The War of 1812 in Illinois Territory-- Part 3: Enter Thomas E. Craig

Meanwhile, Governor Edwards had reached the head of Peoria Lake (where Peoria is today) and now didn't meet up with Samuel Hopkins' Army, so returned to Fort Russell.

About that same time, Captain Thomas E. Craig led a party of two boats up the Illinois River to Peoria.  His boats, as he alleged, were fired upon  in the night by Indians who had been harbored and protected by the French citizens of Peoria.

He then burned the greater part of the French village and captured a number of its people.  He carried them downriver  and put them ashore in the early part of winter just below Alton.

--Brock-Perry

Hargrave Family & War of 1812-- Part 3: Then Came Craig and a Little Girl Named Ninian

A second attack on Peoria occurred beginning on November 5 and ended on November 9 and was carried out by men under the command of Captain Thomas  Craig of the Illinois militia.  A large number of French citizens and Potawatomie were killed.

These attacks not only angered the people of Peoria, but angered the U.S.  Government as well because they had been carried out against Indians loyal to Black Partridge and Gomo, two leaders who had not gotten involved in Tecumseh's  War and were considered friendly to U.S. interests.

Ninian Edwards, having lost the confidence of the Madison  administration, then left the Illinois Territory and moved to Kentucky, but continued as governor of the Illinois Territory until 1818.

She mentions that one of the Hargrave families named a little girl Ninian.

--Brock-Perry

The Hargrave Family and War of 1812-- Part 2: Ninian Edwards Attacks

Following the massacre at Fort Dearborn (present-day Chicago), Illinois Territory Governor Ninian Edwards Became convinced that  the Potawatami and Kickapoo Indians were going to launch a major attack on settlements in southern Illinois.  In his capacity as commander-in-chief in the Territory, he took it upon himself to launch a campaign against them.

The force of 400 that he assembled included mounted militia volunteers commanded by  Charles Rector and Benjamin Stephenson.  On October 18, 1812,  Edwards and his force marched out of Fort Russell (near present-day Edwardsville).  Near present-day Springfield, he burned  two Kickapoo villages on  the Saline Fork of the Sangamon River.

From there, they turned west and marched to present-day Peoria where they attacked villages associated with the Kickapoo, the Miami and the Potawatomi.  According to Edwards' account to the U.S. Secretary of War, they burned the villages and large amounts of provisions.  They also captured 80 horses, killed more than  two dozen Indians and captured 4 prisoners.

That accomplished, they returned to Fort Russell in November 1, 1812.  There Edwards proclaimed that the Indian problems had been solved and he released the militia.

Two of the men with Benjamin Stephenson were Robert Hargrave (son of John Robert) and Joseph Palmer (son-on-law of John Robert.)

--Brock-Perry

Francois Leclaire on the Actions of Thomas Craig and His Men

Francois Leclaire was of one of the French families in the former village at Peoria that Thomas Craig's men destroyed.  This is his account of what happened:

After the Indians were defeated by the forces of Governor Edwards at the head of Peoria Lake, they (the Indians) threatened to kill the French people and proceeded to  rob the houses and kill the oxen.

Then a party of men under Captain Thomas E. Craig arrived in two boats and took everything they could get their hands on.  Then they made the people prisoners.  While a prisoner he saw several structures burned by Craig's men.  he also saw articles belonging to the villagers on the boats.

In 1813, he went up to Sandy Creek on the Illinois River with Thomas Forsyth and others and heard from the Indians that they had burned the Kinzie and Forsyth house and bakehouse at Peoria.

These were the damages done by Craig and his men.

--Brock-Perry

Thomas E. Craig

From the "Alton" book by Cheryl Eichar Jett.

Several Native American attacks were recorded during the early settlement of Illinois years.

During the War of 1812. Captain Thomas E. Craig burned a Native American village in Northern Illinois (Peoria) capturing 77 French, French-Native American, Native American and American  individuals.

Historian James E. Davis said that Craig "shunted this assortment of humanity down  the Illinois River, abandoning them on a dreary November day south of modern Alton."

Illinois Territory Governor Ninian Edwards. embarrassed by the debacle, compensated those stranded in the Alton area.

--Brock-Perry

About That Captain Thomas E. Craig-- Part 4: 'A Wanton Act of Cruelty'

When the French villagers returned, Craig had forty of them arrested, claiming that someone had fired on them.  The French denied this.  Craig had his prisoners taken downriver to Alton where they were held for four days before being released.

In the meantime, Craig and his men killed all the village's cattle and burned part of the town.

Historians tend to look at Craig's actions as being misguided.  To John Reynolds, the destruction of French Peoria was "useless" and "a wanton act of  cruelty."  Historian Frank  Stevens denounced Craig's conduct  as "asinine and criminal."

He must Have Had a Really Big Hatred of the French (and Probably Indians as Well).  --Brock-Perry

About That Captain Thomas E. Craig-- Part 3: Destruction of the French Village at Peoria

Continued from August 4, 2021. 

In his book "Illinois in the War of 1812" author Gillum Ferguson said he wanted to be fair to the plight of the Illinois Indians.  "I wanted to give the Indians their fair due without romanticizing them," said Ferguson, who recounted a "possible" massacre of  Indians in the central Illinois area where U.S. troops reportedly wiped out Indian women and children in an encounter that took place in what is now Logan County.

But accounts on what took place vary.

What is a matter of record is the destruction of the French village in Peoria  by Captain Thomas Craig of Shawneetown.  

After finding the village deserted when he arrived, Craig allowed his men to ransack the unguarded cottages and storehouses.

--Brock-Perry

About That Captain Thomas E. Craig-- Part 2

Gillum Ferguson explained the Indian situation in Central Illinois back then, saying that Gomo, an Indian chief who had years earlier traveled to Philadelphia to meet George Washington, sought peace for his village near present-day  Chillicothe, Illinois.  Meanwhile, across Peoria Lake to the south was the village of Shequenebec whose chief was a mystic -- and increasingly hostile to the settlers.

About fifteen miles south of Peoria, on the  Mackinaw River was a  mixed village of Kickapoo, Potawatomi,  Ottawa and Chippewa, with about sixty warriors, "all desperate fellows and  great plunderers."

At this point in his research on Illinois in the War of 1812, he found that the last thing written about the future state was a long article in  1904.

For the record, Ferguson said that the United States declared war on Britain in June 1812.  A peace treaty was signed in December 1814, but the Battle of New Orleans (made famous by singer Johnny Horton) took place in January 1815.

While doing research for his book, Ferguson visited Peoria and other sites across the Midwest (Illinois Territory stretched into parts of Wisconsin and Michigan).    The staff at the Peoria Historical Society collection at Bradley University were very helpful to him.

--Brock-Perry

About That Captain Thomas E. Craig and What Happened to the French Village and Indians in What Is Today's PeoriaAbout That Captain

I couldn't help but believe that the Captain Thomas, who commanded a company of Illinois Territory Rangers might have been a bit too rough on the French settlers at what would one day be Peoria, Illinois.

Taking them prisoner and burning down their town as well as saying they were "damn lucky" not to have been scalped would not indicate a peace-maker in the situation.

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From the February 26, 2012, Peoria(Illinois) Journal Star  "Central Illinois home to several encounters during the War of 1812" by  Steve Tarter.

From a talk given by Gillum Ferguson, author of "Illinois in the War of 1812" gave a free program at Bradley University's  Cullom Davis Library.

The War of 1812 pitted Illinois Territory militiamen against various Indian tribes in the frontier territory of the United States.  One of the key areas of struggle in the territory revolved around the French village at what is now the site of downtown Peoria.

It was called La Ville de Maillet, New Village.  The French here lived on friendly terms with the local Indians, even intermarrying with them.  Indian villages surrounded them.

But, unfortunately for the French, American frontiersmen viewed the town as "the seditious village, a nursery of hostile Indians and traitorous British Indian traders."

It wasn't that the Indians were staunch allies of the British back then, but more focused on fending off the constant incursions from the Americans onto their land.

--Brock-Perry

Captain Thomas E. Craig

He commanded the company that reportedly was fired on by the French inhabitants of the French Peoria village and who retaliated by taking many prisoner and burning the place.

From Clintonilgenweb   Muster Rolls of 1812 

CAPTAIN THOMAS E. CRAIG'S COMPANY

A muster roll of Volunteer  riflemen raised in Illinois Territory, under the command of  Capt. Thomas E. Craig in the service of the United States, by the order of His Excellency, NINIAN EDWARDS, Governor of  said Territory.  From  the 5th  September to 2nd December 1812.

Craig, Thomas E.   Captain

Forrester, John    Lieutenant

Wilson, Harrison    Ensign

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SERGEANTS

Buckner, Phil

Hill , Charles

Skantlin,  Walker

Wilson, John G.

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CORPORALS

Gordan, Joseph

Lepan, Joseph

Preston, Robert

Wheeler, Willis

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MUSICIANS

Ormsby, John   Drummer

Reeves, Nat    Fifer

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53 Privates

--Brock-Perry

What Became of the French Settlers at Peoria?

When the French village in Peoria, known as  La Ville de Maillet, or New Village was destroyed  by American soldiers, the resulting dispute would drag on for decades until the Civil War.  One case even went all the way to the U.S Supreme Court.

After they were deported downriver in 1812, a  number of displaced French settlers petitioned Congress for the return of their land at Peoria.

Detailed  surveys of the French claims were made to assist in their settlement, but the legal process moved very slowly, which in turn slowed the development of downtown Peoria.

As a lawyer, Abraham Lincoln worked on some of these cases in the 1850s.

Eventually the displaced settlers were paid thousands of dollars in reparations for the loss of their homes.  The last case was settled in 1867.

--Brock-Perry

War of 1812 in Peoria-- Part 6: End of War, Illinois Statehood and Peoria's First American Settlers

The War of 1812 was finally settled by the Treaty of Ghent on December 24, 1814.  However, this treaty did not stop the British from encouraging and supporting the Indians in their raids into the Illinois Territory.  The settlement at Lake Pimiteoui remained unoccupied, save for troops occasionally garrisoning the fort as did trappers and Indians when the troops weren't there.

Indians apparently set fire to the fort and burned most of the structure in 1818.

The first group of American settlers to come to the Fort Clark location after Illinois became a state in 1818 arrived in April 1819.  These settlers were Abner Eads, Josiah Fulton,  and his brother Seth Fulton from Virginia; Joseph Hersey of New York; and S. Daugherty, J. Davis, and T. Russell of Kentucky.

Eads and Hersey arrived with pack horses and the rest arrived on keel boats, apparently poled upriver.

Upon their arrival, they reportedly found the walls of two deserted cabins standing close to the river.  It is possible that the soldiers garrisoned here  when Fort Clark was built six years earlier had erected these cabins.  They were made suitable for use and became the first two residences of Peoria.

The settlers also found enough of the remains of Fort Clark to determine that it had indeed been a fort.

--Brock-Perry

War of 1812 in Peoria-- Part 5: Building Fort Clark

With over 1,000 men to assist, the construction of the new fort at what is today  Peoria was completed quickly by September 23, 1813.  A brass six-pound cannon was mounted in the fort and fired in celebration of the accomplishment.  The fort was named Fort Clark in honor of  General George Rogers Clark, the celebrated hero of the American Revolution who had victories against the British at  Vincennes and Kaskaskia.

General Howard sent a force in two boats under Major William Christy to pursue the Indians on the upper Illinois River.  Another force under  Major Nathan Boone (was this Garner's unit?), followed the course of the Spoon River for fifty miles.  

Upon their return to Fort Clark, both officers reported that their troops had been unable to overtake the fleeing Indians.  The rangers were relieved of their duty at Fort Clark in mid-October, and returned to their   home stations, leaving the regular U.S. troops to garrison the post.

--Brock-Perry

War of 1812 in Peoria, Illinois-- Part 4: Building a Fort and Attacking Indian Villages

A year later, in September 1813, Brigadier General Benjamin Howard led another expedition of about 1,400 men against the Indian villages around Lake Pimiteoui.  The first portion of the expedition, a detachment of about 150 troops of the first United States Infantry under the command of Lt. Colonel Robert Carter Nicholas arrived at Lake Pimiteoui on August 29.

 The troops came from St. Louis in reinforced keel boats and immediately began to build a stockade adjacent to the river at the site of the former French village.  Trees were cut on the eastern  shore of the lake and rafted across to the western shore.

While the first blockhouse was under construction, 150 Indians under the command of Black Partridge made an attack on the troops, but were driven off.

Eight hundred mounted rangers from the Illinois and Missouri militia reached the settlement three days after the arrival of the regulars.  The rangers marched to the two Indian villages at the head of Lake Pimiteoui; on the eastern shore was the village of  Black Partridge, and on the western shore was the Potawatomi village of Chief Gomo.

The rangers burned what was left of the villages and returned to the French village.

--Brock-Perry

Early History of Peoria Illinois-- Part 3: 'The Damned Rascals May Think Themselves Well Off That They Were Not Scalped'

After the raid, Captain Thomas E. Craig of Shawneetown and a company of troops boarded boats that were anchored just offshore of the French village.  Sometime during the evening, shots were fired at their vessels.  The troops stormed ashore to loot and burn the village.  Craig then arrested the inhabitants; forced 41 men, women and children to board the two vessels; and brought them to Savage's  Ferry, near present day Alton.

After the prisoners had been held for four days,  Governor Edwards ordered their release.  Captain Craig later reported to Edwards, "I burnt down about half the town.  The damned rascals may think themselves well off that they were not scalped."

This episode marked the end of the French settlement at Peoria.

--Brock-Perry

Early History of Peoria-- Part 2: The Coming of the War of 1812

During 1810, a series of raids were launched by Illinois Indians which resulted in a great deal of anxiety among the settlers.  Throughout the next year, British representatives from Canada; still upset  over their defeat in the American Revolution, continued to encourage the Indians to attack the white settlers throughout the Illinois Territory.

The War of 1812 began in June of that year and that caused the French settlers in Peoria to be at war with the British and their Indian allies, including the Potawatomi.  Because the French settlers at Peoria had a close relationship with the Potawatomi, their position was extremely difficult.

In August of 1812,  the American post at Chicago, Fort Dearborn, was taken by the Potawatomi, and many of the soldiers and residents  were killed or taken prisoner. Thomas Forsyth of Peoria, half brother and  partner of Chicago trader John Kinzie, went north to negotiate with the Indians for the return of the prisoners.

In the meantime, Governor Ninian Edwards had been receiving reports that Peoria was a hotbed of Indian troubles.  In October, 1812, just a few months after Fort Dearborn, the governor led an attack  of mounted troops across the prairies from Fort Russell near Edwardsville (no one is sure where this fort's actual location was), and destroyed the Potawatomi village of Chief Black Partridge at the upper end of Lake Peoria, on the east side of the river.

Although the soldiers found the village deserted, they plundered and burned it.  In clashes with nearby Indians, 25 to 30 were killed.

--Brock-Perry

Early History of Peoria-- Part 1: Becoming the Illinois Territory

From the January 2011 Peoria Magazine "Fort Clark constructed in 1813" by Mark L. Johnson.

Just over 200 years ago, the small village of Lake  Pimiteoui, which would grow into today's City of Peoria, was gradually adjusting to life  as part of the new nation of the United States. 

On February 3, 1809, the U.S. Congress had established the territory of Illinois,  which included all of modern day Illinois, Wisconsin and the upper western peninsula of Michigan and northeastern Minnesota.  Ninian Edwards, Chief Justice of the Court of Appeals in Kentucky, was appointed  by President James Madison as the governor of the new territory, and he served in that position until Illinois was granted statehood eight years later.

In the 1810 federal census, just 12,181 white settlers lived in the Illinois Territory.  At that time, the village of Peoria was attached to St. Clair County, and the census put its population at 93.  Most of these early Peorians were of French descent, having arrived from Canada and were primarily trappers and traders.

--Brock-Perry

Fort Clark, Peoria in 1831

Charles Ballance described Fort Clark when he arrived at Peoria in 1831:

"When I came to the country in November 1831, there was no vestige of it remaining.  In fact, at that time there was so little to show that there had ever been a fortification there, except some burnt posts along the west side, and a square of some  10 or 12 feet at the south corner, and a ditch nearly filled up, on two sides of the square and  on the west side of the fort.

"The fort had been burnt down to the embankment of this square and on the west side,  after which the embankments had been mostly worn away by the rains and other means, until that part of the logs that was underground had become charred posts.

"Some of them, however, had become  entirely decayed and were gone.  On the other sides there was but little to be seen of logs and embankment"

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Today, the site of Fort Clark, at the foot of Liberty Street on the shore of the Illinois River in downtown Peoria, is commemorated by a pavilion in Liberty Park.

But It Was Home Safe Home for Awhile.  --Brock-Perry

A Description of Fort Clark in Peoria, Illinois

From January 2011 Peoria Magazine  "Fort Clark constructed in Peoria in 1813" by Mark L. Johnson.

Charles Ballance, in his 1870 book "The History of Peoria" described the fort as :

"This fort was a simple stockade, constructed by planting two rows of logs firmly in the ground, near each other and filling the space in between with earth.  This, of course, was nit intended as a defense against artillery, of which the Indians had none.

This fort was about a hundred feet square, with a ditch along each side.  It did not stand with a side to the lake, but with a corner toward it.  The corner farthest from the lake was on the upper side of Water Street, near the intersection of the upper side of Water and Liberty streets, at the lower corner of Liberty and Water streets.

What was at this corner was what I suppose military men call a bastion; that is, there was a projecting corner made in the same manner as the side walls, and so constructed, as I imagine,  as to accommodate a small cannon to command the ditches.

And the same had no doubt been at the opposite corner."

Well, now that you and I are completely baffled, but there you go.

--Brock-Perry

Fort Clark in Peoria-- Part 2

In October 1812, Ninian Edwards, Illinois Territory governor, launched a three-pronged attack on Indian villages at Peoria Lake (where Peoria is now located and a wide place in the Illinois River).  He believed the villages harbored warriors who had attacked American settlements.  Edwards led a horse-mounted force and destroyed Black  Partidge's village on the east side of the lake.

On November 5, 1812,  Captain Thomas Craig arrived by  boat at Peoria.  Unknown to Craig, William Clark, Superintendent of Indian Affairs (yes, that William Clark as in Lewis & Clark Expedition) and Ninian Edwards had retained the services of Thomas Forsyth to monitor Indian movements at Peoria Lake.  

Despite Forsyth's protest that the community was not involved, Craig arrested a few dozen of the village's inhabitants, burned part f the community, and transported those he detained downriver to Alton.

To assert American authority over the Peoria Lake area, in 1813, a force of about 1,400 men under  the command of Brigadier General  Benjamin Howard returned to The area to erect Fort Clark.  In addition they destroyed  what remained of Gomo's and Black Partridge's  abandoned villages.  William Garner Sr. was a member of this force.

In retaliation, Indians under Black Partridge attacked Fort Clark, but were repulsed and later signed a treaty of peace.

--Brock-Perry