Full Text of History of Vermillion County Illinois -- Chapter X Scanning and OCR by Joy Fisher, jfisher@us-genealogy.net ------------------------------------------------------------------ USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organizations or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. ----------------------------------------------------------------- CHAPTER X. TRAILS AND EARLY ROADS. ORIGIN OF THE MODERN ROAD-FIRST THE BUFFALO, THEN THE INDIAN, THEN THE PACK-HORSE--THE DANVILLE & FORT CLARK ROAD--THE OTTAWA ROAD--HUBBARD'S TRACE. The modern road, which leads from place to place and makes speedy travel possible, is an evolution of the trail of the Indian which, in turn, was the evolution of the track made by some wild animal. The instinct of all animals is to go from one feeding spot to another, and to the best and nearest drinking place, with as little expenditure of time and energy possible. To this end there is no forest so dense, nor plain so wide, that does not show the paths of the wild beasts which inhabit it. The buffalo made the first roads, or paths, or trails, as you choose to call the tracks he left as a guide to his almost equally untamed successor in ownership of the wilds-the American Indian. Before the time roads were determined by legal proceedings, convenience in travel directed them. The Danville and Fort dark road was surveyed and laid out as a legal road about 1834 by an act of the Legislature, but it did not owe its origin to this legal action, .for it was traveled many years previous to this date. In 1828, at its September session, the Board of Commissioners entered an order appointing "Runnel Fielder Supervisor of the Fort dark road from the Salt Fork to the western line of Vermilion County." The same order allotted all the road work due from residents in townships 19 and 20, in Range 9 and 10, to this piece of road. But even this order, of a date so early as it is, was not the origin of this well known road. The exact origin will ever remain unknown, but it is safe to surmise that, as long ago as the buffalo roamed this country it was his path leading from river and grove to the East to river and grove to the West, passing the spot where his need for salt was met in the springs located near the Salt Fork of the Big Vermilion river. Later the Indian followed the same path for the same purpose. Indian villages were located along the lower Vermilion river, the inhabitants of which were intimate friends of the Indians in the Kickapoo village at what is now known as "Old Town Timber" in McLean County. These Indians chose frequent intercourse and naturally made a trail along the old buffalo track. Indeed, this tract must have been used before these Kickapoo villages were located, because the Piankeshaws probably knew of the direction of the salt water, when they were in possession of this territory, and were attracted thither, while their village was located at the mouth of the North Fork of the Vermilion. This trail was probably followed by Gen. Hopkins and his soldiers, and maybe by the Spanish troops, although that is not credited by many. This was by no means the only, nor the first trail which went through Vermilion County. The oft times traveled trail which led from Kaskaskia and Fort Chartres to Detroit, passed across the southwestern part of the county. This trail can yet be discerned in Edgar County, to the south. The region of Vermilion County was the center of Indian trails, diverging to the south, the west, the southwest, the east, and to the north. The early comers into this section found a well denned road from east to west, crossing what is now Vermilion County, which each year showed more and more evidence of travel, as it was used by pioneers in going from Ohio to the then "West." This road crossed the Big Vermilion river at near the mouth of the North Fork, and crossed the county, leaving it at where the line of Champaign County makes the eastern boundary. At the point of leaving the county, the Salt Fork of the Vermilion river crosses the line a little to the northeast of the present village of Homer. The highway was the well known "Fort Clark Road," over which the great tide of immigration passed from the states east of the Ohio to the section known as the "Military Tract," the name of the lands lying in the western part of Illinois, between the Illinois and Mississippi rivers. This "Military Tract" comprised the lands given the soldiers of both the wars of the Revolution and that of 1812. There are places along this long since abandoned road that yet show its direction. These are great gullies, which were worn, first by the hoof of the buffalo, and afterward by the oxen and wagon of the pioneer, but it takes the practice eye to distinguish these places and the old Fort Clark road is practically lost. It long ago was changed from the northern route to the southern way, and the highway going in the same direction, is known as the Danville and Urbana road. This road runs to the south of the old one but is very much the same which was traveled in the long ago through Vermilion County and which is referred to in the following description of a traveler in the early twenties: "After safely crossing the state of Indiana, then a wilderness, I entered Illinois where Danville now is near to where I found a small settlement and some friends. I made a short stay at these Salt Works and then took a more northwest course, to strike the Illinois river, my map and compass my only guide. I put up usually, where night found me. Striking a light with my flint, steel and punk, I wrapped myself in my blanket, and with the broad earth for a bed, slept soundly. My horse became very cowardly so that he would scarcely crop the grass, which was his only sustenance; he would keep close to me, following me wherever I went and sleeping at night by my side, and would not leave me at any time. With no well defined road, only the Indian trail through high grass and bushes, over the broad limitless prairie, or along the timber belts, occasionally meeting a party of Indians with whom I conversed only by signs, it is not surprising that horse and rider should be lonely, suspicious and fearful." Such was the way along the afterward "Fort Clark" road which was the most direct connection of the east and the west. The writer of this experience goes on to tell of his leaving the Salt Works of the Vermilion, and finding no white man until he reached Dillon's Grove in Tazewell County. Later, a road from the east to Ottawa, called the "Ottawa road" was built through Vermilion County, passing to the north of Danville on the way to Chicago. It was a state road and within the memory of many citizens, it was marked with milestones. This road went direct from Danville through Denmark and had a branch to the east, north of Danville which led through Newell township and carried trade to Covington, Indiana. This road was probably the developed trail from Fort St. Louis to Vincennes and Fort Detroit which converged at Danville. The north and south road known as the "Hubbard Trace" was a very important highway for years. The American Fur Company had stations along the way of the country between the Illinois and Wabash rivers as early as about 1785. They had trading posts on the Iroquois, the Little Wabash, and the Embrass rivers. In 1824 Gurdon Hubbard was put in charge of the company's trade in this section and soon abandoned the trading posts on the Illinois river, doing away with trade by the river and introduced pack horses to cover the way between Chicago and the southern extreme of the territory. This way or trail from Chicago went directly to the Salt Works and thence south, so it is seen that the Hubbard Trace (as it was called) was to the west of Danville, instead of being the old direct state road. This road was the one most frequently traveled to the north or the south, and the old "Fort Clark" road was the one used in going to the east or west, during the early days of Vermilion County. And together with the Ottawa road met all the requirements of travel of that day.