Crossing Lawrence County 1779

The capture of Fort Sackville (Vincennes) without loss of life during the conflict between England and the colonies was George Rogers Clark's most significant military achievement. The decision to assault the Fort presented him with a daunting, almost impossible task. He would have to trek through the wilderness some 200 miles in the dead of winter, through flooded, icy river bottoms, while hoping the British remained unaware of his approach.

He and his band of tired, cold, hungry men reached the Embarrass River late on February 17, 1779 only nine miles from Vincennes and Fort Sackville. The river proved too deep to ford, so they followed the Embarrass down to where it emptied into the Wabash River, just south of Vincennes.  They finally made camp on what solid ground they could find, within earshot of Fort Sackville’s evening cannon. 

Historians think that the siege decided England’s claim to her Northwest Territories, an area larger than all the thirteen colonies combined. In the Lawrenceville Republican April 25, 1912, local historian PW Sutherland presented an argument for George Roger Clark's exact route in 1779 through what would later become Lawrence County. This article, summarized for this post, is especially timely with America preparing to celebrate 250 years of freedom. 

There is a blank in Clark's account of the specific trace the men traveled as given by Capt. Bowman, a member of Clark's force who kept a written account of the journey. To thoroughly understand the County’s relationship to this historic event and where exactly Clark marched, there is one fact overlooked by all who have written on this subject and that is the fact that there were three Native American trails running in and through Lawrence County, the Cahokia Trace, the Kaskaskia Trace, and the Shawneetown Trace. All joined at Vincennes and proceeded to the Falls of the Ohio, or Bear Grass (Louisville, Kentucky) as the Native Americans named it. Viewing these on an old map, one can see that the Native Americans and the Buffalo worked out paths from Kaskaskia to Vincennes and on to Louisville that were the most passable in all seasons. 

The earliest historians of Illinois give the Kaskaskia route as the one Clark took. The Kaskaskia trace entered what would become Lawrence County along the south side of the east- west railroad to where Sumner is now located. Then the Trace crossed north of the tracks and continued for a half or three quarters of a mile to where it crossed back south and continued along the tracks, all the way to Vincennes, crossing the Embarrass River at the Muscle Shoals.

Sutherland opined that historians got this route confused with the Cahokia trace.  When Clark's force reached the Embarrass River, some say he crossed the river close to the future site of Lawrenceville. The Cahokia trace did cross that river close to the bridge on the Vincennes road from Lawrenceville but the Kaskaskia Trace as before stated, crossed at Muscle Shoals about 2 miles south of Indian Creek where it empties into the Embarrass River west of Billet. It is a very shallow place in times of low water, a rocky bed to a considerable extent, with a rocky channel, and the highest bank south of the railroad bridge over the river. Sutherland argued that this was a likely place for Clark to have crossed with favorable country from there to Vincennes, and it was not likely he left it to go to the Cahokia crossing some five or 6 miles above.

Sutherland also believed Clark and his men crossed at Muscle Shoals despite some historians arguing that he followed the Embarrass down to the present site of St. Francisville, crossed there, and continued on the east side of the Wabash to Fort Sackville. All who are acquainted with the geography of the country, stated Sutherland, would readily agree that if the waters overflowed the lowlands, which indeed occurred at the time Clark made his march, this would be an utter impossibility. It is nine miles from St. Francisville to Vincennes, and six or seven miles of this according to Sutherland’s personal knowledge was too deep to be waded by anyone.  In many places, before modern drainage ditches, at a conservative estimate, the water would have been 6 or 7 feet in depth.

Sometime about 1870, (remember Sutherland wrote this article in 1912) Sutherland talked with George Johnson, a great hunter and trapper of the early days.  Johnson said he had followed Clark’s route its length throughout the County. At that time, he pointed out the trail to Sutherland, which was still plainly visible in Bridgeport’s Lanterman Park, 100 years after the fact, and attributed to the fact that the timber had never been cleared off that site since settled by whites.

Sutherland then described the location of the trail as told to him by Johnson. Most of these points are unknown today but for anyone doing research on the Trail, they could be identified with the help of the researchers at the Historical Society.

Commencing at Hadley on the County line, the trail ran South of the B & O railroad about 1/2 mile to Bell’s Grove then to Sumner. It was along this part that Jesse P Jones and S.W. Perkins both informed Sutherland that an old flint lock Army musket was plowed up west of the Grove, thought to have belonged to some of Clark's men and lost by them on the march to capture Vincennes. At Sumner the trace bent north over the railroad passing through the older residential portion of Sumner then called Tick Ridge, east crossing Muddy Creek a few rods south of the bridge, across the southwest corner of Sumner cemetery where it was still visible, and on to the Samuel Sumner farm south of the railroad. Here Martha Turner told Sutherland that she dropped corn over it while planting, but it could still be seen plainly, and on inquiring what caused the unusual depression made in the ground, she was told it was the ‘old Indian trace’. This was probably about 1847 according to her. From there it followed the South side of the road over the farms of the Clubb brothers, William Forsythe, Perry Clark and Lafayette Combs.

In the valley between the Clark and Combs place, Mrs. Susan Scyoc, nee Sumner, informed Sutherland “a small party of Indians got into a quarrel and one of these was killed and buried on the trace.” From the Combs farm it proceeded over land belonging to George Ryan and land known as the Emerick farm. Here on the trail were two more Indian graves, just south of the railroad bridge over Indian Creek. Then the trail passed over land belonging to the Widow Griggs, Maggie Bell, Hon. W. E Finley, the Thorn farm, Lanterman Grove, the Lewis farm and on the North side or nearly so of Robert Gillespie’s land. Along here Uncle Billy Seed told Sutherland that “he had seen the Indians, after he came to this County, in bands of perhaps as many as 150 at once south of Osborne’s old mill site on Indian Creek”. This is due south of the Cross Roads schoolhouse a mile or so.

The trail then led on past Fremont schoolhouse, to which it must have passed quite close, then on almost a line between the old Alex Ryan farm now belonging to George Ryan. George told Sutherland that “bands of savages passed in early days from fifty to three times as many at once”. Passing by the burying ground south of the old Doc Penner place and east of the old Hollister place, the trail then led through the W.H.H.Mieure farm a few miles north of Simon Seed’s house where there was a Buffalo Wallow or salt lick. Then it continued on to Muscle Shoals east of the Leighty farm blending here with the Shawneetown trail to DuBois Hill according to Sutherland’s article.

Was this the actual trail of George Rogers Clark and his band of liberty fighters? Did Sutherland get it correct? Two hundred and fifty years later, no one can say with authority. As John King would say, “the trail has gone cold.”  Whereever it was, the fact remains that this part of our local history became a big part of National History.