Reed E. F. Richardson
From the collections of the Benjamin Stephenson House
Benjamin Stephenson House built 1820
Painted by Robert W. Grafton (1876-1936) in 1921. Located in the Madison County Administration Building
Much remains to be discovered about the history of Native Americans in Madison County, Illinois. Some places and events significant to Native American history in the county have been described by me in an online driving tour sponsored by the Madison County Historical Society <https://www.theclio.com/tour/2354>. However, early settlers in what is now Madison County had a disruptive impact on the indigenous people of the region. Benjamin Stephenson an influential resident of Edwardsville played a consequential role in the displacement of the native inhabitants of the region.
Benjamin Stephenson a substantial land owner exerted a critical influence on the Native Americans remaining in Illinois from 1812-1819. A product of his time and like most others in government, he was not a supporter of indigenous people.
Ninian Edwards made Stephenson a colonel in two campaigns during the War of 1812. He led one of two regiments that set out from Fort Russell in Madison County to eliminate any tribes in the area, specifically the Kickapoo but none were encountered during this campaign against Native Americans.
Later during the War of 1812 Edwards made Stephenson an adjutant general and sent him and the Illinois militia to deal with tribes near Peoria Lake following an earlier attack on Fort Dearborn near Chicago on Aug. 15, 1812.
Edwards regarded the Kickapoo as responsible for the violence in Illinois, so he ordered Stephenson to destroy the Grand Village of the Kickapoo in present-day McLean County. Upon arrival, they found the village had recently been abandoned, so Stephenson’s soldiers burned the village and a smaller camp, following which he split his forces to stop any returning war parties along their separate routes (Ferguson, 2016). In a muster roll printed in “Appendix War of 1810-13” dated November 23, 1812, noted Stephenson’s rank from Sept. 2, 1812 to Nov. 10, 1812 was brigade major (Anonymous, 1812).
November 14, 1814, Stephenson took a seat in the House of Representatives. His primary aim was to lobby for more federal troops to defend the Illinois Territory from Indian attacks. He and Rufus Easton from the Missouri Territory wrote to and met with President Madison concerning the problems in their territories.
Stephenson’s major roles in Native American matters occurred during Monroe’s presidency (1817-1825), a time known as the “era of good feelings” – a time when the country was expanding, colonists were prospering, and fervent nationalism was spreading. Monroe’s presidency and proposals for dealing with Native Americans would set the stage the government’s future detrimental policies towards Native Americans, i.e. supporting land ownership to break up communal tribal lands thereby making more land available for white settlers, supporting assimilation, and proposals to resettle them west of the Mississippi. He hosted many Indian delegations in Washington where promises were made and not kept.
Stephenson was involved in two major tribal treaties that ceded vast areas of land to the state of Illinois. The first of these was the 1818 Treaty of Edwardsville where he served as a commissioner and signer which ended the Illini Confederation. The 1818 treaty resulted in the secession of land by the Peoria, Kaskaskia, Mitchigamia, Cahokia, and Tamarois. Negotiations by Ninian Edwards and Auguste Choteau concluded September 25, 1818. The Peoria received 640 acres on the Blackwater River in Missouri where they had settled by this time. In addition, the Illinois nation was awarded a payment of $2000 and a supplemental annuity was granted to the Peoria which cost the U.S. a total of $6,400. The 1818 Treaty of Edwardsville resulted in the dissolution of the Illini Nation of the five above listed tribes and a major loss to the original people of Illinois.
Despite the negative feeling among many settlers, a July 4th 1819 toast by John B. C. Lucas recorded in the Spectator, stated “Our neighbors, the aborogines-—in rememboring that they belong also to the human family, that they were on this soil before us, that the smallness of their numbers, and the rudeness of their state, renders them entirely dependent on us, they are objects deserving our compassion, and worthy our magnanimity.”
In a similar manner James W. Whitney (in Alton on July 24, 1819) declared “Humanity has indeed, preserved a remnant of the aborogines, who in former times were numerous, powerful and warlike. Notwithstanding many opinions to the contrary, experience has fully proved, that the form of our government, and our institutions, are equally well calculated to sustain the shock of war, as they are to flourish in peace.”
In 1819, the year following the founding of Edwardsville in Madison County and Illinois attaining statehood, the second Treaty of Edwardsville was signed between the U.S. government and the Kickapoo tribe at the site of Fort Russell. During the War of 1812, the fort had been the most substantial fortification in the southern portion of the Illinois territory. Treaties were a key element in the removal of native people from their lands. There had been previous attempts in 1803 and 1818 to negotiate treaties to obtain rights to large portions of the Illinois territory which involved dishonesty, inequity, and force. Because the Kickapoo had valid rights to a major portion of central Illinois, they rejected both treaties.
In 1819 the treaty with the Kickapoo was successfully negotiated after recognition of the Kickapoo’s land rights. The treaty was signed, and a celebration held on July 30, 1819 at Fort Russell. Benjamin Stephenson and Auguste Chouteau signed the treaty as representatives for the U.S. government along with 23 tribal members who made their mark in the presence of 31 witnesses including Ninian Edwards.
In agreement for the Kickapoo ceding 13 to 14 million acres of today’s most fertile farmland, equal to nearly half of the state of Illinois, they received payment for 10 million acres at one-third cent per acre. Payment in silver was made over 15 years at $2,000 per year. In addition, they received $3,000 worth of merchandise, supplied by the old Pogue general store in Edwardsville and a far smaller tract of land in the Missouri territory neighboring the Osage lands. The government promised protections agreeing to preclude white people from hunting and settling in their new territory.
A transcription of the 1819 treaty in which the Kickapoo relinquished their rights to all of their land east of the Mississippi can be viewed at <https://www.ktik-nsn.gov/history/treaties/1819-treaty/>. The signed receipt for goods received by the Kickapoos can be viewed in the National Archives at <https://catalog.archives.gov/id/100679091> and below. In addition to the $3,000 worth of merchandise, the government promised to provide two boats for transport of their belongings from the Illinois River across the Mississippi to their new designated lands in the Missouri territory located on the Osage River.
After the Treaty of Edwardsville was concluded on July 31, 1819, which ceded the remaining tribal lands, largely Kickapoo, to the state of Illinois a transcript of the treaty was published in the Edwardsville Spectator on August 7, 1819. “A treaty was concluded in this town on the 31st ult. between Col. Auguste Chouteau and Col. Benjamin Stephenson, commissioners on the part of the United States, and the chiefs and warriors of the Kickapoo tribe of Indians. The Kickapoos have ceded all their lands southeast of the Wabash river, and the following tract of land, viz :—Beginning on the Wabash, at the upper corner of their cession of 1809 ; thence north-westwardly to the line that separates the states of Illinois and Indiana; thence with said line to the Kankakee river; thence down the same to the Illinois river, and with the line of that river to its confluence with the Mississippi; thence in a direct line to the Vincennes tract; thence on the western and northern boundaries of their former cession to the beginning. This tract contains between thirteen and fourteen millions of acres. They receive in exchange a tract of land on the Osage river, west of the contemplated boundary of the proposed state of Missouri, and will remove there immediately. They are to receive, also, an annuity of two thousand dollars for fifteen years, which is to be paid to them at their village on the Osage. By this treaty the disputed claim to the Sangamo country is extinguished, and a very large additional tract acquired, to which the title of the Kickapoos was indisputable.” (Edwardsville Spectator, August 7, 1819, and Monroe, February 27, 1821).
Research at the Stephenson House and the newspaper archives of the Edwardsville Spectator, and other online resources reveal a paucity of knowledge about the indigenous people of the region and expose avenues for future research. Benjamin Stephenson is a significant figure in the history of Madison County, Illinois and was a major influence on the development of the region and on the indigenous people of the state.
Bassett, Tom 2018. “Campus Land Acknowledgement Statements Recognize Native Land History.” University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, https://ggis.illinois.edu/news/2018-11-05/campus-land-acknowledgement-statements-recognize-native-land-history, accessed December 1, 2023.
Denny, Sydney 2019. “Stephenson, Benjamin (1769-1822)”. Electronic document, https://madisonhistorical.siue.edu/encyclopedia/stephensonbenjamin/#:~:text=Benjamin%20Stephenson%20(1769%2D1822),Land%20District%20Office%20in%20Edwardsville, accessed December 1, 2023.
Edwardsville Spectator (ES) [Edwardsville, Illinois] 1819. [“Treaty concluded with Kickapoo tribe.”] 7 August:[1-4]. Edwardsville, Illinois, https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn82015374/1819-08-07/ed-1/seq-3/, accessed November 2023.
[ES] 1821. [“Treaty concluded in the summer of 1819.”] 20 February:[1-4]. Edwardsville, Illinois. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn82015374/1821-02-20/ed-1/seq-3/, accessed November 2023.
Ferguson, Gillum 2016. Illinois in the War of 1812. University of Illinois Press, Champaign.
Fester, Robert 2023. “The Decline of the Illini and the Era of Treaties and Lies.” The Illini Confederation: Lords of the Mississippi Valley, https://rfester.tripod.com/treat.html, accessed October 2023.
Illinois State Museum Date unknown. “Native American Tribal Boundaries 1700-1769 https://www.museum.state.il.us/muslink/nat_amer/post/htmls/popups/index_terr.html
Monroe, James 1821. By Authority. [ES], February 27. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/data/batches/iune_bismuth_ver01/data/sn82015374/00332898012/1821022701/0028.pdf, accessed November 2023.
Mueller, Anne 1996. “Vanishing Act.” Illinois Periodicals Online. https://www.lib.niu.edu/1996/ip960352.html, accessed October 2023.
National Archives Catalog 1818. “Ratified Indian Treaty 99: Tribes of the Illinois Nation (Peoria, Kaskaskia, Michigamea, Tamaroa, and Cahokia) – Edwardsville, Illinois Territory, September 25, 1818”. Electronic Document, https://catalog.archives.gov/id/163545480, accessed November 24, 2023.
National Archives Catalog 1819. “Receipt on Behalf of the Kickapoo Indians of Goods, Etc., Secured to Them by the July 30, 1819, Treaty with the United States Signed at Edwardsville, Illinois”. Electronic Document, https://catalog.archives.gov/id/100679091, accessed November 24, 2023.
Native Land Digital 2023. “Kaskaskia”. https://nativeland.ca/maps/territories/kaskaskia/, accessed November 24, 2023.
Richardson, Reed E. F. 2021. “Bunker Hill Native Trail and Settlement.” Clio https://theclio.com/tour/2354/3, accessed October 2023.
Stephenson House 2021. Letters from Lucy, July 24. https://stephensonhouse.org/extra-history/f/letters-from-lucy-july-24, accessed November 15, 2023.
Warren, Robert E. 2004. “Illinois Indians in the Illinois Country.” Illinois Periodicals Online. https://www.lib.niu.edu/2004/iht1110419.html, accessed October 2023.
Whitney, James W. 1819 An Oration. [ES], July 24. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn82015374/1819-07-24/ed-1/seq-1/, accessed November 2023.
Benjamin Stephenson’s (1769-1822) influence on Indigenous Life in Illinois 
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