Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-01-11
kASkASKIA'S END.

First Capital of Illinois is Stricken
From the Map.
From the New York Tribune.
With stroke of his pen the Postmaster
General has completed the devastation
wrought by the Mississippi river in 1874,
and with the new year Kaskaskia, the first
capital of the state of Illinois, will disap-
pear from the map. Rural free delivery
will take the place of post office, and the
five families now residents of this once
populous town will be served from Fort
Gage.
Originally the town of Kaskaskla was
situated on the Okaw river, and in early
days II was a thriving trading post. Here
when st. Louis was practically unknown
trappers and hunters QUILTED for the WIN
ters work in the wilderness further west
here they returned with their peltry and
held high carnival until forced by their ne
cessities tc take the trail for the hunting
grounds, to face savage beasts and savage
men, At this time it was the commercial
center OF vast area, traders from Ohio
stopping there, too, with supplies and send
ing out from this point agents to buy furs
from the Indians. The town was located at
point where the well-worn trails from the
south. north and east united and swept
westward. 1t was first settled in 1873 and
for nearly two hundred years Ii was believ-
ed to be destined to be the great metropo-
lis of the southwest. In 1925 Gen. Lafay-
cue visited hdSkdSk1d, ana was SO I'M
pressed with the hustle and activity wit
messed that he predicted a great future for
the French settlement.
These hopes were blasted by the great
flood Of 1874. followed forty years later by
the Mississippi getting on a rampage and
cutting a channel through the sandy soil
above the town, uniting its waters with
those of the Okaw, thus leaving the town on
an island and destroying it's last hope for
eminence. Hundreds of acres of land were
swept away by the waters and buildings of
all kinds were sucked down by the insati-
able Mississippi Realizing the hopeless
ness of ever restoring Kaskaskia to It's old
glory, one by one family after family left
the place, dismantling their homes and
seeking a location back from the river
thus insuring safety from floods, until to-
day only five families remain in the place.
Many of the Inhabitants founded town to
which they gave the name of New-Kas-
kaskia, two miles south of the original To-
cation. and here the municipal archives
still maintained
OF all the buildings which once adorned
the place the Randolph county court house
is the only one remaining. A portion of
the state house, where the legislators of
the then territory of Illinois assembled,
still clings tenaciOusly to the bank of the
river, the rest of the buildings having gone
down with the bank. Here many men who
afterward attained eminence in the coun-
ellis of the nation first tried their hands at
lawmaking. Here Gov. Bond used to hold
Ieyees- and here the hunter and fatboat
men OF the early days came to study the
prevailing fashions in the capital city after
a season in the woods or the trip to New
Orleans and return On the east bank of
the river still stands Riley's mill, the first
erected IN Illinois, and about half a mile
west. in a lonely, tangled wildwood sleeps
Elias Kent Kane, the first secretary of IL
linois. who served under Gov. Bond. The
latter afterward served term in the
United States Senate. The old Menard
House. noted in those early days for Its
hospitality, still remains in fairly good
state of preservation This building was
erected in 1886, and it was here that Gen.
Lafayette was guest when he paid his
visit TO Kaskaskia.
Other places of interest near here are old
Fort Gage, the cemetery on the hill back of
the fort, in which are many tombstones
dating back TO 100 and earlier and old
Forts Kaskia and Cahokia. These forts
were erected primarily to resist Indian at
tacks. but later were occupied and used
against the British. With the coming of
the new year kaskaskia will be only a
memory-man doing what nature failed TO
accomplish, wiping it off the map.