Alexander County IL Archives History - Books .....Chapter XXXI Ft. Jefferson And Bird's Point 1910
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Book Title: A History Of The City Of Cairo Illiniois

CHAPTER XXXI

FORT JEFFERSON-BIRD'S POINT AND THE BIRDS



TO the people of Cairo, Fort Jefferson has so long been one of their very few

places for outings that we are justified in giving a short sketch of it here.



   It seems that the matter of the establishment of a fort at or near the mouth

of the Ohio River was taken up by General George Rogers Clark and Col. John Todd

with Governor Patrick Henry and then with Governor Thomas Jefferson, in 1778 and

1779, and that the fort and block-houses were constructed early in 1780. In the

Virginia State Papers, Vol. I, will be found the correspondence relating to the

matter. Among the letters are the following: Lieutenant Governor John Page to

Col. Todd, at Kaskaskia, Aug. 16, 1779; General Clark to Governor Jefferson,

Sept. 23, 1779; General Clark to Capt. Silas Martin, Sept. 30, 1779; General

Clark to Col. Todd, March, 1780; and Col. Todd to Governor Jefferson, June 2, 1780.



   The other letters, not above referred to, show the low state to which the

post had become reduced; the starving condition of the troops and the settlers

assembled there; the constantly threatened dangers from the Indians; the

frequent request for aid and its tardy arrival; the attacks upon the fort by the

Indians under the lead of James Colbert, a Scotchman; the repulses and the final

abandonment of the place as a post and settlement, probably in 1781. Some of the

settlers returned eastward and others removed to Kaskaskia.



   The following is the letter from General Clark to Governor Jefferson above

referred to:



                                       LOUISVILLE, September 23, 1779. 

DEAR SIR:-    I am happy to find that your sentiments respecting a Fortification

at or near the mouth of the Ohio is so agreeable to the Ideas of every man of

any judgment in this Department. It is the spot that ought to be strong and

Fortified, and all the Garrisons in the Western Country Dependent on it, if the

ground would admit it, but the misfortune is, there's not an acre of ground

nearer the Point than four miles rise the Ohio, but what is often Ten feet under

water. About twelve miles below the Point there is a beautiful situation, as if

by nature designed for a Fortification by every observation that has been taken,

which lays a quarter of a degree within the State of Virginia. Its elevation is

such that a small expense would render it very strong and of greater advantage

than one four miles up the Ohio. In case you have one built, a few years will

prove the propriety of it. It would immediately become the Key of the whole

Trade of the Western Country and well situated for the Indian Department in

General. Besides many Salutary Effects it would render During the War, by awing

our Enemies, the Chickesaws, and the English Posts on the Mississippi. The

strength of the Garrison ought not to be less than Two Hundred men, when built.

A Hundred families that might easily be Got to Settle in a Town would be a great

advantage in promoting the place. I am sensible that the Spaniards would be fond

to settle a Post of Correspondence opposite to it, if the ground would admit.

But the country on their side is so subject to inundations, that it is

impossible. For the want of such a Post I find it absolutely necessary to

station an armed boat at the Point so as to command the navigation of both

rivers, to defend our Trading Boats and stop the great concourse of Tories and

Deserters that pass down the River to our Enemies. The Illinois, under the

present circumstances, is by no means able to supply the Troops that you Expect

in this department with provisions, as the crops at Vincennes was so exceedingly

bad that upwards of Five Hundred Souls have to depend on their Neighbors for

Bread. I should be exceedingly glad that you would commission some Person to

furnish the Troops in this Quarter with provisions, as the greater Part must

come from the Frontiers for the ensuing year, as I can't depend on the Illinois

for supplies more than will be sufficient for two hundred and fifty men. There

is an easy conveyance down the Tennessee River and Provisions more plenty on

Holsten than in the neighborhood of F. P. H. [Fort Patrick Henry]. Colonel John

Campbell, who promised to deliver this letter to Your Excellency I believe would

undertake the task at a moderate salary, and a gentleman of undoubted veracity.

But pray, sir, order as much Provisions Down as will serve the Troops you intend

sending out, at least six months. I am, Sir, with the greatest respect, your

humble servant,

                                             GEO. CLARK.



   It will be observed that General Clark desired to establish the fort here at

the point, but the low ground and the frequent inundations forbade it. It will

also be noticed that he speaks of maintaining an armed boat at the point. At

that time the whole country west of the Mississippi was owned by Spain. Our

Revolutionary War was then going on; and it was not expected that the Spanish

government would be very friendly to the cause of the colonies, and hence

Clark's desire to keep his eye on the Spanish territory lying just across the
river.



   In the letter of Clark to Martin of Sept. 30, 1779, Clark suggests the

granting of forty or fifty thousand acres of land to persons who would come and

settle in the vicinity of the fort; and Todd in his letter to Jefferson of June

2, 1780, says: " I therefore granted to a certain number of families 400 acres,

to each family, at a price to be settled by the general assembly." These two

letters throw considerable light upon the origin of such land claims as those of

the Flannerys, the McElmurrays, and of Standlee in this county of ours.



   I am indebted to Col. Emmet W. Bagby, of Paducah, for the following account

of the fort, taken chiefly, it seems, from Vol. II, pages 39 and 40, of Collins'

"History of Kentucky," ed. of 1882.



   FORT JEFFERSON.- "Under intimations from Governor Patrick Henry, dated

January 2, 1778, that 'it was in contemplation to establish a post near the

mouth of the Ohio, with cannon to fortify it,' coupled with express instructions

from Thos. Jefferson, next Governor of Virginia, dated June 28, 1778, and

repeated in January and April, 1780, Gen. Geo. Rogers Clark, with about 200

soldiers, left Louisville early in the summer of 1780, and proceeding down the

river to a point on the Mississippi called the Iron Banks, five miles below the

mouth of the Ohio, then in the State of Virginia, there erected a fort with

several block-houses, which he called Fort Jefferson. One object was to fortify

the claim of the United States to the Mississippi River as its western boundary,

south of the Ohio. Governor Jefferson had engaged a scientific corps, with Dr.

Thomas Walker at its head, to ascertain by celestial observations the boundary

line between Virginia and North Carolina, or the point on the Mississippi River

intersected by the latitude of 36 ° 30', the southern limit of Virginia. Gen.

Clark was instructed 'to select a strong position near the point, and there

establish a fort and garrison; thence to extend his conquests northward to the

lakes, erecting forts at different points, which might serve as monuments of

actual possession, besides affording protection to that portion of the country.'

The result of Clark's bold operations, thus authorized, was the addition to the

chartered limits of Virginia, and so recognized by the treaty of peace with

Great Britain in 1783, of that immense region- afterwards called the 'North

Western Territory,' and ceded by Virginia to the United States- which now

comprises the five great states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin.



   "The Chickasaw Indians were in 1770 the undisputed owners of the territory on

the west of the Tennessee River, including the ground at the mouth of May-field

Creek, where Fort Jefferson was built. By some unexplained oversight or neglect

of positive instructions, or inability to comply with them, this site had not

been purchased of the Indians, nor their consent obtained to the erection of the

fort, thus arousing their most bitter resentment. After awhile they began

marauding and then murdering individuals of the isolated families who had

settled around the fort, thus driving them into the fort, and butchering many,

including the whole family of Mr. Music, except himself. In their skirmishes,

they captured a white man whom they compelled, at the risk of his life, to

reveal the true condition of the garrison and families, already reduced, by

sickness and absences, to about thirty men, of whom two-thirds were sick with

fever and ague. These were commanded by Capt. George, according to Mann Butler,

and others, and according to Gov. John Reynolds, by Capt. James Pigott. The

Indians, who now came a thousand or twelve hundred strong to the work of bloody

extermination, were led by Colbert, a Scotchman, who had gained great control

over them. The siege lasted five or six days, the inmates of the fort being

reduced to terrible extremities by famine, sickness, scarcity of water, watching

and fighting. Their principal food was pumpkins with the blossoms yet on them.

They had sent for succor, but the distance was great. They refused a demand for

a surrender within an hour, although notified that a strong force had been sent

to intercept the small assistance expected. A desperate night assault was made,

but as they crowded on, Capt. Geo. Owen, commander of a block-house, raked them

with great slaughter, with a swivel loaded with rifle and musket balls. Other

efforts to storm the fort, and to set fire to it, were bravely resisted. At last

Gen. Clark arrived from Kaskaskia, with provisions and reinforcements, and the

baffled savages sullenly withdrew, still threatening vengeance The fort was

abandoned shortly after, from the difficulty of supplying it because so remote.



   "During the late civil war, a long six-pounder iron cannon buried beneath the

fort was partially exposed by the caving in of the Mississippi River. Jos.

Dupoyster, who owns the site of the fort, dug it out, but was robbed of it by

Federal soldiers then stationed at Cairo.



   "Among the soldiers of Gen. Clark at Fort Jefferson, were Wm. Biggs, James

Curry, Levi Teel, David Pagon, John Vallis, Pickett, Seybold, Groots and many

others."- (See also English's "Conquest of the Northwest," Vol. II.)



  The following is the commission given James Colbert, Nov. 23, 1780, by Major

General John Campbell, commanding his Majesty's forces in the Province of West

Florida.



   "Reposing especial trust and confidence in your loyalty, zeal and attachment

to his Majesty's Person and Government, and by virtue of the powers and

authorities in me vested, I do hereby constitute and appoint you a leader and

conductor of such volunteer inhabitants and Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek or other

Indians as shall join you, for the purpose of annoying, distressing, attacking

or repelling the King's enemies, when, where and as often as you shall judge

proper for the good of his Majesty's service, subject always to such further

orders and instructions as you shall from time to time receive from me or any

other person or persons duly authorized for the purpose." - Virginia State

Papers, Vol. I.



   BIRD'S POINT AND THE BIRDS.- This point or place, now Cairo, for some

considerable time, and probably at different times, bore the name of Bird's

Point. The family of the Birds were originally Virginians. One or more of them,

it is said, came west as early as 1779 and 1780, when those families or settlers

came to the vicinity of Fort Jefferson at the solicitation of Governor Jefferson

and General George Rogers Clark. Clark had impressed upon Jefferson that as a

part of the plan of establishing the fort, an attempt should be made to get a

hundred families or more to come and settle on the lands adjacent to it. It was

supposed that a permanent post could be thus established which would greatly aid

in protecting the frontier country. One or more of the Birds were here on this

point between the rivers as early as 1795. There were then few settlers anywhere

in this region of the country. All of the Fort Jefferson people had dispersed,

as it were, after the abandonment of the fort. Many of them had gone back

eastward. They were too far from their old homes and had gotten too near the

borders of what seemed to them the exclusive domain of the Indians. The Birds

could make no entries of land at that time, and it seems they went on to the

Cape Girardeau settlement, where many of their relatives named Byrd were. The

change in the spelling of the name was no doubt comparatively recent. Many of

our citizens remember George W. Henricks, the contractor and builder. His sons,

the lawyers Wm. E. and George W., insisted that there should be a letter "d" in

the name, and they put it there for themselves and their families, but their

father never adopted the new spelling.



   Abram Bird purchased land on the Missouri side as early as 1798; and their

operations there and here resulted in the use of the same name for each place at

different times; but so far as the point goes it was more applicable to the

Illinois than to the Missouri side.



   The large tract of land, about 800 acres, just south of town and now owned by

Mr. Egbert A. Smith, owes its origin to a small island up where the river turns

eastward and towards the present Bird's Point and Kentucky shore. It was far out

in the river, and its growth was chiefly eastward and toward the Illinois shore.

In 1850 it had reached half the distance to the Ohio, and within a few years it

threw out a sand bar which extended so far toward the Kentucky shore that boats

which did not come out of the Illinois channel, but passed down the Missouri

channel, had to run close to the Kentucky shore and then turn around the sand

bar and come on up to the Cairo landing. This island was put down on the old

river guides as Bird's Island. Afterward it took and held for a long time the

name "Cairo Island." This point was also once called Willow Point. An early

English traveler making a trip down the Ohio and writing about the place, said

it had no other name beside Willow Point. Bird's Point, and Ohio City near by,

once seemed to be very hopeful of a prosperous growth. This was chiefly in the

years of the Cairo and Fulton Railroad, 1855 up to 1861.



  In Houck's recent and valuable "History of Missouri," Vol. II, p. 164, where

the prairie on which Charleston now stands is spoken of, it is said:



   "This prairie was known during the Spanish occupancy as 'Prairie Carlos,' but

afterwards among the American settlers became known as 'Mathews' Prairie.' It

was a favorite pasture of buffalo and in 1781, when Fort Jefferson was besieged

by the Indians, Joseph Hunter, crossing the river, hunted and killed buffalo

here, and carrying the meat to the river thus supplied the starving garrison.

The first pioneer settler was Charles Finley, in 1800. He sold his claim to

Abram Bird, senior. Edward Mathews came to this prairie in the same year; so

also Edward, junior, Joseph and Charles Mathews. Abram Bird in 1798 received a

grant from De Lassus on the Mississippi, opposite the mouth of the Ohio and

which thus became known as "Bird's Point." He and his brother Thompson were

related to the 'Byrds' of the Cape Girardeau district, although spelling their

names differently. The original grant has long since been carried away by the

Mississippi and much other land belonging to the family."



   It was not until 1817 that William and Thompson Bird made a trip to

Kaskaskia, the seat of the land office, and entered the lands they desired and

which they had long known and no doubt lived upon. Thompson Bird, in the name of

Thompson Bird & Company, on the 26th day of July, 1817, entered the southwest

quarter of section 25, containing 160 acres, and on the same day William Bird

entered the southeast fractional quarter of the same section containing 112.29

acres and on July 28, 1817, William Bird entered fractional section 36,

containing 46.47 acres. This shows that at that time there was no island

adjoining or near to the Illinois shore; otherwise it would have been embraced

in William Bird's purchase of fractional section 36. Nor does the government

survey of 1807 show anything south of the main land or shore. This small strip

of land of 46.47 acres lay just south of an east and west line running through

block 56 in the city. William and Thompson Bird together paid for these lands

$637.52, which was at the rate of $2.00 an acre, the price then required to be

paid. These lands embraced what is now the whole of the southern part of the

city, lying south of an east and west line just south of the stone depot at 14th

and Ohio Streets, and east of a north and south line running just east of the

Safford school building in block 80, in the First Addition to the city. It

embraced all of the city as first platted, all of the second and third additions

and part of the first addition.



   Some of us have often heard Kentuckians speak of the Jackson Purchase,

reference always being had to western Kentucky, between the Tennessee and

Mississippi Rivers. This descriptive phrase arose in this way: President Monroe

appointed Isaac Shelby and Andrew Jackson to make a treaty with the Chickasaw

Indians for all that part of the country lying north of the south line of

Tennessee and between the Tennessee, Mississippi and Ohio Rivers. The treaty was

concluded October 19, 1818, and was signed by Shelby and Jackson and a number of

the Indian chiefs of that nation, among them Major General William Colbert, Col.

George Colbert, Levi Colbert and James Colbert, half-breeds, and descendants of

the James Colbert mentioned above. This treaty seems to have been somewhat

supplemental to the treaty of September 20, 1816, signed by Andrew Jackson, D.

Meriwether and J. Franklin for the United States and the Colberts and other

Indians for the said tribe. In the treaty of October 19th, and among the amounts

of money the government was to pay the tribe was "the sum of ten hundred and

eighty-nine dollars to Major James Colbert, interpreter, for that amount of

money taken from his pocket in the month of June, 1816, at the theatre in

Baltimore."



   Concerning Fort Jefferson much additional information is contained in vol. V,

Illinois Historical Collections "Kaskaskia Records," Alvord.





Additional Comments:


Extracted from:



A HISTORY OF THE CITY OF CAIRO ILLINOIS

BY

JOHN M. LANSDEN

WITH MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS

CHICAGO

R. R. DONNELLEY & SONS COMPANY

1910



COPYRIGHTED, 1910

BY JOHN M. LANSDEN



The Lakeside Press

R. R. DONNELLEY & SONS COMPANY CHICAGO



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