Illinois, a Brief History Beginning Around 12,000 B.C.

Southern Illinois is bordered on three sides by the Mississippi, Ohio, and Wabash Rivers. Several other rivers traverse its countryside, including the Big and Little Muddy, Little Wabash, Saline, and Cache Rivers. The southern part of the state is characterized by wooded hills, farms, underground coal mines, strip mines, and low marshlands.

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The word "Mississippi" comes from the Ojibwe Indian Tribe (Algonquian language family) word "Messipi" or "misi-ziibi," which means "Great River" or "Gathering of Waters." French explorers, hearing the Ojibwe word for the river, recorded it in their own language with a similar pronunciation. The Potawatomi (Algonquian language family) pronounced "Mississippi" as the French said it, "Sinnissippi," which was given the meaning "Rocky Waters."

The earliest inhabitants of Illinois were thought to have arrived about 12,000 B.C. They were hunters and gatherers but developed a primitive agriculture system and eventually built rather complex urban areas that included earthen mounds. Their culture seemed to disappear around 1400-1500 A.D.

The Beardstown Mounds in 1817.

The Illinois (aka Illiniwek or Illini) is pronounced as plural: The Illinois was a Confederacy of Indian tribes consisting of the Kaskaskia, Cahokia, Peoria, Tamarais (Tamaroa, Tamarois), Moingwena, Mitchagamie (Michigamea), Chepoussa, Chinkoa, Coiracoentanon, Espeminkia, Maroa, and Tapouara tribes that were of the Algonquin family and spoke Algonquian languages.

Other Indian tribes, including the Potawatomi, Ojibwe, and Odawa Nations, as well as the Miami, Ho-Chunk, Menominee, Sauk (Sac), Meskwaki (Fox), Kickapoo, arrived in Illinois around 1500 A.D. Archeologists are not sure if these Indians are were related to the previous inhabitants. They left behind all artifacts, including burial sites burned-out campfires along the bases of bluffs, pottery, flints, implements, and weapons. Interesting structures that were built by Indian tribes are known as stone forts or pounds. Visitors can see the prehistoric Stone Fort built in Giant City State Park near Makanda. At least eight other structures are known in the region.

The French were the first Europeans to reach Illinois. The Very First Frenchman in Southern Illinois was a Poacher. When Marquette and Jolliet arrived in 1673, the Indians welcomed them. French explorers named Illinois by referring to the land where the Illiniwek Indian tribes lived.

The French explored the Mississippi River, establishing outposts and seeking a route to the Pacific Ocean and the Orient. Because of increasing Indian unrest and warfare in northern Illinois, the French concentrated on building outposts in the southern part. The earliest European settlers in Southern Illinois concentrated along the Mississippi, Ohio, and Wabash rivers at the state's southern end. Their settlements became important way stations, supply depots, and trading posts between Canada and ports on the lower Mississippi River. Important early outposts in Southern Illinois were located at Shawneetown and Fort Massac on the Ohio River.

The English ruled the Lower Great Lakes region after defeating the French in the French and Indian War and with the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1763. Their rule of this area was short-lived.

During the American Revolution in 1778, the state of Virginia backed a military expedition led by 23-year-old George Rogers Clark. Landing at Fort Massac in Illinois (which was abandoned a decade earlier), his force of 175 soldiers marched across Southern Illinois. It defeated the English at Forts Kaskaskia, Illinois, and Vincennes in western Indiana. This laid the claim by the Americans to this territory. When news of the conquest by Clark reached Virginia, it claimed Illinois as one of its counties. Virginia ceded the county of Illinois to the federal government in 1783 when it realized it could not govern so sparsely populated and distant land.

Non-French-speaking settlers arrived slowly in Illinois, and probably less than 2,000 non-Indians lived in Illinois in 1800. But soon after that, many more settlers came from the backwoods of Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, Georgia, and the Carolinas. These early settlers were of English, German, Scottish, and Irish descent. They chose to settle in the southern part of Illinois as its wooded hills reminded them of the mountains they left behind. They found abundant wood and lived off the land, growing crops, fishing, and hunting for game.

In 1787, the federal government included Illinois in the Northwest Ordinance, including Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin. Illinois became a part of the Indiana Territory in 1800. Illinois settlers wanted more control over their own affairs, and Illinois became a separate territory in 1809.

On December 17, 1811, a great earthquake at Cahokia Mounds awakened the settlers in Illinois with a violent trembling. Fields rippled like waves on an ocean. Trees swayed, became tangled together, and snapped off with sounds like gunshots. In some places, sand, coal, and smoke blew up into the air as high as thirty yards. People as far away as Canada and Maryland felt the tremors. It was reported that the earthquake shook so violently that tremors were felt as far away as Boston. It was reported that this earthquake made the Mississippi River flow backward momentarily. The river changed its course in several spots due to the earthquake, as new islands appeared and others disappeared in the river. The earthquake is estimated to have been equivalent to an 8.0 on the Richter scale, although the Richter scale did not exist at that time. Fortunately, few people lost their lives because the quake centered in a sparsely populated area.

Cave-in-Rock

There was very little violence in the Illinois frontier. Murders and violent assaults were rarely reported. However, bandits and river pirates operated along the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers for decades. On the Ohio River, these bandits and pirates are often located in or near Cave-in-Rock, a natural cave facing the river. The bandits and river pirates added to the hazards and uncertainties of pioneer life. Murders and counterfeiting (aka: 'coiners') made settlers eager to have law enforcement agencies nearby.

In 1818, the U.S. Congress approved an Act that enabled the Illinois territory to become the 21st state of the Union. Immigration to Illinois increased after it became a state as more settlers arrived from New England and foreign countries. These settlers tended to migrate to central and northern Illinois, causing a noticeable Yankee influence in northern Illinois as opposed to the southern influence in the southern region due to a majority of settlers coming from southern states. The state's population exploded from 40,000 people in 1818 to 270,000 in 1835. The 1850 census reported that 900,000 people lived in Illinois.

Early statehood problems engulfed Illinois. In the 1830s, the state was near bankruptcy because of government financing of canals and railroad construction. The national financial Panic of 1837 added to the state's problems before the prosperity of the 1850s relieved this situation. Railroads like the Illinois Central Railroad were built to allow the state's agricultural products to be shipped to market.

Sometime in the 1830s, Southern Illinois became known as Little Egypt. The most likely reason this region is known as Little Egypt is that settlers from northern Illinois came south to buy grain during years when they had poor harvests in the 1830s, just as ancient people had traveled to Egypt to buy grain (Genesis 41:57 and 42:1-3). Later, towns in Southern Illinois were named Cairo, Thebes, and Karnak, following the Little Egypt theme.

In 1830, Congress passed a bill permitting the removal of all Indians living east of the Mississippi River. For the next 20 years, Indians were marched west to reservations in Arkansas and Oklahoma, including the bands of the Illiniwek tribes living in Illinois. In the Fall and Winter of 1838-39, Cherokee Indians were marched out of Georgia and the Carolinas across Southern Illinois to reservations in the west. It was estimated that 2,000 to 4,000 Cherokee men, women, and children died during this 1,000-mile journey west. It became known as the Trail of Tears due to the many hardships and sorrows it brought to the Indians.

The first bank to be chartered in Illinois was located at Old Shawneetown in 1816 and was built of logs. The first building, used solely to house a bank in Illinois, was built in 1840 in Old Shawneetown and was used until the 1920s. The Old Shawneetown State Bank has been restored as a historical site.

The Old Shawneetown Bank

Cotton and tobacco were grown in the extreme southern region of Illinois. Cotton was grown mainly for the home weaver, but during the Civil War, enough cotton was grown for export since a regular supply of cotton from the South was unavailable. Enough tobacco was grown to make it a profitable crop for export. Cotton and tobacco are no longer grown for export in the region. Other Illinois foods for export included maple syrup, honey, grapes, roots, berries, crab apples, plums, persimmons, mushrooms, nuts, fish, deer, fowl, hogs, cattle, and poultry. The invention of the steamboat greatly expanded the profitability of crops exported from Illinois.

The County of Saline was named for its ancient salt works along the Saline River. It attracted deer, buffalo, and antelope, who obtained salt simply by licking the mud banks along the river where Indians and the French made salt. From 1810 until 1873, commercial salt production produced as much as 500 bushels daily. The owner of one of the salt works built a large house in the 1830s on the Saline River near Equality, known today as the Old Slave House. Still standing, its small attic rooms were thought to be used to house slaves or indentured servants who toiled in the salt works.

Old Slave House

Even though it was prohibited since the 1780s under the Northwest Ordinance that established the territory, slavery continued in Illinois. Indian tribes were the first to have slaves (usually captives from another tribe), and the French introduced it in the 1700s. Laws were passed in Illinois after it became a territory in 1809 and later when it became a state, which allowed people to own indentured servants in Illinois, an equivalent to slavery. Other laws were enacted that prohibited people from coming to Illinois to free their slaves.

As many of the original settlers in Southern Illinois came from southern states, many had pro-southern sympathies and a fear that freed blacks would flood into their new homeland. The underground railroad existed in Southern Illinois but was not as active as in other parts of the state. The Civil War caused many families to have divided loyalties.

Many of these Illinois Black Codes or Laws remained on the books until November 4, 1864, when John L. Jones, born a free Negro, distributed his pamphlet, "The Black Laws of Illinois and a Few Reasons Why They Should Be Repealed," spurring the Illinois General Assembly to repeal all of them. Within weeks, Gov. Richard J. Oglesby signed the bill repealing the black laws.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.