Lost Towns of Illinois - Piankashawtown, Illinois.

Piankashawtown was a former Indian village of significance in Edwards County, Illinois.

On the government's 1809 land survey, Piankashawtown was located on section 16, town one south, range ten east, four miles north-northwest of present-day Albion, Illinois. 

It was located immediately on the old Transcontinental Buffalo Trace (trail) that passes through and connects Vincennes, Kaskaskia and St. Louis, Missouri.

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The trace came up through Kentucky, crossed Indiana and passed through Illinois, to where East St. Louis ends at the Mississippi River. It is, after all, transcontinental, so the trace picks up somewhere on the west bank of the Mississippi. Herds of bison  numbered in the thousands at times.  Chicago as a Hunting Post.

We have the testimony of the earliest settlers that Piankashawtown was a village of considerable importance as late as 1815. At about this time, the Piankashaw Indians were removed thirty or forty miles to the north.

Farmers have plowed up many implements, guns and weapons. Even now (in 1880), one can trace for a considerable distance the old deep-cut trail where buffalo, Indian, explorers, priests, hunters, traders and soldiers tramped for successive generations. 

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D. 

Lost Towns of Illinois - Parker City, Illinois.

Parker City, aka Parker, was a former settlement in Johnson County, Illinois. 

Parker City was west of New Burnside, south of Creal Springs, and founded at the crossings of the former Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway and Marion to Brookport branch of the Illinois Central Railroad. 

The settlement was named after George Washington Parker, a former president of St. Louis, Alton & Terre Haute Railroad, the predecessor to the "Big Four."

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The Big Four wasn’t four railroad companies, but one — "The Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway Company" [CCC&StL], (1889-1930).

At its peak, the village reached a population of nearly 300 but slowly began to decline in the 1920s. At one time, there were two hotels, two stores, a post office, dining rooms, and restaurants, and two barbershops that were always full of men. 

The Parker City Post Office opened on December 28, 1889, and closed on October 31, 1941. 

There were approximately 40 houses in Parker City during its pinnacle.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

Lost Towns of Illinois - Palmyra, Illinois.

Palmyra was a village two miles north of Mount Carmel in what today is Wabash County. 

First settled in 1814, Palmyra was originally the site of a ferry across the Wabash River. Soon after the town was founded, a road was built between the settlement and the county line of Gallatin County, Illinois. Palmyra was named the first county seat of Edwards County, with meetings being held at a resident's house.

The peak population of the village was claimed to be between 500 and 600, though it is more likely that number would be between 300 to 400. Epidemics of Malaria and Yellow Fever killed a large portion of Palmyra.

By 1821, it was clear that Edwards County's seat had to be moved to a stable community. On April 10, the Illinois General Assembly named Albion, Illinois the new county seat.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.