Kankakee Valley Post, Volume 16, Number 22, DeMotte, Jasper County, 12 April 1946 — It Happened in Illincis [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

It Happened in Illincis

By EDWARD EMERINE

VVNU Feature* IT WAS a hot day the late summer of 1673 when Father Marquette and Louis Joliet with their party after a futile journey down the Mississippi, came back up a stream later known as the Illinois river to claim the land for the glory of France and to convert the heathen for the glory of God. That event Introduced Illinois to modern history books, but long, long before that. . . . A great inland sea lay over all of Illinois, with huge sharks and armored Ashes swimming in it. Ages later, the sea levels were lowered, and there were vast coastal marshes with forests of tall fern trees. Decaying vegetation fell into black water to be compressed and hardened and later to become coal. Eventually the sea dried up, and out of the north came the cold wind to change the tropical climate of Illinois. Growing glaciers moved southward, crunching and grinding, until there was a sheet of ice covering all but a small *ip of the state. Birds and animals retreated before It, or died. And then came a day when Illinois lay in the sun again, wet and muddy and smooth. Plants reappeared. Grass grew luxuriantly, new kinds of trees sprang up. Lakes were changed to marshes, and marshes transformed into prairies. By and by, men came to live along the rivers and bury their dead in mounds. Known as mound dwellers, they were followed by others whom we know as Indians. In those days, herds of bison roamed the lush prairies and drank from the mud holes. In 1671, La Salle crossed the portage from the Chicago to the Illinois river probably the Arst white man to visit Illinois. He later fortiAed a camp near the present site of Peoria, which he called Fort Crevecoeur. About 1700 two settlements were formed by Indians, wandering traders and missionaries one at Kaskaskia, the other at Cahokia. In 1717, these settlements were annexed to the province of Louisiana,

as the district of Illinois. The name “Illinois” was derived from Illini, a confederation of Indian tribes. In 1720, Fort Chartres and three new villages were established by the French, and the entire district was put under a military commandant. By the treaty of Paris in 1763, Illinois was ceded to the English, but they couldn’t take possession until they made a treaty with Chief Pontiac two years later. Then Illinois became a part of Quebec province In 1774. It was not until 1783 that It was formally ceded to the United States, and then largely because an expedition of Virginians under Gen. George Rogers Clark resulted in virtual conquest of the region. Virginia, Massaqhusetts and Connecticut all held claims to Illinois at one time, but finally ceded their interests to the United States, and the region became a part of the Northwest Territory.

From 1800 to 1809, however, the state we know as Illinois was a part of Indiana territory 1 It was then organized as the territory of Illinois, the seat of government being at Kaskaskia. The first territorial legislature convened in 1812, and Illinois was admitted to the Union in 1818. Shadrach Bond was the first governor. Serious Indian troubles beset those who ventured early into Illinois. The Sacs and Foxes were eventually moved across the Mississippi river in 1823, and Black Hawk was defeated in 1832. Settlement then proceeded rapidly. Families poured into the state from the south, from New England, and from many foreign lands. Chicago, the state's greatest city and second in size of all American cities, was almost left out of Illinois. When Illinois became a fullfiedged state, a strip of land 51 miles wide was added to the northern boundary of the original territorial limits. Today this strip of land, with its Lake Michigan shore line, contains 55 per cent of the state’s population—and Chicago! A lot has happened in Illinois. Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormon church, was killed at Nauvoo in 1844. The Illinois and Michigan canal was built in 1848, and the Illinois Central railroad was constructed from 1850 to 1856. In 1848, the state barred slavery, and there followed the historic debates of Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas. Illinois sent 214,133 soldiers into the field during the Civil war. In 1871 occurred the great Chicago fire, and the railroad and Haymarket riots took place soon after. Chicago was host to the World’s Columbian exposition in 1893, and to the Century of Progress exposition in 1933-34. And there was, of course, the gang warfare of prohibition days! In Illinois, John Deere gave to

the world the steel plow. Wild Bill Hickok, the western sheriff, was born south of Mendota. Ulysses S. Grant was an Illinois cobbler when the Civil war broke out. At Starved Rock, a band of Indians starved to death rather than surrender to their enemies. Headed by the Harpe brothers, an outlaw gang used Cave in Rock on the Ohio river as headquarters. One of the oldest settlements in the state, Shawneetown, was recently moved in its entirety to higher ground to escape fiood waters. Vandalia was once ths capital of the state, before Springfield was selected. Indian mounds, built basketful by basketful of earth, carried by man, may be seen at Cahokia. The list grows long. All happened in Illinois, where Abraham Lincoln split rails, kept a store, and wooed Ann Rutledge. With an elevation ol 267 feet at Cairo and 1,241 at Charles Mound, Illinois is covered for the most part with a deep layer of glacial drift, but in the river bottoms are deposits of alluvial silt, forming a rich loam of unusual fertility. It is a land of corn and grain, fat livestock and fine homes. In the south part of the state, known as “Egypt,” is an extension of the Ozarks, with fruit orchards, coal mines, scenic grandeur. There’s Jo Daviess county in the northwestern part with beautiful Apple River canyon. Everywhere in Illinois are landmarks hallowed by the name of Abraham Lincoln. A lot of things have happened in Illinois enough, in fact, to make It one of the great livestock, dairying, farming, mining, oil-producing and Industrial states of the Union, nor does it lack in the development of education, science, literature and art. It is truly a great state. Its people made it that way.

DWIGHT H. GREEN Governor of Illinois

MOTTO: National Union and State Sovereignty

Chicago Is America’s second largest city. Above is skyline from the lake front.