Notes: III. Fort Massac and Wilkinsonville

Notes for William Chribbs: III. Fort Massac and Wilkinsonville

Note 1. Norman W. Caldwell, a faculty member of Southern Illinois University-Carbondale in the 1940s and 1950s, conducted extensive research on the territorial history of southern Illinois and wrote a series of articles on Fort Massac: “Fort Massac During the French and Indian War,” Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, Vol. 43, No. 2, Springfield, Ill.: Illinois State Historical Library (Summer 1950), pp. 100-19; “Fort Massac: The American Frontier Post,” Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, Vol. 43, No. 4, Springfield, Ill.: Illinois State Historical Library (Winter 1950), pp. 265-81; “Fort Massac: Since 1805,” Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, Vol. 44, No. 1, Springfield, Ill.: Illinois State Historical Library (Spring 1951), pp. 47-60. These articles are available online at: http://dig.lib.niu.edu/ISHS/

Note 2. Fort Massac State Park, at 1308 E. 5th Street in Metropolis, Illinois, was the first Illinois state park, established in 1908. The park’s website is: http://dnr.state.il.us/Lands/landmgt/parks/R5/frmindex.htm.

Note 3. A transcription of the petition was published in Territorial Papers of the United States: The Territory of Indiana 1800-1816, Vol. VII, Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office (1939), pp. 252-55. The full text of that transcription is reproduced on the page “1805 – Petition to Congress by Inhabitants of Fort Massac.”

Note 4. U.S. House of Representatives Journal, Vol. 17, 9th Cong., 1st Sess., p. 200, in Journals of the U.S. House of Representatives, 1789-1817, Microfilm M1264, National Archives and Records Administration.

Note 5. Petition of Fort Massac settlers, 1805, Document HR 9A-F5.1, Unbound Records of the U.S. House of Representatives, Ninth Congress, 1805-1807, Microfilm M1709, Roll 7 (Petitions and Memorials, Resolutions of State Legislatures, and Related Documents That Were Referred to Committees), National Archives and Records Administration.

Note 6. “Chribbs & Mitchell” refers to a partnership Chribbs maintained with Robert Mitchell for some years.

Note 7. This household size is inconsistent with all other available information and may have been the result of hyperbole on Chribbs’s part.

Note 8. Document B263, Randolph County, Ill., court records, justice of the peace records, early notarial records, etc., 1737-1885, Microfilm #1688926, FamilySearch.

Note 9. Randolph County, Ill., Deed Book L, pp. 48-49. Pierre Menard was a prominent businessman and landowner in the territory and later the first Illinois lieutenant governor. He built a residence at Kaskaskia that has been preserved under the auspices of the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, as described at: www.illinoishistory.gov/hs/pierre_menard.htm. William Rector was later appointed Surveyor General of Arkansas, Illinois, and Missouri.

Note 10. Randolph County, Ill., Deed Book M, p. 25 (William Rector to Jacob Funk); Randolph County, Ill., Deed Book M, pp. 137-38 (Jacob Funk to Peter Funk, John Funk, and Joseph Funk).

Note 11. Randolph County, Ill., Deed Book L, pp. 50-51.

Note 12. Indiana Territory General Court Order Book 1, Sept. 2, 1806, Indiana State Archives, Commission on Public Records. This order book is a later transcription of the court’s orders.

Note 13. Indiana Territory General Court Case Files, Box 9, Folder 624, Indiana State Archives, Commission on Public Records.

Note 14. Articles of a Treaty Between the United States of America, and the Delawares, Shawanoes, Putawatimies, Miamies, Eel River, Weeas, Kickapoos, Piankashaws, and Kaskaskias nations of Indians, 7 Stat. 74 [United States Statutes at Large] (June 7, 1803). Article 3 of the treaty provided:

As a mark of their regard and attachment to the United States, whom they acknowledge for their only friends and protectors, and for the consideration herein after mentioned, the said tribes do hereby relinquish and cede to the United States the great salt spring upon the Saline creek which falls into the Ohio below the mouth of the Wabash, with a quantity of land surrounding it, not exceeding four miles square, and which may be laid off in a square or oblong as the one or the other may be found most convenient to the United States: And the said United States being desirous that the Indian tribes should participate in the benefits to be derived from the said spring, hereby engage to deliver yearly and every year for the use of the said Indians, a quantity of salt not exceeding one hundred and fifty bushels, and which shall be divided among the several tribes in such manner as the general council of the chiefs may determine.

Note 15. Joshua Flaherty (Fleehart) v. William Chribbs, Northwest Territory/Indiana Territory Court of Common Pleas, Knox County Court File Box 7, File 562, Knox County Public Library, Vincennes, Ind. (available online at Wabash Valley Visions & Voices Digital Memory Project, Indiana State University, http://visions.indstate.edu).

Note 16. Northwest Territory/Indiana Territory Court of Common Pleas Minute Book, 1801-1806, p. 31. Hurst also served as the clerk of the General Court.

Note 17. Joshua Fleehart (Flaherty) v. William Chribbs, Indiana Territory General Court Case Files, Box 1, Folder 42, Indiana State Archives, Commission on Public Records.

Note 18. United States v. Joshua Fleehart (Flaherty), Indiana Territory General Court Case Files, Box 1, Folder 16, Indiana State Archives, Commission on Public Records.

Note 19. Joshua Flaherty (Fleehart) estate probate bond, Knox County Probate Records, Box 2, Knox County Public Library, Vincennes, Ind. (available online at Wabash Valley Visions & Voices Digital Memory Project, Indiana State University, http://visions.indstate.edu).

Note 20. Indiana Territory General Court Case Files, Box 8, Folders 543 and 568, Indiana State Archives, Commission on Public Records.

Note 21. James Ryan Haydon, Chicago’s True Founder: Thomas J.V. Owen, Lombard, Ill.: published by author (1934), p. 2. In the 1820 U.S. Federal Census, Randolph County was divided into the following townships: Kaskaskia, Mary, Plumb Creek, Prairie du Rocher, Springfield, and Williamsburgh.

Note 22. Norman W. Caldwell, “Cantonment Wilkinsonville,” Mid-America, An Historical Review, Vol. 31, No. 1, Chicago: Institute of Jesuit History, Loyola University (January 1949), pp. 3-28.

Note 23. William Chribbs to James Wilkinson receipt, Aug. 11, 1798, Papers of the War Department, Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media, George Mason University, Fairfax, Va. This document is available online at: wardepartmentpapers.org. The payment could plausibly have been made as an advance on Chribbs’s scouting of Joshua Flaherty’s salt works, as described above.

Note 24. Message from the President of the United States Accompanying a Statement of Expenditures from the 1st of January 1797, by the Quarter Master General, and the Navy Agents, for the Contingencies of the Naval and Military Establishments, Washington: William Duane and Son, printer (1803), p. 59.

Note 25. Norman W. Caldwell, “Civilian Personnel at the Frontier Military Post (1790-1814),” Mid-America, An Historical Review, Vol. 38, Chicago: Institute of Jesuit History, Loyola University (1956), p. 118, n. 81.

Note 26. Norman W. Caldwell, “Cantonment Wilkinsonville,” Mid-America, An Historical Review, Vol. 31, No. 1, Chicago: Institute of Jesuit History, Loyola University (January 1949), p. 13.

Note 27. Norman W. Caldwell, “Cantonment Wilkinsonville,” Mid-America, An Historical Review, Vol. 31, No. 1, Chicago: Institute of Jesuit History, Loyola University (January 1949), p. 18, n. 79.

Note 28. John Williams to Matthew Adams, April 10, 1801, John R. Williams Papers, Burton Historical Collection, Detroit Public Library, Detroit, Mich.

Note 29. Oliver Ormsby to John Williams, Sept. 20, 1801, John R. Williams Papers, Burton Historical Collection, Detroit Public Library, Detroit, Mich.