Lot 256
Western Expansion
Blackhawk War & Western Expansion Archive - French and American Foundations of Illinois, St. Louis, and Indian Removal: "Report From Chicoga Says That the Hostile Indians Are all Trying to Get Across the Mississippi"
This reference to “Chicoga” (Chicago) is a rare early one. In 1825, Chicago was a hamlet of fewer than 100 inhabitants. From 1825 to 1831, it was administratively part of Peoria County, and only in January 1831 was Cook County created. Many white settlers in northern Illinois fled to Chicago to avoid Black Hawk’s forces, overwhelming the small town with hungry refugees. The town was not organized until 1833, when Chicago had about 350 residents.
This fascinating archive illuminates several facets of American Westward Expansion. Centered on correspondence by fur trader, St. Louis pioneer, and first lieutenant governor of Illinois Pierre Menard, three of his daughters and a son-in-law, it offers glimpses of the bilingual community and extended kinship network that founded St. Louis and Kansas City, Missouri. It includes a letter written from northern Illinois in the midst of the Black Hawk War and several related to the McCoy Expedition that began the process of Native American removal that ended tragically in the 1838 Cherokee Trail of Tears, the 1838 Potawatomi Trail of Death, and other forced migrations. It also includes a legal document certified by pioneer fur trader Charles Gratiot, with his very rare signature, and two letters by one of his daughters. The Menard, Gratiot, Chouteau, Labadie, and other French creole families from St. Louis and Montreal intermarried and founded St. Louis and other cities in the Mississippi and Missouri River valleys.
WESTWARD EXPANSION, Archive of 11 Handwritten Documents, 1815-1843, centering around Alzire Menard Kennerly, daughter of pioneer fur-trader Pierre Menard, and her husband George H. Kennerly. Four are written in French. 21 pp., most approximately 8" x 10". Documents have expected folds and toning; a few documents have some tears on folds and holes with loss of small amounts of text.
Pierre Menard (1766-1844) was born near Montreal, the son of a French soldier, and joined a fur trading expedition to the Illinois Country at about age fifteen. By 1791, he had established his own trading business in Kaskaskia. He made a fortune supplying Americans and Europeans with beaver hats and other pelts. In 1792, he married Thérèse Godin dit Tourangeau (1773-1804), with whom he had four children. Two years after her death, Menard married Angélique Saucier (1783-1839), with whom he had eight more children. Menard served in the Indiana Territorial Legislature from 1803 to 1809 and as president of the Illinois Territorial Council from 1812-1818. Because the Illinois country was inhabited by French settlers as part of New France and Upper Louisiana, Illinois included a significant French-speaking population when it became a state in 1818. To balance representation, Menard became the state’s first lieutenant governor, serving from 1818 to 1822 under first Governor Shadrach Bond. Menard left office in 1822 and returned to his business interests.
Modeste Alzire Menard Kennerly (1802-1886) was born in Kaskaskia, Illinois, to Pierre Menard and Thérèse Godin dit Tourangeau. She married George H. Kennerly on December 27, 1825, and they had ten children between 1827 and 1843. Three of their sons fought in the Confederate army during the Civil War. She died at Carondelet, Missouri.
George H. Kennerly (1790-1867) was born in Virginia and moved with his brother James Kennerly in 1813 to St. Louis, where he became a trader and merchant. He served as a lieutenant in the War of 1812, and carried the American flag and terms of surrender to the British when a small group of Americans of the 7th U.S. Infantry surrendered on July 20, 1814. They had defended the fort at Prairie du Chien at the confluence of the Mississippi and Wisconsin Rivers, when they were besieged by a much larger British and Native American force. In 1816, Kennerly engaged in a duel with Henry S. Geyer, in which Kennerly was wounded in the knee; they afterward became good friends. In 1828, Kennerly became postmaster of Jefferson Barracks. Late that year, he commanded an expedition with representatives of the Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Creek to explore land in modern Oklahoma for resettlement. During the Mexican War, he served as an Assistant Quartermaster. His sister Harriet Kennerly (1788-1831) married William Clark (1770-1838) in 1821.
Excerpts
George H. Kennerly, Power of Attorney Appointment of James Kennerly, May 24, 1815, St. Louis, Missouri; certification by Charles Gratiot:
“Know all men by these presents that I George H. Kennerly of the town of St Louis…do make...James Kennerly of the town of St Louis, My True and Lawfull Attorney....”
[Certification: “Before me One of the Justices of Peace, has appeared Mr Geo. H. Kennerly, who has acknowledged that the above was his Signature and Seal.
“Done at St Louis, Comte of the Same in the Missoury Territory this 24th day of May in the year of our Lord 1815”
“Ch Gratiot”
Charles Gratiot (1752-1817) was born in Switzerland as a descendant of the Huguenots. He migrated to Montreal as an adult to work with an uncle in the fur trade. In 1777, he moved to the Illinois country and opened a store in Cahokia, where he became an influential trader. During George Rogers Clark’s Illinois campaign in 1778 and 1779, Gratiot provided Clark’s men with supplies. In 1781, he moved to St. Louis, where he married Victoire Chouteau, with whom he had thirteen children. After the Revolutionary War, he went to Virginia to seek reimbursement for the supplies he gave Clark’s men. He received land grants in Kentucky as payment. In 1795, Gratiot hosted William Clark in St. Louis and also assisted Meriwether Lewis as a translator with the Spanish governor. In 1804, Gratiot served as an official witness to the transfer of Upper Louisiana to the United States. He served as a judge of the court of common pleas, a justice of the peace, and clerk of the board of land commissioners in St. Louis.
Julie Cabanne to Alzire Menard, February 7, 1823, St. Louis, Missouri; with Virginie Labedie to Alzire Menard, [February 7, 1823, St. Louis, both in French:
Julie explains that her cousin has only been able to send Alzire two small flannel bonnets because they are so expensive, and that she cannot get any of the seeds Alzire had wanted. In contrast to Julie’s pragmatic letter, Virginie rhapsodizes about the winter season: “We have spent a very gay winter we have the most brilliants balls that are still given here all the Ladies comport themselves with the greatest elegance the Officers are very likable and most gallant.”
Julie Antoinette Cabanne (1809-1836) was the daughter Julie Gratiot Cabanne (1782-1852), the oldest child of Charles Gratiot and Victoire Chouteau Gratiot, and Jean Pierre Cabanne (1773-1841), a merchant born in France. Julie Antoinette Cabanne married James Wilkinson Kingsbury (1801-1853), and they had three children between 1832 and 1835.
Virginie Labadie (c. 1808-1828) was a member of one of St. Louis’s oldest founding families. In June 1827, she married Joseph-Aimé Syre (1799-1854), and they had one child before her death.
Alzire Menard to George H. Kennerly, August 5, 1825, St. Louis, Missouri:
“I would not write to you before as I wished to give you my father’s answers; I just received it at this moment. he gives his approbation to our union. With [? joy I received it But it was very soon repressed by the t[hought of your absence. It is out of my power to taste of aney pleasure that I can not enjoy with you. The letters wich you wrote me and in which you express so well your tenderness and esteem towards me is a great consolation to me.... I would have written to you before but I find such difficulty in expressing my feelings towards you in writing in a different language that it almost discourages me. you must remember that this is the first letter in English that I have written in my life so you must excuse me.”
They married four and a half months later on December 27, 1825.
Julie Cabanne to Alzire Menard Kennerly, March 8, 1827, St. Louis, Missouri; in French:
“You are not more impatient to see the arrival of spring than me. With what pleasure will I see you again after such a long absence.... I am happy to see that you have something to distract you. I really want to go to the theater; Mama told me that it was very pretty. I see that Charles told you about my story involving my cousin and Mr. Lebruin. I'll be obliged to take one of the two…One must hope that one day I will have other suitors.... Marguerite Edouar is going to marry her cousin Mr. Lane; it will be [the union of two imbeciles.... There were very few balls this winter. There were only two that were good but it would be much better to have balls costing 300 gerudes more frequently than to have two costing 700-800. There was one on February 29 that was really awful....”
“What you asked about Mr. Kingsbury: I can assure you that he only comes to the house as a friend, although it is common enough to say that if a gentleman calls twice that he wants to get married. I know him very little but I believe that he is an excellent young man. I esteem him very much.... Your mother-in-law spent some time here, she saw all your family. I went out to play cards with your father. He is always so fresh, he hasn’t aged at all. He told me that he was going to write you with pleasure.”
“The past two Sundays, Mr. Saugnee delivered two admirable sermons on balls that have had much effect, because at present we only dance on Wednesdays.... Madame Amtronague brought down an officer recently arrived from philadelphie. He has been made very rich. He is the most insupportable man that I ever saw. He always dances with his spurs on, and he has torn multiple people to shreds while leaping....”
Alzire Kennerly was pregnant with her first child at the time of this letter. Three years later, on May 25, 1830, Julie Cabanne married her “friend” James W. Kingsbury. Cabanne may refer to Father Edmond Saulnier (1798-1864), who lived in St. Louis from 1818 to 1842. He became quasi-Pastor of the Cathedral in 1824 and preached in both French and English.
Pierre Menard to Alzire Menard Kennerly, March 9, 1827, St. Louis, Missouri; in French:
Menard “had much pleasure in learning that M. Kennerly was happily returned from his voyage in the upper Missauri [Missouri” but surprised and disturbed that “Peter had left without an agent for les peorea [Peoria, Illinois.” Menard informs his daughter of letters he has received, from whom, and in what language they were written. “If I can write in English I will write to Mr. Kennerly,” he promises. Her half brother Louis (1819-1870) had received special mention in English grammar and geography during the recent Christmas exams, but worried that he would not be able to write his sister “in good English.” Half brothers Saucir (1817-1832) and Cyprien (1819-1870) were reading well and also starting to write, possibly in both French and English.
In the strangest passage of the letter, Pierre adds one enigmatic phrase in English. It is in fact the only English that appears in the entire letter besides on the address leaf. “Ainsi qua Mr. Kennerly Dans une dernier de fransais il disaist quil avait apri que le Pere Peter etait maries et que si setait vrais - That the next turn would be home.” [“Thus that Mr. Kennerly, in his last letter written in French, said that he had learned that Peter’s father had gotten married and that if it was true, that the next turn would be home.”
Berenice Menard Chouteau to Alzire Menard Kennerly, March 11, 1827, St. Louis, Missouri: in French:
“I received your letters by Mr. Sanford [in which you asked me to have purchased all that you asked for…however Mr. Sanford wasn’t able to carry all of it. I have something here that I found that I will send to you at the earliest opportunity. You told me to buy things at Mr. Prates’s. He reserved for you…19½ piastres of flannel that he will bring you. I did it for mine also. I am afraid however that you will not fine it to your taste. I wasn't able to enter the store itself but I got all the table cloths that I wanted.”
Berenice also informed Alzire that she had recently had a baby, Louis-Sylvestre Chouteau (1827-1829), her fourth of nine children, and encouraged Alzire, “you must [become a mother however…your George loves children and I know that he greatly wants to have some. You will know the happiness of being a mother when you see the father embracing and caressing the child. Far from feeling degraded, you will feel honored to see him who you love so content to be a father.... I wrote you as soon as I could about the birth of my handsome son because I think that it is the desire of George I wish courage to him and to you my dear sister....”
Alzire Kennerly had her first child, Elizabeth Clark Kennerly (1827-1910), the day after Berenice Chouteau wrote this letter.
Berenice Therese Menard Chouteau (1801-1888) was born in Kaskaskia, Illinois, the daughter of Pierre Menard and Thérèse Godin dit Tourangeau Menard. In 1819, Berenice Menard married Francois Gesseau Chouteau (1797-1838), the son of a prominent fur trader. They made their home on the Missouri River near the future site of St. Joseph, Missouri. After living there for two years, they moved to Kansas City, Missouri, where they established a trading post. After her husband’s death, she managed his retail and real estate holdings. She was actively involved in the community and donated generously to the city’s Roman Catholic Church. Berenice Chouteau, “the soul of the colony,” outlived all of their nine children.
George H. Kennerly to Alzire Menard Kennerly, October 27, 1828, Franklin, [Missouri:
“I arrived here yesterday evening and have gotten the whole of my party together, and will leave in an hour from this on the Trip.... you may rest assured I will make my stay as short as possible, compatible with the duties which I have to perform.... Kiss my dear children for me, and be assured of the warmest love & affection of your Husband.”
Isaac McCoy (1784-1846) was a Baptist missionary among the Pottawatomie and Ottawa in Indiana, Michigan, and Missouri. A strong advocate of the removal of Native Americans to west of the Mississippi River to avoid corruption and exploitation by white Americans, McCoy led two Congressionally authorized expeditions in 1828 into the areas of Kansas and Oklahoma to scout possible locations for Native American settlement. On the advice of General William Clark, Superintendent of Indian Affairs at St. Louis, Captain George H. Kennerly commanded the second of these expeditions, and McCoy acted as treasurer. Kennerly and McCoy left St. Louis on October 22, a few days after the Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Creek delegations that accompanied them. Their Creek interpreter died of the measles shortly after the beginning of the trip, and they joined the Native American delegations at Franklin. The expedition, consisting of 41 persons, traveled up the Missouri River to the mouth of the Kansas River (modern Kansas City), then south to the Neosho River, Fort Gibson, and as far as the mouth of the Canadian River, where it joins the Arkansas River. They returned to St. Louis on December 24.
McCoy traveled on to Washington, D.C., where on January 29, 1829, he submitted a report to Secretary of War Peter Buell Porter (1773-1844). Kennerly also submitted a report on February 4 in Washington, in which he wrote, “There is a sufficient quantity of well timbered and watered land on the Arkansas and its tributaries for the whole of the southern Indians, if a proper distribution be made.”
George H. Kennerly to Alzire Menard Kennerly, March 12, 1829, Washington, D.C.:
“I have not as yet been enabled to get my business accomplished with the Secretary of War.... I think I shall be enabled to leave this place, for Philadelphia by the day after tomorrow, and then nothing shall impiede my progress home to the bosom of my dear family.... 13th in the morning. I shall in one hour from this time visit the secretary of war, by appointment, when I expect to have all my business accomplished.”
John Henry Eaton (1790-1856) served as Andrew Jackson’s first Secretary of War from March 9, 1829 to June 18, 1831. His wife Peggy became the focus of the Petticoat affair, when other cabinet members’ wives refused to socialize with the Eatons.
George H. Kennerly to Alzire Menard Kennerly, March 19, 1829, Washington, D.C.:
“I find that it will be impossible to accomplish my business here, under five, or six Days. I have therefore arrainged it in such a manner as will enable me to leave here tomorrow morning for Philadelphia. Mr McCoy has not settled the accounts of our expedition. I therefore could not get any money for my trip. I have put it in such a train, as to have deposited in the Bank at this place to my credit the amount of my account, near four Thousand Dollars, which I can draw for, when in Philadelphia. The Secty of War has not as yet had time from the great press of business to act on my application for the whole of the sutling at Jefferson Barracks. I however have not much doubt, but that I will get it.... There is a Rumer that there is to be great turning-out of offices, which I believe will take place.... I cannot find out wheather Hunt will be turned out of the post office, if he is I am an applicant for the place. If I had chosed to have done so I could have had hi turned out, as several of the warm friends of Genl Jackson from Tenessee offered to go with me to the president, and insisted on it, but I would not go.”
Wilson P. Hunt (1783-1842) served as postmaster of St. Louis from 1822 to 1840. Kennerly was the first postmaster of Jefferson Barracks from 1828 to at least 1831.
George H. Kennerly to Alzire Menard Kennerly, June 10, 1832, Ottowaye, Mouth Fox River [Ottawa, Illinois:
“Genl Mr Johnson and myself rode up from the foot of the Rapids, yesterday to this place. we have had no news from the Troops on Rock River for some days, they were all well when heard from. report from Chicoga says that the hostile Indians, are all trying to get across the Missippi again, the last that was heard from them they were high up on Rock River.”
Kennerly served as sutler for the 6th U.S. Infantry at Jefferson Barracks and likely accompanied them to northern Illinois during the brief Black Hawk War of 1832.
Two weeks earlier, Captain Abraham Lincoln had been in Ottawa, where his company was mustered out of service. Lincoln re-enlisted as a private in Captain Elijah Iles’s company for twenty days of additional service. Lincoln left Ottawa on June 6, three days before Kennerly arrived there.
Amedee Menard to Eliza ? , November 12, 1843, Kaskaskia, Illinois:
“I cannot tell you how many reflections your letter has caused me to make. Besides, I half suspect you intended to hoax me. I know you love a joke too well, to consider the consequences it might bring on the jokee. I will tell you, however, that upon the whole I was certainly delighted with your letter.”
“Today was my birthday, and as that is an event which comes but once a year, I indulged in much wholesome reflection.... I thought whether I should ever live to see my birthday again, of the changes that one more year would bring about, of the friends I might lose in that time, of the situation I might be placed in before I could complete my 24th year!”
Amedee Menard (1820-1844) was Pierre Menard’s daughter by his second wife Angelique Saucier. She did not complete her 24th year, as she died in Peoria in September 1844. Her father died in June 1844 at age 77.
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