The evening world., 1893-07-24
ILLINOIS HALF 4 CENTURY AGO.
When Kaskaskia, with l60 houses,
Was the Largest Town.
wosderful Development Siucs steam
Cars Were Introduced.

As We now look from some lofty place
In Chicago over the leve, union Of lakes
and lands. we can almost see Father
Marquette breathing his last on Lake
Michigan. about the time Philadelphia
was settled. writes George Alfred Town
send In an exchange.
His associate. La Sale. died s0 years
ago, and 90 years after Columbus ar
rived In Spain TO prosecute the scheme
OF his discovery. La Sale and Mar
quettc stand half between the present
and Columbus. and they precede the
American Revolution and Constitution
by only 100 years. When the canal from
Chicago to the Mississippi was sur
veyed. one OF the surveyors was brought
mp from St. Louis, a countryman OF La
Sale and Marquette, to do the survey
ing. namely Rene Paul
The Illinois Central Railroad, which
made Chicago and the State, was por-
ton. so to speak. OF the compromise
measures which were to remand fug!-
tive slaves to the South. The Summer
will be long and the people coming to
Illinois will need the assistance OF fig
ures and suggestions like these.
Almost exactly south Of Chicago, on
the Ohio River, twelve miles below tn.
mouth of the Wabash. formerly stood
the Chicago Of that day, Shawneetown.
The hustling part Of Illinois. in the first
quarter of our century, was In that
black pocket between the Ohio and Mis-
sissippi, where the Tennessee and Cum
berland rivers flow northward and join
the Ohio.
J. take up an old atlas Of Illinois; pub
In @ and na. na 'hs M.rs al souss ahs
OF the Illinois River. Nandalia was the
capital, and kaskaskia, which has part
ly fallen into the Mississippi River. was
Most OF the counties OF Illinois. were
named for the Jeffersonian political
bosses. In 1909 no county carried the
name Of u Federalist. except that OF
Gallatin, Jefferson, Crawford. Randolph:
and Jackson. But provident hand had
reached over from Confederation times
and given the thirty-sixth part OF every
township for the support or public
schools,
II We look impatientiy at the growth
OF things cut West. let us remember
that the year after the steamboat Sat
launched by Fulton on the Hudson Riv-
er, Illinois became a Territory, and the
year the locomotive engine was In
vented in England. Chicago became
Gen. Logan was born down in the bot
tom sf the State. In jackson County
and in Buncombe township; like ex
] StHdtOT FdTWell, III lsobui W a.
! the Clerk Of his County Court.
From such small beginnings lllinoi:
has rapidly become homoseneou:
state. ny the census OF 1880, 100000 o
! its people were native Americans, nnc
| OF these 72O,00O were born In Illinois
! l2o.00 We're born In New York State
1877, 900 in Ohio. 9O,Uo in Pennsylvania
and $1,000 in Indiana. Forty thouGa nj
| had been born In Missouri, $500 In Ten
nessee. and 6l.OO0 in Kentucky. People
are still living who remember when Ga
lena was a more important town thar
| Chicago.
From 1919. when Shawneetown wa!
| laid out. close by Old NinCennes, tina
place was the most powerful town II
the State for a quarter of u century
Kaslkaskia, which has hardly 900 peopl
now. once had 1000.
The year William of Orange took pos
session OF England and drove out Kin
James. there was French fort at Chi
cago. The steamboat came down tn
Ohio River for the first time In 1877. onl.
nine years before John Logan was born
| In 1922 Illinois cast 1000 majority II
| favor OF the Introduction Of slavery. II
1881, at the Black Hawk war, two Amer
lean Presidents were with the Illinois
troops, Gen. Taylor and Lincoln, ant
Scott. a Presidential candidate, was als'
| in that war