ROADSIDE HISTORY OF ILLINOIS

© 2013 Stan Banash

Cover painting: Transforming the Prairie by Ken Holder. Panel from mural at Illinois State Capitol, Springfield, one of four panels commissioned for the capitol’s centennial celebration in 1988. Photo by Heather Hayes, courtesy of the Office of the Secretary of State.

Maps by James Lainsbury.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Banash, Stan, 1940-

 Roadside histor y of Illinois / Stan Banash.

        pages cm. — (Roadside history series)

 Includes bibliographical references and index.

 ISBN 978-0-87842-599-0 (paperback : alkaline paper)

1. Illinois—History—Anecdotes. 2. Illinois—History, Local—Anecdotes. 3. Cities and towns—Illinois—History—Anecdotes. 4. Historic sites—Illinois—Anecdotes. I. Title.

 F541.6.B36 2013

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For my children, Maria, Stan Jr., Dina, Patrice, and Katherine, all of whom weathered motor trips through Illinois to visit most of the memorials and monuments on the Illinois state map. Hopefully, these experiences left within them a better appreciation for and an understanding of the people, places, and events that played a significant role in the development of the Prairie State.

Contents

Preface

Illinois Chronology

Illinois Facts

State Song

Illinois Originals

Special Introduction by Dee Brown (with Author’s Note)

OVERVIEW: A Brief History of Illinois

REGION 1

Southern Illinois: Between the Great Rivers

Ohio River Scenic Byway (IL 37, IL 169, US 45, IL 145, and IL 146): Cairo–Golconda

IL 146: Golconda–IL 3

Ohio River Scenic Byway (IL 146, IL 1, and IL 13): Golconda–Shawneetown

IL 13: Old Shawneetown–Murphysboro

IL 37: Marion–Salem

IL 15: Mount Carmel–Mount Vernon

US 50: Lawrenceville–Salem

US 51: Carbondale–Centralia

Great River Road National Scenic Byway (IL 3): Murphysboro–Waterloo

I-64 and US 50: East St. Louis–Lebanon

I-55/I-70 and IL 159: East St. Louis–Edwardsville

Great River Road National Scenic Byway (IL 3, IL 143, and IL 100): Cahokia–Grafton

Other Communities and Sites of Interest in Southern Illinois

REGION 2

Western Illinois: Utopia on the Prairie

Illinois River Road (County Rte 1 and IL 100) and IL 106: Brussels–Pittsfield

I-72/US 36, I-172, and IL 96: Pittsfield–Hamilton

US 136 and US 24: Hamilton–Peoria

Great River Road (IL 96 and IL 522) and US 34: Hamilton–Galesburg

I-74: Galesburg–Rock Island

US 34: Galesburg–Princeton

Other Communities and Sites of Interest in Western Illinois

REGION 3

Central Illinois: Lincoln’s Legacy

IL 3, Otterville Road (County Rte 9), and IL 16: Grafton–Hillsboro via Jerseyville

Old Route 66 (IL 157), I-55, and IL 4: Edwardsville–Springfield

I-72/US 36 and US 67: Springfield–Beardstown

IL 125, IL 123, and IL 97: Springfield–Havana via Pleasant Plains

I-55 and US 66: Hamel–Lake Springfield

IL 54: Springfield–Clinton

I-55: Springfield–Bloomington-Normal

I-155, IL 122, and IL 29: Lincoln–Creve Coeur via Delavan

IL 116, IL 117, and US 24: Creve Coeur–I-39/US 51 via Metamora

US 51: Vandalia–Decatur

Other Communities and Sites of Interest in Central Illinois

REGION 4

Eastern Illinois: More than You Expect

IL 37 and US 45: Salem–Effingham

US 40: Effingham–Marshall

IL 16: Pana–Paris

IL 32 and IL 133: Windsor–Arcola via Arthur

I-72 and US 45: Decatur–Rantoul

US 45 and I-57: Rantoul–Kankakee

I-55 (Old Route 66) and IL 53: Bloomington-Normal–Wilmington

IL 17, IL 18, I-39/US 51, and IL 71: Dwight–Starved Rock State Park

IL 1/US 150: Lawrenceville–Danville

IL 1: Danville–Watseka

Other Communities and Sites of Interest in Eastern Illinois

REGION 5

Northern Illinois: Rock River and Beyond

Great River Road National Scenic Byway (IL 84 and US 20): Moline–Galena

IL 92, IL 78, IL 172, and IL 40: Moline–Rock Falls via Prophetstown

Ronald Reagan Memorial Highway (I-88): Rock Falls–DeKalb

Lincoln Highway (US 30, IL 2, and IL 38): Fulton–DeKalb

US 52 and IL 89: Dixon–Spring Valley

US 6: Spring Valley–Morris

IL 71, Millbrook Road (County Rte 14), and Fox River Drive (County Rtes 1 and 15): Ottawa–Plano

US 34, County Rtes 41 and 6, US 30, and I-39/US 51: Mendota–Rochelle

IL 2: Dixon–Rockford

US 20: Galena–Rockford

US 20, IL 176, and IL 47: Rockford–Woodstock

Other Communities and Sites of Interest in Northern Illinois

REGION 6

Greater Chicagoland: Metropolitan Diversity

Stevenson Expressway (I-55) and IL 171: Chicago (Bridgeport)–Joliet

I-55: Summit–Plainfield

Ogden Avenue (US 66 and US 34): I-290 (Chicago)–Aurora

IL 31: Aurora–West Dundee

Eisenhower Expressway (I-290) and Roosevelt Road (IL 38): Chicago (Loop)–Wheaton

I-294 (Tri-State Tollway) and US 14 (Dempster Street): I-290 (Elmhurst)–Skokie

I-94: Skokie–Libertyville

US 12 (Rand Road): Des Plaines–Spring Grove

Sheridan Road: Chicago (Rogers Park)–Waukegan

Other Communities and Sites of Interest in Greater Chicagoland

REGION 7

Chicago: City of Neighborhoods

South Lake Shore Drive (US 41): Roosevelt Road–67th Street

North Lake Shore Drive (US 41) and Sheridan Road: Roosevelt Road–Devon Avenue

Michigan Avenue: Wacker Drive–Roosevelt Road

Wabash Avenue, Van Buren Street, and Wacker Drive: The Loop

Michigan Avenue: Wacker Drive–Oak Street

Clark Street: Oak Street–Foster Avenue

North Wells Street and Lincoln Avenue: Wells Street Bridge–Devon Avenue

JFK Expressway and Dan Ryan Expressway (I-90/I-94): Kinzie Street–Garfield Boulevard

Dan Ryan Expressway and Bishop Ford Freeway (I-94): Garfield Boulevard–130th Street

Milwaukee Avenue: Kinzie Street–Montrose Avenue

JFK Expressway (I-90): Montrose Avenue—O’Hare International Airport

Other Communities and Sites of Interest in Chicago

Acknowledgements

Bibliography

Index

Preface

Illinois comprises more than 1,200 incorporated cities, towns, and villages, each with a history of its own. Writing about each municipality would be a Herculean task, and I had to omit many more stories than I would have liked. The communities selected for this book were associated, for the most part, with people and events that helped to mold and define our state. I established criteria for each choice—maybe it was the site of a major event, or perhaps a prominent person was born there, lived there, or contributed in a significant way to its regional history.

When I began researching this book, I found myself asking: Is it possible that one person—Abraham Lincoln—actually made such a profound impact in all corners of Illinois? The answer is a resounding yes. Lincoln’s role in this state’s history was monumental, and his influence extended the length and breadth of Illinois. Among Lincoln’s many contributions were his service as a soldier, a traveling attorney, a state representative, a U.S. Congressman, and an American president.

I felt it was important to include troubling events along with positive ones. Slavery and its prejudicial laws; the Trail of Tears; Indian depredations at Fort Dearborn, Hutsonville, Wood River, and other early settlements; the Haymarket Square Riot; the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre; and many more distasteful happenings are still subjects of heated debate and intense emotion. Yet the innovations that came out of Illinois were momentous: the G.I. Bill of Rights; the Plan of Chicago; Hull-House; modern dentistry; and myriad agricultural inventions as well as cultural creations from the Ferris Wheel to the fly swatter and from Raggedy Ann to Dairy Queen. All, for good or bad, were part of our state’s history, and all have the potential to help us better understand the past, appreciate the present, and plan the future.

As with the other titles in the Roadside History series, this book is organized along roadways. Some trips stick to major interstates, others follow official scenic byways, and a few wind along county roads. Many of these routes trace old Indian trails, wagon roads, military roads, or railroad lines. The view from some of these motorways has not changed much in more than a century, rolling through the same countryside where early settlers drove their wagons and livestock. Along the way, the contributions of hardworking pioneer families are reflected in small communities and modern cities alike. In addition, these drives will reveal to travelers Illinois’s incomparable scenic beauty—verdant farms and wildflower prairies, idyllic lakes and rushing rivers, dense conifer forests and sleepy cypress swamps.

This book’s tours are designed to help both visitors and residents discover and savor the historical, cultural, and natural opulence of this great state. It is my hope that readers will find Roadside History of Illinois entertaining, informative, and even enlightening. If it inspires just one person to further explore the Prairie State and its remarkable history, it will have served its purpose.

Illinois Chronology

Illinois Facts

State song: Illinois

Official state song by Charles H. Chamberlin, 1925

Music by Archibald Johnston

New verses by Win Stracke, 1968, in celebration of the Illinois Sesquicentennial

(VERSE 1)

By thy rivers gently flowing, Illinois, Illinois,

O’er thy prairies verdant growing, Illinois, Illinois,

Comes an echo on the breeze,

Rustling through the leafy trees,

And its mellow tones are these, Illinois, Illinois,

And its mellow tones are these, Illinois.

(VERSE 2)

From a wilderness of prairies, Illinois, Illinois,

Straight thy way and never varies, Illinois, Illinois,

Till upon the inland sea,

Stands thy great commercial tree,

Turning all the world to thee, Illinois, Illinois,

Turning all the world to thee, Illinois.

(ORIGINAL VERSE 3)

When you heard your country calling, Illinois, Illinois,

Where the shot and shell were falling, Illinois, Illinois,

When the Southern host withdrew,

Pitting Gray against the Blue,

There were none more brave than you, Illinois, Illinois,

There were none more brave than you, Illinois.

(ORIGINAL VERSE 4)

Not without thy wondrous story, Illinois, Illinois,

Can be writ the nation’s glory, Illinois, Illinois,

On the record of thy years,

Abraham Lincoln’s name appears,

Grant and Logan and our tears, Illinois, Illinois,

Grant and Logan and our tears, Illinois.

(NEW VERSE 3)

Eighteen eighteen saw your founding, Illinois, Illinois,

And your progress is unbounding, Illinois, Illinois,

Pioneers once cleared the land

Where great industries now stand,

World renown you do command, Illinois, Illinois,

World renown you do command, Illinois.

(NEW VERSE 4)

Let us pledge in final chorus, Illinois, Illinois,

That in struggles still before us, Illinois, Illinois,

To our heroes we’ll be true

As their vision we pursue

In a biding love for you, Illinois, Illinois,

In a biding love for you, Illinois.

Illinois Originals

ILLINOIS WAS THE HOME OF:

The first African American settlement in the nation (Brooklyn, 1825); in 1873 Brooklyn became the first incorporated African American town in American history

The inventor of the steel-bladed plow (John Lane of Lockport, 1833)

The first town in the United States platted and registered by an African American (New Philadelphia, founded by Free Frank McWorter, 1836)

The first racially integrated private school in the nation (Otterville, Hamilton Primary School, opened 1836)

The first and only U.S. president to receive a patent for an invention (Abraham Lincoln of Springfield, May 22, 1849)

The first completed land-grant railroad (Illinois Central Railroad, September 27, 1856)

The inventor of the two-horse cultivator (William Weir of Monmouth, 1862)

The first council meeting of the Union League of America (Pekin, June 25, 1862)

The first post of the Grand Army of the Republic (Decatur, April 6, 1866)

The first woman in the nation to receive a law degree (Ada Miser Kepley of Effingham, graduated from Union College of Law in Chicago, June 30, 1870)

The first retail mail-order catalog company in the world (Chicago, Montgomery Ward & Company, founded 1872)

The inventor of the upright grain silo (Fred Hatch of Spring Grove, 1873)

The first skyscraper in the world (Chicago, Home Insurance Building, designed by William Le Baron Jenny, 1885)

The first African American Catholic priest in the United States (Fr. Augustine Tolton of Quincy, ordained April 24, 1886)

The inventor of the automatic dishwasher (Josephine Garis-Cochran of Shelbyville, 1886)

The inventor of the game of softball (George Hancock of Chicago, 1887)

The first African American–owned and –operated hospital in the United States (Chicago, Provident Hospital, founded by Daniel Hale Williams, 1890)

The inventor of the mechanical Braille writer (Frank H. Hall of Jacksonville, 1892)

The first successful open-heart surgery in the world (Chicago, Provident Hospital, performed by Daniel Hale Williams, 1893)

The inventor of the Ferris Wheel (George Washington Gale Ferris of Galesburg, 1893)

The first eighteen-hole golf course in the United States (Wheaton, Chicago Golf Club, 1894)

The first automobile race in the United States (Chicago to Evanston and back, November 28, 1895)

The first juvenile court system in the nation (created by state legislature in Springfield, 1899)

The inventor of the fly swatter (Robert R. Montgomery of Decatur, 1900)

The first Walgreens drugstore (Chicago, founded by Illinois native Charles Walgreen, 1901)

The first 24-hour solar-powered generator (Olney, Willsie Power Company, founded by Henry E. Willsie and John Boyle Jr., 1902)

The first African American–owned film production company (Chicago, Foster Photoplay Company, founded by William Foster, 1909)

The creator of the Tarzan stories (Edgar Rice Burroughs of Oak Park, 1912)

The inventors of nonperishable processed cheese (Kraft brothers of Stockton, 1914)

The first mile of the Lincoln Highway, the nation’s first trancontinental concrete roadway (Malta, November 14, 1914)

The creator of the Raggedy Ann stories and doll (John Barton Gruelle of Arcola, 1915)

The inventors of the pickup-style mechanical hay baler (Horace M. Tallman and Raymore McDonald of Shelbyville, 1929)

The creator of the cartoon sailor Popeye (Elzie C. Segar of Chester, 1929)

The inventor of the [Hostess] Twinkie (James Dewar of Oak Park, 1930)

The discoverer of Pluto, then considered the ninth planet (Clyde Tombaugh of Streator, 1930)

The first American woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace (Jane Addams of Chicago, December 10, 1931)

The first Dairy Queen soft-serve ice cream shop (Joliet, 1940)

The first controlled nuclear chain reaction (Chicago, University of Chicago, December 2, 1942)

The first American Roman Catholic saint (Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini of Chicago, canonized July 7, 1946)

The first African American Pulitzer Prize winner (Gwendolyn Brooks of Chicago, May 1950)

The first Baha’i Temple in the Western Hemisphere (Wilmette, dedicated May 2, 1953)

The first McDonald’s franchise restaurant (Des Plaines, opened April 15, 1955)

The first ultrasound images of the human body (Lemont, Argonne National Laboratory, 1957)

The first African American U.S. president (Barack Obama of Chicago, elected November 4, 2008)

Special Introduction

By Dee Brown

Author’s Note: American writer and historian Dee Brown wrote these remarks after reading this book’s original draft, shortly before he died in 2002, poignantly noting, This is the last piece of formal writing from my pen. I am deeply grateful for his guidance and encouragement during the project’s embryonic stage and sincerely regret that he is unable to see its completion. It is my hope that I have lived up to his expectations.

Good fortune afforded me an opportunity to live in Illinois for a quarter of a century. When I first arrived there I was under the false impression that the state’s past was a series of rather dull incidents spread over monotonous prairies, occasionally illuminated by the celebrated Rail Splitter, Abraham Lincoln. Perhaps our greatest president. After a few explorations of the differing areas of Illinois (and how different they are!) I discovered that had Lincoln never existed, or had he lived in another state, the myriad of historical events, the sites and scenes, still formed a fascinating pattern—challenging to historians, storytellers, and poets.

Nevertheless, any exploration of the Illinois past should probably begin with the Lincoln story, and for that we need a trustworthy guide. No better pilot is likely to be found than the author of this book because Stan Banash believes in accuracy combined with an interesting and informative narrative. Banash not only includes the basics but brings Lincoln into related actions and places where his presence adds interest.

The Lincoln basics of course take place in New Salem and Springfield, where the participating characters in the events are presented with the flair that is made possible for the re-creation of the town where Lincoln spent his youth and the city where are preserved various places where the great man came to maturity.

So many important matters originated in Illinois, so many great human beings began their lives here—outstanding personalities who often made their marks elsewhere in the world with original ideas and actions and inventions galore, [such as the] great agricultural revolution that made it possible for the American Middle West to feed the world occurred within and around this energetic state.

Among the most important events that originated here, but proceeded across the American West was the Lewis and Clark expedition. Below present-day Alton on Wood River near Bellefontaine, the expedition was planned, recruited, outfitted, and organized. With all the care that modern astronauts used for the first journey to the moon, Lewis and Clark built a keel boat, trained their young soldiers, and began their incomparable journey.

A half century later, another event that culminated outside the state originated at Mattoon. Here occurred a portentous incident that forecast the conquest of Mississippi, Tennessee, and finally Virginia and the Union victory in the Civil War. In June 1861, with the war going badly for the Union, Ulysses S. Grant came to Mattoon to muster an infantry regiment into state service. At the time Grant was considered a failure in civilian life, with no outstanding record as a military officer. A [decade] and a half later, Grant was honored in Mattoon for service to the nation.

Illinois provided more than its share of Civil War generals, some outstanding, [others] occasionally mediocre. Perhaps the state’s most dramatic commander is celebrated at Jacksonville, in Morgan County. They celebrate Benjamin Grierson, a musician who hated horses but became one of the Civil War’s greatest cavalrymen. Grierson led a daring raid through Mississippi, an operation designed to take Confederate pressure off Grant at Vicksburg. Because of the daring drama of the raid, Grierson has been memorialized in history, fiction, and film.

In his arrangement of this book, Mr. Banash has cast the Illinois past into regions: southern, western, central, eastern, northern, and greater Chicagoland; Chicago, being Chicago, has a section all its own. Here are the pioneer French and their relations with the nation’s tribes. Stephen Douglas achieved fame, there was a great fire and a martyred cow, politics, politics, politics, the Union Stock Yard, and an early movie industry.

Illinois has not been blessed with such a book as this for more than half a century. But here we come to the old saying, the proof is in the pudding and let us proceed to the main course.

—Dee Brown

Little Rock, Arkansas

Overview:

A BRIEF HISTORY OF ILLINOIS

The land that became the state of Illinois began under layers of ice. Over a period of about 250,000 years, climatic changes melted and moved the glacial ice that once covered about 75 percent of the existing state’s landscape. By around 12,000 BC, the glaciers that formed during the Illinoian and Wisconsinan periods had exposed flat lands, meandering rivers, lakes, swamps, rolling hills, and other geographical formations, in addition to rich soil, an abundance of bituminous coal, and scattered deposits of oil in the future Prairie State.

Early Native American Cultures

Paleo-Indians arrived in future Illinois around 12,000 BC and remained about 4,000 years, moving throughout the Mississippi River Valley and other riverside locations. They often stayed in small, temporary camps as they followed migrating large game, but they sometimes set up larger villages. These prehistoric Native Americans fashioned primitive stone tools, woven baskets, and clothes of animal skins. Succeeding them was the Archaic Culture, which evolved through Early, Middle, and Late periods. Less nomadic than the Paleo-Indians, the Archaic peoples cultivated native plants in addition to hunting and gathering.

Around 1000 BC, the Early Woodland Culture began to take over, followed by the Middle and Late Woodland Cultures. The Woodland peoples, who inhabited the Illinois and Mississippi River Valleys for about 2,000 years, are believed to be the first to build burial mounds in Illinois. They also eventually developed pottery, long-distance trade, rock art, and the bow and arrow. During the Woodland period, around 200 BC, the Hopewell Culture, another mound-building society, also emerged in Illinois’ river valleys. The last prehistoric native group were the Mississippians, who lived throughout Illinois and whose mounds can still be seen at Cahokia Mounds, Dickson Mounds, and other sites.

When Europeans arrived in the late 1600s, the Illiniwek Confederation—a loose alliance of Algonquian tribes who shared the same language and culture—dominated the northern Illinois River Valley region. Made up of the Cahokia, Kaskaskia, Michigamea, Moingwena, Peoria, Tamaroa, and related tribes, the Illiniwek numbered about 25,000 members in total.

European Explorations and Territorial Disputes

In May 1673 French explorer Louis Jolliet and Jesuit missionary Père Jacques Marquette, along with a crew of seven, paddled their two large canoes along the Fox, Mississippi, and Arkansas Rivers in an unsuccessful attempt to find a river route to the Pacific Ocean. They returned via the Mississippi, Illinois, and Des Plaines Rivers, portaging to the Chicago River and Lake Michigan, where they paddled north to Green Bay. In the spring of 1675, Marquette returned to the Illinois country and established the Church of the Immaculate Conception on Kaskaskia Island.

Seven years after the Jolliet and Marquette expedition, René-Robert Cavalier, Sieur de La Salle, accompanied by his friend, Henri de Tonti, and others, came to Illinois to lay claim to the Mississippi River Valley for France. In 1680, near today’s Peoria, they built Fort Crevecoeur. Only a few months later, however, when both La Salle and de Tonti were away, the post’s small garrison mutinied and destroyed the fort. La Salle and de Tonti returned to the region in 1682 and built Fort St. Louis atop what is now called Starved Rock. De Tonti later built a second Fort St. Louis (also called Fort Pimiteoui) near Lake Peoria. But France was unable to hold onto the region for long. In 1763, after the French and Indian War, France surrendered its claims east of the Mississippi River to the British.

Great Britain, too, soon lost its control of Illinois country and all its American colonies after its defeat in the Revolutionary War. In 1778 Virginian George Rogers Clark captured Fort Kaskaskia for the colonies, and a year later, as commander of the Kentucky and Illinois militias, he seized control in Vincennes. With Illinois in American hands, Virginia took over the region. Other states laid claim to parts of the territory as well, but by 1786 they had all relinquished their claims in the Northwest Territory to the federal government.

From Territory to State

Illinois country remained part of the Northwest Territory until 1800, when it became part of Indiana Territory. Nine years later, Illinois Territory, which encompassed present Illinois as well as Wisconsin and parts of Minnesota and Michigan, was established, with Kaskaskia as its capital. Ninian Edwards was appointed the first governor of the Illinois Territory, and Nathaniel Pope was named the first territorial secretary. The latter was influential in establishing the northern boundary of the future state of Illinois. Illinois won its statehood in 1818, with Shadrach Bond elected governor. The territorial capital of Kaskaskia became the state’s first capital.

In 1820 the state capital was moved to Vandalia, reflecting a population shift inward. Illinois was growing, and state leaders began to focus on improving infrastructure such as roads and bridges, railroads, and the Illinois & Michigan Canal. Federal funds were needed. After several failed attempts, Daniel Pope Cook, U.S. Congressman from Illinois (and namesake of today’s Cook County), succeeded in passing legislation in 1827 that granted the state nearly 150,000 acres on each side of the canal route.

Nathaniel Pope, first territorial secretary —Courtesy Schaumburg Township District Library, Illinois Collection

Daniel Pope Cook, first Attorney General of Illinois —Courtesy Schaumburg Township District Library, Illinois Collection

By dividing the land and selling parcels, Illinois was able to finance the canal construction, which began in 1836 and was completed twelve years later. Much of Chicago’s early growth has been attributed to the Illinois & Michigan Canal. In the meantime, a young state legislator named Abraham Lincoln helped lead the push to relocate the state capital from Vandalia to Springfield. This time the move, which took place in 1839, was permanent.

Indian Relocation

In 1815 the Sauk and Mesquakie (Fox) tribes agreed to end hostilities against settlers and move west of the Mississippi River, but a splinter group of about 400 or 500 warriors along with some 2,000 women and children under the leadership of Ma-ka-tai-me-she-kia-kiak (Black Hawk) stayed firm. After a short-lived rebellion failed, Black Hawk’s followers tried again in the spring of 1832. The Black Hawk War, a three-month conflict that ended in early August, resulted in Black Hawk’s defeat and the relocation of his people. The following year, the Potawatomi, Ottawa, and Chippewa tribes signed the Treaty of Chicago, which ceded northeastern Illinois to the United States, pushing out most of the few remaining Indians in the state.

In the late 1830s, under the authority of the Indian Removal Act of 1830, the federal government completed its systematic relocation of all Indians east of the Mississippi to reservations in the West. In the summer of 1838 about nine hundred Potawatomi were forcibly marched from north-central Indiana across central Illinois to a reservation in present Kansas. The treacherous journey, which cost the lives of more than forty Potawatomi (mostly children), became known as the Trail of Death. Several months later, the tragedy was repeated when about 13,000 Cherokee were forced from their homelands in Georgia and North Carolina to march across southern Illinois to Indian Territory in present Oklahoma; about 3,000 died en route. This march came to be called the Trail of Tears.

Increasing Settlement and Development

Although some intrepid settlers and fortune seekers had braved moving into Illinois as early as the 1820s, the removal of the Indians in the late 1830s marked the beginning of widespread settlement in the state. In 1837 the town of Chicago incorporated as a city, attracting easterners and European immigrants. In southern and central Illinois, settlers established homes and industries along the rivers and ventured inland to establish ethnic and religious colonies, such as the Swedes at Bishop Hill, the Mormons at Nauvoo, and the Amish at Arthur.

Meanwhile, transportation was expanding, contributing greatly to Illinois’ growth. The completion of the nearly one-hundred-mile Illinois & Michigan Canal in 1848 enabled goods to be shipped from Chicago to New Orleans and elsewhere through the canal to the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers. Around the same time, overland transportation took a giant stride when the Northern Cross Railroad, the first railroad in the state, began its eight-mile first run in 1838. Eighteen years later, the final spike of the Illinois Central Railroad was driven in at Mason, linking Chicago with Cairo.

It was also a time for innovation. John Lane of Will County invented the steel-bladed plow, which was further developed and marketed throughout the Midwest by John Deere of Moline. In Chicago, Cyrus Hall McCormick manufactured his mechanical reaper. Later, other Illinoisans developed such agricultural innovations as the mechanical hay baler, hybrid corn, the vertical silo, and barbed wire.

Slavery and the Underground Railroad

At the time Illinois became a state, slavery was a murky issue. Much of Illinois was abolitionist, but many citizens, especially in the southern part of the state, supported slavery. In 1824 the proslavery faction proposed a constitutional amendment to legalize the dubious institution, but Illinois’ second governor, Edward Coles, and others ultimately defeated the referendum.

Despite pockets of slavery sympathizers, Illinois was a major part of the Underground Railroad. Runaways from slave states entered Illinois at riverfront towns such as Alton, Cairo, Chester, and Quincy and headed north through Chicago to Canada and freedom. Along the way, abolitionists hid the fugitives in their homes, businesses, churches, and barns. Slave catchers continued to be a threat even after the adoption of the 1848 state constitution, which prohibited involuntary servitude in Illinois. Slavery was still a contentious issue in 1858, when Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas held their legendary senatorial debates in seven cities across the state.

The War of the Rebellion

Aside from a few proslavery areas, Illinois overwhelmingly supported the Union cause as the nation prepared for war, and the state exceeded its quota of volunteers to serve in the Union Army. Illinois’ central location put it north of the major battlefields, so its citizens feared little from Confederate forces. Moreover, Chicago’s secure location enabled it to become a major hub for producing and transporting food and supplies for Union troops.

In addition to soldiers, Illinois produced some extraordinary battlefield nurses, notably Mary Ann Bickerdyke of Galesburg and Mary Newcomb of Effingham. The Prairie State was also the home of two major figures of the Civil War era, President Abraham Lincoln and General (later President) Ulysses S. Grant.

During the war, four prisoner-of-war camps were established in Illinois. The largest was Camp Douglas, on the outskirts of Chicago; this prison became notorious for its unhealthy conditions and high death toll, but improvements were later made to mitigate the problems. Camp Douglas, along with the prisons in Alton, Rock Island, and near Springfield, were all closed by the summer of 1865.

The Industrial Era

After the Civil War, Illinois saw years of industrial expansion and prosperity. Chicago in particular became a railroad, manufacturing, and commercial behemoth and a magnet for immigrant workers. Although the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 devastated the city, it soon rebuilt with bigger and better-constructed buildings while expanding its manufacturing and meatpacking industries. By 1893 Chicago was ready to showcase itself at the World’s Columbian Exposition, a huge international event that elevated Chicago in the eyes of the world.

The late nineteenth century also saw the emergence of modern retailing, with Chicago’s Marshall Field’s, Carson Pirie Scott, Walgreens, and others in the vanguard. Elsewhere in the state, agriculture remained the paramount industry, augmented by the mining of coal and other minerals in central and southern Illinois.

While mining benefitted the state’s economy, it was a dangerous occupation. After numerous mining accidents, labor activists began clamoring for protections and benefits, fostering the rise of unions and other labor organizations. Workers in Illinois’ railroad, steel, meatpacking, and other industries joined in the union movement as well. Violent conflicts occurred during strikes in Chicago, Virden, and elsewhere in the late 1800s and early 1900s. As a result, laws to improve working conditions in Illinois were passed, and Chicago became a strong union town. Meanwhile, deplorable living conditions and injustices in Chicago’s struggling neighborhoods were brought to light by Jane Addams, Julia Lathrop, Ida B. Wells, Mary Augusta Safford, and others who helped improve the lives of the poor and working classes. These women also worked for universal suffrage in America, a goal that would finally be achieved in 1920.

The dawn of the twentieth century brought new vision to art, culture, and urban development in Chicago. In 1909 architects Daniel H. Burnham and Edward H. Bennett created their Plan of Chicago, one of the first urban-development plans in the United States. The plan recommended the creation of public parks and beaches, public transportation systems, cultural facilities, and public art. While not everything in the proposal was implemented, its ideas influenced not only the development of modern Chicago but the field of city planning itself.

As the automobile came into greater use, a need for improved roadways emerged in Illinois and the rest of the nation. In 1914, just west of Malta, the first seedling mile of a transcontinental roadway later known as the Lincoln Highway was laid down using a new construction material called concrete.

War, Peace, and Progress

Some 300,000 Illinoisans joined the service during World War I, and thousands of Midwestern recruits were trained at Fort Sheridan and the Great Lakes Naval Training Center. In addition, the Rock Island Arsenal produced weapons, artillery, and ammunition for American troops, and the facility continued to develop military technology during World War II and subsequent wars.

Prohibition and the 1920s was an unsettling time in parts of Illinois as Al Capone and other gangsters terrorized the Chicago area, and the Charlie Birger and the Shelton Brothers’ gangs ran amok in the south-central part of the state. Then the Great Depression hit, creating hardships for many Illinois families. President Franklin Roosevelt’s federal New Deal programs helped mitigate the crisis by providing jobs through the Civilian Conservation Corps, and federal art, writing, and theater programs promoted culture in both urban and outlying areas. Another bright spot during the Depression was Chicago’s Century of Progress Exposition in 1933 and 1934, in which the Windy City celebrated its first one hundred years and even turned a profit from the event.

World War II was a technological turning point for Illinois and the nation as the work of Enrico Fermi and other scientists in Chicago gave birth to the atomic age. With the discovery of how to split the atom, scientists created the two atomic bombs that ended the war in the Pacific in 1945. Returning World War II veterans eager to build new lives received support through the newly created G.I. Bill of Rights, which was drafted in downstate Salem in 1943 and signed into law the following year.

Modern Times

After World War II, Illinois and the rest of the nation saw the expansion of interstate highways, suburban development, commercial aviation, and myriad new technologies. In Chicago, the opening of O’Hare International Airport made the city a national aviation hub. Over the next fifty years, the city continued to develop while wrestling with racial tensions, social unrest, and a changing economy.

As more and more highways crisscrossed the state, both large cities and small towns gained access to outside resources and populations became more diverse. Housing construction sprawled into what had been farmland and traditional manufacturing slowly gave way to high-tech and service-oriented industries. Increased energy needs led to the construction of seven nuclear power stations in the state, beginning in the 1960s. More recently, in the early twenty-first century, wind farms began appearing along the roads and highways, especially in central Illinois.

In 1970 Illinois ratified its fourth constitution, which addressed issues far different from those of earlier decades. Among other things, the document updated rules for voting, taxes, the legislature, the courts, and government responsibilities. The year 1980 saw the election of Ronald Reagan, the only U.S. president born in Illinois. Twenty-eight years later, former Chicago community organizer and U.S. Senator from Illinois Barack Obama became the nation’s first black president.

REGION 1

Southern Illinois

BETWEEN THE GREAT RIVERS

Southern Illinois covers nearly 11,000 square miles between the Mississippi, Ohio, and Wabash Rivers. This region was one of the first parts of the state to be developed, and its history is distinct from that of the rest of Illinois. The earliest settlers made their homes in the Ohio River Valley; later, some ventured farther west to the Mississippi River Valley. Their independence and optimism, triumphs and sorrows are woven into the fabric of regional lore.

Some people refer to southern Illinois as Little Egypt. The source of this moniker may be in the region’s geography, as the mighty Mississippi seemed as imposing as the Nile, and the Mississippi and Ohio River Valleys were thought to be as lush as the valley of the Nile. Furthermore, the area’s ancient Indian mounds, such as Cahokia Mounds, were somewhat reminiscent of the Pyramids. Egyptian town names in the region, including Cairo, Karnak, Thebes, and others, may have either inspired or reinforced the nickname. Some historians and local residents maintain that Little Egypt was so christened in the 1830s, when droughts in the north drove people to turn to southern Illinois for corn—just as people traveled to Egypt to buy corn in Biblical times.

The region discussed in this chapter extends across the southern part of the state from the St. Louis metropolitan area to the state’s eastern border. Major features include rolling agricultural farmland, coal mines, recreation on three large man-made lakes, and higher education at two campuses of Southern Illinois University.

Beginnings

Around 300,000 years ago, about 75 percent of the land that later became Illinois was covered with ice. The southern one-quarter, however, was unglaciated and retained its natural topography. Rolling prairies—now mostly farmland—extend from the Mississippi River on the west to the Wabash River on the east, plus a small pocket at the southern tip of the state. South of today’s IL 13 are the Shawnee Hills, which stretch across the state from the Mississippi to the Ohio River. Some know this area as the Illinois Ozarks, with its heavily timbered wilderness and rocky cliffs that tower above the valley floor. Still farther south, the land extends into steep valleys, foothills, swamps, lakes, and the floodplains of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers.

The first occupants of these hills, valleys, and prairielands were various Indian cultures who roamed freely, moving according to the season and the availability of game. Traces of prehistoric civilizations are evident at the Cahokia Mounds, near Collinsville. The disappearance of these prehistoric peoples remains a mystery, though theories abound.

By 1673, when the first French explorers arrived in Illinois, only a few thousand Indians, mostly associated with the Illiniwek Confederation, lived in this region. Concentrated in the Illinois River Valley, the local tribes included the Cahokia, Kaskaskia, Michigamea, Moingwena, Peoria, and Tamaroa. But later, as tribes from the north, south, and east felt the pressure of European encroachment, they pushed into the southern part of the Illinois country. Tribal warfare ensued among the Cherokee, Delaware, Iroquois, Kickapoo, Miami, and Shawnee, and raids on white settlers increased with the population.

European Settlement

In the 1670s, French explorers Père Jacques Marquette, Louis Jolliet, and René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, explored the lands along the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers, seeking to establish trade routes and claim land for France. Their explorations laid the groundwork for white settlements at Cahokia and Kaskaskia in the early 1700s. To strengthen their hold on the region, the French ringed the southwestern perimeter of the Illinois country with military outposts—Fort de Chartres, Fort Kaskaskia, and Fort Massac. These forts became centers of military and political life on the frontier. In 1763 the French ceded some of their holdings in North America, including future Illinois, to the British, who held the region only until the American Revolution, less than twenty years later.

After the war, Easterners began to hear about the vast country west of the Wabash and Ohio Rivers, and some were lured by the opportunities for enrichment there. In 1782 a number of English-speaking settlers established Bellefontaine (near present Waterloo), adding to the settlements of Kaskaskia, Cahokia, and Prairie du Rocher.

Another early settlement, just east of St. Louis, Missouri, was established by Col. Samuel Judy in 1801. Known as Goshen Settlement, about a mile south of present Glen Carbon, it became a major community in the early days. In 1808 the Goshen Road, a wagon road, was built between the settlement and the saltworks near (Old) Shawneetown, on the Ohio River. The road, which crossed southern Illinois diagonally, mostly along Indian trails, was the region’s main east-west road in the early 1800s. Traces of parts of the road still exist, but the exact route of much of the road is uncertain.

It was in the southern region that the roots of Illinois grew. In 1804 Congress chose Kaskaskia as the site of the first federal land office (established to sell land to settlers) in Illinois. Five years later, the federal government created the Illinois Territory and designated Kaskaskia as its first territorial capital. In 1814 the territory’s first newspaper, the Illinois Herald, was published in Kaskaskia.

The land office in Kaskaskia and, later, those in other southern Illinois towns attracted settlers, who claimed land, built cabins, established farms, raised livestock, and eked out a living while maintaining a watchful eye for roaming Indians. Many gathered together to form villages and towns. When Illinois became a state in 1818, the territorial capital of Kaskaskia was selected to be the first state capital.

At first, as settlement developed, the region’s Indians were, for the most part, peaceful. But as westward expansion continued, some young tribal members responded to the white man’s encroachments by occasionally raiding isolated cabins, sometimes murdering settlers and travelers. Most of these actions were not sanctioned by tribal leaders, but the whites still held them accountable. Finally, as part of national policy, during the winter of 1838–39, thousands of Cherokee men, women, and children were forcibly marched across the sparsely settled southern part of the state to Indian Territory in the West. More than 3,000 died en route, earning the relocation program notoriety as the Trail of Tears. By the early nineteenth century, nearly all Native American tribes in Illinois had been relocated to reservations west of the Mississippi River.

Slavery and War

Throughout the first half of the nineteenth century, slavery was a contentious issue in Illinois, though relatively few slaves ever lived in the state. Slavery had been prohibited in Illinois from its inception as a territory, and the first state constitution, adopted in 1818, also banned the slave trade, though people who already owned slaves were allowed to keep them. Nevertheless, political battles over slavery raged in the state until the Civil War. Many slaveholders and slavery sympathizers lived in southern Illinois, and some landowners there held slaves illegally. The proslavery factions tried several times to reverse the prohibition against involuntary servitude, but they were unsuccessful.

In the meantime, abolitionists in southern Illinois were also actively fighting for their beliefs. Southern Illinois’ geographical location made it a gateway for the Underground Railroad. The river crossings at Cairo, on the Ohio River, and Alton and Chester, on the Mississippi River, were major entry points on the freedom trail of secret havens inside the houses, barns, caves, churches, and cabins of many towns in Illinois.

When the Civil War broke out, Illinois declared itself a Union state, even though pockets of Confederate sympathy remained, especially in the southern region. The war drew military attention to this area due to its proximity to several slave states and, equally crucial, the strategic importance of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. In 1861 Cairo, the southernmost city in Illinois, became the site of several Union army camps as well as a naval base. The city’s Fort Defiance served as headquarters for Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, a resident of Galena, Illinois. Although no battles were fought in Illinois, river towns such as Cairo were important supply bases and tactical posts for the Union.

Industrial Era and Beyond

During the Civil War, railroads proved their inestimable value. Afterward, Illinois’ rail lines were expanded, opening up the state’s interior to broader markets, fostering economic growth, and establishing new towns. The steam-powered locomotives and riverboats drew on southern Illinois’ vast timber and coal reserves until both fuels were replaced by diesel power. The timber industry continues to feed the region’s economy, though to a lesser degree after nearly two centuries of tree harvesting and clear cutting. Coal, too, is still mined in some counties.

With the accessibility of fuel and river transportation, manufacturing also flourished in the southwestern part of the state. The industrialization of the late nineteenth century attracted immigrants, especially Europeans, to southern Illinois. While Germans mostly took to farming, establishing towns that reflected their culture, Welsh, British, and Eastern Europeans sought work in the coal mines and factories. During World War I, black workers from the South often filled manufacturing jobs left by whites called to active service, especially in the East St. Louis area.

By the late twentieth century, coal and lumber production in southern Illinois had dropped to nearly nothing, and manufacturing had seriously declined as well. While industrial and mining activities continue today in varying degrees, agriculture has remained the mainstay of the economy throughout southern Illinois. Recently, however, community leaders have been putting more emphasis on tourism and recreation, fostering the development of large parks and recreation facilities, museums, visitor accommodations,