Southernmost Illinois History

Explorers' Era in Southernmost Illinois

1600s - Early 1800s:
   Tower Rock, Va Bache, Wilkinsonville

Explorers Marquette and Joliet in 1673 wrote of the unusual Tower Rock in the Mississippi, which has brought centuries of fear and respect from rivermen. They found art on the rock bluffs, in what is now Union County, and the terrible mosquitoes at the mouth of the Ohio River. Lewis and Clark were also fascinated. Lutherans from Germany landed and settled here (on the Missouri side, opposite Grand Tower) and established Concordia Seminary, now in St. Louis, which spread the faith across North America.

A French buffalo-hide tanning plant - Va Bache in 1703 (probably near Joppa, not far from Cantonment Wilkinsonville, but a century earlier) led to the brutal slaughter of 13,000 buffalo that roamed Southern Illinois. Outposts were set up far and wide, across the region, from near current St. Louis, to northern Tennessee, to receive the skins. The skins took seven years to process. Malaria and native Americans helped stop tanning operation. Some researchers place the operation nearer Mound City.

 Moyers' History of Pulaski County

Pierre François-Xavier de Charlevoix came by Cairo about 1721 and noted it would be a good place for a fort.

Forts Massac, Vincennes, Kaskaskia

While George Washington's troops survived the Valley Forge winter of 1777-78, then routed the British from Philadelphia, George Rogers Clark took Illinois territory (Kaskaskia, Cahokia, Vincennes) from the redcoats on the western front [map: Massac to Kaskaskia].

George Rogers Clark established Fort Jefferson, just south of present Wickliffe, a few miles south of the Ohio-Mississippi confluence, to help maintain the Southern Illinois and Indiana forts he had taken for Virginia.  UKy description | Rootsweb details  Fort Jefferson was short lived, but some of it was put back into action during the Civil War.  Part of its high hill position had slid into the river during the New Madrid quakes of 1811-12.

One of the oldest roads in Southernmost Illinois is the Caledonia Road connecting Caledonia Landing (Olmsted) with Jonesboro, and "lined with chicken feathers" from animals being carried for sale.

Lewis and Clark stopped at Ft. Massac.
Lewis & Clark at Massac: Nat'l Park Service
lewismassac, journal, wilkinsonville, trail_1.jpg, canoe1.jpg, flatboat, confluence, juchereau
Saved by Rush's pills
Ft. Massac: general information

Wilkinsonville: Half the US Military in 1802

Cantonment Wilkinsonville, a large U.S. military camp used for only a few years, overlooked the Ohio near Grand Chain at the top of the Ohio River's crescent shape, between Cairo and Metropolis. Cantonment Wilkinsonville is one of Southernmost Illinois' best kept secrets. Many longtime residents near the site are not even aware it existed. Spain, France, England and the US all claimed territory almost within physical sight of it, and war seemed inevitable until French emperor Napoleon sold the Louisiana Purchase.

Wilkinsonville helped the United States win and almost lose the West, right here. Lewis and Clark hustled on past, on the opposite side of the river, not stopping to chat.  Col. Wilkinson and Aaron Burr considered absconding with the troops to start their own country in the southwest. Search Wilkinson - Aaron Burr conspiracy.

Lewis and Clark stopped four days in Cairo (map of campsite location) to familiarize themselves with their surveying instruments.

Here's a map of the Mississippi / Ohio River confluence drawn by Lewis & Clark. Until the Louisiana Purchase seven months earlier, the future site of Cairo had been the western edge of the country.

While at Cairo, they practiced using their navigation equipment and began daily logs (example). The canoe pictured is a style used in that time.
Lewis and Clark made their way north on the Mississippi, spending a few nights on sandbars, etc. They stopped in Cape Girardeau. Then, like Marquette and Joliet in 1673, they were fascinated with the "Grand Tower Rock" near Union County's northwestern corner.  Lutherans from Germany landed at Tower Rock a few decades later (1839), and began a major North American synod.

D.C. Relocated to Southernmost Illinois?

Washington, D.C. burned in 1812. Planners drew elaborate maps of a new city called "America" just north of Mound City to replace the nation's capitol. The new city for a time was home to 700 people. But it faded. Riverboats couldn't land there because of a sandbar. Fire, possibly arson, burned the town. Disease epidemics took many lives. D.C. was rebuilt. Some street signs still bear the names of states, but it now consists of only a few rural houses.

A large Johnson County began in 1812 as part of Indiana territory, six years before Illinois' statehood, and covered Southernmost Illinois. The other counties were carved from it in the next three decades.

Pirates, Risky Bank Loans

Old Shawneetown in Gallatin County along the Ohio River, has the oldest bank in Illinois, that once refused a loan to folks from the north, because "Chicago would never amount to anything. It's too far away!" A picturesque Greek architecture bank across the street, later, was a main bank in the state in the early 1800s when nearby salt mines were busy.

The Rose Hotel at Elizabethtown was an inn for Ohio River Valley travelers of more than 100 years ago. It is restored, and offers a panoramic view up and down the Ohio.

The Mound City massacre happened in 1813.

Cave-In-Rock, Flatboats

Cave-In-Rock was an Ohio River landmark as early as 1729. It had real pirates ready to steal from and kill unsuspecting settlers headed west. The exterior of the cave is shown in the 1950s classic film, "How the West Was Won".  More from ( IllinoisHistory ) .

Many flatboats came down the Ohio, carrying a family's entire possessions. Many were recycled for their lumber, but one was recently found. {Schwegman article}. Researchers found a flatboat near 'America' [pics].

Trail of Tears

In 1830, Congress passed a bill permitting the removal of all Native Americans living east of the Mississippi River. The Cherokee "Trail of Tears" [-more-] in 1838-1839 crossed the Ohio at Golconda then followed what is now Rt. 146 through Vienna, Anna, Jonesboro, to Cape Girardeau, as they came from the Carolinas to Oklahoma [map]. The white settlers' greed for their gold mines helped force out the Cherokees.

In 1820, the Bridges Family established a tavern and a wayside store in far southern Illinois for guests traveling Old Lusk´s Ferry Road, between the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. In 1838, part of the Bridges´ property was used as a winter encampment for the Cherokees. The timber-plank walls of the wayside store—the state´s only known surviving structure with a connection to the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail—remain intact within an existing barn on the property. It is near Route 146, two miles west of Route 37.

Thousands made the trek. Many of them died in the cold. Shawnee Native Americans across the area were an advanced, peaceful group, driven by white settlers from of the Ohio-Kentucky area. Shawneetown was named after them.