues.
In this picture, we have described from personal observation
the pioneers into the counties of Morgan and Sangamon, and there
are many now living who can attest the correctness of our
portraiture. Twenty-five years ago, every house in Springfield
was a primitive log cabin, except occasionally a small glass
window in the aperture. The first courthouse was a rude cabin of
round logs, the roof made of split clapboards, and the floor of
earth. In the “olden times,” in Southern Illinois, as in all
other primitive settlements of the West, deer skins were used
for clothing, made into hunting shirts, pantaloons, leggings,
and moccasins. The skin of the wolf and fox was a substitute for
the hat and cap. Strips of buffalo hide were used for rope and
traces, and the dressed skins of the buffalo, bear and elk
furnished the principal part of the bed at night. Wooden
vessels, either dug out or coopered, were the common substitute
for bowls for table use, from which the family ate their mush
and milk. The small-sized gourd constituted the drinking cup.
Every hunter carried his knife, while not unfrequently, the rest
of the family had one or two old case knives between them. If a
family chanced to have a few pewter dishes and spoons, knives
and forks, cups, and platters, they were quite in advance of
their neighbors. Corn, for bread and mush, was beaten in the
mortar or ground in a hand mill.
Hospitality and kindness
were prominent among the virtues of the pioneers of the West.
Deliver us, above all things, from the neighborhood of that
class of people who are moody, unsocial, and so selfish and
inhospitable as never to invite a neighbor or even a stranger
who may happen to be present, to share in the hospitality of the
family meals. Such people ought to live in a clan by themselves,
where they can indulge in the unmixed passion of selfishness and
quarrel, and threaten “to take the law” of each other to their
heart’s content.
The pioneers of whom we are writing were
exposed to common dangers, and became united by the closest ties
of social intercourse. Accustomed to arm in each other’s
defense, to aid in each other’s labor, to assist in the
affectionate duty of nursing the sick, and the mournful office
of burying the dead, the best affections of the heart were
brought into habitual exercise.
There are peculiarities
of habits and character between the North and the South – the
puritans of New England and the chivalry of Virginia, but the
origin and cause of this diversity are wholly overlooked by the
great multitude. Many superficial observers take it for granted
that the peculiar features of Southern character have been
formed by slavery. The descendants of the puritans
conscientiously believe in the superiority of their forefathers,
and thank God that they are not as other men, and especially
those born South of the Potomac and Ohio Rivers. One class
attributes the diversities of character to the influences of
cotton and tobacco, and the other to accidental circumstances.
Now the facts are these: The peculiarities of New England
character of both good and evil qualities can be traced back to
the peculiar habits and feelings from the rise of puritanism in
Scotland and England. It attained its zenith in Cromwell’s day,
but continued to send out a stream of influence during the
seventeenth century. Virginia, as a type of the South, received
the peculiar traits of character from the cavalier class, from
which the chief portion of the early settlers came. Whoever will
carefully study the peculiar shades of character that mark
distinctly each of these classes, as they were manifested in
England and Scotland, from one hundred and fifty to three
hundred years since, will find the elements that make up the
light and shade of character peculiar to the North and South.
The prevailing elements of character in Illinois will be the
strongly marked lineaments of each, modified by other influences
and the commingling of other streams.