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

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CHAPTER V. 

EXPLORING THE VERMILION RIVER FOR SALT.
INDIAN TREATIES DETERMINE THE EXPLORATION OF THE VERMILION RIVER FOR 
SALT-SALT THE DEMAND OF THE EARLY I9TH CENTURY-JOSEPH BARRON'S KNOWLEDGE 
OF THE SALT SPRINGS ON THE VERMILION-THE NORTH ARM PRAIRIE THE NEAREST 
INHABITED SPOT-SUPPOSED ROUTE OF THE FIRST EXPLORING PARTY-KNOWN ROUTE 
OF SECOND EXPLORING PARTY.


	The hostile attitude of the Indians toward the white man was a 
reason that kept the section now known as Vermilion County from being 
settled until almost a score of years after the beginning of the i9th 
Century.

	Until 1819, when the two important treaties were made which ended 
the power of the red man in eastern Illinois, this hostility was carried 
to such lengths that it was impossible for settlement to be made, and 
indeed no explorations were attempted. This, in spite of the fact that 
the great demand of the times was salt, and there was every reason to 
believe that it could be found on the Vermilion river.

	This territory was a vast unknown region excepting to the Indian, 
and through him to the trader and woodsman. One man in particular, had 
for eighteen years known of the existence of salt in this region, but 
had made no haste to take advantage of this knowledge without doubt 
being kept from doing so on account of the hostility of the redman. This 
was Joseph Barron, the man who was for years the interpreter for 
Governor, afterward General and at last President Harrison. It has been 
recorded of Joseph Barron that he could understand and speak all the 
dialects used by the Indians of the Wabash Valley. He had acquaintance 
with all those who hunted in or claimed the lands watered by the Wabash 
river and all its tributaries. He had learned from the Indians of a 
place on the Vermilion river where there were valuable salt springs, and 
had even visited the place in company with them, but had let nearly a 
score of years pass since that visit. His delay of eighteen years in 
securing these springs tells the condition of the attitude of the 
Indians to the white man more forcefully than could many words.

	The fact of the certainty of valuable salt springs on the 
Vermilion may have been a strong reason for the treaties made with the 
Pottowatomies, and. the Kickapoos, the one in July, 1819, and the other 
in August, of the same year. However that might have been, the treaty 
was hardly concluded at Fort Harrison when Joseph Barron organized an 
expedition to explore the Vermilion river in search of salt. This 
expedition was planned quietly, and only a few people were aware of its 
arrangement. Barron and his friends were at Fort Harrison and that was 
their starting point. He knew the direction in which these springs were 
and the way was neither a long nor a dangerous one.

	The Indians had made their treaties and the wild beasts were not 
so numerous that they would make a well armed man fearful. Barron knew 
the way, and each man chosen to go with him was fearless and enured to 
hardships. 

	There is no record of the route chosen, and there is no certainty 
that they went by water; but it is reasonable to assume that, being at 
Fort Harrison, they came in canoes up the Wabash river to the mouth of 
the Vermilion river, thence up that stream to the Salt Fork, and found 
the salt springs without trouble.

	There arose a necessity sometime later for an affidavit covering 
the time of this expedition, and the personnel of this party, and the 
exact date of their arrival at the springs so that there can be no doubt 
on any of these points. This record is filed in the archives at 
Springfield. This party consisted of four white men and as many Shawnee 
Indians. Two of these men were Frenchmen, possibly Indian traders who 
shared the knowledge of the existence of the salt springs with Barron. 
Their names were Lambert Bona and Zachariah Shecott, as the justice of 
the peace spelled it. This spelling doubtless should be Cicott. The 
other man beside Barron was named Truman Blackman, and. was an 
unfortunate choice of Barron's.

	Assuming that the route chosen was by water, it is not a difficult 
thing to form the picture of this exploring expedition into the unknown 
region in which are now the familiar homes of the dwellers in Vermilion 
County. These four white men, together with the four Indians, began the 
ascent of the Wabash river in canoes. The Indians had been hired by 
Barron to go "with him to show him minerals and salt springs, etc.," but 
the white men were interested in the exploration to find what they did 
not already know. They paddled their canoes up the Wabash river to the 
mouth of the Vermilion river through a country which was more or less 
familiar to all.

	Barron, and probably the Frenchmen, had all passed that way 
before, and, for that matter, had some knowledge of the Vermilion river, 
but there is no reason to think that Truman Blackman had any idea of the 
salt springs or any thing else on the unexplored Vermilion. These canoes 
paddled up the Wabash river to the mouth of the Vermilion, and the white 
men found themselves in the country of the redman now shorn of his 
power. The old Kickapoo village at the mouth of the Vermilion river was 
forsaken, and the very trees and stones spoke desertion. Passing that, 
these explorers paddled up the river between densely wooded banks. The 
now highly valued farm lands and villages were at that time vast 
stretches of unbroken prairies beyond banks of the stream whose shallow 
waters they were paddling. All was silence, save the cry of the wild 
beast or the call of some bird to its mate. On they went, dipping 
paddles into the placid waters which had seldom reflected the image of a 
white man. Up the course of the river they continued their way, passing 
the site of present-day Danville. The old Indian village of Piankeshaw 
had completely disappeared; the high bluffs to the south were densely 
covered with trees and wild vines; the call of the quail, the flash of 
the goldenrod, and purple aster in the distance, the hazy sunlight of 
the Indian summer day, and the dipping of paddles in the water, filled 
the air, which had echoed the Indian war-whoop, and was to be filled 
with the sound of the traffic of today.

	Wild turkeys were stalking about and wild waterfowl were at the 
edge of the river; wild beasts were at the bank of the North Fork 
quenching their thirst; but all these attracted little interest or 
attention of the men as they paddled past its mouth, bent upon the 
discovery of the much desired salt springs which they knew were not very 
far distant. No dust, no smoke, no sound of building suggested the city 
which a half hundred years later would skirt its banks. This densely 
wooded tract might have held their interest as a haunt of fur-bearing 
animals, but for the more to be desired hope of wealth in the Salines 
beyond.

	This was a time when interest in the finding of salt was 
particularly keen, because of the fact that the Illinois legislature had 
but recently passed a bill making a liberal law to encourage the 
discovery and development of saline water. By the terms of this law, any 
person who made such a discovery had the exclusive right to manufacture 
salt within a given time and area. These explorers did not stop until 
their destination was reached. Passing up the big Vermilion after they 
had passed the deserted Indian villages at the mouth of the North Fork, 
the long past Piankeshaw, they proceeded through a less wide channel to 
the Kickapoo village once prosperous and active, now destroyed by the 
hand of the white man, situated at the confluence of the Middle Fork and 
Salt Fork where they formed the Vermilion.

	Here all was desolation. Unlike the old Piankeshaw, this village 
had been so recently the home of a living people that evidences of 
severed ties were yet visible. The once cultivated corn field was yet 
partially enclosed with a tumbled down fence. Weeds rankled where 
formerly the Indian squaw had hoed her corn and squashes. All was 
desolate. All the land marks were found that Barron remembered, and a 
mile and a half further the springs, themselves, were found as he 
expected. In his affidavit he locates these springs as situated on the 
Big Vermilion river, on the north side, about one and a half miles above 
the old Kickapoo town, and about fifteen or eighteen miles from the Big 
Wabash River. This same affidavit gives the 22nd day of September, 1819, 
as the day he reached these salt springs. Having discovered the source 
of saline water, these men returned to Fort Harrison.

	In reality it was these men who discovered this section of country 
and it is Joseph Barron to whom the people of this territory are 
indebted for the discovery. It was only through the treachery of one of 
his companions that Barron was kept from becoming the first settler as 
well.

	Truman Blackman betrayed his leader in this manner: After his 
return to Fort Harrison, he organized a party without the knowledge or 
sanction of Barron, and went back to take possession and claim the 
discovery of these springs. The party thus formed comprised Truman 
Blackman, his brother, Remember Blackman, George Beckwith, Seymour 
Treat, Peter Allen, Francis Whitcomb and probably Dan Beckwith. At least 
Dan Beckwith was one of the party immediately after, and it is probable 
that he went with them. The two Beckwiths did not start with the others 
from Fort Harrison, but joined them on the way at Jonathan Mayo's on the 
North Arm prairie where they were living. There is no question which 
route this second party took, for they went by land and probably were 
the first white men, unless perhaps traders, who explored the land route 
through this country.

	Blackman's party crossed the Wabash river at the mouth of Otter 
Creek and went in a northwest course through the timber and prairies, 
keeping the direction with a small pocket compass, until they arrived at 
a stream supposed to be the Big Vermillion, about twenty-five miles, 
they inferred, from the Wabash river. Here they camped on October 3ist, 
1819. Captain Blackman pointed out a smooth spot of low grass ground 
from twenty to thirty rods across where he said there was salt water. 
Further investigation proved he was correct, and once more the Vermilion 
Salines were discovered.