By the time Indiana Territory was divided some progress had been made in
extinguishing Indian titles, and some also in investigating land claims of
the French and their assignees; but the American immigrant had still the
hard choice of buying a French claim with uncertain title or squatting on
government land with the risk of losing whatever improvement he might
make, and often the added risk of being killed by the suspicious, hostile,
untrustworthy Indians. This was one class of hindrances to settlement.
Another hindrance, next to be noticed, was the unstable governmental
conditions following the anarchy already recited.

II. Government Succeeding the Period of Anarchy, 1790 to 1809.

When St. Clair County was formed, in 1790, it was made to include all the
settlements of the Northwest Territory to the westward of Vincennes. On
account of its geographical extent it was divided into three judicial
districts, but it could not be made into three separate counties, because
there were not enough men capable of holding office to furnish the
necessary officials. The American settlers were few and a large proportion
of them were unskilled in matters of government, while the French were
totally unfit to govern. In 1795, St. Clair, when referring to conditions
in 1790, wrote that since then the population of Illinois had decreased
considerably.(177) Combining this decrease with the fact that there were
in the settlements in what is now Missouri 1491 inhabitants in 1785, 2093
in 1788, and 6028, including 883 slaves, in 1799,(178) the conclusion is
inevitable that emigration across the Mississippi was the immediate cause
of the decrease in Illinois.

In 1795, notwithstanding the decreased population, and perhaps in the hope
of checking the decrease, St. Clair County was divided by proclamation of
Governor St. Clair. The division was by an east and west line running a
little south of the settlement of New Design.(179) St. Clair County lay to
the north, Randolph County to the south of the line.(180)

The early laws of the Northwest Territory throw light upon the conditions
existing upon the frontier. Minute provisions for establishing and
maintaining ferries, with no mention of bridges, indicate the primitive
methods of travel.(181) Millers were required to use a prescribed set of
measures and to grind for a prescribed toll, the toll for the use of a
horse-mill being higher than that for a water-mill, unless the owner of