Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1911-04-12

empowered them to lease the com
mons to farmers, the rent to be paid
into the village treasury. Part Of the
land was surveyed into 40-aere sec
tions anJ Offered for rent at one dol
lar an acre per year. The leases were
to run for 80 years.
At various times other sections OF
the commons were opened to settle
ment on the lease system. One sec
ton became known as "ten-cent land"
because the board of Ave trustees in
charge of the rents leased it at ten
cents an acre per year
1t WAS charged that the friends of
the trustees proiited by the nominal
price and that their opponents were
excluded from participation.
Then came the CONFUSION which
rent the peninsula from the main
land OF Illinois and set the channel
of the Mississippi to the east instead
of the west of Kaskasllia. The histor-
&c site of the old village was almost
completely engulfed by the invasion
of waters, and only one corner of the
old state house, the first In Illinois.
was spared
The villagers had foreseen the
catastrophe, and obtained permission
from the legislature to move the town
two miles further south AS a con
sequence, 1t is said that little proper
ty and no lives were lost
In the meantime, there grew up a
bitter antagonism between the tenants
of the commons and the residents In
the village of Kaskaskia. Governor
Vaudreuirs grant expressly vested the
ownership Of the commons in all the
| inhabitants of the Immaculate Con-
ception parish, which included the en-
tire island
But for more than q century, the
villagers excluded all but themselves
from voice in the government and
the expenditure of the rents. The
tenants were not permitted to vote
for village trustees.
The settlers resentment was the
greater because they outnumbered the
villagers three to one. At present the
the island about $50.
Judge Crows decision, anticipating
| the final determination Of the SUI
preme court. is that title 10 the com
mons Of Kaskaskia is vested forever
in the inhabitants Of the Immaculate
| Conception parish. To this extent II
was gratifying to the insurgents. but
L a not ffoh 10 kuc
the land outright instead Of renting IL.
Some Of the leaseholders, who had
lived on their farms for 80 years and
seen their children and grandchildren
grow up about them. feel that the
land already belongs to them by vir
tue Of long occupancy"
In the meantime. the Mississippi
river is laboring TO convert the entire
island into commons, by tearing away
soil from the upper shore, which is
owned by individuals. and deposlting
It upon the south shore, which Is com
mon land. Old inhabitants assert that
within the last 80 years two miles Of
soil have been added to the commons
This accretion was one of the sections
recently opened 10 TenlefE
The present Kaskaskia. venerable as
It is, is the daughter Of a still older
Kaskaskia, an Indian village on the
Illinois river near Utica, which was
discovered In 1873 by Father Mar
uuette. There he established mis-
sion. tho first in the Mississippi val.
ley.
Twenty-seven years later the Kas-
kaskia indians. who were on the peril
Gus frontier between the warning
tribes Of Illinois and Iroquois deter.
mined upon an exodus TO safer stu
alton. Let by priests, they settled up
on the fertile site Of the present Kas-
kaskia.
In 1863 the Illinois territory was
ceded by the French to Great Britain.
which took possession Of Kaskaskia In
1866 and appointed as governor the
Chevalier dc Rocheblave. In 1878 1t
was wrested from Great Britain by
General Clark, commanding an expedi-
ton of Virginian troops. called Long
Knives" by the Indians Virginia
coded Illinois to the United States in
1874 and six years later. when Illinois
was erected into a territory of the
United States, governor was sta
toned at the capital Kaskaskia.
AS has been related. but few of the
ruins Of the old Kaskaskia remain to
day. The destruction wrought BY the
food Of 1874 was completed By the in
vasion OF the Mississippi river
Even before that time the house In
which General Lafayette slept in
1925 had been carried away piecemeai
By souvenir hunters There stiil re.
mains, however, the ancient parish
bell. which was founded in Rochelle.
France. and whose peal was the FIRST
heard between the Alleghenies and
the Mississippi river.