USA > Illinois > Illinois in 1818, 2nd ed > Part 8
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West of Pope lay Johnson county, embracing the present John- son and the parts of Pulaski and Massac between it and the Ohio river. With the exception of Monroe, Johnson was the smallest county in the state, having an area of only about four hundred square miles; and its population was less than that of any other county. Only 678 people including I free negro and 24 servants or slaves, grouped in 117 families, were counted in the first census report of 1818. To these the supplementary census added 89,
"Harris, Remarks made during a Tour, 139.
"Intelligencer, April 15, 1818.
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making a total of 767. Circling through the western part of the county ran the Cache river with tributaries flowing in from the north, and along these streams and the Golconda-Kaskaskia road which crossed them, in the precincts of Elvira, Bloomfield, and Vienna were located the bulk of the settlers. The county seat was at Elvira until Union county was set off in January, 1818; it was then changed to Vienna. Very few settlers appear to have located along the Ohio, although much of the land there had been bought by speculators, and lots in "Waterloo
on the western bank of the Ohio . . nine miles below the mouth of Tennessee river," were advertised to be sold on April 10, 1818.78 This location must have been at or near the present site of Metropolis, a town which was not started until 1839.
Franklin county, one of the two counties which nowhere touched the boundaries of the state, included the modern Frank- lin and Williamson, an area of about 860 square miles. It was one of the three new counties established in January, 1818. The census in Franklin, which was not completed until July II, shows a population, according to the schedule, of 1,228 or less than two to the square mile.79 The number of families was 17I. There were 15 slaves and 52 free negroes, the latter including five whole families living near together on Saline creek. The modern Franklin county is drained principally by the Big Muddy and its forks, while through Williamson flows Crab Orchard creek, a branch of the Big Muddy, and Saline creek, the waters of which reach the Wabash through the Saline river. Across the southern tier of townships of the modern Franklin ran the new road from Shawneetown to Kaskaskia, which was under construction in 1818, while the route of the old road between the same places, crossed Williamson. The people appear to have located princi- pally in the vicinity of these streams and roads, with some con- centration in Frankfort precinct. There was nothing in the county that could be called a town; and the county records, until
18Intelligencer, February II, 1818. Another Waterloo in Monroe county which is still in existence, was laid out the same year. See p. 78, 79.
"The final report to the convention was 1,281. There was no supplemen- tary census, however, and the discrepancy was probably caused by an error in addition.
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1826, were kept at the tavern of Moses Garrett on the old road about three miles east of the site of Frankfort.
Union county was another of the three established in January, 1818. At that time its boundaries were fixed exactly as they are now, but the region south from these boundaries to the Mississippi and Ohio, including the modern Alexander and the greater part of Pulaski was "attached to" and made "a part of" Union county until it should be formed into a separate county. This whole area, comprising about eight hundred square miles, had a population of 2,709 according to the final report of the census of 1818. This made an average density of between three and four to the square mile. The schedules of the census as first taken show 2,492 inhabitants grouped in 392 families. There were 33 servants or slaves but no free negroes. At least two-thirds of these settlers were located within the modern Union county, and of these the greater number lived some eight or ten miles back from the Mississippi river on the divide separating the creeks flowing into the Mississippi from those that entered the Cache. There were a few settlers along the Mississippi, however, and in the eastern part of the county, especially in Stokes precinct, through which passed the road from Golconda to Kaskaskia. The few families living in Alexander county and the part of Pulaski contained in Union were located along or a few miles back from the Ohio and on or near the Cache.
Although Union county was liberally supplied with paper towns in 1818, of real towns there was only a beginning. The principal concentration of settlement appears to have been near the center of the modern Union; and here in March, 1818, the commissioners located the county seat, to which was given the name of Jonesboro. The first sale of lots took place in July, and some of them are said to have brought over a hundred dollars. On the Mississippi twelve miles above Cape Girardeau, a group of speculators had laid out the town of "Hamburg," named doubt- less with a view to attracting the trade of the "Dutch settle- ment" an industrious community located in the northeastern part
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of Meisenheimer precinct.80 There was a ferry here and lots were advertised to be sold at auction on September I, but no town has ever developed on the site. It was along the Ohio that town-site projects flourished most luxuriantly. The greater part of the land here was purchased by speculators as soon as it was offered by the government and about 1817 a town called Trinity was laid out just above the mouth of the Cache. No lots appear to have been sold but a joint tavern and store was established; and the place was a point of transshipment for river traffic for a few years, until a growing sand bar put an end to its prosperity. Several of the men connected with Trinity were also interested in a town six miles farther up the river, called America, "which was laid out with much pomp and parade as the future great metropolis in 1818." In advertising a sale of lots to take place on the third Monday in November, the proprietors modestly observed that "the obvious advantages of its local situation and its general notoriety, are such as to render all com- ment on its merits, superfluous." The first house appears to have been built by Dr. W. M. Alexander in the winter of 1818-19; and when Alexander county was established America became its county seat. The county business kept the town alive for a few years81.
The most interesting of all the schemes for towns in Union county was "The City and Bank of Cairo" which was incorpo- rated by an act of the territorial legislature, January 9, 1818. Five months earlier John G. Comegys of Baltimore had entered about eighteen hundred acres of land on the narrow peninsula between the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, but not including the extreme point. This land was now deeded to the company of
"Perrin, History of Alexander, Union, and Pulaski Counties, 287, 358, 435. W. M. Alexander, one of the proprietors of America, proposed to build a bridge across the Cache "so as to draw the trade of the Dutch in Union county." Ibid., 270. None of the names of members of this settlement given in the county history are to be found in the census schedule. Possibly they were included in the supplementary census.
81 Ibid., 67-72, 269, 448-453; Intelligencer, October 21, 1818.
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ILLINOIS IN 1818
which Comegys was the moving spirit; an elaborate plat was prepared; and plans were laid for the sale of lots and the estab- lishment of the bank, which was to be located temporarily at Kaskaskia. The act of incorporation provided for two thousand lots which were to be sold at $150 each. One-third of the proceeds was to be used in constructing levees to protect the city from floods, and for other improvements. The remaining two- thirds was to constitute the capital stock of the bank, one-half of which should belong to Comegys and his associates and one- half to the purchasers of the lots. The death of Comegys in 1819 was followed by the collapse of the entire scheme; the land reverted to the government, and Cairo remained unborn for another twenty years.
Advancing up the Mississippi, the next county above Union was Jackson, which, in 1818, included the territory of the present Jackson and a strip six miles wide off the south of Perry-about 730 square miles in all. The population of the county according to the final report of the census of 1818 was 1,619, making the density only a little above two to the square mile. There were 240 families, and 53 of the inhabitants were servants or slaves. The first census report gave the population as 1,295, but 38 addi- tional families were discovered by the supplementary census. The principal attractions to settlement in the county were the Big Muddy river and its tributaries flowing in from the north. Along these streams and the Mississippi, and to a smaller extent along the several roads which crossed the county, were located the greater number of settlers, although there were isolated estab- lishments throughout the county. The largest groups of settle- ments were on the Big Muddy near the center of the modern Jackson county. Here were located the salt works of Dr. Conrad Will and the county seat, Brownsville. This town, which has now entirely disappeared, was situated on the north bank of the river about four miles west of the site of Murphysboro. It was laid out by Dr. Will when the county was organized in 1816, the sale of lots being advertised for July 15. By 1818 it had a frame courthouse and log jail, a store, and a blacksmith shop. For a number of years Brownsville was a flourishing
PRAIRIE DU ROCHER [From Wild, Valley of the Mississippi (1841), owned by Chicago Historical Society]
ILLINOIS TOWN OR EAST ST. LOUIS [From Wild, Valley of the Mississippi (1841), owned by Chicago Historical Society]
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ILLINOIS IN 1818
eleven miles from its mouth, and six from the Mississippi, in a direct line. It is at present the seat of the territorial govern- ment and chief town of Randolph county-contains 160 houses, scattered over an extensive plain; some of them are of stone. Almost every house has a spacious picketed garden in its rear. The houses have a clumsy appearance; it is 150 miles south-west of Vincennes, and 900 from the city of Washington. The inhab- itants are more than half French, they raise large stocks of horned cattle, horses, swine, poultry, &c. There is a postoffice, a land office for the sale of the public lands, and a printing office, from which is issued a weekly newspaper entitled the 'Illinois Herald.' This place was settled upwards of 100 years, ago, by the French of Lower Canada. The surrounding lands are in a good state of cultivation." Dana, in his Geographical Sketches (1819), waxes enthusiastic over Kaskaskia: "Placed near the mouth of a river extensively navigable, and in the vicinity of some of the richest lands of the western country, connected with a convenient position for commerce, this place assumes that degree of importance which must eventually attract wealth and numbers. It has a good harbor for boats, contains a land office, a printing-office, and a bank, and is now in a flourishing condi- tion." An eastern traveler who visited the town in November, 1819, presents quite a different picture : "Remained in this inconsiderable village this day. Much disappointed in the appear- ance of the long-talked-of Kaskaskia. It is situated on the Okaw or Kaskaskia river, three miles from the Mississippi. It never can be a place of much business. The land office is kept at this place. There are some neat buildings, but they are generally old, ugly and inconvenient. Their streets are irregular and of bad widths. The inhabitants are all generals, colonels, majors, land speculators or adventurers, with now and then a robber and a cutthroat."
Nevertheless Kaskaskia must have been a place of considerable commercial importance in 1818, for its weekly newspaper con- tained advertisements of nine general stores, an establishment for the manufacture and sale of hats, and three tailor shops. There was only one tavern, however, the famous Bennett's, and
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its accommodations were severely taxed by the constitutional convention of thirty-three members. John Mason Peck, the Baptist missionary, who stopped there while the convention was in session, was informed that "every room was occupied, and every bed had two or more lodgers."8+ Kaskaskia was not in a position to profit by the immigration which was surging through Shawneetown and up the Mississippi to the northwestern coun- ties, and with the removal of the capital and the newspaper to Vandalia in 1820 it began to decline again. Following a flood in 1844, the county seat was removed to Chester and during a subsequent inundation the Mississippi cut a new channel to the Kaskaskia just above the town, so that all there is left today of the first capital of Illinois is a building or two on an island in the Mississippi.
Fifteen miles farther up the American bottom, near the north- western corner of the county, was the old French village of Prairie du Rocher, nestling under the bluffs which gave it the name. Schultz found about forty Catholic families there in 1807. Brown's Western Gazetteer (1817) reported "sixty to seventy French families; the streets are narrow-there is a cath- olic chapel." The village was on the road from Kaskaskia to St. Louis, and in 1816 Archibald M'Nabb advertised the opening there of a "house of private entertainment." The best-known tavern, however, was that of Pierre La Compte, which, after his death in 1818, was carried on by his widow. There were no other towns in Randolph county when Illinois became a state, although a couple of speculators were advertising the town of Blenheim "situated about thirteen miles from the town of Kaskaskia, at the junction of Horse creek and the Kaskaskia river . ... it lies immediately on the direct line from Kaskaskia to Belleville, Edwardsville and St. Louis, on a road exempt from the unavoidable inconveniences connected with the present route to those places."
84The descriptions of Kaskaskia from which quotations have been made are found in Brown, Western Gazetteer, 27; Dana, Geographical Sketches, 154; Mason, Narrative, 56; Babcock, Memoir of Peck, 97.
85 Intelligencer, October 2, 1816, April 22, May 13, 1818.
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The smallest county in Illinois in 1818 and the only one which is larger today than it was then, was Monroe, situated on the Mississippi just above Randolph. Its boundaries at that time did not include the township which now projects to the eastward. With an area of about 340 square miles, Monroe county had a population of 1,37I according to the schedule of the first census of 1818. The number of families was 227, and there were 4I servants or slaves and 6 free negroes. After the supplementary census was taken, the total population was reported as 1,517, giving the county an average density of nearly six to the square mile. While there were settlers in all parts of the county, the regions of greatest density were the Mississippi bottom and the higher lands in the north central part extending from the New Design settlement near the center beyond the site of Waterloo. From New Design southward, John Mason Peck traveled in 1818 "for sixteen miles, without a house, to the French village of Prairie du Rocher," while Mason, the following year "saw only three houses" from Waterloo to Prairie du Rocher.86 When the county was organized in 1816 the seat of justice was fixed at Harrisonville on the Mississippi about midway between the northern and southern boundaries, and a dinner was held at M'Clure's tavern in celebration of the event. A few months later M'Night and Brady were advertising a sale of lots in Carthage, "formerly Harrisonville," but the latter name was restored by legislative enactment in December, 1816. In 1818 the county commissioners advertised the sale of a number of lots in the town. There were probably about fifty families in Harrisonville and its vicinity when the census was taken. Water- loo, the present county seat was laid out in 1818 by Daniel P. Cook and George Forquer "at the well known stand of Mrs. Ford, on the road leading from Kaskaskia to St. Louis, 36 miles from the former, and 24 from the latter place. It is surrounded by a beautiful and fertile country and a population of 50 families within 5 or 6 miles." The public sale of lots took place at Har- risonville, the first Monday in April, after which the "few lots" remaining unsold were to be purchased from Forquer "on the
86Babcock, Memoir of Peck, 97; Mason, Narrative, 55.
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premises." There is no evidence, however, of any influx of set- tlers before the census was taken, and as late as November, 1819, a traveler reported that he "lodged at Waterloo, a town without houses. Only two families in the place. Every land speculator produces one or more of these dirt-cabin villages."87
St. Clair, the oldest county in Illinois, had been reduced by 1818 to its present boundaries with the exception of Prairie du Long precinct which has since been transferred to Monroe county. Within this area of about 725 square miles there dwelt 5,039 people, according to the final report, making the density about seven to the square mile, higher than that of any other county. The schedule of the first census has been burned in part while that of the supplementary census, which added 520 to the original figure of 4,519, has not been found, but it is evident from what is available that the families averaged between six and seven members. Even in this most densely populated part of the state, therefore, there was only about one family to each square mile, and as part of the population lived in the villages the statement of the county historian that "the settlements were so sparse that seldom did neighbors live nearer than two miles to each other" is probably not far from the truth. St. Clair county was one of the first regions to attract the American pioneers in considerable numbers, and some years before the close of the territorial period settlements had been established in all parts of the county. The metropolis of the county was the old French village of Cahokia which at one time had rivaled Kaskaskia, the capital. Schultz found "about a hundred and thirty houses" there in 1807, "one dozen of which may be inhabited by Americans." The county seat was at Cahokia at that time, and after this was removed in 1814, there was probably a decline in population. Brown in his Western Gazetteer (1817) describes the village as "situated on a small stream, about one mile east of the Mississippi, nearly opposite to St. Louis. It contains about 160 houses, mostly French." Dana's Geographical Sketches (1819) also mentions
87 Intelligencer, June 12, October 2, 1816, February 4, March II, May 13, 1818; Laws of Illinois Territory, 1816-1817, P. 3.
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one hundred and sixty houses but in another place gives the popu- lation as about five hundred. Mason, a pessimistic traveler who passed through in 1819 speaks of it as "a small village called Cahokia, a miserable, dirty little hole" and again as "a small and unimproving village."88
As the American settlers in the interior of the county increased in numbers, the desire grew to have the county seat in a more central location and in 1813 commissioners were appointed by the legislature to select a new site. In March, 1814, the commis- sioners decided in favor of the cornfield of one George Blair, and in accordance with the usual practice in such cases Blair agreed to donate to the county an acre of land for the county buildings and one-fifth of the lots in the town, to be laid out in the adjoining twenty-five acres. The survey was made at once and the June term of court was held at Blair's house. The plat was not recorded, however, until a few years later when Gov- ernor Edwards had become the proprietor. In December, 1817, he was offering lots at sixty dollars until the end of the year, after which date they were to be a hundred dollars each. By the time Illinois became a state Belleville had a courthouse, jail, general store, one or two taverns and possibly other establish- ments. Dana described it as "a flourishing new town" but it is doubtful if it had 150 inhabitants.89
A still smaller place was Illinoistown, though now, under an- other name, it has become the largest city in the county. As early as 1815 the advantages of the site directly across the Missis- sippi from St. Louis were observed and it was platted as a town with the name of "Jacksonville." The property soon changed hands and was replatted as the "Town of Illinois," the lots being sold at auction in St. Louis, November 3, 1817. The following March, Simon Vanorsdal gave notice of his intention to apply "for an order to establish a Town . . on a tract of land con- taining 100 acres, lying on the Mississippi river, opposite St. Louis." Whether this was to be a rival or an addition to Illinois- town does not appear. A tavern and a store existed near the
&Schultz, Travels, 2:39; Brown, Western Gazetteer, 27; Dana, Geo- graphical Sketches, 150, 154; Mason, Narrative, 53, 62.
#History of St. Clair County (1881), 183-185; Intelligencer, May 22, 1816, December II, 1817; Dana, Geographical Sketches, 154.
GURDON S. HUBBARD [From original owned by H. W. Fay, De Kalb]
1
ALEXANDER WOLCOTT From original painting owned by Chicago Historical Society
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east end of the ferry to St. Louis as early as 1815, and a traveler who passed that way in November, 1819, speaks of "the town of Illinois, on the Mississippi, a little village opposite St. Louis."90
Before 1818 St. Clair county had extended east to the third principal meridian, but in January of that year the eastern part including the modern Washington and all of Clinton except the . northern tier of townships was set off as Washington county. In this area of 900 square miles, there dwelt, according to the final report, 1,819 people, an average of about two to the square mile. There were 265 families, 16 with 113 souls having been added by the supplementary census. The number of free negroes was 19 and there were 28 servants or slaves. This small popu- lation was very unevenly distributed over the county, however, probably nine-tenths being in what is now Clinton county. Set- tlement had progressed eastward and northward up the Kas- kaskia and the streams flowing into it from the north until by the close of 1818 there were a few inhabitants in each of the town- ships of this region. The northeastern township, however, being mostly prairie, had only two or three families of settlers. South of the Kaskaskia and of Crooked creek, in the modern Washing- ton county, it is doubtful if there were 200 people. A few fam- ilies were living along the river, there were the beginnings of a settlement in Plumb Hill precinct near the center, and two or three families had established themselves on the road from Vin- cennes to Kaskaskia. Most of the precincts of the county, how- ever, did not receive their first settlers until near the middle of the next decade.
When Washington county was organized there was no town within its boundaries, and the county seat was fixed at a place on the south side of the Kaskaskia near the center of the county where an old trail from Kaskaskia to Peoria crossed the river. The town of Covington was immediately platted on the site "on a very extensive and liberal plan," and an attempt was made in the convention to have it selected for the capital of the state. The advantages of the place were advertised in glowing terms
"History of St. Clair County (1881), 298; Intelligencer, April 1, 1818; Ma- son, Narrative, 51.
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ILLINOIS IN 1818
in the Intelligencer of July I, and on July 29, the county com- missioners gave notice of a public sale of lots on the first Monday in September. The town appears to have had very few settlers, however, and with the division of the county and the removal of the county seat it disappeared from the map. A more prom- ising venture was Carlyle, "beautifully situated on the west bank of the Kaskaskia river, at the well known crossing of Hill's Ferry . . having the great United States road from Vincennes to St. Louis, the roads from Shawneetown, the Saline and the Ferries on the lower Ohio, to the mouth of Missouri and the great Sangamo country passing thro' its principal street." The town was "laid off in squares of two acres, having its main- street 75 and its other streets 66 feet in width, each square having an alley 20 feet in width passing through its center .- A public square, church lots, &c."91 The public sale of lots was advertised to begin on September 29, 1818, and the following year Dana reported the town "in a flourishing condition." A sale of lots in the rival "Town of Donaldson" laid out on the opposite side of the river "just at the point where the two leading roads from the east to the west, unite" was advertised for the first Monday in November, 1818; but Donaldson appears to have been stillborn. Carlyle and Donaldson, like Covington, aspired to become the capital of the new state.
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