Chapter I

The French, however, had another claim to this country, namely, the...

DISCOVERY OF THE OHIO

THE LARGEST BRANCH of the Mississippi river from the east, known to the early French settlers as la belle riviere, called "beautiful " river, was discovered by Robert, Cavalier de La Salle, in 1669. While La Salle was at his trading post on the St. Lawrence, he found leisure to study nine Indian dialects, the chief of which was the Iroquois. While conversing with some Senecas, he learned of a river called the Ohio, which rose in their country and flowed to the sea.

In this statement the Mississippi and its tributaries were considered as one stream. La Salle, believing as most of the French at that period did, that the great rivers flowing west emptied into the Sea of California, was anxious to embark in the enterpri se of discovering a route across the continent. He repaired at once to Quebec to obtain the approval of the Governor and the Intendent, Talon. They issued letters patent, authorizing the enterprise, but made no provisions to defray the expenses.

At this juncture the seminary St. Sulpice decided to send out missionaries in connection with the expedition, and La Salle offering to sell his improvements at La Chive to raise the money, the offer was accepted by the Superior, and two thousand eight hun dred dollars were raised, with which LaSalle purchased four canoes and the necessary supplies for the outfit.

On the 6th of July, 1669, the party, numbering twenty-four persons, embarked in seven canoes on the St. Lawrence. Two additional canoes carried the Indian guides.

In three days they were gliding over the bosom of Lake Ontario. Their guides conducted them directly to the Seneca village on the bank of the Genesee, in the vicinity of the present city of Rochester, New York. Here they expected to procure guides to cond uct them to the Ohio, but in this they were disappointed. After waiting a month in the hope of gaining their object, they met an Indian from the Iroquois colony, at the head of Lake Ontario, who assured them they could find guides, and offered to conduct them thence. On their way they passed the mouth of Niagara river, when they heard for the first time the distant thunder of the cataract. Arriving among the Iroquois they met with a friendly reception, and learned from a Shawnee prisoner that they could r each the Ohio in six weeks. Delighted with the unexpected good fortune, they made ready to resume their journey, and as they were about to start they heard of the arrival of two Frenchmen in a neighboring village. One of them proved to be Louis Joliet, af terwards famous as an explorer in the west. He had been sent by the Canadian government to explore the copper mines on Lake Superior, but had failed and was on his way back to Quebec.

On arriving at Lake Superior, they found, as La Salle had predicted, the Jesuit fathers, Marquette and Dablon, occupying the field. After parting with the priests, La Salle went to the chief Iroquois village at Onondago, where be obtained guides and passi ng thence to a tributary of the Ohio south of Lake Erie, he descended the latter as far as the falls of Louisville. Thus was the Ohio discovered by La Salle, the persevering and successful French explorer of the west in 1669.

When Washington was sent out by the colony of Virginia in 1753, to demand of Gordeur de St. Pierre why the French had built a fort on the Monongahela, the haughty commandant at Quebec replied: "We claim the country on the Ohio by virtue of the discoveries of La Salle, and will not give it up to the English. Our orders are to make prisoners of every Englishman found trading in the Ohio valley."

ENGLISH EXPLORATIONS AND SETTLEMENTS

WE HAVE SKETCHED the progress of French discovery in the valley of the Mississippi. The first travelers reached that river in 1673, and when the year 1750 broke in upon the father of waters and the great north-west, all was still except those littl e spots upon the prairies of Illinois and among the marshes of Louisiana.

Volney, by conjecture, fixes the settlement of Vincennes about 1735. (22) Bishop Brute, of Indiana, speaks of a missionary station there in 1700, and adds: "The friendly tribes and traders called to Canada for protection, and then M. De Vincennes came with a detachment, I think, of Carignau, and was killed in 1735." (23) Bancroft says a military establishment was formed there in 1716, and in 1742 a settlement of herd smen took place. (24) In a petition of the old inhabitants at Vincennes, dated in November, 1793, we find the settlement spoken of as having been made before 1742. (25) And such is the general voice of tradition. On the other hand, Charlevoix, who records the death of Vincennes, which took place among the Chickasaws, in 1736, makes no mention of any post on the Wabash, or any missionary station there. Neither does he mark any upon his map, although he gives even the British forts upon the Tennessee and elsewhere. Such is the character of the proof relative to the settlement of Vincennes.

Hennepin, in 1663-4, had heard of the "Hohio." The route from the lakes to the Mississippi, by the Wabash, was explored 1676, (26) and in Hennepin's volume of 1698, is a journal, said to be that sent by La Sall e to Count Frontenac, in 1682 or '83, which mentions the route by the Maumee (27) and Wabash as the most direct to the great western river.

In 1749, when the English first began to think seriously of sending men into the west, the greater portions of the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota were yet under the dominion of the red men. The English knew however, of the nature of the vast wealth of these wilds.

In the year 1710, Governor Spotswood, of Virginia, had matured a plan and commenced movements, the object of which was to secure the country beyond the Alleghenies to the English crown. In Pennsylvania, also, Governor Keith and James Logan, Secretary of t he Province from 1719 to 1731, represented to the powers of England the necessity of taking steps to secure the western lands. Nothing, however, was done by the mother

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In the year 1694, Lord Howard, Governor of Virginia, held a treaty with the five nations at Albany. These were the great Northern Confederacy, and comprised at first the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas. Afterward the Tuscaroras were take n into the confederacy, and it became known as the six nations. They came under the protection of the mother country, and again in 1701 they repeated the agreement. Another formal deed was drawn up and signed by the chiefs of the National Confederacy in 1 726, by which their lands were conveyed in trust to England, "to be protected and defended by his majesty, to and for the use of the grantors and their heirs." The validity of this claim has often been disputed, but never successfully. In 1774, a purchase was made at Lancaster of certain lands within the "colony of Virginia," for which the Indians received £200 in gold and a like sum in goods, with a promise that as settlements increased, more should be paid. The commissioners from Virginia at the treaty were Col. Thomas Lee and Col. William Beverly.

As settlements extended, and the Indians began to complain, the promise of further pay was called to mind, and Mr. Conrad Weiser was sent across the Alleghenies to Logstown. In 1784, (28) Col. Lee and some Virgi nians accompanied him, with the intention of ascertaining the feelings of the Indians with regard to further settlements in the west, which Col. Lee and others were contemplating. , The object of these proposed settlements was not the cultivation of the s oil, but the monopoly of the Indian trade. Accordingly, after Weiser's conference with the Indians at Logstown, which was favorable to their views, Thomas Lee, with twelve other Virginians, among whom were Lawrence and Augustine, brothers of George Washin gton, and also Mr. Hanbury, of London, formed an association which they called the "Ohio Company," and in 1748 petitioned the king for a grant beyond the mountains. This petition was approved by the English government, and the government of Virginia was o rdered to grant to the petitioners half a million of acres within the bounds of that colony beyond the Alleghenies, two hundred thousand of which were to be located at once. This portion was to be held for ten years free of quit-rent, provided the company would put there one hundred families within seven years, and build a fort sufficient to protect the settlement. The company accepted the proposition, and sent to London for a cargo suited to the Indian trade, which should arrive in November, 1749. Other companies were also formed about this time in Virginia to colonize the west. On the 12th of June, 1749, a grant of 800,000 acres from the line of Canada, on the north and west, was made to the Loyal Company, and on the 29th of October, 1751, another of 10 0,000 acres to the Greenbriar Company. (29)

The French were not blind all this time. They saw that if the British once obtained a stronghold upon the Ohio, they might not only prevent their settlements upon it, but in time would come to the lower posts, and so gain possession of the whole Country. Upon the 10th of May, 1744, Vaudreuil, the French governor, well knowing the consequences that must arise from allowing the English to build trading posts in the northwest, seized some of their frontier posts, to further secure the claims of the French to the west. Having these fears, and seeing the danger of the late movements of the British, Gallisonere, then Governor of Canada, determined to place along the Ohio evidences of the French claim to, and possession of, the country. For that purpose he sent, in the summer of 1749, Louis Celeron, with a party of soldiers, to place plates of lead, on which were written out the claims of the French, in the mounds and at the mouths of the rivers. These were heard of by William Trent, an Indian commissioner, sent out by Virginia in 1752, to treat with and conciliate the Indians, while upon the Ohio, and mentioned in his journal. One of these plates was found with the inscription partly defaced. It bears date August 16th, 1749, and a copy of the inscription, with particular account, was sent by De Witt Clinton to the American Antiquarian Society, among whose journals it may now be found. These measures did not, however, deter the English from going on with their explorations.

In February, 1751, Christopher Gist was sent by the Ohio Company to examine its lands. He went to a village of the Twigtwees, on the Miami, about 150 miles above its mouth. From there he went down the Ohio River nearly to the falls, at the present city of Louisville, and in November he commenced a survey of the company's land. In 1751, General Andrew Lawis commenced some surveys in the Greenbrier country, on behalf of the company already mentioned. Meanwhile the French were busy in preparing their forts f or defense, and in opening roads. In 1752 having beard of the trading houses on the Miami River, they, assisted by the Ottawas and Chippewas, attacked it, and, after a severe battle, in which fourteen of the natives were killed and others wounded, capture d the garrison. The traders were carried away to Canada, and one account says several were burned. This fort, or trading house was called by the English writers Pickawillany. A memorial of the king's ministers refers to it as "Pickawellanes, in the center of the territory between Ohio and the Wabash." This was the first blood shed between the French and English, and occurred near the present city of Piqua, Ohio. The English were determined on their part to purchase a title from the Indians of lands which they wished to occupy, and in the spring of 1752, Messrs. Fry, (30) Lomax and Patton, were sent from Virginia to hold a conference with the natives at Logstown, to learn what they objected to in the treaty at Lan caster, and to settle all difficulties. On the 9th June the commissioners met the red men at Logstown. This was a village seventeen miles below Pittsburgh, upon the north side of the Ohio. Here had been a trading point for many years, but it was abandoned by the Indians in 1750. At first the Indians declined to recognize the treaty of Lancaster, but the commissioners taking aside Montour, the interpreter, who was a son of the famous Catherine Montour, and a chief among the six nations, being three-fourths of Indian blood, through his influence

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The English Government immediately planned four campaigns, one against Fort Du Quesne, one against Nova Scotia, one against Fort Niagara and one against Crown Point. These occurred during 1755-6, and were not successful in driving the French from their po ssessions. The expedition against Fort Du Quesne was led by the famous Braddock, who, refusing to listen to the advice of Washington and those acquainted with Indian warfare, suffered an inglorious defeat. This occurred on the morning of July 9th, and is generally known as the battle of Monongahela or "Braddock's defeat." The war continued through various vicissitudes through the years 1756-7, when, at the commencement of 1758, in accordance with the plans of William Pitt, then secretary of state, afterwa rds Lord Chatham, active preparations were made to carry on the war. Three expeditions were planned for this year: one under General Amherst, against Louisburg; another under Abercrombie, against Fort Ticonderoga; and a third under General Forbes,

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The great object of the campaign of 1759, was the reduction of Canada. General Wolfe was to lay siege to Quebec; Amherst was to reduce Ticonderoga and Crown Point; and General Prideaux was to capture Niagara. This latter place was taken in July, but the g allant Prideaux lost his life. Amherst captured Ticonderoga and Crown Point, without a blow; and Wolfe, after making the memorable ascent to the plains of Abraham, on September 13th, defeated Montcalm, and on the 18th the city capitulated. In this engagem ent, Montcalm and Wolfe both lost their lives. De Levi, Montcalm's successor, marched to Sillery, three miles above the city, with the purpose of defeating the English, and there, on the 28th of the following April, was fought one of the bloodiest battles of the French and Indian war. It resulted in the defeat of the French, and the fall of the city of Montreal. The Governor signed a capitulation by which the whole of Canada was surrendered to the English. This practically concluded the war, but it was no t until 1763 that the treaties of peace between France and England were signed. This was done on the 10th of February of that year, and under its provisions all the country east of the Mississippi and north of the Iberville river in Louisiana, were ceded to England. At the same time, Spain ceded Florida to Great Britain.

On the 13th of September, 1760, Major Robert Rogers was sent from Montreal to take charge of Detroit, the only remaining French post in the territory. He arrived there on the 9th of November, and summoned the place to surrender. At first the commander of the post, Beletre, refused, but on the 29th, hearing of the continued defeat of the French army, surrendered. The North-west Territory was now entirely under the English rule. In 1762, France, by a secret treaty, ceded Louisiana to Spain, to prevent it fa lling into the hands of the English, who were becoming masters of the entire West. The next year the treaty of Paris, signed at Fontainbleau, gave to the English the dominion in question. Twenty years after, by the treaty of peace between the United State s and England, that part of Canada lying south and west of the great lakes, comprehending a large territory, was acknowledged to be a portion of the United States. In 1803 Louisiana was ceded by Spain back to France, and by France sold to the United State s. By the treaty of Paris, the regions east of the Mississippi, including all these and other towns of the north-west, were given over to England; but they do not appear to have been taken possession of until 1765, when Captain Stirling, in the name of th e Majesty of England, established himself at Fort Chartres, bearing with him the proclamation of General Gage, dated December 30th, 1764, which promised religious freedom to all Catholics who worshiped here and the right to leave the country with their ef fects if they wished, or to remain with the privileges of Englishmen. During the ears 1775 and 1776, by the operations of land companies and the perseverance of individuals, several settlements were firmly established between the Alleghenies and the Ohio river, and western land speculators were busy in Illinois and on the Wabash. At a council held in Kaskaskia, on July 5th, 1773, an association of English traders, calling themselves the "Illinois Land Company," obtained from the chiefs of the Kaskaskia, C ahokia, and Peoria tribes two large tracts of land lying on the east side of the Mississippi river south of the Illinois. In 1775 a merchant from the Illinois country, named Viviat, came to Post Vincennes as the agent of the association called the "Wabash Land Company." On the 8th of October he obtained from eleven Piankeshaw chiefs a deed for 37,497,600 acres of land. This deed was signed by the grantors, attested by a number of the inhabitants of Vincennes, and afterward recorded in the office of a Nota ry Public at Kaskaskia. This and other land companies had extensive schemes for the colonization of the West; but all were frustrated by the breaking out of the Revolutionary war. On the 20th of April, 1780, the two companies named consolidated under the name of the "United Illinois and Wabash Land Company;" they afterwards made strenuous efforts to have these grants sanctioned by Congress, but all signally failed. When the war of the Revolution commenced, Kentucky was an unorganized country, there being settlements within her borders.

In Hutchins Topography of Virginia, it is stated that at that time Kaskaskia contained 80 houses, and nearly 1,000 white and black inhabitants, the whites being a little the more numerous. Cahokia contained fifty houses, 300 white inhabitants, and 80 negr oes. There were east of the Mississippi river, about the year 1771-- when these observations were made -- "300 white men capable of bearing arms, and 230 negroes." From 1775 until the expedition of Clark, nothing is recorded and nothing known of these set tlements, save what is contained in a report made by a committee to Congress in June, 1778. From it the following extract is made: "Near the mouth of the river Kaskaskia, there is a village which appears to have contained nearly eighty families from the b eginning of the late Revolution; there are twelve families at a small village at La Prairie Du Rochers, and nearly fifty families at the Cahokia village. There are also four or five families at Fort Chartres and St. Philip's, which is five miles further u p the river." St. Louis had been settled in February, 1764, and at this time contained, including its neighboring towns, over six hundred white and one hundred and fifty negroes. It must be remembered that all the country west of the Mississippi was under French rule, and remained so until ceded back to Spain, its original owner, who afterwards sold it and the country including New Orleans to the United States. At Detroit, there were, according to Captain Carver, who was in the northwest from 1763 to 1776 , more than one hundred houses, and the river was settled for more than twenty miles, although poorly cultivated, the people being engaged in the Indian trade.

On the breaking out of the Revolution, the British held every post of importance in the West. Kentucky was formed as a component part of Virginia, and the sturdy pioneers of the West, alive to their interests, and recognizing the great benefits of obtaini ng the control of the trade in this part of the New World, held steadily to their purposes, and those within the commonwealth of Kentucky proceeded to exercise their civil privileges by electing John Todd and Richard Gallaway burgesses, to represent them in the assembly of the present state. The chief spirit

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Clark, having satisfied the Virginia leaders of the feasibility of his plan, received on the second of January two sets of instructions: one secret, the other open. The latter authorized him to proceed to enlist seven companies to go to Kentucky, subject to his orders, and to serve three months from their arrival in the west. The secret order authorized him to arm the troops, to procure his powder and lead of General Hand, at Pittsburg, and to proceed at once to subjugate the country.

With these instructions Clark repaired to Pittsburg, choosing rather to raise his men west of the mountains. Here he raised three companies and several private volunteers. Clark at length commenced his descent of the Ohio, which he navigated as far as the falls, where he took possession of and fortified Corn Island, between the present sites of Louisville, Kentucky and New Albany, Indiana. Remains of this fortification may yet be found. At this place he appointed Col. Bowman to meet him with such recruits as had reached Kentucky by the southern route. Here he announced to the men their real destination. On the 24th of June he embarked on the river, his destination being Fort Massac or Massacre, and thence marched direct to Kaskaskia. The march was accompl ished and the town reached on the evening of July 4. He captured the fort near the village, and soon after the village itself, by surprise, without the loss of a single man or killing any of the enemy. Clark told the natives that they were at perfect libe rty to worship as they pleased, and to take whichever side of the conflict they would, and he would protect them from any barbarity from British or Indian foes. This had the desired effect, and the inhabitants at once swore allegiance to the American arms , and when Clark desired to go to Cahokia on the 6th of July, they accompanied him, and through their influence the inhabitants of the place surrendered. Thus two important posts in Illinois passed from the hands of the English into the possession of Virg inia. During the year (1779) the famous "Land Laws" of Virginia were passed. The passage of these laws was of more consequence to the pioneers of Kentucky and the northwest than the gaining of a few Indian conflicts. These grants confirmed in the main all grants made, and guaranteed to actual settlers their rights and privileges.

DIVISION OF THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY

THE INCREASED EMIGRATION to the northwest, and extent of the domain, made it very difficult to conduct the ordinary operations of government, and rendered the efficient action of courts almost impossible; to remedy this it was deemed advisable to d ivide the territory for civil purposes. Congress, in 1800, appointed a committee to examine the question and report some means for its solution.

This committee on the 3d of March reported: "In the three western countries there has been but one court having cognizance of crimes, in five years, and the immunity which offenders experience attracts, as to an asylum, the most vile and abandoned crimina ls, and at the same time deters useful citizens from making settlements in such society. The extreme necessity of judiciary attention and assistance is experienced in civil as well as in criminal cases. * * * * To remedy this evil it is expedient to the c ommittee that a division of said territory into two distinct and separate governments should be made, and that such division be made by beginning at the mouth of the Great Miami river, running directly north until it intersects the boundary between the Un ited States and Canada."

The report was accepted by Congress, and, in accordance with its suggestions, that body passed an act extinguishing the northwest territory, which act was approved May 7th. Among its provisions were these:

"That from and after July 4 next, all that part of the territory of the United States northwest of the Ohio river, which lies to the westward of a line beginning at a point opposite the mouth of the Kentucky river, and running thence to Fort Recovery, and thence North until it shall intersect the territorial line between the United States and Canada, shall, for the purpose of temporary government, constitute a separate territory and be called the Indian Territory."

Gen. Harrison (afterwards President), was appointed governor of the Indian Territory, and during his residence at Vincennes, he made several important treaties with the Indians, thereby gaining large tracts of land. The next year is memorable in the histo ry of the west for the purchase of Louisiana from France by the United States for $15,000,000. Thus by a peaceful manner the domain of the United States was extended over a large tract of country west of the Mississippi, and was for a time under the juris diction of the northwestern government. The next year Gen. Harrison obtained additional grants of land from the various Indian nations in Indiana and the present limits of Illinois, and on the 18th of August, 1804, completed a treaty at St. Louis, whereby over 51,000,000 acres of land were obtained.

During this year, Congress granted a township of land for the support of a college, and began to offer inducements for settlers in these wilds, and the country now comprising the state of Michigan began to fill rapidly with settlers along its southern bor ders. This same year a law was passed organizing the southwest territory, dividing it into two portions, -- the territory of New Orleans, which city was made the seat of government, and the district of Louisiana, which was annexed to the domain by General Harrison.

On the 11th of January, 1805, the territory of Michigan was formed, and Wm. Hull was appointed governor, with headquar-

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PRESENT CONDITION OF THE NORTHWEST

IN THE FORMER CHAPTERS we have traced briefly the discoveries, settlements, wars, and most important events which have occurred in the large area of country denominated the northwest, and we now turn to the contemplation of its growth and prosperit y. Its people are among the most intelligent and enterprising in the Union. The population is steadily increasing; the arts and sciences are gaining a stronger foothold, the trade area of the region is becoming daily more extended, and we have been largel y exempt from the financial calamities which have nearly wrecked communities on the sea-board, dependent wholly on foreign commerce or domestic manufacture. Agriculture is the leading feature in our industries. This vast domain has a sort of natural geogr aphical border, save where it melts away to the southward in the cattle-raising districts of the southwest. The leading interests will be the growth of the food of the world, in which branch it has already outstripped all competitors, and our great rival will be the fertile fields of Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, Texas and New Mexico.

To attempt to give statistics of grain productions for 1880 would require more space than our work would permit of. Manufacturing has now attained in the chief cities a foothold that bids fair to render the northwest independent of the outside world. Near ly our whole region has a distribution of coal measure which will in time support the manufactures necessary to our comfort and prosperity. As to transportation, the chief factor in the production of all articles except food, no section is so magnificentl y endowed, and our facilities are yearly increasing beyond those of any other region.

The principal trade and manufacturing centers of the great northwest are Chicago, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Detroit, Cleveland and Toledo, with any number of minor cities and towns doing a large and growing business. The intelligence and enterp rise of its people; the great wealth of its soil and minerals; its vast inland seas and navigable rivers; its magnificent railroad system; its patriotism and love of country will render it ever loyal in the future as in the past. The people of the Mississ ippi Valley are the keystone of the national union and national prosperity.