Early Western Travels, 1748-1846 (Volume XXVI) Part 20

[165] The following extract from a letter dated September, 1819, addressed by Mr. Austin to Mr. Schoolcraft, respecting the navigation of the Missouri, well portrays the impetuous character of that river.

It shows, too, the great improvements in the steam-engine during the past twenty years.

"I regret to state that the expedition up the Missouri to the Yellow Stone has in part failed. The steamboats destined for the Upper Missouri, after labouring against the current for a number of weeks, were obliged to give up the enterprise. Every exertion has been made to overcome the difficulty of navigating the Missouri with the power of steam; but all will not do. The current of that river, from the immense quant.i.ty of sand moving down with the water, is too powerful for any boat yet constructed. The loss either to the government or to the contractor will be very great. Small steamboats of fifty tons burden, with proper engines, would, I think, have done much better.

Boats like those employed, of twenty to thirty feet beam, and six to eight feet draught of water, must have _uncommon_ power to be propelled up a river, every pint of whose water is equal in weight to a quart of Ohio water, and moves with a velocity hardly credible. The barges fixed to move with wheels, worked by men, have answered every expectation; but they will only do when troops are on board, and the men can be changed every hour."--FLAGG.

[166] For a sketch of Franklin, Missouri, see Gregg's _Commerce of the Prairies_ in our volume xix, p. 188, note 33.--ED.

[167] The first settlement was made at St. Charles in 1769. La Cha.s.seur Blanchette located the site, and established here a military post. The first mill in St. Charles County is said to have been built by Jonathan Bryan on a small branch emptying into Femme Osage Creek (1801). Francis Duquette (1774-1816), a French Canadian who came to St. Charles just before the close of the century, erected a mill on the site of the old round fort.--ED.

[168] One year after the above was written, the author, on a visit to St. Charles, walked out to this spot. The willow was blasted; the relics of the paling were gone; the grave was levelled with the soil, but the old ruin was there still.--FLAGG.

[169] For a description of b.l.o.o.d.y Island, see _ante_, p. 115, note 77.

The duel mentioned by Flagg is probably the one that occurred between Joshua Barton, United States district attorney, and Thomas Rector, on June 30, 1823. Barton had published in the _Missouri Republican_ a letter charging William Rector, surveyor general of Missouri, Illinois, and Arkansas, with corruption in office. The latter being absent, his brother Thomas issued the challenge. Barton's body was buried at St. Charles near the old round tower ruins.

In the summer of 1817, Charles Lucas challenged Thomas H. Benton's vote at the polls. On the latter calling him an insolent puppy, Lucas challenged him to a duel. The affair took place August 12, 1817, and both parties were wounded. On September 27 of the same year, a second duel was fought, in which Lucas was mortally wounded. Joshua Barton was the latter's second. In the _Missouri Republican_ (St. Louis, March 15, 1882) there was printed an address by Thomas T. Gantt, delivered in Memorial Hall at St. Louis, on the celebration of the centennial birthday of Thomas H. Benton, in which the details of this deed were carefully reviewed.

During the political canva.s.s of 1830, a heated discussion was carried on in the newspaper press between Thomas Biddle and Spencer Pettis.

Pettis challenged Biddle to a duel. Both fell mortally wounded, August 29, 1830.--ED.

[170] Marais Croche (Crooked swamp) is located a few miles northeast of St. Charles, and Marais Temps-Clair (Clear-weather swamp), just southwest of Portage des Sioux. The former is often mentioned for its beauty.--ED.

[171] "I cultivated a small farm on that beautiful prairie below St.

Charles called 'The Mamelle,' or 'Point prairie.' In my enclosure, and directly back of my house, were two conical mounds of considerable elevation. A hundred paces in front of them was a high bench, making the sh.o.r.e of the 'Marais Croche,' an extensive marsh, and evidently the former bed of the Missouri. In digging a ditch on the margin of this bench, at the depth of four feet, we discovered great quant.i.ties of broken pottery, belonging to vessels of all sizes and characters.

Some must have been of a size to contain four gallons. This must have been a very populous place. The soil is admirable, the prospect boundless; but, from the scanty number of inhabitants in view, rather lonely. It will one day contain an immense population again."--_Flint's Recollections_, p. 166.--FLAGG.

[172] At the time Flagg wrote, St. Charles, like many other Western towns, entertained the hope that the c.u.mberland Road would eventually be extended thereto, thus placing them upon the great artery of Western travel. See Woods's _English Prairie_, in our volume x, p.

327, note 76. Also consult T. B. Searight, _The Old Pike_ (Uniontown, 1894), and A. B. Hulbert "c.u.mberland Road," in _Historic Highways of America_ (Cleveland, 1904).

Boone's Lick Road, commencing at St. Charles, runs westward across Dardenne Creek to Cottleville, thence to Dalhoff post-office and Pauldingville, on the western boundary of the county. Its total length is twenty-six miles.--ED.

[173] St. Charles College, founded by Mrs. Catherine Collier and her son George, was opened in 1836 under the presidency of Reverend John H. Fielding. The Methodist Episcopal church has directed the inst.i.tution.

Madame d.u.c.h.esne, a companion of Mother Madeline Barral, founder of the Society of the Sacred Heart, started a mission at St. Charles in 1819; but the colony was soon removed to St. Louis. In 1828, however, she succeeded in establishing permanently at St. Charles the Academy of the Sacred Heart, with Madame Lucile as superior.--ED.

[174] For sketches of the Potawotami, Miami, and Kickapoo, see Croghan's _Journals_, in our volume i, pp. 115, 122, 139, notes 84, 87, 111; for the Sauk and Fox, see J. Long's _Voyages_, in our volume ii, p. 185, note 85; for the Iowa, Brackenridge's _Journal_, in our volume vi, p. 51, note 13.--ED.

[175] Flagg makes an error in speaking of Boone's Lick County, since there was none known by that name. He evidently had in mind Warren County, organized in 1833 from the western part of St. Charles County.

Boone County created in November, 1820, with its present limits, named in honor of Daniel Boone, is in the fifth tier of counties west from Missouri River.--ED.

[176] For an account of Daniel Boone and Boone's Lick, see Bradbury's _Travels_, in our volume v, pp. 43, 52, notes 16, 24, respectively.

Daniel Boone arrived at the Femme Osage district in western St.

Charles County, in 1798. He died September 26, 1820 (not 1818).--ED.

[177] There seems to be little or no foundation for this statement.

Consult J. B. Patterson, _Life of Ma-Ka-Tai-Me-She-Kia-Kiak or Black Hawk_ (Boston, 1834), and R. G. Thwaites, "The Story of the Black Hawk War," in _Wisconsin Historical Collections_, xii, pp. 217-265.--ED.

[178] For biographical sketch of General William Clark, see Bradbury's _Travels_, in our volume v, p. 254, note 143.--ED.

[179] Obed Battius, M.D., is a character in James Fenimore Cooper's novel, _The Prairie_ (1826).--ED.

[180] An Illinois legislative act approved January 16, 1836, granted to Paris Mason, Alfred Caverly, John Wyatt, and William Craig a charter to construct a railroad from Grafton, in Greene County, to Springfield, by way of Carrollton, Point Pleasant, and Millville, under the t.i.tle of Mississippi and Springfield Railroad Company. The road was, however, not built.--ED.

[181] For a description of Macoupin Creek, see _ante_, p. 226, note 142. Flagg draws his information concerning Macoupin Settlement from Peck, _Gazetteer of Illinois_. According to the latter the settlement was started by Daniel Allen, and John and Paul Harriford, in December, 1816. As regards Peck's statement that Macoupin Settlement was at the time of its inception the most northern white community in the Territory of Illinois, there is much doubt. Fort Dearborn (Chicago), built in 1804, and evacuated on August 15,1812, was rebuilt by Captain Hezekiah Bradley, who arrived with two companies on July 4, 1816, and a settlement sprang up here at once.--ED.

[182] The first settler in Carrollton was Thomas Carlin, who arrived in the spring of 1819. In 1821 the place was chosen as the seat of Greene County, and surveyed the same year, although the records were not filed until July 30, 1825. See _History of Greene and Jersey Counties, Illinois_ (Springfield, 1885).--ED.

[183] Apple Creek, a tributary of Illinois River, flows in a western trend through Greene County.--ED.

[184] Whitehall, in Greene County, forty-five miles north of Alton, was laid out by David Barrow in 1832. Pottery was first made there in 1835, and has since become an important industry, contributing largely to the rapid progress of which Flagg speaks.--ED.

[185] Manchester is in Scott County, midway between Carrollton and Jacksonville, being about fifteen miles from each. It was settled as early as 1828.--ED.

[186] Diamond Grove Prairie, five miles in extent, is a fertile district in Morgan County, just south of Jacksonville. Diamond Grove was formerly a beautifully timbered tract situated in the middle of this prairie, two miles south of Jacksonville. It was some 700 or 800 acres in extent.--ED.

[187] Illinois College was founded in 1829 through the effort of a group of Jacksonville citizens directed by the Reverend John M. Ellis and the Yale Band--the latter composed of seven men from that college who had pledged themselves to the cause of Christian education in the home missions of the West. The latter secured from the friends of the enterprise in the East a fund of $10,000. Late in 1829 the organization was completed and in December, 1830, Reverend Edward Beecher, elder brother of Henry Ward Beecher, was persuaded to leave his large church in Boston and accept the presidency of this inst.i.tution. In 1903 the Jacksonville Female Academy, started in 1830, was merged with the Illinois College, which had from the first been dominated by the Presbyterian Church.--ED.

[188] Jacksonville, the seat of Morgan County, was laid out in 1825 on land given to the county for that purpose by Thomas Armitt and James Dial. The town was largely settled by people from New England, who gave a characteristic tone to its society. Jacksonville is today the seat of several important state inst.i.tutions.--ED.

[189] In June, 1835, Ithamar Pillsbury, with two a.s.sociates, sent out under the auspices of the New York a.s.sociation, entered a large tract of land and selected a site for a town to be styled Andover, which was eventually platted in 1841, in the western portion of Henry County, fifty miles north and northwest of Peoria. The first settlers were princ.i.p.ally from Connecticut, but soon several Swedish families migrated thither, and in time the settlement was composed primarily of that nationality. On returning East in the autumn of 1835, after planting the Andover colony, Pillsbury had an interview with Dr. Caleb J. Tenny, of Wethersfield, Connecticut. At the latter's instigation a meeting of Congregationalists was held, and a group of influential New Englanders organized themselves into the Connecticut a.s.sociation.

Shares were sold at $250 each, which ent.i.tled the holder to one hundred and sixty acres of prairie land, twenty acres of timber land, and a town lot in a proposed colony to be founded in Illinois. On May 7, 1836, the first entry was made by the committee of purchase. After the latter's return a new committee was sent out and the town of Wethersfield, in the southeastern corner of Henry County, was laid out in the spring of 1837. For an account of the founding of Andover and Wethersfield, and the names of persons serving on the various prospecting committees, see _History of Henry County, Illinois_ (Chicago, 1877), pp. 137-141, 524-526.--ED.

[190] Since the above was written, the emigrants have removed.--FLAGG.

[191] Joseph Duncan, born in Kentucky, was presented with a sword by Congress for his gallant defense of Fort Stephenson in the War of 1812-15. In 1818 he moved to Kaskaskia, was appointed major-general of the Illinois militia (1823), and elected state senator (1824). In 1827 he was sent to Congress by the Jacksonian Democrats. He resigned in 1834 to accept the governorship of Illinois, which he occupied until 1838. He is said to have erected the first frame building in Jacksonville. He moved to this place in 1829, dying there January 15, 1844.--ED.

[192] Porter Clay (1779-1850), a brother of Henry Clay, was for many years a Baptist minister at Jacksonville.--ED.

[193] Flagg is probably referring to William Weatherford, who served in the state senate (1834-38) from Morgan County.--ED.

[194] The first settlement on the present site of Springfield was made by John Kelly (1819). In 1822 the lots were laid off, but not recorded until the following year, when the town was named. Soon after its incorporation in 1832, Abraham Lincoln, Stephen A. Douglas, and Edward Baker began agitating the question of moving the state capital to Springfield from Vandalia. After a severe struggle, complicated with the internal improvement policy, their efforts succeeded in 1837. The legislative act of that year went into effect July 4, 1839, and the general a.s.sembly commenced its first session at Springfield in the following December.--ED.

[195] Sangamon River is formed by the union, six miles east of Springfield, of its north and south forks. The former, rising in Champaign County, flows through Macon and a part of Sangamon counties; the latter intersects Christian County. The main stream runs in an easterly direction, forms the boundary of Ca.s.s County, and joins the Illinois River nine miles above Beardstown. The river is nearly two hundred and forty miles in length, including the north fork, and was named in honor of a local Indian chief.--ED.

[196] Mechanicsburg, fifteen miles east of Springfield, was laid out and platted in November, 1832, by William S. Pickrell.--ED.

[197] "I will never, if possible, pa.s.s a night in any place where the graveyard is neglected." Franklin has no monument!--FLAGG.

[198] Turgot.--FLAGG.

[199] Decatur, surveyed in 1829, is the seat of Macon County, thirty-nine miles from Springfield. It was named for Commodore Stephen Decatur.--ED.

[200] For a later description of the Mormon settlement in Missouri, and an account of their stay at Nauvoo, Illinois, see Gregg's _Commerce of the Prairies_, in our volume xx, pp. 94-99 and accompanying notes. For a psychological treatment of Joseph Smith and bibliography of Mormonism, see Isaac W. Riley, _Founder of Mormonism_ (New York, 1902).--ED.

[201] Missourians.--FLAGG.

[202] For a year after the above was written, the cause of Mormonism seemed to have received a salutary check. It has since revived, and thousands during the past summer have been flocking to their Mount Zion on the outskirts of Missouri. The late Mormon difficulties in Missouri have been made too notorious by the public prints of the day to require notice.--FLAGG.