The settlement of Illinois, 1778-1830

by Arthur Clinton Boggess

Wild animals were abundant. A quarter of a century after the Revolution, two hunters killed twenty-five deer before nine in the morning near the Illinois settlements.[14] In 1787, the country between Vincennes and Kaskaskia abounded in buffalo, deer, and bear.[15] For years, the chase furnished a large part of the provisions. The raising of hogs was rendered difficult by the presence of wolves. Game-birds were plentiful, and birds were sometimes a pest because of their destruction of corn and smaller grains and even of mast.

An early traveler wrote in 1796: “The province of the Illinois is, perhaps, the only spot respecting which travelers have given no exaggerated accounts; it is superior to any description which has been made, for local beauty, fertility, climate, and the means of every kind which nature has lavished upon it for the facility of commerce.”[16] The wide-spreading prairies added to the beauty of the country. Land which now produces one hundred bushels of corn to the acre must have been capable of producing wonderful crops at the beginning of its cultivation. Coal was not known to exist in great quantities in the region nor was its use as a fuel yet known.

Such was the country and such the people now organized into the County of Illinois.[17] The Act establishing the county provided that the governor and council should appoint a county-lieutenant or commandant-in-chief, who should appoint and commission as many deputy-commandants, militia officers, and commissaries as were needed. The religion, civil rights, property and law of the inhabitants should be respected. The people of the county should pay the salaries of such officers as they had been accustomed to, but officers with new duties, including the county-lieutenant, were to be paid by Virginia. The governor and council might send five hundred troops, paid by Virginia, to defend Illinois. Courts were to be established with judges elected by the people, although the judges of other county-courts of Virginia were appointed by the governor and council.[18]

While Gov. Patrick Henry was writing instructions concerning the organization of government in Illinois, the British general, Hamilton, was marching to take Vincennes. Henry did not know this particular fact, but he had a keen perception of the difficulties, both civil and military, which awaited the county. On December 12, 1778, without waiting for the formal signing of the act creating the county, he wrote instructions to George Rogers Clark, to Col. John Todd, jr., and to Lieut.-Col. John Montgomery. Clark was instructed to retain the command of the troops then in the Illinois country, and to assume command of five other companies, soon to be sent out.[19] Col. Todd was appointed county-lieutenant or [pg 016] commandant. His instructions contained much wise direction. He was to take care to cultivate and conciliate the affections of the French and Indians, to coöperate with Clark and give the military department all the aid possible, to use the French against the British, if the French were willing, but otherwise to remain on the defensive, to inculcate in the people an appreciation of the value of liberty, to see that the inhabitants had justice done them for any injuries from the troops. A neglect of this last instruction, it was pointed out, might be fatal. “Consider yourself as at the head of the civil department, and as such having the command of the militia, who are not to be under the command of the military, until ordered out by the civil authority and act in conjunction with them.” An express was to be sent to Virginia every three months with a report. A letter to the Spanish commandant at Ste. Genevieve was inclosed, and Todd was told to be very friendly to him.[20] Col. Montgomery, then in Virginia, was ordered to recruit men to reënforce Clark. “As soon as the state of affairs in the recruiting business will permit, you are to go to the Illinois country & join Col. Clarke, I need not tell you how necessary [pg 017] the greatest possible Dispatch is to the good of the service in which you are engaged. Our party at Illinois may be lost, together with the present favorable Disposition of the French and Indians there, unless every moment is improved for their preservation, & no future opportunity, if the present is lost, can ever be expected so favorable to the Interest of the commonwealth.” Montgomery was urged not to be daunted by the inclement season, the great distance to Illinois, the “want of many necessaries,” or opposition from enemies.[21] Gov. Henry deserves much credit for his prompt and aggressive action at a time when Virginia was in the very midst of the Revolution.

Col. Clark was much pleased with the appointment of Col. Todd, both because civil duties were irksome to the conqueror and because of his confidence in Todd's ability.[22] Upon the arrival of the new county-lieutenant, Clark called a meeting of the citizens of Kaskaskia to meet the new officer and to elect judges. He introduced Col. Todd as governor and said that he was the only person in the state whom he had desired for the place. The people were told that the government, Virginia, was going to send a regiment of regular troops for their defense, that the new governor would arrange and settle their affairs, and that they would soon become accustomed to the American system of government. In regard to the election of judges, Clark said: “I pray you to consider the importance of this choice; to make it without partiality, and to choose the persons most worthy of such posts.”[23] The nine members of the court of Kaskaskia, the seven members of the court of Cahokia, and the nine members of the court of Vincennes, as also the respective clerks were French. Of the three sheriffs, Richard Winston, sheriff [pg 018] of Kaskaskia, was the only one who was not French.[24]

Military commissions were promptly made out, those of the districts of Kaskaskia and Cahokia being dated May 14, 1779. So many of the persons elected judges were also given military commissions that it seems probable that the supply of suitable men was small. No fewer than fourteen such cases occur. Of the militia officers appointed at Vincennes, P. Legras, appointed lieutenant-colonel, had been a major in the British service, and F. Bosseron, appointed major, had been a captain in the British service.[25]

The position of Illinois among the counties of Virginia was necessarily anomalous. All counties, except the County of Illinois, were asked to furnish one twenty-fifth of their militia to defend the state. Illinois county was omitted from the western counties enumerated in “An act for adjusting and settling the titles of claimers to unpatented lands under the present and former government, previous to the establishment of the commonwealth's land office.” Settlers northwest of the Ohio were warned to remove. No settlement would be permitted there, and if attempted, the intruder might be removed by force—“Provided, That nothing herein contained shall be construed in any manner to injure or affect any French, [pg 019] Canadian, or other families, or persons heretofore actually settled in or about the villages near or adjacent to the posts reduced by the forces of this state.” These exceptions were made at the May session of 1779. At this session, there was passed an act for raising one troop of cavalry, consisting of one captain, one lieutenant, one cornet, and thirty-two privates to defend the inhabitants of Illinois county. All officers were to be appointed by the governor and council. The men were to receive the same pay as Continentals. Any soldier who would serve in Illinois during the war should receive a bounty of seven hundred and fifty dollars and a grant of one hundred acres of land.[26]

Acting upon the policy that caused Virginia to warn all intruders not to settle northwest of the Ohio, Todd issued a proclamation warning all persons against such settlement, “unless in manner and form as heretofore made by the French inhabitants.” All inhabitants were ordered to file a description of lands held by them, together with a deed or deposition, in order to be ready for the press of adventurers that was expected.[27]

Some of the incidents of the summer of 1779 indicate difficulties of the new government. When the governor was to be absent for a short time, he wrote to Winston, who as commander of Kaskaskia would be acting governor, telling him not to impress property, and by all means to keep up a good understanding with Col. Clark and the officers. The judges of the court at Kaskaskia were ordered to hold court “at the usual place of holding court ... any adjournment to the contrary notwithstanding.” Richard McCarty, of Cahokia, wrote to the county-lieutenant complaining that the writer's stock had been [pg 020] killed by the French inhabitants. McCarty had allowed his stock to run at large and they had destroyed uninclosed crops, which crops, he contended, were not in their proper place. Two months later, McCarty wrote from Cahokia: “Col. Todd residence hear will spoil the people intirely. I think it would be a happy thing could we get Colol Todd out of the country for he will possitively sett the Inhabitants and us by the Ears. I have wrote him a pritty sharp Letter on his signing a Death warrant against my poor hog's for runing in the Oppen fields ... on some complaints by the Inhabitants the other day he wished that there was not a Soldier in the country.”[28] McCarty's hogs were not his only trouble. A fellow-officer wrote: “I received a line from Capt. McCarty [captain of troops at Cahokia] yesterday. He is well. He writes to me that he has lost most of his French soldiers, and that the inhabitants are so saucy that they threaten to drive him and his soldiers away, telling him that he has no business there—nobody sent for him. They are very discontented. The civil law has ruined them.”[29]

Col. Todd's position was difficult because of the discontent prevailing among both the French and the Americans in Illinois. His salary was so small that he feared that he must sell his property in Kentucky to support himself [pg 021] while in public service. He regarded Kentucky as a much better place than Illinois for the ambitious man, the retired farmer, or the young merchant.[30] He had been scarcely more than three months in office when he wrote to the governor of Virginia: “I expected to have been prepared to present to your excellency some amendments upon the form of Government for Illinois, but the present will be attended with no great inconveniences till the Spring Session, when I beg your permission to attend and get a Discharge from an Office, which an unwholesome air, a distance from my connexions, a Language not familiar to me, and an impossibility of procuring many of the conveniences of Life suitable; all tend to render uncomfortable.”[31] This letter was intercepted by the British and did not reach the governor.