USA > Illinois > St Clair County > History of St. Clair County, Illinois. With illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 79
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THIS gentleman who has been a resident of O'Fallon since 1865, is a native of Bremervoerde, Hanover, and was born Septem- ber 7th, 1831. He was the sixth of a family of eight children. 'His father was Henry Tiedemann, and his mother's maiden name Louisa von Hortz. In the biographical sketch of Charles A. Tie- demann will be found an account of the early history of the family in Germany. The first twenty-one years of Mr. Tiedemann's life were spent in Germany. He went to school till fifteen years of age, and then served an apprenticeship of three years in the mercantile business at Bremen. He then went to Hamburg, where he at- tended a commercial institute, and thoroughly prepared himself for a business career. He came to America in the spring of 1852, landing at New Orleans. He came at once to St. Louis and St. Clair county. He made his home in Belleville, and in 1853, was appointed by William L. Deneen, then surveyor of the county, de- puty surveyor, in which capacity he served about two years. He was subsequently employed by the government in subdividing town- ships of land in Nebraska. He settled on a tract of land in Ne- braska, and was farming there till 1859, when gold having been discovered at Pike's Peak, he went to Colorado. He traveled over all the then explored parts of Colorado, and for some years lived at a ranch on the Platte river, twenty miles below Denver. He was engaged in the stock business, which proved profitable. He came back to Illinois in 1865, and engaged in the mercantile busi- ness at O'Fallon. He was married at Belle vue, Nebraska, in 1863, to Mary Baumann. He has five children. He has been a re- publican from the first organization of that party. He has served several times as president of the Board of Trustees of the town of O'Fallon, and is a business man of enterprise and liberality.
PRAIRIE DU PONT PRECINCT.
RAIRIE DU PONT was, until 1871, a part of Cahokia, but at that time the county commis- sioners cut it off into a separate precinct. It is nearly enclosed within the boundaries of Caho- kia outlined on the east, and the Mississippi on the west. Monroe county and Centerville pre_ cinct bound a small portion of the southern border. It is the extreme western point of St. Clair county, and contains about 15,000 acres. It is wholly situated in the Bottom, extending from the river to the bluff. It received its name from the ancient village which is situated in this precinct. The soil is the same as the rest of the American Bottom, unexcelled for fertility and pro- ductiveness. It is drained by Prairie du Pont creek, which enters the extreme eastern portion of the precinct, and flows west and south, when it empties into the Mississippi a little south and west of East Carondelet. The southern portion of the precinct is drained by the " big ditch," or canal, that extends from Bluff and Fish lakes to the river.
The East St. Louis & East Carondelet, or, what is better known, as the Conlogue Railway, and the Narrow Gauge road, pass through the precinct on the west side from north to south. The Conlogue has a branch track extending south-east across the precinct to the quarries, situated at Falling Spring.
The general history, customs, etc., of the people of Prairie du Pont, are similar to those of Cahokia. They have their common fields, containing their farms or arpents of land, and adjacent to these the open territory, called commons. The arpents, with few exceptions, extended from the river to the bluff. In early times, spring wheat was the principal product, but, for many years, fall or winter wheat has been the staple. The main history of this pre- cinct lies in
THE VILLAGE OF PRAIRIE DU PONT.
The village received its name from the following circumstance : The first settlement was made on the present site, which is on the south bank of the creek, and about one mile south of the village of Cahokia. At this point a rude bridge, constructed of logs, was built across the stream. An open prairie extended from the bridge south to the bluff. Pont is a French word, and means bridge in English. Hence the name, Prairie du Pont, or, Prairie Bridge. It was settled about 1750, by people from Cahokia. The origin of its settlement is undoubtedly due to the inundations to which the bottom was subject during high waters. Prairie du Pont is about ten or twelve feet higher than Cahokia, aud in the time of the
floods, the people of the latter village were obliged to flee to the bluffs and higher grounds for safety. Tradition, in Prairie du Pont, substantiates the above theory.
According to Reynolds, the village contained fourteen families in 1765. Among the early settlers was Jean Francois Perry, who was a native of France, and emigrated to this country in 1792. He was a classical scholar, and was a descendant of one of the first families in France. He and a Frenchman by the name of Clau- dius, first established themselves as partners in a small store in Ca- hokia, but soon after removed to Prairie du Pont, where they con- tinned in the mercantile business. Claudius was killed a few years afterwards by being thrown from a horse. Perry continued the business, also purchased the old mill site on the creek, where the Mission of St. Sulpice first erected a mill. Here he built a new mill of considerable pretensions for those days, and conducted it in conjunction with his store until his death, which occurred in 1812. He amassed quite a fortune, and died regrected by all who knew him.
Philip Creamer, a native of Maryland, came to the American Bottom in 1805, and settled a little east of the village. He was skilled in mechanics, but his special forte was the manufacture of fire-arms. He was employed by the government iu 1812, to make and repair the guns of the troops stationed on the frontier. He lived to an old age, and died about 1845. J. B. Chartrand, John Baptiste Allary and Joseph Deloge, were also pioneers of the vil- lage.
The First Water Mill erected in this part of the country, was built on the creek, close to the village, by the Mission of St. Sulpice, in the year 1754 or '55. This mill really formed the nucleus from which Prairie du Pout finally developed.
The oldest house now standing in the village, is owned by John B. Lapage, and is situated on lot No. 58. It is a small, one story log house, and was one of the first built in the village. A red ce- dar, two feet in diameter, and about thirty iu height, stauds in the rear of the house, aud ante-dates the building. Locust trees, three feet in diameter, also adorn the premises.
The First School taught in Prairie du Pont was in 1861, by Wm. Williamson ; and the school-house was erected the same year, at a cost of $500. It is a small frame building, 18x30 feet, and is supplied with the improved style of furniture. The village was incor- porated for school purposes by an act of the legislature February 20, 1847; but no school was taught for twenty years, for the reason that the revenue from the leases of the commons was not able to support one. By an act of the legislature of 1875, the commis- sioner of the commons is authorized to convey the lands of the
296
FIVE
THEOLD SHILOH. M.E. CHURCH,
METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, SHILOH, ST. CLAIR CO.ILL.
FALLING SPRING PRAIRIE DUPONT ST CLAIR. CO. HEIGHT OF ROCK ABOUT 100 FT. HEIGHT OF SPRINGABOUT 40 FT.
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HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY, ILLINOIS.
commons, in fee simple, and place the proceeds at interest. The principal is to be perpetual, while the interest is to be devoted en- tirely to a common school fund for the use of the villagers.
The first and only justice of the peace in the precinct, or village, was J. B. Vien, who at this writing is serving in the same office. He was elected in 1869, and has served now twelve years. Mr. Vien informed us that in all that time he had not issued to exceed half-a-dozen warrants against the native French citizens of Prairie du Pont.
One of the oldest roads in the state of Illinois passes through the village, being the old highway between Kaskaskia and Cahokia.
There are standing in the village four pear-trees, the largest of which is upwards of three feet in diameter at the base. It is said that they are as old as the village, and are still in good bearing order. The largest has borne as high as sixty bushel of fruit in one year. The casual observer, in passing Mr. Peter Goding's premises, where these trees are situated, would at once conclude they were forest trees. The writer was shown an elm that took root and grew under the following circumstances : On lot No. 14, many years ago, a log house was built, which had for a chimney one of the old-fashioned mud and stick contrivances, which was constructed entirely on the exterior of the building. In order to keep this ungainly flue from toppling over, green elin poles were thrust into the ground at the corners of the chimney. One of these, from the fresh buds of the stick, took root, lived and grew, and is at this writing five feet in diameter. Esquire Vien has in his pos- session what is undoubtedly the stump of the flag-pole that floated to the breeze the French flag when Prairie du Pont was under the dominion of France. It was excavated on the ground where the old fort stood, on a rise overlooking the creek. The stump is of red cedar, about six inches in diameter, and in a good state of pre- servation.
In the south-western part of the precinct there are several Indian mounds. In 1874 John Eisentrout, when plowing over one of these, near Falling Spring, struck a pile of stones, and on exca- vating, came across a peculiar relic. It is constructed of a hard cement, and is about eighteen inches in height. The upper portion represents the head of a baboon, and the body or base is in the form of an ordinary bust. The vessel is hollow, with an aperture at the top the size of a silver dollar. It is supposed to have been constructed for a drinking jug in the days of of the mound-builders. A photograph of it was put on exhibition at the Centennial in Philadelphia in 1876. The relic is now in the possession of a party at Belleville.
Within the memory of the oldest inhabitant the village of Prairie du Pont never had a resident physician or lawyer, nor has it con- tained a post-office. It now comprises about fifty inhabitants-one- fifth colored population. The present business-Groceries, Provi- sions and Saloon, Peter Godin ; Justices of the Peace, J. B. Vien ; Treasurer and ex-officio-Commissioner, Peter Godin ; Trustees, John Touranjon, J. B. Lapage and Joseph Chartrand.
EAST CARONDELET.
The village of East Carondelet is situated in the central western part of Prairie du Pont precinct, on the line of the narrow guage and the East St. Louis and East Carondelet railoads, and about a quarter of a mile east of the Mississippi. The plat is in the form of a rectangle, and lies on both sides of Prairie du Pont creek. It was established on the Prairie du Pont common fields, in the year 1872. Andrew Donnan platted the first village lots. The same year (1872) two additions were made to the town, one by Donnan
and Henderson, the other by Christian Keoln. In 1876 another addition was made by Frank Ricker.
The first house was built by J. L. Strider in 1872. It was a frame building, story and a half, and used for a dwelling. The first store was kept by Messrs. Green & Jackson, and was situated on State Avenue, south-east of the Narrow Gauge railroad. L. G. Cross was the first to establish a wagon mannfactory and black- smith shop. It was built in 1873, and is situated on State street, near Prairie du Pont creek. Mr. Cross is still doing business on the old site. The first hotel was built by Volantine Eustch, in 1872, and was conducted by him with satisfaction to the public until 1875, when. it was destroyed by fire. F. S. Mack & Co. erected the first flouring mill in 1876. It was a steam mill, four story frame with stone foundation, and cost $10,000. It had three run of burrs, and a capacity for grinding seventy-five barrels per day. It was situated on State avenue, near the Narrow Gauge railroad depot, and was destroyed by fire in 1880. The first post- office was kept by S. H. Parker, in the Narrow Gauge railroad de- pot. The first church was built by the Catholics in 1873. It was a frame building, 40x60, and cost $3000. It was completely destroyed by a wind storm, which occurred in 1876. The school- house was built in 1876, at a cost of upwards of $1200. It is a frame house, and seated with the latest improved furniture. Prior to the building of this house, the school was taught in the colored log church, north of the creek, not far from the Conlogue railroad ; J. W. McCormic was the first teacher. James N. Carlton was elect- ed first Justice of the Peace, and heard his first case in the depot of the Narrow Gauge railway.
MEIER & CO.'S BLAST FURNACES.
The village of East Carondelet can boast of one of the largest and most complete Blast Furnaces in the West, and is owned by Meier & Co. of St. Louis. It is situated a little north of the village, and oc- cupies one hundred acres of ground, including buildings, railway, and switches. The works contain three engiues of one hundred tons weight each ; two furnaces with four large Whitehall hot-air blasts to each furnace. The chimney is two hundred and three and a half feet high, and is said to be the tallest chimney in the United States. It is twenty-eight feet in diameter at the base, and octagonal in form to the height of about twenty-five feet, where it assumes a rotund shape, and gently tapers to the summit. It took nearly one million bricks to complete it. The works cost upwards of two mil- lion dollars, and give employment to more than three hundred hands. Several car-loads of pigs are cast daily, and shipped to St. Louis and other cities. The company has constructed its own stock railroads to connect the works with the Mississippi river, on the one side, and the C. & St. L. Narrow Gauge, and the E. St. L. & E. Carondelet railways on the other.
SMITH'S ICE HOUSES.
These houses were constructed in 1880-1, and are situated on the river bank, about half a mile north-west of the village. The build- ing is one hundred and sixty feet square, covered with a double roof, and is thirty-six feet in height. It cost $25,000, and will hold twenty-five thousand tons of ice.
PRESENT BUSINESS.
General Merchandise .- Michael & Son ; Henry Sopp. Clothing. -Victor Sherman.
Bakery-A. Wenkler. Merchant Tailor-A. S. Jordi. Wagon Maker and Blacksmith-L. G. Cross. Butcher-Fred Schwartztray- ber. Physician-Dr. W. M. Carter.
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293
HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY, ILLINOIS.
Besides the above, there is a boarding house and seven saloons. The village was incorporated in 1876, and the following are the first officers elected :- President-Walter Murray; Trustees-J. C. Sinclair, S. H. Parker, E. D. Ankeny, J. J. Schumaker, and John Ortgier. Thomas Jamison was appointed clerk. The present offi- cers are-L. G. Cross, pres. ; Fred Luce, John Simons, A. Murphy, S. H. Parker, and John Schumaker, trustees. J. W. McCormic, clerk and police magistrate, and Samuel McGregor, marshal.
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The present population of the village is about 400, and bids fair some day to be one among the busy towns that shall dot the banks of the Misssissippi.
FALLING SPRING.
" This is one of the romantic spots in Illinois. It is situated at the bluff, one mile south-east of Prairie du Pont village. It derives its name from a spring that gushes out of a perpendicular rock of the bluff, with a fall of sixty or seventy feet. The bluff at this point is a solid wall of limestone, about one hundred and thirty feet in height. The spring flows from an orifice situated midway between
the top of the bluff and the rocky bottom beneath. Many years ago a grist mill was constructed at this point, and the water utilized for a power, but no trace of it remains at this time to be seen. Several years ago a hotel was built near the spring, and the place was made a summer resort by the people of East St. Louis and other towns. The hotel is yet standing, and is now converted into a saloon. There are three stone quarries in full blast not far from the spring, and owned by the following companies :- Otto & Parent, William Richards, and Henry Deering. They employ in all about seventy-five men, and load on an average twenty cars per day. A branch of the Conlogue railway runs to the quarries. A stone-crusher dump is in process of erection here by the Vandalia railroad company. We were informed by the foreman that it would take about 200,000 feet of lumber to construct it, and will cost, including machinery, upwards of $50,000. When in running order it will employ about fifty hands, and will have the capacity to crush fifty car-loads of stone per day. Although there is no town here-nothing but boarding houses for the men-yet it presents the' appearance of life and business.
PRECINCT AND CITY OF EAST ST. LOUIS.
AST ST. LOUIS, precinct, formerly called Illi- noistown, occupies the extreme north-western corner of St. Clair county, and was organized as a township the 6th day of June, 1820, the boundaries being as follows : Beginning at the bluff on the Madison county line; thence west on said line to the Mississippi river : thence with the Mississippi to the Cahokia line on the same ; thence with said line eastward to the bluff; thence along the bluff northward to the place of beginning. By order of the county commissioners' court, September 14th, 1821, Illinoistown and Cahokia were made one election precinct, with the voting place at Augustus Pensonean's residence in Cahokia. In 1851, Illinoistown became a separate voting precinct, and French Village was named as the place of holding the election. Again, in 1857, it was divided into two separate parts, respectively called Illinoistown and French Village precincts, the division line running dne west from south-west corner of section 15, in township No. 2, north range, No. 9 west, to the north-west corner of section 21, same township, thence south on the west line of section 21, to the south-west corner thereof, thence west on the section line to the Mississippi through Cahokia precinct, from which a strip of about one-half a mile in breadth is taken from the northern part and annexed to Illinoistown precinct. The foregoing are the boundaries that the precinct embraces at this time. In 1866, the precinct ap- pears under the name of East St. Louis, and that of Illinoistown
dropped. This change of name is not made a matter of record, and the presumption is that by common consent, or usage, it as- sumed the name of its leading town, East St. Louis, which by a vote of the people of the corporation in 1861, gave it its present title At the time of its organization, a strip of heavy timber about half a mile wide, extended south from the present town of Brook- lyn to the village of Cahokia. What is now the city of East St. Louis was mainly covered with heavy timbers of oak, walnut, elm, etc., and was a favorite stamping ground for the hunter and the trapper.
The first blow struck toward civilization in this vast solitude, was in the year 1770, by one Richard McCarty, familiary known in those days as English McCarty. He obtained an improvement right or title, to four hundred acres of land, extending on both sides of Cahokia creek, and now included within the present limits of East St. Louis. Here he erected a grist mill on the bank of the creek, and for a time it did quite a flourishing business, but on ac- count of the banks being so easily washed away, a permanent dam could not be constructed. He left the country for Canada in 1787, where he died, leaving heirs to this property. The United States Commissioners appointed by Congress in 1805, to pass upon claims to ancient titles in Cahokia and other French villages, confirmed this tract to the heirs of McCarty. No vestige of the old mill site exists at this time. Another mill was constructed in 1805, by Nicholas Jarrot on the creek not far from where McCarty's mill was located. It has long since disappeared As late as
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HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY, ILLINOIS.
1855, the machinery was utilized in a mill at Brooklyn by Morris & Son.
The oldest house, now standing in the precinct, was built by Nicholas Boismenue in 1817, and is situated about one mile south of the city limits, on the road leading from what was formerly called Papstown, to the village of Cahokia. It is built after the old French style, with upright hewed walnut logs, and weather- boarded, with porch extending around the entire building. It is occupied by Joseph Boismenue, and is the oldest house in St. Clair county, outside the village of Cahokia and Prairie du Pont.
The founding of the present city of East St. Louis, is due to the foresight of the pioneer, Capt. James Piggott. He was an officer under General Clark, who had command of the Virginia militia stationed on the frontier. Capt. Piggott was one of those who remained after the treaty was made in 1783, and cast his lot with the hardy pioneers of the west. At this time St. Louis was but a small trading port, and Cahokia the metropolis.
No doubt Capt. Piggott's keen business perceptions led him to believe, from the natural surroundings, and other advantages, that in future time the little village of St. Louis would some day take the lead among the few towns then settled along the Mississippi. Accordingly he located a militia claim of a hundred acres on the east side of the river opposite the village of St. Louis, and by his own exertions succeeded in constructing a bridge across Cahokia creek, near the road leading to that village. This was in 1795. In 1797, he had erected two small log cabins near the shore, where he had established a rude ferry system across the river, by the consent of the Spanish Commandant at St. Louis. Thus the first ferry was established, out of which grew one of the wealthiest monopolies of the west. Capt. Piggott died in 1799, scarcely dreaming of the magnitude his enterprise in after years would assume.
The first house of any pretensions built on the present site of East St. Louis, was erected by Etienne Pensoneau, in the year 1810. It was a two-story brick building, and situated on what is now the corner of Main and Menard streets, in the first ward. It was constructed for a dwelling, but was afterwards utilized for a hotel, to afford accommodations to the immigrants, who were then rapidly pushing to the frontier. It has long since passed away with the things that were.
The oldest house now standing within the city limits is situated in the First ward, near the corner of Second and Market streets, and was built about 1818, by the "Old Man " Rail, for a dwell- ing, and is still used as such. Its structure is of the primitive style, with hewed logs placed upright a few inches apart, and filled between with cement or mortar. The outside is weather-boarded for the better protection from the winter blasts.
The following, relating to the first laid-out town in East St. Louis, we gleau from Reavis' history of " The Future Great City :" " In 1815, Etienne Pinconeau (now spelled Pensoneau), ventured to lay out a town on his adjoining land, with his brick tavern on the road to the ferry, thence occupied by one Simon Vanorsdal, as a nucleus. He called it 'Jacksonville.' The plat of the town cannot be found ; but there is a deed of record for a lot in it. It bears the date 17th of March, 1815. Etienne Pinconeau and Eliza- beth, his wife, by it convey to Moses Scott, merchant of St. Louis, in the Missouri territory, for $150, " all that certain tract, parcel, or lot of land, being, lying, and situated in the said county of St. Clair, at a place, or new town called Jacksonville, containing in depth one hundred feet, and in breadth sixty feet, joining north- wardly to Carroll street, facing the public square, and southwardly to Coffee street.'
"Later conveyances by Mcknight & Brady, merchants and land
operators at that time in St. Louis, referring to this lot of Moses Scott, locate it as lot 5, in block 8, of the town of Illinois, at the south-east corner of Market and Main streets. Scott at once erected a store upon the lot, and at that corner conducted the first mercan- tile establishment in this city. This was the only sale made of lots in this 'Jacksonville.' On the 20th of January, 1816, Pinconeau sold the entire tract of land he had on Cahokia creek (including Jacksonville), extending in breadth from near Railroad street to Piggott street, to Mcknight & Brady.
"The immediate result was the consummation, by Mcknight & Brady, of Pinconeau's project of a new town. They platted the 'Town of Illinois' upon the site of Pinconeau's Jacksonville. They re-located the public square, widened the streets and enlarged the lots, and put the plat on record. They advertised and held a great sale of lots in the town of Illinois. The sale took place at the auc- tion-room of Thomas T. Reddick, in St. Louis, November 3d, 1817. . Thus was made the first record evidence of a town-plat in East St. Louis."
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