Chapter 11

Chapter 11
pages 44 - 49

THE FIRST AMERICAN SETTLEMENTS AT PEORIA.

     From the fall of 1813 until the spring of 1819, nearly six years, no white man attempted to reside at this place. It was wholly abandoned by the French population who had formerly lived here. No man who had lived here previous to the destruction of their village in 1813 ever attempted to reside here again, nor did any of their descendants, except that one Fortier, whose wife was descended from one of the old settlers, was here for a while, as long as he pleased, and then went away. Not only Peoria, during that time, but all the country as far south as the distance of more than a hundred miles, as far east as the Wabash river, as far north as the north pole (except a garrison at Chicago and one at Green Bay), and as far west as the Pacific Ocean, was one broad, howling wilderness, inhabited only by savage beasts, and wild men, 'more savage far than they'.
     In the spring of 1819, seven men, then living in a settlement called Shoal Creek, Clinton Co., Illinois, to wit,— Abner Eads, a Virginian by birth; I. Hersey, a New-Yorker; Seth Fulton and Josiah Fulton, Virginians; S. Daugherty, J. Davis and T. Russell, Kentuckians, made up a company to emigrate to Peoria, then called Fort Clark. Eads and Hersey came through by land, with two pack-horses. The others came up the Mississippi and Illinois rivers, in what was then known, in the West, as a keel-boat.
     Eads and Hersey, in coming through the trackless wilderness, struck the Illinois at or near the place where Meredosia now stands, instead of Peoria; but, being there, they crossed over to the west side, and made their way some how, but how I know not, up the west side to Peoria, Before roads were opened and bridges built between Meredosia and Peoria, on the west side of the river, the country was one of the worst to travel in I have ever seen. On the west side there are broad, low lands, full of lakes, swamps, and lagoons, and all except the lakes covered with dense forests and brushwood. And beyond all this is a row of hills of from half a mile to a mile wide, also covered with tall trees and underbrush. Moreover, a half-dozen streams must be crossed that are some times too deep to ford. Whereas, had they taken the east side of the river, they would have had but two streams of any note to cross, and might have had smooth, dry prairie the most of the way. But the country was not then known. So Lewis and Clark crossed the Rocky Mountains at so high and cold a place that in June there was more snow on the mountains than they could surmount, and they had to go back to a valley, where they could find provender for their horses, until the snow melted. But now people understand the country better.
     Eads and Hersey, however, succeeded in getting through to Peoria, on the 17th day of April, 1819, and pitched their tents against some of the remaining timbers of Fort Clark, which had been burnt by the Indians. On the 19th Eads, meeting with a deserter from Fort Dearborn, at Chicago, coming down the river in a canoe, left Hersey in charge of their horses and camp, and passed down the river with the deserter, to see what had become of his comrades and keel-boat. A few miles below, however, in the neighborhood of Lamarsh creek, he met them, in good health and spirits, and turned back with them, and all arrived safely at Peoria the same day.
     Their tents and boats served them for shelter and habitation until they could fit up two cabins, that some one, perhaps the United States soldiers, had put up, but had not covered nor finished. These pioneers immediately planted fifteen or twenty acres of corn and potatoes.
     In the latter part of May Mr. Eads started to Shoal Creek for his family. About the first of June he arrived there, and by the eighth or tenth of June he had his little affairs closed up, and his wife and three children, and as much household and kitchen furniture as a pioneer deems indispensable, in his wagon, and all on the way to Peoria. He had now learned more of the country, and 'struck a bee-line' north through the high prairie, and came to the Illinois at the high land on which Pekin has since been built. He followed the river up to the next high land, where the village of Wesley stands, and there crossed over, and soon got to Peoria. His object in crossing there probably was to avail himself of the aid of any Indians or Indian canoes there might be there to aid him in crossing the river; for that was in those days a trading-post, and there were generally both Indians and canoes to be found there.
     On or about the 10th of June, Capt. Jude Warner arrived here from St. Louis, with a keel-boat loaded with salt and provisions, and a seine for fishing in the lake. His company consisted of Isaac De Boice, James Goff, William Blanchard, David Barnes, Charles Sargent, and Theodore Sargent. They spent the season catching and salting fish, in bulk, as is some times done with pork when barrels are scarce.
     But little, in those days, was known of this part of the country; and, had ever so much been known about it, it was almost inaccessible to other parts of the world. There were then neither roads, bridges, nor canals, and it was a long and tedious way to come down the Ohio and up the Mississippi and Illinois, or by the lakes, and down a hundred miles overland to the navigable waters of the Mississippi or Illinois. Besides, for a large portion of the United States it was several hundred miles to the lakes or the Ohio. The consequence was that our country filled up slowly: so slowly that, in 1825, when Peoria county was organized, the whole country coming within its jurisdiction, including the whole north half of the state—Galena and Chicago,— contained only a population of 1236 souls.
     In those days people, in speaking of coming to this place, called it going or coming to Fort Clark. And the legislature, in the act creating Peoria county, called it "An act to form a new county out of the country in the vicinity of Fort Clark." But they called the county Peoria, and located the county-seat on a particular quarter-section; and when the county commissioners had the town-site surveyed, they called it Peoria, and in a short time Fort Clark was dropped, and the place was universally called Peoria. This name is said to have been derived from a tribe of Indians, who took possession of the, country about Lake Peoria, and transmitted to it their name; but travelers and historians have not agreed in, the spelling of the name. I have seen it spelt Piorias, Proraria and Proneroa. Hennepin wrote it Pimitomi; but this, I suppose, is another name given to it (as Peoria was) after a tribe of Indians, who were destroyed or driven away by the Peorias. This word is also variously spelt: I have seen it terminate with one i, with two i's, and with three. There were Indians here, when I came, who called the place Cock-meek; but what they meant by it I never knew. The French some times called it O-Pa, their mode of pronouncing Au Pied, the foot, meaning the foot of the lake. However, in old times they called their town, which was about a mile and a half above the outlet, Peoria; and when they began to build at the outlet, they called that place La ville de Maillet (after John B. Maillet, who first built there), or the New Village of Peoria; but in process of time, when the old village had become entirely abandoned, the name Peoria became transferred to the new village, and so it came to be generally called, until the building of Fort Clark.

Prev Table of Contents Next

Submitted by your Host

Any contributions, corrections, or suggestions would be deeply appreciated!