CHAPTER VIII.

Early Salt Making-Gov. Coles on Titles-Gen. Lafayette's Visit to Illinois -Shawneetown in 1817.

EARLY SALT MAKING.

One of the most interesting subjects of the pioneer history of the State is salt making in Gallatin county. Tradition says that the salt springs near Equality were extensively worked by the prehistoric race of the continent, long before the Anglo-Saxon race had penetrated the wilds of Illinois. The evaporating kettles used were found at Negro Salt Springs and at Salt Lick, near Equality. The kettles were between three and four feet in diameter, made of clay and pounded shells, moulded in basket-work or cloth, which left the impression on the outside of the kettle and looked like artistic hand-work. Little or nothing is known as to the length of time the springs were worked by the Indians, but Congress gave attention to the subject in 1812. On the 12th of February of that year, an act was passed setting apart six miles square of land to support the Equality Salines. Under Congressional authority the springs were leased to parties to work. The labor was nearly all performed by slaves brought from Kentucky and Tennessee, of which reference is made in Article six, Section two, of the Constitution of 1818. Many of these negroes, by extra work, saved sufficient money to buy their freedom, and these were the negroes from whom descended

the large number that resided in Gallatin and Saline counties before the war for the Union. Salt, under the Government leases, sold at $5 per bushel, and found a ready market in Indiana, Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama and Missouri. It was transported in keel-boats up the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers, and to St. Louis in the same manner. The inhabitants of the neighboring States would often come hundreds of miles upon horseback and carry away the salt on pack-saddles.

In 1818, Congress gave these lands to Illinois, and the State continued the leasing system, furnishing the kettles. Among the lessees we call to mind Leonard White, Timothy Guard, Chalin Guard, E. D. Taylor and John Crenshaw. The last lease made was to Mr. Crenshaw, December 9, 1840; it was for ten years. He became very wealthy, and at one time exercised a large political influence in that portion of the State.

All the lessees are dead except Mr. Taylor, who is now an old man, and resides at LaSalle.

Under an act of the General Assembly of February 23, 1847, the lands were sold, and the school trustees of T. 9, R. 9, bought that portion containing the salt wells. In 1852, the lands were sold at public auction, and in 1854, Castles & Temple took charge of the property and developed it by an improved system which had its origin in France, and through this system produced two hundred barrels of salt per day. As late as 1870, it was no uncommon thing to see from three to four wagons drawn by from four to six mules, on the road between Equality and Shawneetown, laden with salt for the various markets of the South and West. But in 1873, Castles & Temple, in consequence of the panic, over-production and ruinous prices, closed the works, and engaged in the manufacture of coke and mining, on the same property.

GOVERNOR COLES ON TITLES.

One of the most noted of the Governors of Illinois, was Edward Coles, who was as modest as he was able, as the following letter, which we find in "Washburne's Sketch of Edward Coles," addressed to the editors of the Illinois Intelligencer, will show:

"VANDALIA, Dec. 10, 1822. "GENTLEMEN:-Our State constitution gives to the person exercising the functions of the Executive the appellation of Governor-a title which is specific, intelligible and republican, and amply sufficient to denote the dignity of the office. In your last paper you have noticed me by the addition of His Excellency,' an aristocratic and high-sounding adjunct, which I am sorry to say has become too common among us, not only in newspaper communications, but in the addressing of letters, and even in familiar discourse. It is a practice disagreeable to my feelings, and inconsistent, as I think, with the dignified simplicity of free men, and to the nature of the vocation. of those to whom it is applied. And having made it a rule through life to address no one as His Excellency, or the Honorable, or by any such unmeaning title, I trust I shall be pardoned for asking it as a favor of you, and my fellow-citizens generally, not to apply them to me.

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I am, &c., &c.,

"Messrs. BROWN & BERRY,

"EDWARD COLES.

"Editors of the Illinois Intelligencer."

GEN. LAFAYETTE VISITS ILLINOIS.

When Gen. Lafayette, the great French patriot, who came to America during the revolutionary war, and rendered such valuable aid, with men and money, in prosecuting the war for our independence, visited the United States in 1825, he came to Illinois, at the request of the General Assembly. (See Washburne's Sketch of Coles.) He visited two places, Kaskaskia and Shawneetown. At Kaskaskia, Gov. Coles, who had met the old soldier in Paris seven years previous, made the address of welcome, and he was elegantly entertained by the Governor and

other distinguished citizens. From there he proceeded to Shawneetown, accompanied by Gov. Coles, where the citizens came out en masse to welcome him; carpets were spread from the steamboat landing to the Rawlins' mansion, where a grand banquet was tendered him, and the little girls lined his pathway with sweet May flowers, for that was the month in which he was there. The house at which he was entertained in Shawneetown is still standing, but that at Kaskaskia, like the great patriot himself, has long since given way to the cycles of time.

SHAWNEETOWN IN 1817.

In the early settlement of Illinois, Shawneetown, like Kaskaskia, was one of the few important towns in the country. Indeed Shawneetown was the gateway to the Territory. Morris Birkbeck, in his "Notes on a Journey in America," printed in London, in 1818, writing under date of August 2, 1817, speaks thus of Shawneetown:

"This place I account as a phenomenon, evincing the pertinacious adhesion of the human animal to the spot where it has once fixed itself. As the lava of Mt. Etna can not dislodge this strange being from the cities which have been repeatedly ravaged by its eruptions, so the Ohio, with its annual overflowings, is unable to wash away the inhabitants of Shawneetown. Here is the land office for the Southeast district of Illinois, where I have just constituted myself a land-owner, by paying seven hundred and twenty dollars as one-fourth of the purchase money of fourteen hundred and forty acres. This, with a similar purchase made by Mr. Flower, is part of a beautiful and rich prairie, about six miles distant from the Big, and the same distance from the Little, Wabash."

The gentleman referred to here by Mr. Birkbeck, was George Flower, who was one of the founders of the English colony in Edwards county, in 1817-18, which settlement has proved a monument to his memory, for the people who came with him were of the highest order, and Edwards county has ever been famed for the intelligence and good order of its inhabitants.