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CAHOKIA: ITS SPIRIT OF RELIGION
DEDICATION OF THE OLDEST CHURCH EDIFICE IN ILLINOIS
Black ruin had fallen on Cahokia, when in 1783, the first crude church, that served the inhabitants of this little hamlet was destroyed by fire. Despair settled upon the entire community, and though the spirit of religion was not lost, or appreciably diminished, sixteen long years passed before an earnest attempt was made to build a new church edifice. But now there had come, in February 1799, a saintly priest, Reverend Father Jean Olivier, who, animated by great zeal and unexampled piety, and encouraged by his active and zealous brother, Reverend Father Donatien, and the leading inhabitants of the community, decided to build a worthy House of God. The time was most propitious, men of the character of a Nicholas Jarreau (Jarrot), a Louis Le Compte, a Francois Saucier, an Ettienne, Louison and Louis Pinconeau, the Voudrie brothers, and other influential pioneers were already men of affluence and comparative wealth, and they lent their best efforts to the planning and building of the new church. And truly they builded well. To the Voudrie brothers was entrusted the actual work of building, and they and their men cut the timber in the wood lot of the Cahokia Commons. The Commons contained about four thousand acres, heavily wooded. The walls of the church were hewn walnut logs; the floor split cottonwood, and the roof cypress clapboards. The contractors were paid, partly in money, but mostly in hides and grain which they shipped to New Orleans and sold in that thriving market. In later years during the pastorate of Rev. Robert Hynes, in 1912-13 the original walls were covered with sheeting to preserve them.
The older and the aged men, among them the leading citizens, were deputized to escort the celebrant, Reverend Donatien Olivier, pastor of the church of St. Joseph at Prairie du Rocher; the Vicar-General, Reverend Father J. T. Rivet, pastor of Vincennes, Indiana, and other missionary priests of St. Louis, Kaskaskia and Ste Genevieve, from Father Jean Olivier's humble three-room house, that stood to the rear of the church, to the doors of the new church. The women of the parish, directed by energetic Madame Nicholas Jarreau and Madame Louis Le Compte, formed in double ranks through which the procession was to wend its brief course, all carrying wisps of flowers or sprigs of the still verdant trees. Suddenly the tinkling of the church bell announced the coming of the Vicar-General and the clergy, in formal procession, and all the faithful; white, colored and red, sank for a moment onto their knees, in reverential ceremonial, and when they arose the choir burst forth in the glorious songs incident to the occasion, and later, when Mass was begun, intoned the wondrous ritual, beginning with the Kyrie Eleison and ending with the Agnus Dei. And then musket shots sounded and the St. Clair militia presented arms; the little bell once again tinkled and then all the faithful streamed forth and sang the Marsellaise, the anthem of La Belle France . . . and the strains of martial music echoed and re-echoed from the forest glade. All that day, and far into the night, the streets of Cahokia resounded with gayety and laughter. The honored visiting guests were feted and dined in the homes of the wealthier citizens. Vivacious youth danced on the village green, and the thirteen starred flag of the United States, and the tri-color of France were raised on lofty Liberty-poles; linking intimately religion and patriotism. The old French days were still brightly visible, but the new American ways, blending the French and the American races into one were already, though slowly, gaining the ascendency. Cahokia, on this festive day, was a seat of government ... a Court of justice within its midst ... and this very day, September 8, 1799, a cross had again been raised above sacred walls. Cahokia was this day become a new daughter of a universal church; it was this day a part of the great American Republic; rich and merry and generous and eloquent with the great river, the Fathers of Water, at its very boundaries. The clatter of wooden carts and the sound of shod feet, the rattle of musketry and the swish of the oar had this very day come to its ears. Its men still moulded public opinion, and brawny whiteclothed servants performed its menial tasks, under the direction of the home-loving women. The village was still crowded daily and in the marshes still glistened the long rays of motes stretching across the waters from the lowlying sun. Cahokia was then on this day, September 8, 1799, rededicated anew. It soon fell into a long, long sleep, yet it was destined to greater glories, as the future revealed, and as this brief story has pictured inadequately perhaps, yet romantically and withal accurately. Let us then, now that we have envisioned the new church in 1799, now in May 1943 the historic church, read on.
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