Madison County Genealogical Society

Minutes of the Meeting – September 13, 2018

The September 2018 meeting of the Madison County Genealogical Society was held at the Edwardsville Public Library on Thursday, September 13, at 7:00 pm.

President, Robert Ridenour, called the meeting to order.

GIFT MEMBERSHIPS AVAILABLE

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 $25.00
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Life Membership $300.00

Contact our Secretary, Petie Hunter, at [email protected], about a gift membership.

September Meeting

 

On September 13, 2018, Eddie Price presented a program titled

Tale of Two States — Kentucky and Illinois

 

You may have heard of my first book – Widder’s Landing. It mentions Cave-in-Rock and some Illinois stuff; and I mention them again in the second book – One Drop a Slave! – the sequel. I had my students write term papers. They had to give their sources with proper footnotes or endnotes; we changed while I was teaching. How many of you are with the genealogical society here? So you all ought to know about that. When that applies to your book, it is incurable, right? You have to find out where did I come from, what is going on? That is sort of what tonight is about.

 

People want to do their DNA, find their ancestry. Secretly they are thinking – I have a prince or king or queen in my family tree. But more than likely, they are going to have a horse thief, prostitute, a criminal, an undesirable, and Lord God, you might even have a Kentuckian in your background.

 

So that is what tonight’s story is about – The Tale of Two States. I am paraphrasing; I hope Charles Dickens does not get me for stealing his stuff. Charles Dickens toured the American continent in 1842. He wrote The Tale of Two Cities, and he talks about – “It was the best of times; it was the worst of times. It was the age of wisdom and the age of foolishness. It was the season of light and the season of darkness.

 

And I thought when you look at what America has been through, we have had our good times and we have had our bad times. Illinois and Kentucky are what you would call stable mates; we are in the same family and we are just separated by a big river. Dickens toured the Ohio on a steamboat and turned up the Mississippi. He wrote his very caustic and not very flattering American Notes. He said the lower Ohio and Cairo was a dismal breeding place of fever, ague, and death. He said the Mississippi was just nothing more than a hateful, enormous ditch. He did not like us very much. It gave me the idea of A Tale of Two States - Kentucky and Illinois.

 

Kentucky people have some bad reputations. People think that everybody in the state, collectively, have fifteen teeth. They think that our slogan is “Four Million Happy People – Fifteen Last Names.” They think our most popular greeting card is “Happy Birthday, Uncle Dad.”

 

We have good things in Kentucky, too. We have tobacco; we have whiskey — we are known for bourbon whiskey. We are known for hemp. Of course, back then we made it into rope. We are known for fast horses and corn-fed girls.

 

Actually we have a gut-share in history of economics, politics, and experiences good and bad. We do share two of the biggest rivers in America – the Mississippi and the Ohio Rivers. We share 133 miles of the Ohio River and about 62 miles of the Mississippi River. Illinois has 581 miles of the Mississippi River.

 

Where the two rivers meet, you can see the muddy Mississippi and the clearer green Ohio. They flow side by side until they get mixed up just like our history and heritage. The Ohio is bigger than the Mississippi; it has much more volume when it comes in and adds to the flow. The first craft on the two rivers was undoubtedly the dugout canoe fashioned by the early Native Americans. The first Europeans was a party of 23 Spaniards who came looking for a lake of silver. I do not know if they were kin to the ones looking for Cibola - the Seven Cities of Gold. That first party might have been Rene-Robert Cavelier Sieur de La Salle who, in 1669, led a French expedition to the Great Lakes, Ohio, the Mississippi; he traveled all the way to the Gulf of Mexico and claimed the whole basin of the Mississippi River for the French. The next Europeans were definitely Frenchmen travelling in pirogues, large canoe-like boats. They began linking their French settlements in the Upper Ohio and the Upper Mississippi with the very European city of New Orleans. It was really a European city built along the same plans as a lot of the big cities in Europe, with a beautiful cathedral.

 

Father Jacques Marquette and Louis Joliet set out from Lake Michigan in the Illinois Country, paddled up the Fox River, portaged to the Wisconsin and on to the Mississippi. French traders and Catholic priests were very numerous in this area. When they came in, they learned how to get along with the Native Americans. The French often inter-married with the Native Americans; they traded and they co-existed in a peaceful way. They did not tear up the land. So they got along pretty well. The British did not do such a good job.

 

We in Kentucky were also impacted by the French – we have Louisville, named after Louis XVI; Versailles; Bellemeade; LaGrange; Lafayette; Frenchburg; Marion. We have a county in Kentucky called Bourbon County. The best whiskey was set aside for the Bourbon Dynasty who had placed orders for it in New Orleans. Kentucky had three waves of French migration beginning with French Huguenots who came here after Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes, which meant the Huguenots no longer had the rights they previously had.

 

During the Colonial Period of North America, even though we were not states, we were impacted by Spain, France, and England. Starting in 1754, we have the Seven Year’s War. It turned into a global conflagration, but it started here in America in the Ohio River Valley. And it is going to impact all of us in this area of the continent. It is going to end the French dominance of the Eastern half of the American Colonies on the Plains of Abraham at Quebec City. Montcalm and Wolfe both died in the first hour of the battle and the French have to surrender the fort. Now the British control all of this territory; they even call it the Province of Quebec.

 

The British drew a line along the top of the Appalachian Mountains until they could get a handle on taxation. They did not want the settlers moving pell-mell into that area and killing each other and fighting the Indians. There were still some French they had to consider what to do with. So a lot of Americans were saying, “Right, we know what you are doing. All the rich cats are going to get the good land and we are going to get the leftovers. So a lot of people were not listening and were crossing over anyway. After the war, Virginia actually began setting up a claim – Kentucky was called Fincastle County, most of Illinois also fell under the Virginia claim.

 

Then came the American Revolution. We read in our text books about the Boston Tea Party, the Boston Massacre, the occupation of Boston, Paul Revere’s ride, Lexington and Concord, the Battle of Bunker Hill, the Declaration of Independence, Valley Forge, Washington crossing the Delaware, the Battle of Trenton – all this stuff is going on over in the east. In some history books you will find Benjamin Franklin and what he is doing with the French. He is probably one of our best ambassadors. If you study American diplomacy, he has to rank close to the top of the pile. He was there cajoling the French trying to get them to come in at just the right moment. The French actually promised if you win a big victory, not just these little ragtag things, you have to whip a major army, then we will consider it. When the Americans defeated the British, the number one super power in the world, at Saratoga, that was the turning point. Then America had a real ally – gunpowder, major arms, and even a navy. The remnants of the French navy did not rank nearly as high as the British, but when we got Admiral DeGrasse’s fleet, he played a critical role in blockading Yorktown.

 

You may say, “Where are Kentucky and Illinois in all of this?” The war in the East got all the headlines back then. Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown. A lot of people do not realize that the treaty would not be signed for another couple of years. We have the land out here in the West. If we write a treaty, who gets what? So there is going to be some more fighting that takes place in a lot of these little battles here. There is a lot at stake here – you cross the Appalachians and you found good running water, limestone springs, good grazing – who was going to get it – the Americans, the French, the British? The Western theatre in the Revolution is not heavily mentioned.

 

There was a lot going on, especially in Illinois and Kentucky. In 1778, George Rogers Clark launched this secret campaign. He sat down with Governor Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, and just a few bigwigs and said we are going to seize the Illinois Country. This was totally secret; it would not be leaked like things get leaked today. He did not tell his army. He got them all on boats, took them downriver to Corn Island in the Louisville area. In the isolation of Corn Island, he told his army they were going to take the Illinois Country. They loaded up and went down to slightly below the Cumberland River in Kentucky, where they hired a local guide. The guide took them across the river into Illinois, through 50 miles of forest and came out on the prairie. Clark captured Kaskaskia on July 4, 1778 – what a propitious date!

 

They crossed the Kaskaskia River around midnight, went into Fort Gage, took the commandant – Philippe-François de Rastel de Rocheblave in his bed. The next morning Clark announced that they had just signed a Franco-American Alliance. Most of the settlers in Illinois were French. Clark told them join us and we will help liberate the area. About that time, a Catholic priest, Father Pierre Gibault, said, “Wait just one minute, please. What is the status of Catholics here? Most of us here in this part of the woods are Catholic.” Clark assured them “You are guaranteed freedom of religion under the Virginia constitution.” So Father Gibault said he could be of help.

 

Gibault went with Clark to Prairie du Rocher, Cahokia, etc. and, in a very short time, 300 people had taken the American oath of allegiance. Clark then gathered his party together and he trusted the priest enough to include him in his council. Clark then said, “I am going to take Vincennes.” Gibault said, “I do not think you are going to need an army. Let me try.” Gibault left Kaskaskia on July 14, went to Vincennes and convinced the residents to join the American cause. The next day the population raised a new flag at Sackville, they took the British flag down, wrapped it around a stone, and threw it in the Wabash River. Gibault came back to Clark and said, “It is done.”

 

That is sort of like the Walls of Jericho. It is almost impossible to think that could have happened. It did not set very well with Lt. Governor Henry Hamilton who was up in Canada at Fort Detroit. Hamilton got a force together with Indians that numbered about 500 men. They recaptured Vincennes and Fort Sackville, along with American commandant, Leonard Helm, in December.

 

In February, Clark set out from Kaskaskia, marching his men 180 miles, mostly across flooded land. Most of the men waded in icy water up to their chest, with their goods carried above and on horseback. They actually ate very well because when they got to high ground, they found a lot of game. They ended up taking Vincennes – nobody was expecting them though the flood and they raised the American flag over Fort Patrick Henry.

 

When Hamilton surrendered to Clark, it opened up Kentucky and Illinois. They became Kentucky County and Illinois County of Virginia. Virginia opened a land office to register claims in Kentucky at Louisville. Most people came into Kentucky through the Cumberland Gap. They walked or led horses. The other way people came to the area was down the Ohio River on flatboats from Pittsburgh. They got off on different sides of the river. There was a buffalo crossing of the river at Shawneetown. When you got to where you were going on a flatboat, you usually tore the boat apart to build a shelter to use while you felled trees to build a better cabin.

 

We said the best of times and the worst of times. Kentucky and Illinois share what are probably America’s first psychopaths or sociopaths – the Harpe Brothers. Micajah “Big” Harpe was over six feet tall and he was as mean as a snake. They would kill a baby for crying and disturbing them in a cabin. They were horrible. They said he was not nearly as mean as Wiley “Little” Harpe. They shared women in marriage or what ever. The Harpes tortured their victims, they did not just rob them. They were at Cave-in-Rock with pirates for a while, but it got to the point where the pirates could not stand them and ran them off.

 

Kentucky and Illinois shared numerous religious figures – the Jesuits, the Catholic missionaries, the French traders. Kentucky’s first Catholic families came from Maryland in 1785 – a league of 60 families settled in the Bardstown area. Bishop Benedict Joseph Plaget was appointed the first bishop of the newly established Diocese of Bardstown, Kentucky. He controlled ten modern day states, including both Kentucky and Illinois. It is the largest diocese in the history of America.

 

One of the first Baptist ministers in Illinois, David Badgley of Virginia, established a church in Illinois across the river from St. Louis in a community called New Design.

 

Southern Illinois was the first to be heavily populated. Many of the immigrants were coming from Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland, South Carolina, and Kentucky. After the American Revolution, Kentucky became a state; originally we had three counties, today we have one of the highest number of counties in America – 120.

 

After the war, Virginia, as did all of the Eastern states, gave up all of their western claims to the new national government so that new states could be formed. The Northwest Territory, of which Illinois was a part, was formed by the Northwest Ordinance under the Articles of Confederation. In 1809, Congress created Illinois Territory which included Illinois and Wisconsin. Ninian Edwards was the only Territorial Governor of the Illinois Territory. He was a highly respected legislator and judge. He had risen to the Chief Justice of the Kentucky Court of Appeals, at the time the highest court of Kentucky. He held the post of Territorial Governor for three terms, he served as a U.S. Senator and as the third Governor of the State of Illinois.

 

Benjamin Stephenson was originally from Pennsylvania. He was a child during the American Revolution and saw the United States of America being born. Public office and service would comprise most of his life. He moved from Virginia, to Logan County, Kentucky. It was there that he and Ninian Edwards got together. Ninian Edwards’ wife was a cousin to the wife of Benjamin Stephenson.

 

Kentucky and Illinois share many of the same sentiments for fighting the Second War for American Independence – the War of 1812. Illinois was not yet a state but we were all really looking at freedom of the seas. With those rivers as our main source of goods to New Orleans, we had to have New Orleans as a port. So a lot of the inland people were clamoring for freedom of the seas even though they were inland people, because our river system is so important. We share, Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana, and several others, a great hero of the Indian fighting – Joseph Hamilton Daveiss. He died at the Battle of Tippecanoe. He started as U. S. District Attorney for Kentucky, he brought treason charges against Aaron Burr, and he married Chief Justice John Marshall’s sister.

 

Kentucky and Illinois both suffered massacres. Illinois had the Fort Dearborn Massacre. Kentucky had the Massacre at the River Raisin. Sixty four percent of all Americans killed during the War of 1812 were Kentuckians.

 

After the War of 1812, America had the Era of Good Feeling. Settlers continued to add diversity – English and Ulster Scots coming from Virginia, the Carolinas, Tennessee, Kentucky, mostly by way of the Ohio River, to join the few hundred French already in the area. Illinois also would experience The Year Without a Summer – a series of cold waves, documented well by Thomas Jefferson at Monticello. He had all these scientific instruments and complained about having to wear a coat and set by the fire on the Fourth of July. Many states north and east of Illinois had frost every month; Kentucky had frost every month but September. Hemp crops resisted the cold; tobacco wilted and died; if the corn was up enough by the third planting, it would survive. In Illinois, the further west you went, the better the crops did.

 

Westward movement increased, trade was reinstated with Europe, American products made it down the rivers, and we get the new steamboats that come up the Ohio River. The only place the steamboats had any problems was at the Falls of the Ohio. The falls are still there, but there is now a canal around them.

 

Kentucky stayed with the Union during the Civil War, but had slavery. Illinois also had slavery in a region called Little Egypt. Edward Coles came from Virginia to Kentucky and to Illinois, where he was the second Governor, and led the defeat of an attempt to amend the Illinois Constitution to legalize slavery. Abraham Lincoln was born in Kentucky, moved to Indiana, then to Illinois. Abraham Lincoln was a storekeeper in New Salem and served as a Captain of the Illinois Militia in the Blackhawk War. He was influenced in his law career by John Todd Stewart, who was born in Kentucky and a cousin of Mary Todd Lincoln. If not for Stewart, Lincoln may never have become President. Lincoln’s law partner, William Herndon, was born in Kentucky.

 

During the Civil War, Lincoln once said, “I hope to have God on my side, but I must have Kentucky!” Illinois became a major source of troops for the Union Army. For the Western theatre of the war, Illinois, situated near major rivers, and railroads, was the supply depot for food and clothing. Illinois became a major jumping off place for Ulysses S. Grant’s effort to seize control of the Mississippi and Tennessee Rivers. During the Civil War, Illinois supplied 285,000 soldiers, 9,844 were killed in battle, 21,000 died of disease.

 

About the Speaker

Eddie Price is a retired history teacher and award-winning author — a lifelong resident of Kentucky. He presents programs for the Kentucky Humanities Council Speakers Bureau and the Kentucky Chautauqua Program.

 

This presentation was very well received and provoked many questions and comments.

 

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