ST. CLAIR  COUNTY

P. 532  GENERAL ST. CLAIR CREATES THE COUNTY—

       There are many ways in which St. Clair stands at the head of the list. First it was the first county organized within the present state of  Illinois. To be sure the legislature of Virginia created the county of Illinois which should include all settlers north and west of the Ohio river. This was in October, 1778.

GENERAL ST. CLAIR CREATES THE COUNTY

       In March, 1790, when General St. Clair came to Kaskaskia he created by proclamation, the county of St. Clair. This county included all the territory between a line drawn from where Pekin is to Old Fort Massac, and the Illinois, Mississippi and the Ohio. Cahokia was made the capital of the county and a court house was constructed which still stands— in a park in Chicago. As told elsewhere, the territory included in St. Clair was divided in 1795, October 5, the south half being called Randolph. The boundary lines of these two counties was changed several times. By 1812 when Madison county was created, St. Clair was reduced almost to its present limits. It was later enlarged to include most of Clinton and all of Washington. In 1825 it was reduced to its present boundary.

COUNTY SEAT TRANSFERRED FROM CAHOKIA TO BELLEVILLE

       The capital or county seat was first at Cahokia, but in 1813 it was located in Belleville. The site at that time was a cornfield belonging to George Blair, The court house was built by Etienne Personeau in 1814 and about the same time George Blair built a hotel, Joseph Kerr opened a store and the town began to grow.

EARLY SETTLEMENTS

       As early as 1805 there was a mail route established from the city of St. Louis via Belleville (site) to Carlyle. There was a trail from St. Louis to Equality and Shawneetown which passed through Belleville, P 533 Elkhorn (in Washington county), Benton and Equality. Whiteside and Ogle settled in the northeast corner of the county in 1802. Turkey Hill, four miles southeast of Belleville, was settled in 1798 by Wm. Scott, Samuel Shook, and Franklin Jarvis. This is said to be the oldest American settlement in the limits of the county. Ridge Prairie and Badgicy were early settled localities and were settled by the Ogles, Lemens, Badgleys, Kinneys, Whitesides, Pulliams and others including John H. Dennie, Mitchells, Wests, Stuarts and Bennetts. Alonzo C. Stuart and Timothy Bennett fought a duel in 1819. Stuart was killed and Bennett was charged with murder, found guilty, and executed.

GERMAN IMMIGRATION

       Belleville is now composed quite largely of Germans. But the Germans were late corners. In 1825 there were only two Germans in Belleville,
 

ST. CLAIR COUNTY’S FIRST COURT HOUSE, STILL STANDING IN A PARK IN CHICAGO

Conrad Bornman and Jacob Mauer. In 1825 Governor Ninian Edwards bought out Personeau and the site was resurveyed and lots were sold and new settlers come from Virginia bringing their slaves.

       Among the Germans that came to St. Clair county in the 30’s was Gustavus Koerner. He became a very active public spirited citizen. He was elected lieutenant governor with Governor Matteson in 1852. He was identified with the Republican party and held many appointive offices. He died in Belleville in 1896, at the age of 87 years.

JOHN REYNOLDS AND JOHN M. PECK

       Governor John Reynolds lived in the earlier part of the nineteenth century at Cabokia but later made his home in Belleville. He built a railroad from the bluffs across the low lands to the present site of East St. Louis in 1837 for the transportation of coal to the Mississippi river. P 534 This was the first road which was actually finished and used. The motive power was horses.

       Nothing in connection with the story of St. Louis county is so interesting as the life work of John M. Peck, who lived at Rock Spring some two miles west of the present city of Lebanon. Here he established Rock Spring seminary which afterwards became Shurtleff college. This story has been told in connection with the chapter on education. No less interesting is the story and early struggles of McKendree college at
 

COLONEL GUSTAVUS KOERNER OF BELLEVILLE. HE  WAS ONE OF ST. CLAIR‘S MOST HONORED CITIZENS

from the bluffs to the river. The city of East St. Louis occupies the northwest corner of these grants. Nearly all of this land is now owned by individuals and corporations, but there is yet a quantity that has never been alienated by the village. ‘The income from these village lands sustains the schools and probably cares for the village interests. There is little left of the once prosperous town. The old cemetery may still be seen and the old church stands as a reminder of a forgotten age.

       Prairie du Pont was a French village just south of and adjacent to Cahokia. To this old village was also given a grant of commons and common lands. The Prairie du Pont river or creek rises just a couple of miles west of Belleville, flows west through the bluffs and makes its way.
 

THIS WAS THE HOME OF DANIEL STOOKEY, A FEW MILES SOUTHWEST OF BELLEVILLE. IT WAS BUILT IN 1808 AND STILL STANDS

across the alluvial plain occupying a new bed every few years. It was on this stream where it flows into the river that the village grew up.

THE PRESENT COUNTY AND COUNTY SEAT

       St. Clair county has a population of 119,870. It is dotted with villages and many of the farmers are engaged in truck gardening and occupy small farms. The Germans who are numerous in the population, are very thrifty indeed. It is an interesting sight to drive from East St. Louis to Belleville early in the morning and meet hundreds of wagons and carts going into the Twin Cities with their farm produce. The old rock road has been completely worn out with travel and the paving of the road from Belleville to East St. Louis is under way. It is a distance of fourteen or fifteen miles, and it is estimated that it will take 19,000,000 paving blocks to pave this highway.

       Belleville, the county seat, is a substantial city of 21,122 people. Its interests are mining and manufacturing and commercial. There are a number of coal mines in the immediate vicinity of Belleville. This P. 536 makes manufacturing inexpensive as far as the fuel question is concerned.   Several lines of manufacturing are carried on. As early as the opening of the Civil war the old “Belleville Separator” for threshing wheat was common in the wheat producing counties in southern and central Illinois. Glass and bottle factories have flourished, foundries are substantial and remunerative forms of industry. The large population produces a demand for large and varied assortments of merchandise. The schools have always had the reputation of being abreast of the times, while religious and social life does not lag.

CHARLES DICKENS AND SON

       An interesting bit of history connected with St. Clair county is the coming of Charles Dickens, the great English author, to see a real prairie. In 1842 Charles Dickens visited America. He came into the west via
 

AN UNDERGROUND RAILROAD STATION IN ST. CLAIR COUNTY

Pittsburgh and the Ohio river. He lectured in St. Louis. While here some literary friends to gratify a wish Dickens expressed to see a real prairie, got up a jaunting party to visit Looking Glass Prairie. Friday, April 15, 1842, a party of four teams, about fourteen people, crossed the river and drove through what was eventually to be the city of East St. Louis and seven or eight miles across the American bottom and over the clay uplands to Belleville where they arrived about noon. Court was in session and at dinner time the judge and the lawyers and the guests from St. Louis mingled freely in the hotel, the old Mansion House on the northeast corner of Main and High streets. After dinner the jaunting party proceeded to Lebanon where they arrived about 4 o’clock. From here they passed over the road east from town about a mile and stopped near an abandoned cabin. Here they ate their lunch, and from this point they could get a fine view of Looking Glass Prairie and also of Emerald Mound. They returned to Lebanon where P 537 they remained over night at the Mermaid tavern. The next day the party returned to St. Louis by way of Monk’s Mound, in the American bottom. Only two St. Louis men are named of those who accompanied Dickens on this jaunt—John Anderson, a banker, and George Knapp, of the St. Louis Republican.