Chapter 5

Chapter 5
pages (18 - 21)

THE ANCIENT FRENCH POPULATION.

Should we allow ourselves to be deceived as to the amount of civilization that existed here before the French village was broken up, in 1812. Attempts have been made to convince men that there was a fine, flourishing settlement here, of civilized, enterprising, intelligent people. I apprehend that the men La Salle and others brought here were of the lower class, and most ignorant; of the French population. If not, they had woefully deteriorated between the time they were brought here and the destruction of then village. I have not been able to ascertain the population of Peoria when the village was broken up, by Capt. Craig. Every man of them, I believe, is dead, except Robert Forsyth, of St. Louis, who was then a boy. I wrote to him for a list of them, as near as his recollection would serve him, and I suppose he knows, for, besides being born among them, he spent fifteen years in hunting them up, and bringing and conducting suits, in which he derived his title through them; but he has not answered my letter. Nor do I find any record or history giving the number of the population at that time. From any information I possess, I can only find the names of sixteen men who were there at the time. As this statement will probably be disputed, I here insert their names. Thomas Forsyth, Louis Pilette, Jaques Mette, Pierre Lavoisseur dit Chamberlain, Antoine LeClair, Michael LeCroix, Francis Racine, sen., Francis Racine, jun., John Baptiste de Fond, Felix Fontaine, Louis Binet, Hypolite Maillet, Francis Buche, Charles La Belle, Antoine La Pance and Antoine Bourbonne. Of these Michael Le Croix escaped to Canada and accepted a commission from the enemy, and fought against us. Others claimed lots by reason of their residence at this place; but the proof on file at the land-office, an abstract of which can be found in third volume of American State Papers, page 422, shows that they had previously abandoned the place—some of them more than twenty years before. But I will suppose I have overlooked some (which, is possible), and call the number twenty-five. Then, if these men had, on an average, five in a family (which is the usual calculation), we have in this village, that has made so much noise and caused so much trouble, a population of one hundred and twenty-five souls, all told; and except these, I know of no French inhabitants on the Illinois river, in those days, nor between the Mississippi and Wabash, excepting, always, a very ancient Frenchman, by the name of Bisson (pronounced Besaw) who always lived at Wesley (then called the Trading House). I have seen many affidavits and other papers signed by these men, but signed with a mark. I remember as exceptions to this rule that Thomas Forsyth, Michael Le Croix and Antoine La Pance wrote their names. There were probably others that could write, but I do not remember them. I remember no case where a French woman could write her name. The depositions in the Peoria French claims at Edwardsville, and in the many suits brought on them, will show if I am right. These were fishermen and hunters, not farmers. All the fields they pretended ever to have in cultivation amounted to less than three hundred acres, even, if none of the fields had been deserted before they left. When the village was burnt I think they had less than two hundred acres in cultivation. They, however, some times acted as voyageurs for the Indian traders, but of manufactures they had none. They had not a school-house or church, nor a dwelling-house that deserved the name. I saw and examined the ground on which their houses had stood, before the ground was disturbed, and I am able to state that there was not a stone nor brick wall in the village, for any purpose, nor was there a cellar. Some of the houses had a small place excavated under the floor, in front of the fire-place, for potatoes. Some of the houses had posts, in the ground, and some were framed with sills; but, instead of being boarded up as with us, the space between the posts was filled with pieces of timber laid horizontally, with mud between them. The chimneys were made of mud and sticks. That they had no gardens, in the common acceptation of the term, is manifest from this: many of the cultivated plants, when once introduced in a place, if deserted by man, will never cease to grow there. This is true of all the fruits that grow in this climate, and it is true of many herbs, and of some culinary vegetables. Every one knows that, long after a farm is deserted, the apple-trees and gooseberry and currant bushes will continue to grow; and tansy, flags, lilies and mustard, and many other plants, were never known voluntarily to abandon the place where they had once grown. Yet, when the present population commenced to settle here, about forty years ago, there was not to be found, in this neighborhood, a vestige of a tree, shrub or plant belonging to Europe. They would have made wine of the sour grapes of the woods, if they had had sugar to assuage its acidity and cellars to preserve it; but the sugar could not then be afforded, and the cellars they had not. And we know they had no French grapes, for the reason above—no vines remain. I therefore pronounce the wine story a humbug.

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