The History of Peru Part 6

All this was accomplished without the least molestation from the Indians. These people are accustomed to regard any remarkable deed of daring as the result of some supernatural agency and doubtless so considered the present incident. Believing their Chief had fallen a victim to some unseen power, they were stupefied with terror, and looked on without a thought of resistance. Myers bore off the head in triumph to his cabin, where he was welcomed by anxious friends, almost as one returning from the dead. The next morning not an Indian was to be found anywhere in the vicinity.

It is probable that the above may be taken with some allowance. There is certainly a mistake about the Indians being Iroquois, and about their being an hundred people garrisoned at Myers' cabin, and probably about their being any there at all. There probably were some people gathered in the fort, close by.

The t.i.tle to that portion of Peru, called Ninawa, rests upon the following basis. Lyman D. Brewster, as mentioned in the first chapter of this History, held under the Government of the United States. At his demise he bequeathed it to the American Colonization Society. This body, being a mere voluntary a.s.sociation of individuals, having no corporate existence, was incapable of becoming a devisee of real estate. It followed, then, that the property reverted to the heirs-at-law as of an Intestate. From these Theron D. Brewster obtained releases. Some of them, by reason of their minority being incompetent to execute conveyances at the time, have, since arriving at their majority, conveyed their several interests. Mr. Brewster conveyed an undivided two-tenths in section seventeen, and an undivided four-tenths in section twenty to Col. H. L. Kinney, by whom various undivided interests were sold--one to Col. Ward B. Burnett, one to Capt. Richard Philips, of the St. Louis Democrat, one to Hon. Henry Hubbard, of New Hampshire, and one to Hon. Daniel Webster, of the United States of America. Mr.

Brewster sold another undivided interest to Penn & Holmes of Montreal, by whom it was conveyed to E. D. Whitney, of Philadelphia. Through some, or all of these parties, the t.i.tle to all property in Ninawa Addition is derived.

Col. Kinney occupied a very conspicuous position in the incipient stages of the existence of Peru. He emigrated from Bradford county, Penn., in 1838, and commenced making a new farm on the west bank of Spring Creek, working a.s.siduously during the following winter at splitting rails. In 1835, in connection with Capt. Ulysses Spaulding, he built a store where Peru now stands and filled it with goods. Upon the letting of work on the ca.n.a.l, he became a contractor for all that portion below the Little Vermillion, including locks, basin and channel, amounting to nearly a million of dollars. He soon embarked in other speculations and business, and became the most influential and noted man in this part of the State.

In 1837 and the early part of 1838, everybody's movements appeared to be regulated by those of Col. Kinney. He was the central Sun from whom all lesser orbs borrowed their light. In 1837, Kinney became disconnected from Spaulding, and was joined by Daniel J. Townsend. A portion of the business was then conducted in the name of Townsend & Kinney. In 1838, their affairs fell into confusion and Kinney left. It was wonderful how many people, in the town and vicinity, were ruined by his failure. Many, who had been brought here from Pennsylvania at his expense, and had lived upon his bounty while here, were suddenly ruined by the treachery and perfidy of their friend, and, as a consequence, were entirely unable to meet their own little engagements.

Col. Kinney, as is well known, was and is a man of indomitable energy, and possessed of a brain fertile with vast schemes and gigantic enterprises. He is said to have rode once to Chicago, a distance of one hundred miles, without leaving his saddle. Gen. Taylor reported him as having moved a command of mounted men, in the Mexican War, one hundred miles in twenty-four hours--a feat, it is believed, without a parallel.

His address and manners were captivating in the extreme, and he possessed a sort of magnetic power to bind all who came within the sphere of his influence, to his interests and fortunes. His hospitality and liberality were circ.u.mscribed only by the means at his command at the moment, and, as a consequence, parasites clung to him with a tenacity known only to that interesting cla.s.s.--Two of his sisters still reside in the town, and his venerable father, Simon Kinney, Esq., at Tiskilwa.

Col. Kinney soon afterwards turned up at Corpus Christi, Texas. His career thenceforth has become a portion of the history of that State, of the Mexican War, and of Central America.

Among the motley crowd who were gathered at Peru in 1838 was a man named A. H. Miller. His usual cognomen was "Old Kentuck." He dressed in the full splendor of a five-year-gone-by fashion, wore high top boots of brilliant colors, drawn over his pantaloons, with ta.s.sels pendant nearly to the scrupulously polished bottoms, and ruffle shirts which the drippings of frequent potations soon soiled, and was generally superbly mounted, the trappings of his horse being gaudy as those of a Field Marshal. He was of Herculean frame--over six feet in height--and always went armed with a brace of revolvers, one on each side, their hilts protruding ostentatiously in sight, a ponderous Bowie knife down his back, a dagger in his belt, and a pocket pistol in his right breeches-pocket which he christened "little Betsey," and upon which was inscribed, "hark from the tombs"--in short he was a complete moving a.r.s.enal. Upon the slightest provocation, he would a.s.sume the most belligerent att.i.tude and diabolical frown, set his teeth in menacing rigidity, and fumble among his tools, which sent forth certain ominous little clicks. Many was the eye that quailed and cheek that blanched before this personification of rage and power. At length some of the "boys" bethought themselves of the old adage about barking dogs, and concluded to try his mettle. The result was that he displayed the white feather and turned tails to, as the saying is, amid the jeers and taunts of the by-standers. From that moment his prestige was gone, and ever afterwards he "roared as gently as a sucking dove." Those who had quailed before his wrath took ample revenge by bullying him upon every occasion.

The most noticeable places in the neighborhood are Starved Rock, Deer Park and the Sulphur Springs. The following account of the first of these is from Perkin's Annals.

Starved Rock, near the foot of the rapids of the Illinois, is a perpendicular ma.s.s of lime and sand stone washed by the current at its base and elevated one hundred and fifty feet. The diameter of its surface is about one hundred feet, with a slope extending to the adjoining bluff from which alone it is accessible.

Tradition says that after the Illinois Indians had killed Pontiac, the great Indian Chief of the northern Indians made war upon them. A band of the Illinois, in attempting to escape, took shelter on this rock, which they soon made inaccessible to their enemies, and where they were closely besieged. They had secured provisions, but their only resource for water was by letting down vessels with bark ropes to the river. The wily besiegers contrived to come in canoes under the rock and cut off their buckets, by which means the unfortunate Illinois were starved to death. Many years after, their bones were whitening on this summit.

Deer Park is a gorge or ravine, worn by the action of water through the sandstone superstructure, about thirty or forty feet in width, seventy or eighty in depth, and about a quarter of a mile in length. It is entered on a level with the bottom of the Big Vermillion, about four miles from Peru, and can be explored with carriages its entire length.

The upper end is enlarged into an amphitheatre, about one hundred feet in diameter, and over arched with projecting sandstone cliffs. In the center of this enlargement bubbles a fountain of cool and refreshing water, whence trickles a crystal rill down the entire length of the gorge. During the sultry days of summer it is a delightful place of resort, and, to use a popular term, is extensively "improved." Its name is supposed to be derived from the practice of the Indians, in driving herds of deer into its mouth, when, having no aperture of escape, they became an easy prey.

The Sulphur Springs are several streams of water, issuing from the crevices of the sand stone rock, on an elevated plateau, rising from the river bottom, not far from midway between Ottawa and Peru. Near them is a fine, commodious Hotel, for the accommodation of visitors. The waters are highly charged with sulphur and other mineral, are quite offensive to the taste of the novice, and are said to posses valuable curative properties. For a more particular a.n.a.lysis of these waters, the reader is referred to the gentleman, yet living in our midst, who enjoyed the advantage of listening to Doctor Harrison's learned disquisition, and who has doubtless treasured much of the lore dragged to light on the memorable occasion referred to in the preceding pages.