xt7s7h1dk25c https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7s7h1dk25c/data/mets.xml Howe, Henry, 1816-1893. 1854  books b92f351h85x18542009 English Henry Howe : Cincinnati, Ohio Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. Mississippi River Valley --History. West (U.S.) --History. Historical collections of the Great West, containing narratives of the most important and interesting events in western history -- remarkable individual adventures -- sketches of frontier life -- descriptions of natural curiosities: to which is appended historical and descriptive sketches of Oregon, New Mexico, Minnesota, Utah, and California. text Historical collections of the Great West, containing narratives of the most important and interesting events in western history -- remarkable individual adventures -- sketches of frontier life -- descriptions of natural curiosities: to which is appended historical and descriptive sketches of Oregon, New Mexico, Minnesota, Utah, and California. 1854 2009 true xt7s7h1dk25c section xt7s7h1dk25c 
    
    
    
    
    
   THE AGED PIONEER.

"Some fine summer's evening, he maybe seen seated in the porch of his dwellinir, his frank, open countenance beaming with delight as lie relates the tale of his early adventures to his little grandchildren, who, clustering about his knees, drink iu every -word with intense interest."   Page 282. 
    
   " Scone fiiu his frank, of early advent!] iu every won 
    
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   FORTIETH THOUSAND.

HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS

OF THE

GREAT WEST:

containing

NARRATIVES OF THE MOST IMPORTANT AND INTERESTING EVENTS IN WE'S/TEPi.N t HISTORY   REMARKABLE INDIVIDUAL ADVENf#i^':f.SR^eiIE.S. OF FRONTIER LIFE   L}ES  RIET-IONS 'OF*'N&f URA'   CURIOSITIES:

'to -V&.i-6.ti IS api'eV^Hd          *   '. ;   " V

HISTORICAL-AND DESCRIPTIVE SKETCHES OF OREGON, NEW MEXICO, TEXAS, MINNESOTA, UTAH AND CALIFORNIA.

BY  HENRY HOW K,

AUTHOR OF HIST01UCAL COLLECTIONS OF VIRGINIA J HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS OF OHIO. ILLUSTRATE J)    WITH   NUMEROUS ENORAYING8.

VOL. I.

CINCINNATI. PUBLISHED BY HENRY HOWE, AT E. MORGAN & CO.'S

NO.   Ill   MAIN STREET. 
    
   PREFACE.

Written history is generally too scholastic to interest the mass. Dignified and formal, it deals mainly in great events, and of those imperfectly, because not pausing to present clear impressions by the associations of individual life. It is these that lend to written fiction its greatest charm, and attract the multitude by appearing more like truth. Although untrue in the particular combinations, scenes and plots delineated, yet well written Fiction is drawn from Nature, from experience, and these facts in life, as with chessmen, are only arranged in new, but natural positions.

History includes everything in Nature, Character, Customs and Incidents, both general and individual, that contributes to originate what is peculiar in a People, or what causes either their advancement or decline. So broad its scope, that nothing is too mighty for its grasp    . so searching, scarce any thing too minute. Were written history a clear transcript of the valuable in history, it would be more enticing than the most fascinating fiction. But as History is written more like Fiction, and Fiction more like History, the latter has an hundred fold its readers.

    Herein are narrated not only the great events in the History of the West, but the smaller matters of individual experience, as important to its illustration. Interspersed are descriptions, of some of those more striking objects of Nature, that elicit wonder, or gratify the love of the grand or the beautiful. Additional, are prominent facts in relation to a distant Land which is lashed by the surf of a far western Ocean    a young Empire, rising in golden splendor under the rays of a far western Sun.

For this work no originality can be claimed. Like all compilations, it is the production, not of one mind, but of a multitude   the offspring, not of one father, but of many. Hence, a superiority over an original work. The production of a single mind, however masterly, is pervaded by one style, and occasionally sinks into common place. But a skillful compilation gives a variety, and selecting only the best things, places them where they will best appear in comparison or combination. The fashion has been to prefer original works, and so it will continue until the public forget to regard the fields of literature as one grand Coliseum, and the actors thereon as merely mental Gladiators. 
   3 ' PREFACE.

Compilers are but an humble class   mere Camp followers of the great army of Authors who combat alone for Fame. When they are credited with selecting judiciously, abridging carefully, and combining adroitly, their Lilliputian cups are to the brim. Above this plane of a lower level they have no wings to soar. But on this is a broad field for utility. Such has been our object; and if we beguile the hours and brighten the memory of other days in the mind of the aged Pioneer    if we amuse and instruct the young Farmer, at his evening's fireside, after a hard day's toil   then our measure is filled.

A few solitary white sails, far out on the blue water, are seen with mysterious awe by the Indian from the Atlantic shore, appearing like huge monsters from a spirit world.

They move toward the land !

From out their sides pour forth a new, unheard-of race, with faces pale, speech unknown, and garments of singular texture and brilliant in colors. ,

The ring of the ax for the first time echoes through the wood. The habitations of the new race rise from the green earth. On the ocean border, hundreds of leagues apart, they cluster in detached collections; but far inland do not yet penetrate. There the red man roams through the vast solitudes, unconscious of the dark cloud rising in the East to overwhelm and sweep him from the land.

A stranger being suddenly appears before him. A long robe envelopes his form. Pale and sad is his countenance, and in his hand he elevates an unknown symbol. It is the Missionary of the Cross! Alone, in peril, in suffering, he has penetrated through the wilderness to teach him the mystery of redemption, of a more than human love. He remains, peuchance, to die by the hand of him he came to save; but amid horrible torture, with the flame winding around him as a coffin sheet, he blesses his lot and yields up life with joy..

The settlements of the pale faces rapidly advance. They reach the ocean-ward slope of the mountains. They pass over their summits. The smokes of their cabins curl up in the western valleys. The red man vanishes before them. Civilization is his conqueror, and now the footsteps of millions of the new race press his grave and press the graves of his fathers. ^

To contemplate these mighty events   more wondrous than Romance   is instructive to Virtue!   to act well in the Present, its aim!    to anticipate more glorious changes in the Future, its brightest Hope! 
   CONTENTS, VOL, I.

I'Aca

1. Historical Sketch of the West,.................................................. 13

2. Discovery of the Mississippi,.................................................... 31

3. Scenery of Lake Superior,...................................................... 34

4. Explorations of Marquette and La Salle,"........................................ 37

5. Sufferings of the Early French Missionaries of the West,......................... 42

6. Curiosities at Michilimackinac,.................................................. 46

7. Life among the Prairie Dogs,................................................... 49

8. The Mississippi Bubble,........................................................ 63

9. The French and Indian War in the West,....................................... 58

10. The Cherokee War of 1760,.................................................... 64

11. The PontiacWar,....................'......................................... 68

12. The Cypress Swamps of the Mississippi,......................................... 77

13. Tyranny of O'Reilly, the first Spanish Governor of Louisiana,.................... 78

14. Dunmore's War................................................................ 81

15. Customs and Manners of the Early French Settlers of the West,.................. 85

16. The Western Wilderness,....'----,............................................. 3f

17. Incidents in the West of the War of the Revolution,.............................. 95

18. The Natural Tunnel,.......................................................... 123

19. The Hard Winter of 1780,...................................................... 124

20. Daniel Boone, the Pioneer of Kentucky,......................................... 125

21. Hunting among the Early Pioneers,............................................. 129

22. Adventures of Kenton,......................................................... 131

23. Incidents of the Fur Trade,...................................................... 138

24. Lewis Whetzel, the Indian Hunter,............................................. J44

25. Marshall's Pillar,............................................................... 149

-26. Heroism of the Pioneer Women,................................................ 150

*"27. The Indian Summer,........................................................... 157

28. A Desperate Boat Fight,....................................................... 158

29. Rebellion in Tennessee,':....................................................... 162

30. Border Warfare from 1783 to 1795,............................................. 164

177

31. French and Spanish Intrigues in the West,......................................

32. The Whisky Insurrection.......................................................179

180

33. Frontier Desperadoes,..........................................................

185

34. Purchase of Louisiana...........................................................

188

35. Interesting Narrative,..........................................................

189

36. Strange Mental and Physical Phenomena,.................................^..... 
   lO

CONTENTS.

VOLUME II

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

15.

16.

17.

18.

19.

20.

21.

22.

23.

24.

25.

26.

27. 28'.

29.

30.

31.

32.

33.

34.

35.

36.

37.

38.

39.

40.

41.

42.

43.

44.

45.

46.

PAcar

Life among the Early Settlers of the West,..................................                195

Origin of Camp Meetings,...................................................... 216

Lewis and Clarke's, and Pike's Exploring Expeditions,............................218

Adventure of Colter,............................................................223

Conspiracy of Aaron Burr,......................................................225

The Great Prairie Wilderness,..................................................' 231

The Great Earthquake of 1811,................................................235

Voyage of the First Western Steamboat,........................................240

Sketch of Tecumseh and the Indian War of 1811,................................242

Kentucky Sports,..............................................................247

The Western Boatmen,........................................................249

Indian Warfare,............................................................... 255

Incidents of the War of 1812 in the West,.................................... 257

Visit to the Mammoth Cave,....................................................269

Adventures of Oliver,..........................................................274

Incidents of Emigration,........................................................

The Public Domain,. '.................................   ................     ........ 283

The Ranger's Adventure,....................................................... 286

Wild Bill, or the Mississippi Orson,............................................. 288

The Fanatical Pilgrims,....................................................... 290

The Missouri Compromise,..................................................... 292

Adventure of Audubon,......................................................... 293

Exploring Expeditions of Long, Cass and Schoolcraft,........................                29f*

Life among the Trappers,.......................................................297

Ogilvie's Adventure,........................................................... 300

Character of the Western People,............................................... 301

Fascinating Life of the Mountain Hunter,....................................... 305

Adventure of a Trapper,........................................................306

The Commerce of the Prairies,..............,....................................308

The Black Hawk War,.........................................................312

The Pestilence, a Frontier Sketch,.............................................. 317

The Educated Indian Trapper,----   ..............................................318

Life in the Mountains of Virginia,...............................................320

Fremont's Expeditions,.........................................................325

Sketch of Mormonism,....................................................   ......336

The Hunter's Escape,..........................................................342

The Indians of the Groat Prairie Wilderness,.................................... 344

Effect of Settlement on the Climate of the West,................................ 347

Historical and Descriptive Sketch of Texas,...................................... 353

" " "       New Mexico,................................ 363

" .." "       Oregon...................................... 376

       " "       California.................................. 391

Terrible Sufferings of a Party of California Emigrants,..........................413

Historical and Descriptive Sketch of Utah,......................................4*7

The Great Salt Desert of Utah,.................................................434

Historical and Descriptive Sketch of Minnesota,.................................. 43   
   AUTHORITIES.

The number of each subject, in the Table of Contents, corresponds with the number set below, against the authority or authorities from whence it is obtained. Where an article is derived from a number of sources, the authorities are given in the relative order of their respective amount of contribution.

VOL. I.

1. Monette's Miss. Valley;   Perkins' Annals;

Collins' Ky.; Sparks' Washington; Bancroft's U.S.; Flint's Indian Wars; Howe's Ohio; Bonner's Louisiana; Lapham's Wisconsin; Day's Penu.; Hoffman's Winter iu the West, &c, &c.

2. Bancroft.

3. Schoolcraft's Trav.; Agassiz's Lake Superior.

4. Bancroft; Perkins; Bonner.

5. Bancroft.

6. Schoolcraft.

7. Buxton's Mexico and uhe Rocky Mountains;

Gregg's Commerce of the Prairies.

8. Mackay's Menus, of Extraordinary Delusions. 9 Bonner; Sparks; Stuart's Memoir; Smith's

Narrative; Flint; Monette, &c.

10. Drake's Indian Biography; Simms' Marion.

11. Lanman's  Michigan;   Henry's Captivity;

Drake's Biography; Day's Penn.; Perkins.

12. Flint's Ten Years in Miss. Valley.

13. Bonner.

14. Whittlesey's Discourse on Dunmore's Ex.;

Monette; Howe's Va; do. Ohio.

15. I,unman; Monette.

16. Doddridge's Notes.

17. Monette; Perkins;   Doddridge; M'CIung's

Sketches; American Pioneer; Howe's Ohio,

&.C., &.C.

18. Howe's Va.

19. Marshall's Ky.

20. Sparks'Biog.; Marshall's Ky.; Howe's Ohio.

21. Doddridge.

22. M'Donald's Sketches; Monette.

23. Seymour's Minnesota; Long's Expedition;

Silliman's Journal; Perkins.

24. Western Christian Advocate; Doddridge.

25. Howe's Va.

26. Cist's Miscellany, &c.

27. Doddridge.

28. Collins' Ky.

29. Flint's Geog. and Hist. Miss. Val.j Monette.

30 Monette;  Burnet's  Notes;  Howe's Ohio;

Flint, &c.

31 Perkins; Collins; Flint.

J2 Day's Penn.; Menette; Holmes' Annals.

33. Hall's Sketches, &c; Collins; Monette.

34. Bonner's La.

35. Cist's Miscellany.

36. Howe's Ohio.

VOL. II.

1. Doddridge; the Compiler.

2. Bang's History of Methodism.

11

3. Greenhow's Oregon; Gregg's Comme'.ce of

Prairies; Seymour's Minnesota.

4. American Anecdotes; Family Magazine.

5. Safford's Blannerhasset; Pickett's Alabama,

Collins; American Pioneer.

6. Farnham's Travels.

7. Flint's Ten Years; American Pioneer; Mis-

souri Gazetteer.

8. Latrobe's Rambler.

9. Drake's Tecumseh.

10. Audubon.

11. Flint; Flint's Review; Cist's Misc.; Monette.

12. Doddridge.

13. Perkins' Late War; Brown's Illinois; Perkins'

Annals; Wilson's U.S.; Cist.

14. Cist's Miscellany.

15. Drake's Tecumseh; the Compiler.

16. Family Magazine.

17. Hall's Notes.

18. Brown's Illinois.

19. Knickerbocker Magazine.

20. Flint.

21. Willard's U.S.; Perkins' Annals; Colton's

Clay.

22. Audubon.

23. Seymour's Minnesota; Greenhow's Oregon.

24. Ruxton's Travels.

25. American Anecdotes.

26. Flint.

27. Ruxton.

28. Do.

29. Gregg's Com. Prairies.

30. Perkins' Annals, 2d edition; Brown's Illinois.

31. Prairie Land.

32. Farnham's Travels.

33. The Compiler.

34. Fremont.

35. Hunt's Hist. Mormonism; E. D. Howe's do.

Barber's Am. Events; Brown's Illinois, &c

36. Ruxton.

37. Farnham; Gregg.

38. Doddridge.

39. Wilson's U.S.; Willard's do.; Smith's Gaz

40. Gregg; Wislizenus' Tour; Willard; Ruxtou

41. Greenhow; Wilkes' Ex.; Lee and Frost's Ten

Years in Oregon, &.C., &c.

42. King's Report; Taylor's El Dorado; John-

son's "Sights," &.C.; Bryant's "What I saw," &c; Fremont; Willard, &c

43. Bryant; Thornton's Travels.

44. Kane's   Discourse;   Fremont; Greenhow;

Speech in the U. S. Senate, of Hon. Truman Smith, on the California Bill, &,o.

45. Bryant.

46. Seymour's Minnesota; Farnham, etc. 
    
   RISTOEICAL SKETCH

of the

WEST.

Twenty years after the great event occurred, which has immortalized the name of Christopher Columbus, Florida was discovered by Juan Ponce de Leon, ex-governor of Porto Kicc     ;S<*iMng from that island in March, 1512, he discovered an unknown c&u^r^',:wbic^." "he-n.amed_ Florida, from the abundance of its flowers, the^roes.heing covered"    ytftk*    blosseiss, and its first being seen on Easter Sunday^u'day .-j  alied;by .the' "Spaniards, Pascua Florida; the name imports the country-"fifrfloAtcrs." .   Other, explorers soon visited the same coasjt. In May, 1529, -Ferdinand"" ds.'Botp/flie,.Governor of Cuba, landed at Tampa Bay, with :sjx:-" Hir.ndr  d.ibllpwers." He marched into the interior; and on the 1st of May,T64l*,'diieev  tM-.rhe Mississippi; being the first European who had ever beheld that mighty-river.

Spain for many years claimed the whole of the country   bounded by the Atlantic to the Gulf of St. Lawrence on the north, all of which bore the name of Florida. About twenty years after the discovery of the Mississippi, some Catholic missionaries attempted to form settlements at St. Augustine, and its vicinity; and a few years later a colony of French Calvinists had been established on the St. Mary's, near the coast. In 1565, this settlement was annihilated by an expedition from Spain, under Pedro Melendez de Aviles ; and, about nine hundred French, men, women, and children, cruelly massacred. The bodies of many of the slain were hung from trees, with the inscription, " Not as Frenchmen, but as heretics." Having accomplished his bloody errand, Melendez founded St. Augustine, the oldest town by half a century of any now in the Union. Four years after, Dominic de Gourges, burning to avenge his countrymen, fitted out an expedition at his own expense, and surprised the Spanish colonists, on the St. Mary's;. destroying the ports, burning the houses, and ravaging the settlements with fire and sword; finishing the work by also suspending some of the corpses-of his enemies from trees, with the inscription   " Not as Spaniards, Jut as murderers." Unable to hold possession of the country, De Gourges-retired to his fleet. Florida, excepting for a few years, remained under the Spanish crown, suffering much in its early history, from the vicissitudes-of war, and piratical incursions, until 1819, when, vastly diminished from its original boundaries, it was ceded to the United States, and in 1845 became a state.

In 1535, James Cartier, a distinguished French mariner, sailed with an exploring expedition up the St. Lawrence, and taking possession of the country in the name of his king, called it "New France."   In 1608, the , energetic Champlain created a nucleus for the settlement of Canada, by 2 13 
   4

HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE WEST.

founding Quebec. This was the same year with the settlement of Jamestown, Virginia: and twelve years previous to that on which the Puritans first stepped upon the rocks of Plymouth.

To strengthen the establishment of French dominion, the genius of Cham-plain saw that it was essential to establish missions among the Indians. Up to this period "the far west" had been untrod by the foot of the white man. In 1616, a French Franciscan, named Le Caron, passed through the Iroquois and Wyandot nations   to streams running into Lake Huron; and in 1634, two Jesuits founded the first mission in that region. But just a century elapsed from the discovery of the Mississippi, ere the first Canadian envoys met the savage nations of the north-west, at the falls of St. Mary's, below the outlet of Lake Superior. It was not until 1659, that any of the adventurous fur-traders wintered on the shores of this vast lake, nor until 1660, that Rene Mesnard founded the first missionary station upon its rocky and inhospitable coast. Perishing soon after in the forest, it was left to Father Claude Allouez, five years subsequent, to build the first permanent habitation of white men among the North-Western Indians. In 1668, the mission was founded at the falls of St. Mary's, by Dablon and Marquette; in 1670, Nicholas Perrot, agent for the intendant pi' -Canada, explored Lake Michigan to near its southern termination.' .   .F-o.nriai-possession was taken of the north-west, by the French", in I-6;7t, and-Ma'rquette.establ.ished a missionary station at Point St. Tgnace; on:th'e "mainland n'oVth'pf Mnekmac, which was the first settlement in Michigan.-    : '    *.-*;.;"-   '   

Until-Jiitejia .this-" clfntiiry, <3wJng"-to the enmity of the Indians bordering the lakes Ontari.o.'-?.nd'-Er-i  ,'--_the- adventurous missionaries, on their route west, on pain of-