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John T. Faris
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Prepared by the Staff of the
Public Library of Fort Wayne and Allen County
1955
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FOREWORD
The following publication, which narrates the fortunes of
the ancient settlement of Kaskaskia in Illinois, originally appeared
as chapter XI in THE ROMANCE OF FORGOTTEN TOWNS by John
T. Faris. The publishers, Harper & Brothers, have graciously
granted permission to reprint the chapter.
The Boards and the Staff of the Public Library of Fort Wayne
and Allen County present this account with the feeling that it is an
important part of our heritage and with the hope that it will be
interesting and informative to Library patrons.
WHEN the French missionaries and traders found
their way to the rich American Bottom, some of
them located on a choice site on the neck of land between
the Kaskaskia River and the Mississippi River. There
they built a town that for more than a century was the
chief settlement for hundreds of miles. From about the
year 1700 until well into the nineteenth century it was
famous socially, commercially, and politically. Its name
was heard in Richmond, when the Illinois country was a
county of Virginia, and its problems sometimes were con-
sidered by government officials at Washington. Early
travelers were eager to visit it and were proud to write
of it. Pioneer surveyors gave it prominent place on their
maps of the Illinois country. But for many years most
travelers to the region where Kaskaskia long ruled alone
have been unconscious of their nearness to the site of the
old town, and those who would find It named on a map
must go to an old atlas, or to the records of the historian.
The early years of Kaskaskia were like those of other
pioneer settlements. The surrounding Indians were on
friendly terms with the peaceable French cottagers, though
there were times of anxiety and danger when the savages
were threatening. Adventurers toiled past the town on
their way to the Missouri or to the upper Mississippi, or
floated down toward the mouth of the Ohio and New Or-
leans. Scores of those whose names are written large
in the history of the Mississippi Valley paused there, or
lived there for a season.
But usually life was very tranquil there, even when the
French gave way to the English, and the English to the
Americans. For Kaskaskia, like so many settlements of
the Mississippi Valley, was a town of three flags.
The earliest authentic picture of the frontier commu-
nity was drawn by Captain Philip Pittman, whose book
telling of travels in America was printed in London in
1770:
"The village of Notre Dame de Cascasquias is by far
the most considerable settlement in the Country of the
Illinois, as well from its number of inhabitants, as from
its advantageous situation. It stands on the side of a
small river, which is about eighty yards wide, and empties
itself into the Mississippi more than two leagues below
the village. The river is a secure port for the large
bateaux which lie so close to the banks, to load and unload
without the least trouble, and at all seasons of the year
there is water enough for them to come up. . . -. An-
other great advantage that Cascasquia receives from the
river is the facility with which mills for corn and plank
may be erected on it. Moses Paget was the first who in-
troduced water-mills in this country, and he constructed a
very fine one on the river Cascasquia, which was both for
grinding corn and sawing board.
"The principal buildings here are the church, and the
Jesuits' House, which has a small chapel adjoining it;
these, as well as some of the other houses In the village,
are built of stone, and considering the part of the world,
make a very good appearance. The Jesuits' plantation
consists of two hundred and forty arpents [an arpent is a
little less than an acre] of cultivated land, a very good
stock of cattle and a brewery, — which were sold by the
French Commandant, after the country was ceded to the
English, for the Crown, in consequence of the suDnression
of the order. Mons. Jean Baptiste Beauvais was the pur-
chaser, who is the richest of the English subjects in the
country. He keeps eighty slaves; he furnishes 86,000
weight of flour to the King's Magazine, which was only
part of the harvest he reaped in one year.
"The fort, which was torn down in October, 1766,
stood on the summit of a high rock opposite the village,
and on the opposite side of the river."
At the time of Pittman's visit there were about sixty-
five families in the village, whose customary dress was
coarse blue cotton, with deer-skin moccasins. In winter,
of course, the cotton clothing gave way to skins and furs.
Each head of a family owned his house, and had a right
also to the use of the common field outside of the village.
Most of this was open pasture, though some was culti-
vated. It was the law of the community that occupancy
gave title to the land, but no one could alienate it; when
occupancy ceased, the land reverted to the community.
The most exciting day in the history of the sleepy village
came in 1778, when, according to one account, there were
two hundred and fifty houses there. If this figure is
correct, the growth in the twelve years since the visit of
Pittman had been large.
The story of that day of excitement really began with
December 10, 1777, when George Rogers Clark told
Governor Patrick Henry In far-away Virginia how easy
it would be to take the northwest country from the British.
He outlined his plan for capturing the villages on the
Mississippi River, Vincennes on the Wabash, and perhaps
Detroit. With a vision that classes him with Thomas
Jefferson — to whose far-seeing wisdom the purchase of
the Louisiana country was due, less than a generation
later — he gave Clark the authority he sought. The gov-
ernor was not troubled by the fact that some might ques-
tion his authority to send an expedition to what was then
the far West; he resolved to take advantage of a rather
vague provision on the statute book of Virginia that made
it possible for him to undertake projects for the defense
of the commonwealth.
So he told Clark (he was only a colonel then, though
his exploits were to make a general of him) that he might
enlist seven companies of militia. To these men he was
to announce that he was going to the defense of the Ken-
tucky settlements against the Indians; but on the same day
he was given private instructions which led him — after
grave difficulties in securing men and supplies — down the
Ohio, then overland from Fort Massac (where Metropolis
now stands) to Kaskaskia.
But the leader of that expedition should tell of the
events that followed. He was writing to Hon. George
Mason of Gunston Hall, Virginia, on the Potomac, the
intimate friend of George Washington:
"On the Evening of the 4th of July we got within three
miles of the Town Kaskaskias, having a River of the same
name to cross to the Town. After making ourselves ready
for anything that might happen, we marched after night
to a Farm that was on the same side of the River about a
mile above the Town, took the family Prisoners, and
^-3-
.iook ^ family ^ri^ma^,.
found plenty of Boats to cross In; and in two hours trans-
ported ourselves to the other shore with the greatest
silence. I learned that they had some suspicion of being
attacted, and had some preparations, keeping out spies,
but they making no discoveries had got off their Guard.
I immediately divided my little Army into two Divisions,
ordered one to surround the town, with the other I broke
into the Fort, secured the Governor, M. Rocheblave [who
had transferred allegiance from the French to the Eng-
lish] in 13 minutes had every street secured, sent Runners
through the Town ordering the People on Pain of Death
to keep close to rheir Houses, w^hich they observ'd, and
before daylight had the whole town disarmed; nothing
could excell the Confusion the people seemed to be in,
being taught to expect nothing but Savage treatment from
the Americans. Giving all for lost, their lives were all
they could dare beg for, which they did with the greatest
fervancy, they were willing to be Slaves to save their
Families. I told them it did not suit me to give them an
answer at that time, they repaired to their homes, trem-
bling as if they were led to Execution; my principals would
not suffer me to distress such a number of People, except
through policy it w^as necessary. A little reflection con-
vinced me that it was my Interest to attach them to me,
according to my first plan. ... I sent for all the Princi-
pal men of the Town, who came in as if to a Tribunal that
w^as to determine their fate forever. Cursing their for-
tunes that they were not apprised of us time enough to
have defended themselves; I told them that I was sorry to
find that they had been taught to harbour so false an
opinion of the Americans and their Cause; Explained the
nature of the dispute to them in as clear a light as I was
capable of, it was Certain that they were a Conquered
People, and by the fate of War was at my mercy, and that
our Principal was to make them Redeemed from insted of
enslaving them as they immagined, that if I could have
surety of their Zeal and Attachment to the American
Cause, they should immediately enjoy all the privileges of
our Government, and their property secured to them, and
that it was only to stop the further effusion of Innocent
Blood by the Savages and the influence of the Governor,
that made them an object of our attention, &c.
"No sooner had they heard this their Joy sparkled in
their Eyes and (they) fell into Transports of Joy that
really surprised me . . . that they should . . . think
themselves the happyest People in the World if they were
united with the Americans. . . .
"They returned to their families, and in a few minutes
the scean of mourning and distress was turned into an ex-
cess of Joy, nothing else seen or heard. Addorning the
Streets with flowers and Pavilians of different colours,
compleating their happiness by singing, &c."
Thus, without firing a gun, Clark's force of a little
more than a hundred men — the Kaskaskians thought he
had at least ten times as many — succeeded in winning
Kaskaskia, and so the entire Mississippi country, for the
colonies.
Clark made many friends in the village who were of
wonderful assistance to him in the further perforrfxance
of the task he had set himself. Easily first among them
was Francis Vigo, a Spaniard who had gone from Sardinia
to New Orleans, and from there to St. Louis. He was in
business there when he learned of Clark's presence in
Kaskaskia. Attracted by him, he offered to do anything
he could to help him. So Clark sent him to Vincennes to
learn how fared Captain Helm, whom Clark had sent to
thing of the remoteness of the community and the manner
of hfe there. This letter, dated at Fort Washington
(Cincinnati), 13th April, 1795, was addressed to "His
Excellency the Commander in Chief." It reads:
"Just as I arrived at this place Capt. Pierce was sending
forward dispatches for Your Excellency from the War
Office, which no doubt contained the intelligence & arrange-
ments that have been so long expected. There is nothing
new here worth Your Excellency's attention but some in-
formation I got from Mr. I. Ludlow who is just arrived
(through the woods) from Kaskaskies. He says, that the
two Indians mentioned In the Extract enclosed in Captain
Pastner's letter to you were murdered when under the
protection of a magistrate of Kaskaskies by Whitesides,
between Kaskaskies and Cohokia as they were going to the
latter place, where they were to be confined. Whitesides
is at the head of a small settlement between Kaskaskies &
Cohokia. Thinking that designing men may endeavour to
prevent Your Excellency's Proclamation from reaching
these remote parts, I shall have a few copies of it printed
in Lexington . . . and shall enclose them to Capt. Past-
ner to be distributed in VIncennes and the settlements
on the Mississippi, that those lawless Rascals may have
no excuse for violating the laws and treaties of the
country. . . ."
When Illinois became a territory, the pioneer legislature
met at Kaskaskia on November 25, 18 12. Both houses
met in a large building of uncut limestone, which had a
steep roof and a gable of unpalnted boards. There were
also dormer windows. The building, after the flood that
caused the abandonment of Fort Chartres, had been used
by the French as headquarters for the military comman-
dant. This building remained the Capitol until the re-
moval to Vandalia in 1818, when all the records were
transferred in a single small wagon !
Forsaken by the legislature, Kaskaskia was not forsaken
by the rivers between which its founders had located it.
Gradually these encroached upon the site. Finally floods
threatened to make Kaskaskia an island, the Mississippi
reaching across the neck above the town to the Kaskaskia
(or Okaw, as the river came to be called, because of the
French way of saying that they were going aux Kan, to
Kaskaskia).
In vain the government strove to protect the Kaskaskia,
but, following the heavy winter snows of 1880-81, the
ice and floods swept down the river and carried away the
protecting works. Then the Mississippi cut across the
four-hundred-yard neck that separated the rivers. At
first the water fell into the Kaskaskia with a six-foot fall,
but soon the alluvial soil was swept away and a far wider
channel for the river was made. The people stood by and
watched the awful force of the flood waters as they tore
across to the Kaskaskia, which was but six hundred feet
wide at the point of the junction. The flood was flung
against the farther bank of the Kaskaskia, where great
trees were uprooted and carried downstream. Sometimes
a half acre of ground would fall into the river at one time.
The relentless river then began to wear away the
island on which Kaskaskia stood. One by one the houses
slipped into the stream, and year after year there were
less people In the town. Some lingered until 1898, but
by that time there was little left. In 1906 a single chim-
ney was standing on the bank of the stream — all that was
left of old Kaskaskia!
It is easy to enter into the feelings of an Illinois histo-
rian who. In the course of an address, said :
"The very river upon whose placid waters the French
settlers paddled their light canoes, has become the bed of
the wild currents of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers,
and that beautiful and rocky peninsula, whereon the old
town was located, has become a desert island. The his-
tory of the world affords no parallel to the rapid and
absolute demolition of old Kaskaskia Town. Cities have
gone down to ruin, but yet have left some traces of their
former greatness; not so with old Kaskaskia. The very
earth on which she stood has become a desert and a
desolation. It is scarcely beyond the life of those now
living when she was the most important place in our
western territories — the center of trade in Illinois, the
capital of our territory, the capital of our state, and,
with a population of some three thousand people, em-
braced a large proportion of the wisdom, learning, wealth,
and eloquence of Illinois."
For many years it was thought that even the old records
of Kaskaskia had perished. But in 1905 a member of
the Chicago Historical Society discovered them, stored
on top of the bookcase in one of the county offices at
Chester, the successor of Kaskaskia as county seat of Ran-
dolph County. These records go back to 1737, when a
clerk of the French court lived at Kaskaskia, and when a
judge came from Fort Chartres to mete out justice there.
Thus the patient student is able to piece out the history
of the heroic days when Indian met Frenchman, when
Spaniard dealt with fur trader, when rich river towns
were pawns in the game of nations.
f
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS-URBANA
077 '192F22K C001
KASI^SKIA. THE ILLINOIS TOWN THAT RESTS
3 0112 025400000
