Early Settlers in Vicinity--Early French Settlements--
Buffalo Rock--Chronological glance at Illinois--Black
Hawk War--Indian Creek Massacre--Cork War--Murder of
Story--John Myers--Ninawa Titles--Col. Kinney--A. H.
Miller--Starved Rock--Deer Park--Sulphur Springs.
The writer indulges in the hope that he will be pardoned for the
following digression, which, though forming no part of the "History of
Peru," is so connected with it as to induce the belief that it will be
not altogether uninteresting to its citizens, or to the general reader
into whose hands this little book may fall. The present residents, as
they turn their eyes over the beautiful State they inhabit, and behold
it dotted with towns, cities, and cultivated farms, where the presence
of its original inhabitants is as rare as in Europe, where churches,
schools and libraries are strewn broadcast over the land, where the
arts, embellishments and accessories of high civilization are everywhere
present and pervading, and where rail road and telegraph lines intersect
in every direction, may find it pleasant, for a few moments, to drop the
present and turn their thoughts to the remote past, and briefly follow
up the chain of events, in chronological order, to the period which
immediately preceded the settlement of the town. A brief notice of
events which occurred in the neighborhood, of the surrounding
localities, and of the individuals who inhabited them, whose characters
were marked with strong and original peculiarities, may also not be
uninteresting.
Looking backwards three years before the commencement of this
History--twenty-five years ago--we behold the site of Peru occupied as
an Indian village. The very spot where is now the residence of the
writer is said to have been an Indian burying ground. Northward, the
nearest residence of the white man was at Dixon's Ferry, and westward,
at Princeton, excepting, perhaps, the Hoskins family near the Bureau.
South of the river were some settlements. Along the timber towards
Hennepin lived George Ish and Henry Delong; at Cedar Point, Nathaniel
Richie; on the bluff, near the old Fort, John Myers; at Bailey's Point,
Lewis Bailey, William Seeley, William Groom, Joel Alvord, Asa Holdridge,
William Haws, and perhaps a few others; at or near Hennepin, the
Willises, Stewarts, Thompsons, Durleys, Donlevys, Shepperds, Zenors and
Dents; at Utica, Simon Crosiar; at Ottawa, the Walkers, Browns, Covills,
&c.; at Dayton, John Green and William L. Dunnavan; at Indian Creek, the
Halls, Davises and Petegrus; and further eastward, the Hollenbecks and
Holdermans. At Bloomington, seventy miles distant, was the nearest mill,
and thither all the people went to get their corn and wheat ground,
until Green built one at Dayton, in 1833 or 1834. As late as 1837, as
related by Mrs. Lockwood who then lived with her father, Isaac Manville,
at Manville Hollow, in Cedar Creek bottom, two miles south of Peru, when
a new mill was erected and it was announced that bolted flour could be
obtained on a certain day, the people flocked around it in crowds; and
so eager were they to enjoy that luxury, that they employed Mr.
Manville's family to bake cakes for them, keeping them thus engaged
nearly the whole night, and standing around the kitchen fire--it is not
to be supposed that the other apartments were very spacious or
numerous--with watering mouths and excited palates, ready to appropriate
the delicious pasty, as it came smoking from the pans. Mrs. Lockwood
says she was nearly exhausted, and thought the people never would get
enough. The frame of this mill was afterwards removed to Peru where it
was set up, and is now occupied by Capt. Lewis Goodell as a livery
stable. We will now turn our attention nearly two centuries backwards.
The word, Illinois, is a French corruption of Leno. The Indians told the
early French settlers that they were Leno-Lenapes--we are men--meaning,
we are brave or masculine men, in contradistinction to cowardly or
effeminate men. To an imperfect pronunciation of the first word, the
French added the termination peculiar to their own language--hence
Lenois, and ultimately, by a further corruption, Illinois.
It has been often remarked that the topography and climate of Illinois
bear a strong analogy to those of some portions of France. In its
primeval condition, there was, in its landscape and atmosphere, the
spirit of gay and joyous life, and of soft and luxurious repose which
distinguish the Gallic Empire. The broad plains were free from the
enervating influence of the Tropics, on the one hand, or the stern and
rugged landscape features which nurse the restless Norseman, on the
other. These may have been among the reasons which tempted the
Frenchman, after their existence had been made known by the explorations
of his countrymen, to take up his abode along the streams and groves
which diversify them. At any rate, French settlements were made
immediately in the footsteps of Marquette, La Salle, La Hontag and other
explorers, who carried the Holy Cross of the Church and the Fleurs de
Lis of France into these wilds, as early as the reign of the Grande
Monarque, Louis XIV. in the latter part of the seventeenth
century.--Settlements were made at Peoria, Kaskaskia and Cohokia, to
which were transferred the arts, customs, manners, faith and costumes of
France, at the period, and where they flourished and were conserved,
with very little innovation, until the approach of the American
Goth--the rude and semi barbaric pioneer. Little jealousy and few feuds
appear to have existed between these intruders and the tawny children of
the forest and prairie, by whom they were surrounded, and upon whose
hunting grounds they were trespassing. The imposing ceremonies of the
Catholic faith, and the simple, frank and conciliatory manners of the
strangers charmed the senses and soothed the passions of these children
of nature. The French rule in America was, in the main, marked by the
absence of those terrible and prolonged conflicts which almost always
accompanied Anglo Saxon settlement, in which the amenities of civilized,
or even barbaric warfare, were entirely ignored, and each party strove
to out do the other in acts of revolting atrocity. The stern, cold
hauteur, the rude, coarse insolence, and the grasping, insatiable
cupidity of the latter inevitably aroused every demon in the Indian
breast. The English colonists knew no arts of Indian conciliation. Their
tactics were limited to fire water in advance, and the sword in reserve
to avenge the acts of madness excited thereby. The race has not
degenerated at all, in these respects, since the marauding Saxon
scourged the Baltic shores of Britain. In support of this, witness the
efforts of England to force an interdicted and demoralizing commerce
upon the passive Chinese; witness her success in saddling the spawn of
her aristocracy upon the necks of the subjugated Hindoo and Sepoy,
compelling the worshippers of both Vishnu, and Mahomet to bow before
crosier and mitre; witness the long and cruel oppression of her Celtic
neighbors; witness how we, shoots from the same scion, have carried the
bible in our hand and the whisky bottle in the other, while in the rear
came the rifle of the backwoodsman to enforce all arguments with the
untutored savages; witness how volunteers have rallied around the stars
and stripes, and pushed the original possessors of the soil backwards,
ever backwards, until a new wave comes rolling from the Pacific coast
upon his rear; witness the cruel and inglorious wars--if by that name
they may be dignified--in Florida and Oregon, excited by mercenary and
unscrupulous jobbers for the sake of a chance of plunder from the
National treasury; witness the bullying of and final conflict with the
mongrel races of poor, decrepit, imbecile Mexico, whereby the auriferous
valleys of California and the sterile wastes of New Mexico were wrested
from her nerveless grasp; witness the filibustering forays in Central
America; and witness the undisguised lusting after the Gem of the
Antilles, and the unblushing announcement made at Ostend, by dignified
statesmen, claiming, in the nineteenth century, to be Christians, and
representing, not cannibal savages or outlawed pirates, but a people who
profess to acknowledge the divine injunction, "do unto others as you
would that they should do unto you," and to believe that the command,
"thou shalt not steal," is as imperative now as it was in the days of
the great Jewish law giver.
But to return to the Acadian settlements of the French in Illinois. The
manners and customs of the seventeenth century, as before mentioned,
were cherished and conserved by these communities, isolated as they were
in the heart of a wilderness continent, until the beginning of the
nineteenth century. Passing from French to English rule by the treaty of
1763, they finally came under the jurisdiction of the American
Confederation by the treaty of 1783. After the treaty of Ghent in 1814
the restless American pioneer began to make encroachments. The contrast
between these two representatives of their respective races, thus
meeting face to face in the wilderness, was even more marked and decided
than between the same races, separated by the English Channel. The
Frenchman represented a by-gone age, softened and subdued by the
influences of more than a century's sojourn, in aggregated communities,
among the quiet, sylvan glades of le belle terre. The American,
originally imbued with the heartless and licentious voluptuousness of
the Cavaliers of the times of Charles II. or the morose, ascetic manners
of the Commonwealth, was in either case, transformed and remoulded, but
with many of his original characteristics yet clinging to him, by more
than a century's residence upon a wilderness frontier, where "no pent up
Utica confined his powers," where the most unbounded freedom of thought
and action were enjoyed, where the wants of nature and the requirements
of taste were gratified in the rudest, simplest and most primeval
manner, and where, surrounded by the stern and gloomy grandeur of forest
life, continual conflict with savages and wild beasts had produced
characteristics which, transmitted from one generation to another, had
culminated in a character original, unique and interesting. The salient
points which distinguished him were unhesitating self reliance; reckless
and chivalrous daring; imperious and resistless will; cool and
imperturbable self possession; spasmodic and startling energy,
contrasted with intermittent, if not habitual indolence; strong,
masculine sense, undiluted with any poetry, sentiment or superstition;
scorning wilds and strategy, but always prepared to circumvent and
baffle them; hospitable to friend or stranger, and ever ready to share
his wolf or bear skin, his hog and hominy, his tobacco and whisky, with
all comers; to his enemies bold and defiant, but generous and forgiving;
to his friends faithful and true, deeming desertion of their fortunes,
in trouble or danger, the most aggravated of delinquencies; possessed of
physical powers of endurance which mocked privation and fatigue; eye,
nerve and brain steady and true in all emergencies; migratory in his
habits as a Bedouin Arab; ready, at all times, to drink or fight, run or
wrestle; unlettered and untutored as the savage who had been his
companion or his foe; and uncouth and repulsive in action, manners and
habits as the bear with which he had coped in a hand to paw and knife to
fangs conflict.
Thus were the offshoots of the two greatest and most cultivated and
refined of modern nations, vis-a-vis, in the heart of the American
continent. Soon the song of the voyageur,
"Such as at home, in the olden time, his fathers before him
Sang in their Norman orchards and bright Burgundian vineyards,"
as he floated with the stream, or propelled his batteaux against the
current, with pole, and line, and oar, and sail, was hushed forever.
Soon the panting of the steamer awoke the long silent echos of the
bluffs and startled the aquatic fowl from lagoon and bayou. Soon the
swelling tide of a more advanced civilization rolled westward over the
prairies, and the "common" of the rustic village, upon whose verdant
sward and beneath whose branching elms, enamoured swains and blushing
maidens,
"Wearing their Norman caps, and their kirtles of blue, and the ear
rings
Brought in the olden time from France, and since, as an heir loom,
Handed down from mother to child, through long generations,"
had been wont to "trip the light fantastic toe" to rude and simple
music, was illumined with the camp fires and whitened with the wagon
covers of the Saxon emigrant. Soon the alloted arpents which, in the
exercise of "squatter sovereignty," had been appropriated by each family
as a home lot, were surveyed, divided, staked and sold, and an embryo
city was rising thereon. Soon the quaint and moss covered church, where
Vesper, Matin and Mass had erst been said, chanted and sung, gave place
to the "meeting house" of another creed and faith.
The early French explorers established a post at Buffalo Rock which, it
is believed, was the first attempt at settlement by Europeans, in the
valley of the Mississippi. This presumption is supported by the
following facts. De Soto, after his two years wandering among the
everglades of Florida and the swamps and mountains of what is now
Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi, arrived on the bank of the "Great
river" in 1541, "but founded no settlement, left no traces, and
produced no effects, unless to excite the hostility of the red against
the white man." One hundred and thirty-two years later--1673--Marquette
passed up the Fox of Wisconsin, across the portage, and down the
Wisconsin to the Mississippi, and returned by way of the Illinois. But
he, too, according to Joliet, who was his companion, "founded no
settlement, and left no traces." These two expeditions contained the
only Europeans that ever set foot in the Great Valley until La Salle,
five years later, passed down the Illinois. His route was up the St.
Joseph in Michigan, across the portage by the Kankakee, and down that
stream to the Illinois, upon the banks of which he made his first halt
and built Rock Fort, where he established a Mission and settlement, but
which was afterwards abandoned, the inhabitants taking themselves to
Fort Crevecour. That Buffalo Rock was the site of Rock Fort is probable
from the name, as well as from its superior advantages for such an
establishment over any other place in the valley, from the confluence of
the Kankakee to Peoria. This supposition is sustained by Perkins, Sparks
and Bancroft. A year or two ago, a brass kettle was found in this
locality, imbedded in a strata of coal which runs through this singular
eminence. It was reported to have been overlaid by a regular seriated,
unbroken coal formation; but as this statement is opposed to received
geological theories, it is reasonable to suppose that it was deposited
by design or accident, in an excavation made by these settlers.
On the 4th of July, 1778, two years after the declaration of
Independence, Col. Clark, between whom and Boone the honor of founding
Kentucky is divided, with a small band of frontier soldiers, surprised
Kaskaskia, then garrisoned by the British, and shortly afterwards made
himself master of Cohokia, without bloodshed. He first brought to the
inhabitants intelligence of the alliance between the Americans and their
former liege, the King of the French, which was received with rapturous
enthusiasm, so galling and unwelcome had been the British yoke. Les long
Conteaux, as the Kentuckians were called, and les Bostonias, as the
Yankees were called were thenceforth welcome.
The attachment which the Indians always manifested towards their great
Father of France, in opposition to the British rule, was quickly
transferred to the Americans. In October, the House of Burgesses of
Virginia erected the country north of the Ohio into the county of
Illinois, over which they placed John Todd, of Kentucky, Governor. Two
companies, raised in the French settlements, accompanied Clark in his
famous expedition against Vincennes. In 1783, the treaty of peace was
concluded, by which the western boundary of the enfranchised Colonies
was declared to be the Mississippi. In 1784, the North West Territory
was ceded by Virginia to the Confederation Congress. In 1787, it was
organized by Congress, but no government was established in Illinois
until 1790. This consisted of a Governor, three Judges and a Council,
who combined executive, judicial and legislative authority. In this
year, the county of St. Clair was organized.--From 1783, when the
country passed from under British rule, to 1790--a period of seven
years--no government of any kind existed in Illinois. In 1809, Illinois,
then including what is now Wisconsin, was organized as a first class
Territorial Government, the people electing a House of Representatives,
and the President and Senate appointing the Governor and Council. Ninian
Edwards was the first Governor and Nathaniel Pope, both of Kentucky, the
first Secretary. In 1812, war was declared between the United States and
England. Soon followed the surrender of Detroit, by Hull, and the
Chicago massacre. At this time no settlement existed in Illinois, north
of Alton, except the small French settlement of Peoria. An expedition,
in which the present Buchanan candidate for Superintendent of public
instruction, John Reynolds, the "Old Ranger," participated, attacked and
destroyed an Indian village on the bluff, at the head of Peoria Lake. On
the 24th of Dec. 1814, the treaty of Ghent was signed. In July, 1815, a
treaty was made at Portage des Sioux, a short distance above the mouth
of the Missouri, between the American Commissioners, consisting of Gov.
Clark of Missouri, Gov. Edwards of Illinois, and Auguste Chouteau of St.
Louis, and the various Indian tribes of the North West, except the Sacks
and Foxes, under Keokuk and Black Hawk, who refused to come to the
treaty ground. Two years afterwards, at St. Louis, a treaty was made
with these tribes, an alleged violation of which led to the Black Hawk
war in 1831 and '32. From this time to 1820, emigration poured into
Illinois. It was almost entirely from the Southern States, and stopped
south of the Sangamon. The population of Illinois was in 1790, about
2000; in 1800, about 3000; in 1810, 12,284; in 1820, 45,000; in 1830,
157,447; in 1840, 478,929; in 1850, 853,317; and in 1855, 1,300,000.
The first Legislature convened at Kaskaskia in 1812. Not a lawyer or
attorney is found on the roll of names. Pierre Menard, of the French
settlements at Peoria, presided in the Council.--The Legislature of
1817-'18 incorporated the "Illinois Bank of Shawneetown," the "Bank of
Cairo" and the "Bank of Edwardsville."--They all became depositories of
United States money. The latter failed soon afterwards, by which the
Government lost $54,000. The two former failed, but were galvanized into
life during the Internal Improvement mania of 1835-'36, and by their
subsequent failure contributed to the distress of the people in 1841 and
1842. In 1818, Illinois became a State. Her constitution was not
submitted to a vote of the people. Shadrick Bond, of Kaskaskia, was the
first Governor and Pierre Menard first Lieutenant Governor. Gov. Bond,
at the first session of the State Legislature, recommended the
construction of the canal. In 1820-'21 the "State Bank" was
incorporated.--The faith of the State was pledged for its issues. It
failed and the State made up a deficiency of one hundred thousand
dollars which she borrowed of or through a gentleman named Wiggins. This
was the famous Wiggins loan and the foundation of the State debt.
The suggestion of the canal was made as early as 1814, in Niles
Register. The extract is as follows:
"By the Illinois, it is probable that Buffalo, in New York, may be
united with New Orleans by inland navigation, through lakes Erie, Huron
and Michigan, and the Illinois, and down that river to the Mississippi.
What a route! How stupendous the idea! How dwindles the importance of
the artificial canals of Europe!" Many Acts were passed for forwarding
this work--one in 1824, one in 1825, one in 1827, one in 1829, but the
law, under which the work was actually commenced, was not passed until
1835.
In 1824, the Sangamon river was the northern boundary of settlements.
North of the Illinois, the country was occupied by the Sacks and Foxes.
As before mentioned, these tribes were not represented at the treaty of
Portage des Sioux, but afterwards entered into a treaty at St.
Louis.--Another treaty was made with them at Rock Island in 1822,
another at Washington in 1824, another at Prairie du Chien in 1825, and
another in 1830, by all of which they agreed to move across the
Mississippi. Black Hawk, a brave but not a chief, refused to be bound by
these treaties, and in 1831, commenced a series of depredations and
murders on the scattering settlements on Rock River, but on the
appearance of the troops retreated across the Mississippi. In 1832, he
recrossed the river with most of the warriors of the tribes, and
defeated Maj. Stillman with 175 men at a place about 20 miles above
Dixon's Ferry.--Soon 3000 militia were rendezvoused at Fort Science,
which stood near where the river sweeps northward from the foot of the
bluffs above Peru. These were joined by a detachment from Fort
Armstrong, on Rock Island, when the whole proceeded under the command
of Gen. Atkinson, on the trail of the Savages. Gen. Scott, with six
hundred mounted men and nine companies of artillery, was ordered from
the seaboard, but before his arrival the western troops had put a
termination to the war. These moved northward, and by a series of
actions--one by a detachment under the command of Col. John Dement
between Dixon and Galena, one by Gen. Henry near the Blue Mounds in
Wisconsin, and one near the mouth of the Wisconsin--dispersed the
savages and put an end to Blackhawk's power. Keokuk, the regular chief
of the Sacks, had endeavored to dissuade them from the war, but the
councils of Black Hawk, his rival, prevailed. The few settlers in La
Salle county at this time--supposed to be about one hundred in
number--suffered much from the atrocity of the Indians. After the rout
of Stillman, the latter separated into small squads for the purpose of
murder, pillage and the destruction of property. A party made an
incursion upon Indian Creek, a few miles north of Ottawa, where they
killed fifteen of the families of Hall, Davis and Petegru, who were all
living in one house. The attack was made in the day time by about sixty
Indians, who watched the men leave the house to go to their work upon a
mill dam close by, when they rushed from their coverts, one portion
firing upon the men, while the other entered the house and slaughtered
all the women and children, with the exception of two daughters of Mr.
Hall. The men, five in number, had time to return the fire of the enemy
several times, with probable effect, before they fell. Two of them threw
themselves into the creek, but, on reaching the further bank, they were
shot. William Davis and John W. Hall, sons of the elder Davis and Hall
who were killed, swam down the stream, and baffled the search of their
pursuers. Mr. Hall is now living in the vicinity of Peru. John Green, at
Dayton, William L. Dunnavan, the Hollenbecks, Holdermans, and all the
other settlers in the region of Fox River, were more or less sufferers,
and all had to seek refuge in the fort at Ottawa. One man was killed on
the Bureau, six or eight miles from Princeton. Some of the present
citizens of La Salle county, remember with gratitude the kindly services
of Shabanna, a friendly Indian, at present living at Shabanna's Grove,
to whose friendly warnings and active interference they owe their own
lives and those of their families.
The two Miss Halls--Rachael about seventeen and Silvia about fourteen
years of age--were carried captive to the Blue Mounds thence to the
Desmoine, where they were purchased by the Winebagoes for three thousand
dollars in trinkets, of whom the Government purchased them for five
thousand dollars. They were taken down the Desmoine to Keokuk where
their uncle, Reason B. Hall, had repaired to receive them. They were in
captivity only fifteen days and were, upon the whole, treated with very
little rudeness. Their faces were painted upon one side black and upon
the other side red and their hair, upon one side, was clipped close to
their heads, while upon the other it was suffered to remain long. One
day they were ordered to lay themselves down, with their faces to the
ground, while above them the warriors brandished their weapons and
debated about killing them, their language being partially understood by
the captives. It is probable that the circumstances were very favorable
to the acquisition of the language. One day, on their march, an Indian's
pony stumbled on the brow of a steep hill, when horse and rider went
tumbling, one over the other, to the bottom. The younger Miss Hall has
since declared that, notwithstanding all the horrors of her situation,
she could not help indulging in a ringing shout of laughter. This, so
far from prejudicing her with her captors, gained her their favor.
Subsequently, a young brave became enamoured with her and, as a
consequence, two thousand dollars ransom were insisted upon for her,
while only one thousand dollars were demanded for her sister. While on
their march, they were allowed only one hours' intercourse with each
other during the day, and a squaw took her place between them as they
slept at night.--One of them was afterwards married to William Horn and
now resides in Missouri, and the other was married to William Munson and
resides on Indian Creek, near the place of the massacre.--This account
has been frequently given to the writer by different members of the
family, and lately by Mrs. Scott, an aunt of the ladies, who at present
lives in the town.
During the years 1837 and 1838, large forces of Irish laborers were
employed upon the canal. Some time in the winter of these years, one of
their characteristic feuds broke out between the Corkonians or Munster
men and "Far Downs" or Lienster men at the Sagg, on the upper portion of
the work. This gradually spread itself downwards, until in May, a united
effort was made on the part of the Corkonians, who were the stronger
party, to drive the "bloody Far Downs" from all jobs. A skirmish took
place near Marseilles where the latter were worsted. The triumphant
party, excited by victory and bad whisky, defying the civil authorities,
destroying property, and abusing and maltreating every luckless county
Longfort man who came in their way, continued down the line below
Ottawa, to the job of Edward Sweeney, who was a Corkonian. Here they
were reinforced by his entire force--about two hundred men--and marched,
under his leadership, to the extreme western end of the line, at Peru,
whence they countermarched, having swept the line from end to end, of
all obnoxious fellow laborers, and destroyed many of their shanties. The
Sheriff, Alson Woodruff, summoned a posse to quell the disturbance. Word
was sent to the Deputy at Peru, Zimri Lewis, late in the afternoon, to
raise a party and form a junction with another from Ottawa on the next
day. Lewis gathered what forces and arms could be raised in the town and
neighborhood during the night, and was ready to march early in the
morning. The rioters, some five hundred strong, bivouacked near the
"Carey Patch," or "Split Rock" just above the Pecumsogin. In the morning
they moved up the line, renewing the excesses of the previous day. All
were armed with guns, knives, scythes, picks, and whatever other weapons
could be seized. Lewis' forces were joined at La Salle, which then was a
mere cluster of laborers shanties, by a reinforcement of Americans and
"Far Downs" under the leadership of that veteran contractor, William
Byrne, Esq., who was himself a Lienster man, and whose employees were
driven from their work. On the way, the Irish portion of the forces were
with difficulty restrained from destroying the property and insulting
the families of their enemies who were in the mob ahead.--Upon the ridge
of table land, near Buffalo Rock, Woodruff, with his posse, met the
tumultuous rabble. The former, tolerably well armed, were drawn up to
prevent their further advance.--Woodruff ordered them to lay down their
arms and submit to the civil authority, warrants having been issued for
the arrest of the leaders. This order was answered by a charge from the
mob which immediately produced a retreat of the posse. The forces of
Lewis and Byrne were at first placed under the command of Capt. Ward B.
Burnett, the present Surveyor General of Kansas, but who soon
relinquished the command to Lewis. They moved on rapidly to the place
where the party was held, a short distance from which they overtook the
enemy. Lewis repeated the demand before made by his superior, and was
answered by defiance and their hostile demonstrations, upon which a well
directed volley was poured into them, which was immediately followed by
a cavalry charge of such of the forces as were mounted. The mob
dispersed in every direction. Some threw themselves into the river
whither they were pursued, and several were shot in the water. A large
number were arrested and marched to Ottawa. Seven were killed, as known
at the time, and three others were afterwards found in the grass and
buried. Of the posse, now were killed, but Cornelius Lamb, a
blacksmith, and John Bracken, a laborer, were severely wounded. This
account of the matter can be substantiated by the testimony of many yet
living in the vicinity who participated in the affray, and particularly
that by Lewis and Byrne, to whom the writer confidently appeals for the
general truth of the statement.
On arriving at Ottawa, the prisoners were placed under guard, while
their followers and associates hung in groups about the outskirts of the
town. Under the Constitution and laws at that time, every Irishman,
though he might not have been but six months from the bogs, was a voter.
Here, then, was a rich field opened for the demagogues, and the reader
may be sure they did not neglect it. Here was democratic raw material
which could not be permitted to run to waste.--Sympathizers were
"Thick as autumnal leaves that strow the brooks
In Vallombrosa."
Gen. Fry and other aspiring gentlemen commenced harangues, but were
speedily cut short by the "boys" who insisted that this was not the
entertainment to which they were invited.
The number of Irish, living along the lines of the canal and rail road,
for many years, far outnumbered all other residents; but this was the
only demonstration against the quiet of the community which, by
concerted action, has taken place from that time to the present, if the
riots on the Central Rail Road work, on the south bank of the river, be
excepted. The excess and violence, in either case, must not be
attributed to the Irish residents, as a class. To the conservative
influence of the more intelligent portion, rather than to any exhibition
of physical power, is the community indebted for the general good order
which has prevailed. The learned professions, merchants, farmers and
mechanics are largely composed of their class; and many, who came here
as poor laborers, are now wealthy men, appreciating, in a degree equal
to that of other citizens, the blessings of a government of laws. The
writer is fully satisfied, by close observation, that the influence of
the Catholic clergy has ever been on the side of order and submission to
the laws.
Of the riots on the Central Rail Road the following account is
presented.
In December, 1853, a force of about four hundred and fifty men was
employed on the embankment and excavations on the south end of the
Central Rail Road bridge at La Salle. A misunderstanding existed between
the contractor, Albert Story, and the men about wages. The latter had
been employed at one dollar and a quarter per day, but the contractor,
being unwilling any longer to pay more than one dollar per day, so
informed the men and appointed a day--the 15th--when he would pay such
as chose to quit work. The men, on their part, alleged that they had
been allured from the East by handbills circulated by Story and his
associates, announcing that one dollar and a quarter per day would be
paid on the job; and that after they had expended all their means to
reach the work, the promise was violated, and they were thrown out of
employment, except at reduced wages, with families to provide for, at
the commencement of winter.
On the day appointed the clerk commenced paying. Soon an error was found
in the accounts which was announced to the men, and the business of
paying was suspended. This incensed the men, who rushed into the office
and declared they would help themselves to their pay. One of them
struck Story in the face. During the scuffle, Col. Maynard, a
Superintendent of the work and a resident of Chicago, left by the back
way to find and take care of Mrs. Story and her children. While he was
gone the assailants were forced from the room and the door refastened,
when the crowd commenced with axes, picks and shovels to break down the
door. One succeeded in entering, when Story, who was armed, asked his
clerks whether it was best to shoot. They said, "no, we had better be
quiet." Mr. Story, not knowing that Maynard had gone to take care of his
wife and children, went by the back way to the house. Finding his wife
gone, he started for the stable for a horse on which to leave the place.
The men, seeing him, rushed towards the stable, shouting "kill him! kill
him! kill him!" and with picks, shovels and stones brutally and almost
instantly murdered him, one man striking him with a stone on the head
after he was dead. It has been asserted that Story did fire upon the
crowd, wounding one man, but this did not clearly appear on the
subsequent trials.
The news of the murder soon reached La Salle, and a telegraphic dispatch
was sent to Ottawa for Sheriff Thorn, who arrived with a military force
about 7 o'clock in the evening. These, with Mayor Campbell, of La Salle,
and about one hundred citizens, started for the scene of the murder.--On
arriving at the spot a number of individuals were discovered, scattered
over the hills, some of whom were armed, though only a few assumed a
threatening attitude. Being fired upon they stopped, and one returned
the fire, and received, in return, two balls in his arm, and was then
arrested. The Sheriff then visited the different shanties and arrested
all, or nearly all, the men he could find, amounting to sixty or
seventy, of which some thirty or forty were recognized as participators
in the row, though none were of the supposed ringleaders, but these were
subsequently arrested. The Sheriff left a portion of his force as a
permanent guard; and the work being prosecuted by other parties, the
vicinity, through out the winter, bore resemblance to a regular military
encampment.
Twelve were indicted as ringleaders in the affray, four of whom, Kren
Brennan, James Terry, Michael Terry and Martin Ryan took a change of
venue to Kane county, where they were convicted of murder, when a new
trial was granted which resulted in a second conviction. By the clemency
of Gov. Matteson their punishment was commuted to imprisonment in the
penitentiary for life; and among the last of his official acts, a full
pardon was granted. The executive interference caused great
dissatisfaction, and upon the occasion of the Governor visiting La
Salle, he was burnt in effigy. Six were convicted of manslaughter and
sentenced to the penitentiary for one year and served out the term. The
other two were not found.
On the bluff, near the old fort, and afterwards at Manville Hollow, for
many years, there lived an individual whose peculiarities were so
strongly marked as to demand a notice in this work.--His name was John
Myers, but more familiarly known, among the early settlers, as the
"stallion painter." He was a fair specimen of the frontier man--a type
of which is attempted to be described in this chapter. In fact, he
served as a model for that description. But justice was not done to his
moral qualities. His rough garb and uncouth manners concealed a noble
and true heart. He was brave, impulsive and generous, and scorned and
loathed subterfuge, evasion, and chicanery as only a noble and true
heart can. He liked whisky, as all frontier men do, but he seldom lost
his bodily or mental equilibrium.--He was never in a condition when all
his native coolness and resources would not have been at command in an
instant, had he been assailed by any of his old familiar foes, whether
man or beast. He was never quarrelsome, even in his cups, but the
wronged or weaker party in any conflict, was sure to find in him a
champion as chivalrous as ever raised a shield or poised a lance. His
exhilaration was generally manifested in yells, such as no human throat
ever uttered before. The most ambitious steam whistle might have been
envious of his screams. These he called his blessings. He sometimes
indulged in songs. Such unearthly notes were never heard out of
Pandemonium.
He would have made the fortune of Spalding & Rogers by singing an
accompaniment to the calliope. Many of the present citizens of Peru will
recollect his vocal performances as he pursued his way homewards across
the bottom above the town. On the occasion of the first opening of a
court at Ottawa, he went up to witness that novel performance. Having
imbibed a few draughts of whisky, and being rather unfamiliar with the
etiquette and decorum of courts, he indulged in exercises not very
gratifying to judicial dignity or favorable to the progress of
business.--Being frequently reprimanded he became somewhat incensed,
whereupon he gave vent to his indignation in one of the most remarkable
efforts of the lungs that ever electrified a court of Justice. Judges,
lawyers and spectators recoiled in dismay, and it is believed that the
pins and tenons which confined the roof were seriously strained.
When first known to the writer, he was nearly eighty years of age, yet
his step was firm and elastic, his eye bright and lustrous, in the
corner of which there lurked an expression of humor and fun, his mind
clear and vigorous, and his voice--well, we won't say anything more
about that. Born upon the outskirts of civilization in Georgia, he had
wandered along the streams and valleys of Tennessee, Kentucky and
Southern Illinois, resting from time to time, until advancing
settlements crowded him still further into the wilderness.--He was
entirely unlettered, though he managed to sign his name, and, as is
reported, sometimes to his disadvantage. Notwithstanding this he noticed
all the fasts and holy days of the Episcopal Church, a circumstance
which indicated his southern origin. His usual dress was a buckskin
hunting shirt, breeches and moccasins. In this costume he appeared, by
special invitation, at the first ball given in Peru. This was largely
composed of ladies and gentlemen, fresh from the saloons and drawing
rooms of the eastern cities. As may be supposed, the etiquette and
toilets of the assembly produced no little astonishment in the mind of
the rough old pioneer. The ladies eagerly sought his hand in the dance,
but shrunk back in agony from its vice-like grasp.
Being once more cramped and annoyed by the influx of strangers he left
this part of the country in 1839 or 1840, and took up his residence in
Southern Missouri, near the Arkansas line. Years and infirmities soon
pressed upon him, when he returned to the banks of the Illinois to die.
He was buried in the burying ground at Cedar point. The writer has
refrained from a notice of his most distinguished exploits, as he finds
it prepared to his hand, in a much better manner than he could hope to
accomplish, in the September number of Putnam's Magazine. He would say
that, in the main, it corresponds with the accounts he has received from
the mouth of Mr. Myers himself, and from those who knew him at the time
of the events related.
A party of eight or ten Indians, accompanied by Myers, had been out two
or three days on a hunting excursion, and were returning, laden with the
spoils of the chase, consisting of various kinds of wild fowls,
squirrels, raccoons, and buffalo skins. They had used up all their
ammunition except a single charge, which was reserved in the rifle of
the chief for any emergency or choice game which might present itself on
the way home. A river lay in the way, which could be crossed only at one
point, without subjecting them to an extra journey of some ten miles
round. When they arrived at this point, they suddenly came to a huge
panther, which had taken possession of the pass, and like a skilful
general, confident of his strong position, seemed determined to hold it.
The party retreated a little and stood at bay for a while, and consulted
what should be done. Various methods were attempted to decoy or frighten
the creature from his position, but in vain. He growled defiance
whenever they came in sight, as much as to say, "If you want this
stronghold come and take it." The animal appeared to be very powerful
and fierce. The trembling Indians hardly dared to come in sight of him,
and all the reconnoitering had to be done by Myers. The majority were
for retreating as fast as possible, and taking the long journey ten
miles round for home, but Myers resolutely resisted. He urged the chief
whose rifle was loaded, to march up to the panther, take good aim and
shoot him down; promising that the rest of the party would back him up
closely with their knives and tomahawks, in case of a mis-fire. But the
chief refused; he knew too well the nature and power of the animal. The
creature, he contended, was exceedingly hard to kill. Not one shot in
twenty, however well aimed, would dispatch him; and if one shot failed,
it was a sure death to the shooter, for the infuriated animal would
spring upon him in an instant, and tear him to pieces. For similar
reasons every Indian in the party declined to hazard a battle with the
enemy in any shape.
At last Myers, in a burst of anger and impatience, called them all a set
of cowards, and snatching the loaded rifle from the hands of the chief,
to the amazement of the whole party, marched deliberately towards the
panther. The Indians kept at a cautious distance to watch the result of
the fearful battle. Myers walked steadily up to within about two rods of
the panther, keeping his eye fixed upon him, while the eyes of the
panther flashed fire, and his heavy growl betokened at once the power
and firmness of the animal. At about two rods distance, Myers leveled
his rifle, took deliberate aim, and fired.--The shot inflicted a heavy
wound, but not a fatal one; and the furious animal, maddened with the
pain, made but two leaps before he reached his assailant. Myers met him
with the butt end of his rifle, and staggered him a little with two or
three heavy blows, but the rifle broke, and the animal grappled him,
apparently with his full power. The Indians at once gave Myers up for
dead, and only thought of making a lively retreat for themselves.
Fearful was the struggle between Myers and the panther, but the animal
had the best of it at first, for they soon came to the ground, and Myers
underneath, suffering under the joint operation of sharp claws and
teeth, applied by the most powerful muscles. In falling, however, Myers,
whose right hand was at liberty, had drawn a long knife. As soon as they
came to the ground, his right arm being free, he made a desperate plunge
at the vitals of the animal, and, as good luck would have it, reached
his heart.--The loud shrieks of the panther showed that it was his death
wound. He quivered convulsively, shook his victim with a spasmodic leap
and plunge, then loosened his hold, and fell powerless by his side.
Myers, whose wounds were severe but not mortal, rose to his feet,
bleeding and much exhausted, but with life and strength to give a grand
whoop, which conveyed the news of his victory, to his trembling Indian
friends.
They now came up to him with shouting and joy, and so full of admiration
that they were almost ready to worship him. They dressed and bound up
his wounds, and were now ready to pursue their way home without the
least impediment. Before crossing the river, Myers cut off the head of
the panther, which he took home with him, and fastened it up by the side
of his cabin door, where it remained for years, a memorial of a deed
that excited the admiration of the Indians in all that region. From that
time forth they gave Myers that name, and always called him the Panther.
(The writer has before given the name by which all the old settlers will
recognize him.)
Time rolled on, and the Panther continued to occupy his hut in the
wilderness, on the banks of the Illinois River, a general favorite among
the savages and exercising a great influence over them. At last the tide
of white population again overtook him, and he found himself once more
surrounded by white neighbors. Still, however, he seemed loth to forsake
the noble Illinois, on whose banks he had been so long a fixture, and he
held on, forming a sort of connecting line between the white settlers
and the Indians.
At length hostilities broke out, which resulted in the memorable Black
Hawk war, that spread desolation through that part of the
country.--Parties of Indians committed the most wanton and cruel
depredations, often murdering old friends and companions, with whom they
had long held conversation. The white settlers, for some distance round,
flocked to the cabin of the Panther for protection. His cabin was
transformed into a sort of garrison, and was filled with more than an
hundred men, women and children, who rested almost their only hope of
safety on the prowess of the Panther, and his influence over the
savages.
At this time a party of about nine hundred of the Iroquois were on the
banks of the Illinois, about a mile from the garrison of Myers, and
nearly opposite the present town of La Salle.--One day news was brought
to the camp of Myers, that his brother-in-law and wife, and their three
children, had been cruelly murdered by some of the Indians. The Panther
heard the sad news in silence. The eyes of the people were upon him, to
see what he would do. Presently they beheld him with a deliberate and
determined air, putting himself in battle array. He girdled on his
tomahawk and scalping knife, and shouldered his loaded rifle, and, at
open mid-day, silently and alone, bent his steps towards the Indian
encampment. With a fearless and firm tread, he marched quietly into the
midst of the assembly, elevated his rifle at the head of the principal
Chief present, and shot him dead on the spot.--He then deliberately
severed the head from the trunk, and holding it up by the hair before
the awe-struck multitude, he exclaimed, "You have murdered my
brother-in-law, his wife and little ones; and now I have murdered your
Chief, I am now even with you. But now mind, every one of you that is
found here to-morrow morning at sunrise, is a dead Indian!"
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 title 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 association 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 title 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 assiduously 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 canal, 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 circumscribed 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 class.--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 tassels 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
arsenal. Upon the slightest provocation, he would assume the most
belligerent attitude 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 mass 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 analysis 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.
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| Transcriber's Note: |
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| Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the |
| original document have been preserved. |
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| Typographical errors corrected in the text: |
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| Page 12 assylams changed to asylums |
| Page 16 ekeing changed to eking |
| Page 17 dilligently changed to diligently |
| Page 19 Methodist's changed to Methodists |
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