Full Text of History of Vermillion County Illinois -- Chapter IV

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CHAPTER IV.

GOVERNMENT OF THIS SECTION PRIOR TO 1819.

HISTORY OF VERMILION COUNTY ANTEDATES ITS ORGANIZATION-FIRST GOVERNMENT, 
THAT OF FRANCE-THE PROVINCES OF CANADA-OF LOUISIANA: WHERE WAS THE 
DIVIDING LINE?-THE SEATS OF GOVERNMENT FOR DWELLERS IN WHAT IS NOW 
VERMILION COUNTY-A PART OF THE BRITISH DOMAIN-THE ILLINOIS COUNTY OF 
VIRGINIA-SEAT OF GOVERNMENT AT KASKASKIA-THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY; SEAT 
OF GOVERNMENT, MARIETTE, OHIO--INDIANA TERRITORY; SEAT OF GOVERNMENT, 
VINCENNES-ILLINOIS TERRITORY; SEAT OF GOVERNMENT, KASKASKIA-THE 
COMMONWEALTH OF ILLINOIS-VERMILION COUNTY A PART OF SIX DIFFERENT 
COUNTIES, WITH AS MANY SEATS OF GOVERNMENT.

	Authentic history of Vermilion County antedates its organization, 
as such, and even its exploration and settlement by white men, by a 
century and a half.

	This is the case because this section of the Wabash Valley, 
although but a wilderness, and the homes and hunting grounds of the 
Miamis and Pottowatomie Indians, yet was a part of the great tract 
claimed by France, and governed by representatives of that European 
power. From 1682 to 1763, this section was a part of New France.

	Now, New France extended from Quebec to New Orleans, and it became 
necessary to divide it for administrative purposes, so two provinces 
were made. The northern province was that of Canada, with the capital at 
Quebec, and the Southern province was called Louisiana, and its capital 
was New Orleans.

	At one time, prior to 1745, the dividing line ran diagonally 
across what is now Vermilion County, in Illinois, thus making a part of 
it in one province and a part of it in the other, with the two capitals 
as far apart as Montreal and Fort Chartres. This division line began on 
the Wabash river at the mouth of the Vermilion river. It followed the 
course of the Vermilion river northwest, thence in the same direction to 
old Fort St. Louis. The site of this old fort is now known as Starved 
Rock, near Ottawa, in La Salle County. All south of this dividing line 
was the Province of Louisiana, while all north of it was the Province of 
Canada. The seat of government of the Canada Province was Montreal, and 
later, the Post of Detroit, while that of the Louisiana Province was at 
Fort Chartres, on the Mississippi river.

	Two men, living on opposite sides of the Vermilion river (as at 
Danville and South Danville), at this time, would be obliged to travel 
many miles, the one to the northeast and the other to the southwest to 
transact any legal business. This dividing line ran diagonally across 
Vermilion County as it is now known, cutting it into two very nearly 
equal parts.

	Since only Indians and the occasional "Cour de Bois" were to be 
found in this far away part of New France, such an inconvenience was no 
hardship.

	After the French and Indian war of 1763, New France was ceded to 
Great Britain, and this section, now known as Vermilion County, 
Illinois, became a part of the British Domain. For some fifteen years 
its government was vested in an organization or board, known as the 
"Lord's Commissioners of the Council of Trade and Plantations," or 
"Lords of Trade." Kaskaskia, the French town, located near the mouth of 
the Kaskaskia river, and not far from Fort Chartres, was the seat of 
this government. The British had been obliged to abandon Fort Chartres, 
and garrison Fort Gage, at Kaskaskia. British rule ended at the end of a 
decade and a half. It was during the Revolutionary war that George 
Rogers Clark, himself a citizen of the colony of Virginia, captured this 
fort and, when peace was declared between Great Britain and the 
Colonies, this territory was ceded to Virginia and became, for the time 
being, the Illinois County of Virginia.

	The government which followed was by a representative called a 
County Lieutenant. The seat of government was retained at Kaskaskia. 
This did not last long. In 1809 another division was made and Illinois 
Territory was formed.

	Illinois Territory had, as its eastern border, the Wabash river, 
as far as Vincennes, thence north by a straight line to Lake Michigan; 
its western border was the Mississippi river which was, at that time, 
the western border of the United States. The southern border of the 
Illinois Territory was the Ohio river and its northern border was the 
British Possession of Canada. Its seat of government was again at 
Kaskaskia.

	This division threw this section into the Illinois Territory, with 
its seat of government, as it had been before, over on the Mississippi 
river.

	Nine years later the Illinois Territory was admitted into the 
Union with the same eastern, southern and western boundaries, and 42 
degrees, 30 minutes, as its northern boundary. This act made the section 
in whose government we are interested, a part of that commonwealth.

	During all this time, this section was yet the possession of the 
redman with the exception of a small wedge which is in what is now Love 
Township. This wedge of land was purchased by the United States 
government through the efforts of William Henry Harrison the same year 
as that in which Illinois Territory was established, and it has always 
been known as the "Harrison Purchase."

	The power of the Miami Nation had been broken, Piankeshaw had been 
devastated, the Kickapoos and Pottowatomies had driven the earlier 
proprietors away, yet the white man had not yet gained possession. The 
proud Miamis relinquished their claim to their conquerors late in the 
18th Century, but it was not until after Illinois became a state, that 
the Pottowatomies made a treaty with the United States in which they 
ceded their land. A description of their land which they ceded at this 
time reads as follows:-"Beginning at the mouth of the Tippecanoe river 
and running up the same to a point twenty-five miles in a direct line 
from the Wabash river; thence on a line as nearly parallel to the 
general course of the Wabash river as is practicable, to a. point on the 
Vermilion river twenty-five miles from the Wabash river; thence down the 
Vermilion river to its mouth; thence up the Wabash river to the place of 
beginning." At the same time the United States agreed to purchase any 
just claim which the Kickapoos might have to any part of the ceded 
country below Pine creek.

	The next year the Kickapoos, by the treaty at Edwardsville, July 
18, 1819, ceded a large section of country between the Illinois and 
Wabash rivers, including that ceded by the Pottowatomies.

	Immediately following this treaty at Edwardsville, another one was 
concluded at Fort Harrison, on August 30, 1819, between the United 
States and that particular tribe, or band who, in this treaty describe 
themselves as "The chiefs, warriors and the head men of the tribe of 
Kickapoos of the Vermilion," to the end that the United States might be 
enabled to fix a boundary between the claims of other Indians and these 
Kickapoos. The claim was further described as follows: - "Beginning at 
the northwest corner of the Vincennes tract, thence westerly to the 
boundary established by a treaty with the Piankeshaws on the 30th of 
December, 1805, to the dividing ridge between the waters of the embrass 
and the Little Wabash; thence by the said ridge to the source of the 
Vermilion river; thence by the said ridge to the head of Pine creek; 
thence by said creek to the Wabash river; thence by the said river to 
the mouth of the Vermilion river, and thence by the Vermilion and the 
boundary heretofore established, to the place of beginning."

	Beginning with this year (1818) the section, which is now 
Vermilion County, became a county of the state of Illinois. This form of 
government lasted four years; then came the readjustment at the end of 
the Revolutionary war. Massachusetts, Connecticut and New York all laid 
claim to parts of the territory saved from the British by Clark, which 
lay northwest of the Ohio river, and due concessions had to be made by 
these states as well as by Virginia, before congress could provide for 
the government of the Northwest Territory. In 1787, an ordinance was 
passed Congress which made this provision. The seat of government of the 
Northwest Territory was located at Marietta, Ohio.

	General Arthur St. Clair was appointed governor of the Northwest 
Territory. The section now included in Vermilion County remained a part 
of the Northwestern Territory for fourteen years. At the end of that 
time the Ohio Territory was formed, which took a part of this Northwest 
Territory leaving that part which now is known as the states of Indiana, 
Michigan, Illinois and Wisconsin, and this was called the Indiana 
Territory. General William Henry Harrison was appointed governor, and 
the seat of government was located at Vincennes, and this section had 
its capital in what is now the state of Indiana.

	Since Illinois became a commonwealth that year, Vermilion County, 
with no longer any power vested in the Indians, although they had not 
yet left this section, became a legally bound territory, subject to laws 
and regulations of the state. The resources were many and varied. The 
two great commodities so much in demand, salt and furs, were to be found 
in plenty inside its boundary. The Vermilion Salines were well known and 
yielded enough salt to supply the region at a fair price. After having 
had the many and various forms of government, while as yet this section 
was not known, as it is now, to be Vermilion County, but was yet a small 
part of Clark County, it was under the control of the laws of the state, 
and, as such, in 1819, had fixed obligations to the same government that 
it has now.

	After 1790, this section had been a part of, first, Knox County of 
the Northwest Territory, then partly Knox and partly St. Clair County of 
the Indiana Territory, then St. Clair, Madison, Edwards, and Crawford 
Counties of the Illinois Territory; then a part of Clark County during 
the first two years of statehood of Illinois, to at last become what it 
is now, Vermilion County.