The March 11, 2010, meeting of the Madison County Genealogical Society was held at the Edwardsville Public Library in Edwardsville, Illinois.
President, Robert Ridenour, called the meeting to order.
Reports:
In the absence of our
Treasurer LaVerne Bloemker, Secretary, Barbara Hitch presented
the financial reports for the month of February 2010.
Our Librarian, Elsie Wasser, reported two new publications in the library.
A revised inventory of the Zimmerman Cemetery by Barbara Hitch including photos of the tombstones.
The Rev Carl Nelson has written a story about his life as a black student in the 1960s at Southeast Missouri State University. It will appear in a future edition of The Stalker.
Dues for 2010 are
now being accepted. We would very much appreciate receiving your
renewal checks by ASAP. Present members will receive one more
Newsletter in February.
Do you have a family
member that is interested in (or even obsessed with) genealogy?
A membership in the Madison County Genealogical Society would
be a very thoughtful gift. A gift card will be sent to the recipient
of any gift membership.
The following memberships are available:
Individual/Family Annual Membership $20.00
Patron Annual Membership $30.00
Life Membership $250.00
Contact our Secretary, Barbara Hitch, at [email protected],
about a gift membership.
On March 11, 2010, Ron Goldsmith, volunteer at the Lewis and Clark State Historic Site in Hartford, Illinois, presented a program on Illinois' Role in the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
The Lewis and Clark Expedition began with an
idea of Thomas Jefferson while still at Monticello. He wrote a
letter to George Rogers Clark suggesting he lead such an expedition.
Clark turned him down but his younger brother, William, would
join Meriwether Lewis 20 years later to find river access through
North America to the Pacific Ocean. Finding that access would
create trade routes needed by the new nation.
France had ownership of the land but Napoleon was eager to give
up ownership. A treaty was signed April 30, 1803, transferring
Louisiana to the United States. The American flag was raised at
New Orleans, December 20, 1803, even though the formal transfer
of the area known as Upper Louisiana was not made until March
10, 1804, in a ceremony in St. Louis. France was paid $15,000,000
for the province that consisted of 883,072 square miles according
to a United States Land Commission Monograph. Expressed in a little
different form, it was calculated that the price paid was less
than three cents an acre.
Jefferson requested and Congress approved $2,500 from Congress
to cover the cost of the expedition. In addition to the $2,500,
Jefferson would give Lewis a letter of credit, which in the early
1800s was like giving him a credit card. Congress would not know
what it cost until they got the bills. The trip ended up costing
$39,000.
Jefferson wanted more information than simply finding a route
through Louisiana. He instructed Lewis that the Corps was to bring
back maps of the region and to collect data on unfamiliar plants
and animals. They were to gather and bring back examples of both.
Temperatures along with climate changes were to be recorded in
each area along with their effect on the plant and animal life.
They were to record information about various Indian tribes and
assure them they now had a new Great Father who was interested
in their welfare.
The expedition would have to be entirely self sufficient for an
unknown period of time. A 55-foot keelboat was built in Pittsburgh.
Two smaller boats, called pirogues, would be added to carry enough
supplies for the trip. A small group of men was assembled to get
the boat to the confluence of the Ohio and the Mississippi Rivers.
Lewis and Clark agreed that their corps needed to consist of young
unmarried men who could be away from home for an unknown amount
of time. The men were to be strong frontiersmen who could handle
the rigors of the trip and would be willing to follow orders issued
in a military style. More members of the Corps would be added.
More recruits would be added in Illinois than at any other site.
They arrived at Fort Massac, their first stop in Illinois, November
11, 1803. Fort Massac was viewed as a recruiting area. It was
here where they recruited George Drouillard, John Newman, and
possibly Joseph Whitehouse. Additional soldiers stationed in Tennessee
were to meet the keelboat at the fort but had not yet arrived.
Rather than detain the crew, Lewis sent Drouillard to locate the
men and bring them to the winter quarters that would be in Illinois
across from the confluence of the Missouri River with the Mississippi.
It was necessary to put their camp on the east side of the Mississippi
because the Spanish governor of Upper Louisiana who was overseeing
that area for the French had not yet been notified of the Louisiana
Purchase.
It would take only two days from Fort Massac to reach the confluence
of the Ohio with the Mississippi at present day Cairo. Their next
recruitment area would be at Fort Kaskaskia.
As they passed the confluence of the Big Muddy with the Mississippi,
Lewis wrote of its importance in transporting coal from nearby
mines, which shows the importance of coal to the economy of Southern
Illinois even at that early date. At least eleven recruits were
to be added at Kaskaskia. The number is unclear because Lewis
had enlisted more men than he had been authorized to include on
the journey. Some of the men became members of the permanent party.
Others would return to St. Louis after wintering at Fort Mandan.
In addition to George Drouillard, John Newman, and Joseph Whitehouse,
the following men are believed to have been recruited from Illinois:
John Boley, John Collins, John Dame, Robert Frazier, Patrick Gass,
Silas Goodrich, Thomas Howard, Hugh McNeill, John Ordway, John
Potts, John Robertson, Ebenezer Tuttle, Peter Weiser, Isaac White,
Alexander Hamilton Willard, and Richard Windsor.
It was necessary to add the second pirogue when the Corps prepared
to leave Fort Kaskaskia. This was the white pirogue. Today there
is a full sized replica at the Lewis and Clark State Historic
Site in Hartford. Lewis would go from Kaskaskia to Cahokia by
horseback while Clark would take the men and the boats upstream
to the confluence with the Missouri. This camp would serve as
headquarters for the winter while they trained for a journey into
the unknown. They would spend five and a half months in Illinois.
Lewis wrote in his journal that Camp River Dubois would be known
as the Point of Departure.
This interesting presentation was very well received by the audience.