Outline

Struggle for Empire :

Early Origins to 1815

1100 AD Heyday of Mississippian (Cahokian) Mound Builders

1300 Mysterious decline of the Mound Builders

1500 Cahokia (Illini) Indians settle in region

1539 De Soto reaches Mississippi

1656 French Jesuits reach Mississippi

1673 Marquette and Joliet reach ESL area

1675 La Salle claims Mississippi Valley for France

1699 Village of Cahokia founded

1720 Slavery introduced to St. Clair County area

1724 First recorded flooding of the Mississippi

1756 Outbreak of French and Indian War

1763 Treaty of Paris ends war and cedes territory east of Mississippi to British

1764 St. Louis founded by Pierre Laclede

1765 Richard McCarty builds mill and trading post in modern ESL

1769 Chief Pontiac killed near Cahokia

1770 Richard McCarty begins first ferry service between ESL and St. Louis

1771 Tired of the frontier, McCarty's wife returns to Montreal

1775 American Revolution begins; McCarty gains clear title to 400 acres

1776 Declaration of Independence signed; McCarty transfers allegiance to Americans

1777 Capt. James Piggott serves under George Washington

1778 George Rogers Clark captures captures Kaskaskia and Cahokia from British

1779 Clark negotiates treaty with local Indians; McCarty's original buildings destroyed

1780 Clark's troops, including Piggot and McCarty, capture Vincennes and Ft. Jefferson

1781 McCarty killed by Indians; Virginians begin settling American Bottoms

1782 Piggot brings first large group of American settlers to Illinois

1783 Piggot "marries", is arrested, freed, and brings more settlers; British leave Illinois

1784 Virginia renounces claim to the West (including Illinois) paving way for NW Ordinance

1785 Land Ordinance of 1785 allows regular land surveys; Highest floods ever recorded

1787 Northwest Ordinance passed; Slavery outlawed in Northwest Territory

1789 Piggot officially marries his wife and builds mill and trading post at ESL

1790 St. Clair County organized

1791 Arthur St. Clair is defeated by Indians at Ft. Wayne, IN

1792 Piggot establishes ferry and first permanent settlement at site of modern ESL

1794 Tecumseh defeated at Fallen Timbers; Piggot buys riverfront and bridges Cahokia Creek

1797 Piggot acquires "perpetual" ferry rights to St. Louis from the Spanish governor

1799 Piggot dies; His widow leases ferry rights

1800 Bloody Island forms; French Village settled

1803 Napolean acquires Louisiana Territory and sells it to the U.S.

1804 Lewis and Clark expedition begins near ESL

1805 First family home built in ESL; Zebulon Pike searches for source of Mississippi

1807 Coal discovered in IL

1808 Illinois City platted as a townsite

1809 Monastery built on the largest of Cahokia's mounds

1810 First steamboat reaches Illinoistown

1811 Construction of National Road begins; Tecumseh defeated; New Madrid earthquake

1812 War of 1812 begins; Madison County is created

1814 County seat moved from Cahokia to Belleville

1815 Jacksonville and Alton are platted

1816 Monroe county is created

1817 Illinois City (platted on the Jacksonville site) is changed to Illinoistown