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Struggle For Empire: Early Origins to 1815
23,000 B. C. - Mother Nature forms the Mississippi Basin (melting ice and snow from the last ice age), the American Bottom (reaching a maximum width of 11 miles near present-day Granite City) and the great Central Lowlands. The glacier that covered much of North America during the Wisconsinian Period stops about 100 miles north of the area. Prevailing westerlies sweep across the silty alluvium in winter months and deposit a soil known as loess on the eastern bluffs.850-1500 - An Extensive Indian culture flourishes in the area during the Mississippian period. Visual evidence of prehistoric settlement is found in numerous earthen mounds scattered across the area.
A massive building, 105 feet long by 48 feet wide by 50 feet high, once stood at the top. Here the Indians' principal ruler lived, conducted ceremonies, and governed the people below. At its zenith, the city contained about 20,000 inhabitants. The Mississippians built a wooden wall 12 to 15 feet high around 300 acres of the central city.
1300 - Mysterious decline in population of Cahokia Mounds sets in. By 1300 A. D., Cahokia lay abandoned. The area's natural resources were probably depleted; a climatic change in the 13th century may have affected their food supply; famine, disease, or warfare could have played a role. Later tribes had no knowledge of the site to explain to Europeans what happened. Archaeologists sometimes call the place "Sun City" due to various symbols of the sun found on assorted artifacts.1500 - Cahokia Indians, a sub-tribe of the Illini, begin to settle in the region.1539 - Hernando Desoto, a Spanish explorer with thirteen pigs and a small band of men, discovers the Mississippi River.. It will become known by its Sioux Indian name (Messipi) which, roughly translated, means "Father of Waters." Since the Indians in this area have no gold, Spanish authorities lose interest in establishing settlements here.
1656 - The Mississippi Valley area is discovered by French Jesuits. They are interested in establishing settlements, building churches and converting the natives.
1673 - Father Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet explore Mississippi as far south as the Arkansas River and stop in this area. French authorities in Quebec wanted them to determine whether the river emptied into the Pacific and was the famed Northwest Passage to India which had stifled imperial ambitions for over two hundred years. They are the first Europeans to set eyes on the land that would become East St. Louis.
1699 - French Jesuit priests build a house and a chapel in Cahokia, making it the oldest settlement on the Mississippi and in the interior of the U. S. Click here to read about the Romantic Story of Cahokia
1720 - Philip Renault, Director General of Mines in New France, brings 200 of the first slaves to Kaskaskia from Santo Domingo to dig mines in the Fort Chartres area and look for gold and silver. He already knew lead was there. Thus slavery is introduced to the St. Clair County region. Silver Creek in St. Clair County gets its name from the fact that some silver was found in the stream.French "habitants" (settlers) are given long, narrow strips of land, usually one arpent in width, with frontage on the Mississippi River. 1724 - The first recorded flood in the territory drives French settlers from the Cahokia area east to the bluffs.1750 - Prairie du Pont (French for "meadow across the bridge"), which later was shortened to Dupo, is settled by people from Kaskaskia.One Chevalier Richard McCarty is appointed by the King of France as Governor of Upper Louisiana. McCarty will reside at Kaskaskia. 1756 - Outbreak of the French and Indian War the contest between France and England that would determine which nation would rule America.
1764 - Pierre Laclede (a French resident of New Orleans) and Rene Auguste Chouteau, with a force of thirty men, begin building cabins and plant the good city of St. Louis as a fur trading center. It was named in honor of Louis XV, the reigning king of France, whose patron saint was Louis IX, better known as Saint Louis. He secretly hoped that a city at St. Louis might lead to the peaceable transfer of the original French settlements in nearby Illinois back to the rule of France which had lost them to the British by the Treaty of Paris, 1763. The north side of St. Louis was dotted with numerous Mississippian temple and burial mounds, giving it the nineteenth century nickname, "Mound City." The town was laid out following a grid pattern similar to that of New Orleans. The founding of St. Louis causes large numbers of French settlers in Cahokia to leave that oft-flooded city and relocate in St. Louis which is situated on higher ground. Richard McCarty, a forty-year-old Irish Protestant, turns Catholic in order to marry a seventeen-year-old French girl in Montreal, Ursule Benoit. McCarty served as a supply officer and helped the British capture Montreal in the French and Indian War. McCarty is seen by many as a shady character because it was thought that he secretly worked for both sides in the recent conflict. 1765 - Richard McCarty, a Connecticut transplant, settles 400 acres on both sides of Cahokia Creek. He builds a mill and a trading post on marshy acreage between present-day St. Clair Ave. and Illinois Ave., just west of the present stock yards. He called his settlement St. Ursule in honor of his French-Canadian wife who remained in Montreal. McCarty enters the profitable Indian trade and expands his operations to Cahokia. This is the first record of a settlement on the present site of East St. Louis.1769 - Great Ottawa Chief Pontiac killed by an Illini Indian at Maplewood near present-day East St. Louis. The Peoria Indian (he killed him from behind with a tomahawk) had been bribed to commit the foul deed by a British trader named James Wilkinson.
1770 - "English" McCarty sells grist mill and builds a crude, but sturdy, raft to serve as a ferry to transport passengers and freight between Illinoistown and St. Louis.
1771 - Richard McCarty's wife, Ursule, is persuaded to come with the kids and live in Illinois, but she stays only a brief time. Having a strong dislike for frontier life, she returns with the kids to Montreal to live with her parents. McCarty stays behind to pursue a new career as an Indian trader where profits often run as high as 800 percent.1772 - George Rogers Clark, a Virginian, trades with the local Indians near Cahokia Creek and reports the stream to be knee deep.1775 - American Revolution begins with the skirmish at Lexington and Concord. James Piggott, a captain in the Pennsylvania militia, is living with his family as a squatter on land that had been abandoned by the previous owner. His background was French Huguenot (Protestant) but his parents had lived in England a while before migrating to the colonies.Back then, it was the responsibility of the captain to do the recruiting. He would do this by going to the taverns and socializing with the men and buying them drinks. The main inducement to get others to join was the government's offer of free land to those who served.
1776 - When the Declaration of Independence is formally adopted, Richard McCarty, despite his reputation for duplicity, abandons his enterprise and becomes a loyal ally to George Rogers Clark and his men. He will use his own funds to help outfit the militia unit at Cahokia.1777 - Piggott's Eighth Pennsylvania battalion (684 men) is ordered by General Washington to leave Pennsylvania and march to New Jersey where they are needed for reinforcements after the battles of Princeton and Trenton. Piggott leaves behind his wife and three sons. His group will serve as lookouts for Washington's main army, only seven miles from Lord Cornwallis and his men. After participating in the battles of Brandywine Creek and Germantown in Pennsylvania, Piggott sends General Washington a letter asking permission to resign his commission so he can go back to Pennsylvania and defend his family from Indian attacks. The request is granted.1778 - Captain James Piggott is at Fort Pitt (later Pittsburgh) helping to fight the Revolution against the British.
1779 - George Rogers Clark holds a powwow with Indian representatives of numerous tribes at Cahokia. With the help of Richard McCarty, now a captain in the Cahokia militia, he is able to win their oath of neutrality in the war with the British.Richard McCarty's original mill and post are swept away by a great flood while he is wading through the drowned lowlands with George Rogers Clark's Virginia army on a mission to capture Vincennes from the British. It was never rebuilt. Captain Piggott organizes a group to leave Fort Pitt and float down the Ohio River in keelboats to migrate to George Rogers Clark's new settlement at Fort Jefferson, Kentucky. Each settler is promised a reward of 400 acres by Clark. (Clark Jr. High on State Street is named for him.) 1780 - George Rogers Clark, along with Richard McCarty and 170 men, make the Impossible March to capture the British fort at Vincennes. It was located on the Wabash River at the present Indiana/Illinois border. Clark tricked Henry Hamilton, the fort's commander, into thinking he was being attacked by a superior force. McCarty convinces Clark to spare the life of Chief Pontiac's son because Pontiac had once spared McCarty's life during his rebellion. Several months later, Clark promotes McCarty to major and appoints him as commander of Fort Bowman at Cahokia as a reward for serving with distinction in the Vincennes campaign.Richard McCarty organizes a relief expedition to help the inhabitants of Fort Jefferson who are under Indian attack. He richly deserved his new rank of major. McCarty and Piggott probably meet for the first time. Captain James Piggott's wife Eleanor dies, along with seventeen others, from malaria and malnourishment at Fort Jefferson which is near present day Wickliffe, Kentucky. The fort had been under siege by the British and Indians. Piggott, a veteran of Revolutionary War (1775-1783) fighting in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Kentucky, will be considered as the founder of East St. Louis. Although Richard McCarty built the first mill and ferry on the site of present-day East St. Louis, his handiwork did not endure and he lost interest in the project. Piggott most likely first heard about the site from Richard McCarty while the two of them were serving with George Rogers Clark. 1781 - Despite help from McCarty's relief expedition to Fort Jefferson, Piggott and others (mostly Virginians) evacuate the fort. Virginia was faced with a new British threat in the east and was forced to abandon support of the western campaign, leaving settlers to fend for themselves. Piggott's sons (William, Levi and Jonas) are with him. Now that George Rogers Clark has secured the western frontier, settlers from Virginia become the first Americans to migrate to the area. They label the strip of land from Alton to Chester, from the Mississippi River to the bluffs, the American Bottom. The Bottom area was created by a surge of water that was released by Mother Nature at the end of the last ice age. The river was much wider, and the valley was a lot deeper back then. In those pre-historic days, the Mississippi emptied into the Gulf of Mexico at a point just south of Cape Girardeau, Missouri.Richard McCarty faces a court martial on charges stemming from alleged misconduct during the relief expedition from Cahokia to Fort Jefferson. He is found not guilty, but is forced to apologize to his superiors for some of the harsh things he said during an angry exchange. He had fallen out of favor at Cahokia, so he leaves and settles in Kaskaskia. At Kaskaskia, he makes out a will and leaves everything to his wife and four kids back in Mount Royal (Montreal). He then decides to return to Montreal to be with his family. On the way, he and others in his group are met by a force of Weas (a branch of the Miami) Indians who overrun his campsite near the Wabash and Ohio Rivers. They kill and scalp him. His trading post at St. Ursule was never rebuilt and the land lay fallow for 70 years. 1782 - Captain Piggott leads the first large group of American settlers into Illinois at Fort Kaskaskia - a band of seventeen families from Kentucky. They have been promised 400 acres each. Piggott is a scholar, a warrior and a man of considerable enterprise.1783 - At Kaskaskia, Piggott begins a relationship with Frances James Ballew. She already has four kids by a man named Bennet Ballew, whom she married against her father's wishes. William James suspected Mr. Ballew to be part Indian due to his "copperery skin," and an adventurer not worthy of his daughter. The father, who owned the Mt. Etny Iron Works in Maryland, disinherited his daughter when he learned the news of her marriage. Bennet Ballew abandoned his family in 1780 (in part because he received no dowry) while they were at Kaskaskia. Piggott and Frances Ballew live together for a number of years before they marry. She will bear him an additional seven children and becomes well-known in the area as a "surgeon-doctor," stitching up those who are injured fighting the Indians.
1784 - The state of Virginia relinquishes its western claims to land north of the Ohio River (based on its original sea-to-sea charter granted by King James I) to the Federal Government. Illinois is a part of the territory and it paves the way for passage of the Northwest Ordinance.1785 - The Land Ordinance of 1785 creates the township grid method of survey, replacing the old "metes and bounds" system used by the early colonials. Each township has thirty-six sections (one square mile each) and section 16 is reserved for the support of public schools.Greatest flood ever in area (according to Indians) takes place. Settlers were in awe and they dubbed it the "l'annee des grands eaux," or "Year of the great waters." 1786-95 - After the Revolution, thirty-five tribes meet and decide to resist American expansion into the Northwest Territory. This includes the Osage, Potawatomi, Kickapoo, Tamaroa, Shawnee, Sauk and Chickasaw. A deadly Indian war ensues against outnumbered Illinois settlers that lasts for nearly ten years.1787 - Danny Boone, son of Daniel, visits the site that would become East St. Louis and crosses the river by ferry to go to St. Louis.Northwest Ordinance establishes criteria for parts of the Northwest Territory (Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Wisconsin) to achieve statehood. Slavery is outlawed in the territory. 1789 - James Piggott finally marries Frances Ballew although no formal document exists attesting to the marriage. Frances Piggott already has a reputation as a lay doctor after performing operations on several who are injured in Indian raids. She also bears James Piggott another child, a daughter named Frances.Piggott builds a mill and a trading post, and cultivates a section of land ten arpents wide. (An acre is about 1.1834 square arpents.) French land grants were usually long and narrow. More people had frontage on rivers, and it allowed farmers to cultivate their land within eyesight of their neighbors which afforded greater safety.
1792-93 - Arthur St. Clair suggests that a ferry be built directly across from St. Louis. At the time, the only ferry in existence ran from a point on the river near Cahokia and Carondelet, Ill. Captain James Piggott and his sons explore an area just north of where Cahokia Creek empties into the Mighty Mississippi. Huge sycamores and cottonwoods dominated the area. Lush winter grass covered the ground. The Indians had used this spot for years as a gathering place to trade with the French in St. Louis. This was where Piggott decided to build his mill. Historian Carl Baldwin says that the vision of East St. Louis was born that blustery fall day.Piggott begins construction of a settlement and connects it to his ferryboat operation on the river with a new road. His thriving business would rival the one located farther south at Cahokia. This new all-weather road ran along the east bank of Cahokia Creek and later became the basis for present-day Piggott Avenue. He also improves a five mile long road from Cahokia (over a trail known as Commonfields Road) to the banks of the Mississippi. The road project will last from 1792-97. Two cabins are built to house workers who do not wish to make the long trip back to Cahokia or Grand Ruisseau at the end of the day. Piggott calls this settlement Washington. 1794 - General "Mad" Anthony Wayne, who at Stoney Point in the Revolution fought like a madman, defeats the Indians at Fallen Timbers near present-day Toledo, Ohio. The battle was so named because a tornado had recently felled huge trees in the area. This defeat takes much of the steam out of Indian resistance in the Northwest Territory.Captain Piggott begins building a 150 foot long timber bridge over Cahokia Creek near present Main and Trendley. It is completed in 1795. The road on the west end of the bridge is known as Menard and leads to his ferry landing at the site of what now is Market Avenue. The Cahokia common field road now crosses the bridge and ends at his ferry landing on the Mississippi. There was a strip of heavily timbered bottom land about a half a mile wide all the way from near the present town of Brooklyn to the mouth of Cahokia Creek, situated near the village of that name. Piggott also buys property on the St. Louis river front to serve as a landing site for his ferry business. The river bank at that time was at present-day Front Street, 700 feet east of where the bank is now. 1795 - A seventh child (Zaccheus) is born to the Piggotts.Piggott's new settlement is well enough established that he moves his family there from Cahokia. 1797 - Captain Piggott secures "perpetual" lease from the Spanish governor in St Louis (Zenon Trudeau) to build two log cabins. He begins operating a hand powered ferry to go back and forth across the Mississippi, landing on the Missouri side at Place d'Armes on Market Street.
1800 - The Mississippi, forced eastward by the muddy Missouri River, begins eating away at the Illinois bank. The river's width grows to a mile and a half at St. Louis. The land that would come to be known as Bloody Island begins to form below Bissell's Point from silt and debris that came from the mouth of the Missouri River. It grew slowly by accretion. The formation of a sandbar (Duncan Island), just slightly south in the river, changed the current and led to the creation of Bloody Island.The existence of Bloody Island, which is 500 yards wide and filled with dense willows and cottonwoods, causes the river to wash away Illinois bottom land that once had been an Indian campsite. The river also intruded on Cahokia Creek and the slough (a body of stagnant water), filling the bed at the southwest comer of Piggott's small village. It turns Cahokia Creek from its former channel past Cahokia, to a new one that empties into the Mississippi further north at St. Louis. Bloody Island becomes a favorite site for cock fights, bare knuckle brawls and duels, since it was away from populated areas and considered to be neutral territory belonging neither to Illinois nor Missouri. Congress divides Northwest Territory into Indiana and Ohio Territories. Illinois was part of Indiana Territory. French Village is settled by M. Delorme, Nicholas Turgeon, August Trotier and Dennis Valentine.
1803 - Charles IV of Spain discovers that the ownership of Louisiana is expensive. Napoleon acquires the territory from the Spanish by treaty. Needing money to finance his European wars, Napoleon decides to accept Thomas Jefferson's offer to buy it for seven cents an acre. The purchase nearly doubles the size of the United States.1804 - Etienne (Stephen) Pensoneau, a French-Canadian, begins operating a ferry from Cahokia to an area in Missouri three miles south of St. Louis.Lewis and Clark expedition to explore Louisiana Territory begins in a keelboat on the Illinois side of the Mississippi near Wood River, a few miles north of presentday East St. Louis along Route 3. There is currently a historical marker noting the site. 1805 - Etienne Pensoneau acquires a tract of land, part of the Cahokia commonfields with Cahokia Creek separating it from the Piggott ferry tract. He builds the first house in East St. Louis at present Main and Market. It is a brick two-story tavern with lodging rooms on the upper floor.Zebulon Pike of the U. S. Army is ordered to find the true source of the Mississippi. He makes his preparations in the American Bottom and leaves his family at Fort Charles, across the river from Alton. This trip was considered a failure but in a subsequent 1806 expedition to explore the Arkansas River, he discovers the peak later named for him. Piggott's widow moves to St. Louis on a farm on the Rock Road near Fee Fee. She will be very active in the Methodist church. Frances Piggott, now remarried to a man named Jacob Collard, rents the ferry business for a ten year period to John Campbell of St. Louis. 1806 - A horse race is held on the frozen Mississippi between Illinois and Missouri - perhaps a forerunner of Fairmount Park and Cahokia Downs. People also hauled wagon loads of coal, grain and lumber across the ice to avoid paying ferry charges.1807 - A small group of Trappist monks discover coal in the area when they observe a bolt of lightning ignite the earth near the base of a tree east of Cahokia Mounds and close to the bluffs.1808 - Illinois City is platted as a town site in the present-day stockyards area.1809 - A full colony of eighty Cistercian Trappist monks from La Trappe, France, settle on the Great Mound built by ancient Indians next to present-day Route 40. At that time, the site was simply known as the "Great Knob." A year earlier, four hundred acres of land was purchased for them by Nicholas Jarrot, founder of Cahokia. The monks made the mistake of drinking from Cahokia Creek (north of the Great Mound) rather than taking the time to dig a well. Several of them nearly died. Cahokia Creek was a waterway that drained the bluffs to the east and was polluted, even back then. Not only did they discover coal when they observed a strike of lightning that ignited the earth, they also uncovered charcoal pits from which they made their gun powder. In 1813, about half of the monks died from malaria or typhoid fever; a year later, the rest returned to France. They gave their land back to Nicholas Jarrot. From that time on, the hill became known as Monks Mound.
Indiana Territory is divided into Indiana and Illinois Territories. At the time, the present state of Wisconsin was included in Illinois Territory, whose capital was at Kaskaskia. Ninian Edwards of Kentucky is appointed Governor of Illinois Territory. He later moved to Edwardsville and became the first governor of the state. 1810 - A grain mill (powered by oxen) is built by Etienne Pensoneau. He also constructed the first courthouse in Belleville.The first steamboat in western waters, Robert Fulton's "New Orleans," travels from Cairo to Illinoistown. The boat was built and piloted by Mr. Roosevelt of New York. A brilliant comet streaked across the sky about the same time and a blast from the ship's whistle brought large numbers of people to the river front to see if the comet had fallen into the Mississippi. Grand Marais is one large lake at this point in time. 1811 - Another hotel/tavern is completed by Etienne Pensoneau at present Main and Trendley. It was a red brick, two story structure run by a Dr. Tiffin.The great Indian chief Tecumseh forms a confederation to drive all whites out of the Mississippi Valley. General William Henry Harrison defeats the Indians at Tippecanoe Creek on the Wabash River. Tecumseh escapes capture and continues to make warfare on settlements. Residents of Illinoistown live in perpetual fear for their lives.
A second quake of lesser strength hits again in 1812. When their chimneys fell down, settlers thought that the Indians were on the roof of their cabins. Church membership increased because people thought the end of the world was at hand. Milder quakes continued to occur periodically. 1812 - Madison County formed from St. Clair County and is named after President James Madison, our country's shortest chief executive. It replaces St. Clair County as the largest in the world, touching the Canadian border to the north.
1814 - County seat moved from Cahokia to Belleville (French for "beautiful city"), formerly known as Clinton Hill. The land was donated by George Blair. Inhabitants wanted a site that was not subject to frequent flooding.1815 - Jacksonville (the Mother of East St. Louis) is laid out by Etienne Pensoneau.He plans to market the lots but sells out in 1816 to a couple of St. Louis woolen merchants named Thomas McKnight and John Brady (Brady Avenue). Five sevenths of the Piggott heirs convey their interest in the ferry and the adjoining hundred-acre tract to McKnight and Brady. The new firm reconstructs the bridge over Cahokia creek, first built by Captain Piggott. Colonel Rufus Easton, a judge of Louisiana Territory, buys a tract of land and lays out the town of Alton, named after his oldest son. He names several of the streets after his children and builds Fountain Ferry at the mouth of Piasa Creek. 1816 - Monroe county formed from parts of St. Clair and Randolph Counties.1817 - Illinois City, plotted on Pensoneau's Jacksonville site, is changed to Illinoistown by the firm of McKnight and Brady. It adjoins the McCarty tract, once known as part of the Cahokia Commons. The plat was recorded in 1825 but the town did not prosper. Cahokians, upset by McKnight and Brady's attempts to lay out a rival city, plan a new town of their own but nothing comes from this. The lots for what Cahokians called Illinois City were sold at auction in St. Louis. It was made a part of East Saint Louis by annexation in 1875 and lies on the southeast part of the city in the First Ward.
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