In 1829, the legislature provided for the sale of the entire reservation in Vermilion County, the proceeds of which were appropriated to the improvement of various streams, and roads, and the building of bridges. In 1833, provision was made for the disposition of the saline-lands in Bond County. Further provision was made for the sale of the salines in Gallatin County in 1836, and $12.000 of the proceeds appropriated for the erection of a bridge across Saline Creek, and the balance for other bridges and roads. In 1847, an act was passed authorizing the sale of the salt-wells and coal-lands in Gallatin County not already disposed of. No report of the quantity sold, or the amount received from any of these sales, appears among the published reports made to, or proceedings of the legislature.

The receipts and expenditures, in gross, of the territorial government, were, as nearly as can be ascertained, as follows:

Total amount of revenue from Nov.1, 1812, to

Nov. 1, 1814

Total amount collected

Amount uncollected in hands of sheriffs

(No returns published for 1815, and 1816).

Received by treasurer in 1817

Received by treasurer in 1818

Amount paid out

$4875

2516

$2359

1508

2471

$3979

4039

Authorities: "Laws of Congress;" Reynolds' "Pioneer History of Illinois;" Edwards' "History of Illinois;" Laws and Reports of Illinois.

CHAPTER XVIII.

Early Territorial Towns-Growth, Population-Politics.

'HE oldest town in Illinois is Cahokia, on whose site, near

*

ians, Father Pinet established a mission in 1699, where many French were found settled the following year, as heretofore stated. It is situated on the eastern bank of the creek of that name, three-fourths of a mile east of the Mississippi, and four miles from St. Louis. There is no evidence to support the statement that some of LaSalle's followers, or Tonty, made a settlement at this place or at Kaskaskia prior to this time; but a continuous occupancy by the priests, traders, and voyageurs can be traced from 1699. A house of worship and other buildings were erected, and to each new-comer was given a lot three hundred feet square, which continues to be the size of the townlots to this day. Owing to the natural disadvantages of location it remained a mere trading-post and mission-station with but little growth for many years. In 1722, this village was granted two tracts of land, one for the use of the inhabitants as "common fields" and one for "commons," the latter four leagues square; which was subsequently confirmed by congress. In 1766, it contained, according to Capt. Pittman, forty-five houses. After the Revolution its growth was more marked, and in 1795, it was designated as the county-seat of the county of St. Clair, which it remained until 1814. In 1800, its population was about 400, which in 1818 with 100 houses had increased to 500. During this latter decade, the place was really prosperous and a large amount of business was transacted. It was greatly damaged by the flood of 1844, and thereafter gradually fell into decay, its trade and some of its best citizens having been attracted to St. Louis, and later to East St. Louis, so that at this time it is a mere hamlet, rejoicing, however, in the recent restoration of its post-office, of which it was deprived some years ago.

* Vide Chapter IV, page 85.

It was known as a thriving and populous village long before the founding of New Orleans, Pittsburg, or St. Louis. It is half a century older than Cincinnati, and had passed the meridian of its fame, and into the sere and yellow leaf of decadence before Chicago was even dreamed of. Old as the town really is, it must be admitted, however, that it is neither so old nor was it ever so large as some authorities have claimed. The evidence is conclusive that there was no village known by that name in that locality prior to A.D. 1700.

The journals of Fathers St. Cosme and Gravier, and the nar

Reduced from a plate in Philip Pittman's "Present State of European Settlements on the Mississippi" (London, 1770). Key: A, the fort; B, the Jesuits' residence; C, formerly commanding-officer's house; D, the church. Used by permission from Winsor's "Narrative and Critical History" (W. F. Poole's chapter on the West, Vol. VII).

rative of Pierre LeSueur, of expeditions down and up the Mississippi about this time, conclusively establish this fact.*

According to the traditions of the inhabitants, the village of Kaskaskia was founded in 1707, it being conceded that the settlement of Cahokia was some years earlier.† In 1710,

M. Penicaut informs us that near the village of the Illinois (Kaskaskias) Indians there were three mills for grinding corn; "one wind-mill owned by the Jesuits, and two horse-mills belonging to the Illinois;" and that they had a very large church in their village, which was well arranged in the interior; besides the baptismal fonts, there were "three chapels, ornamented with a bell and belfry," which statement was confirmed by Father Marest in 1711, who stated further "that many French had arrived there and established themselves." It is said to have become an incorporated town in 1725;§ and in 1743, a grant of land for a commons, previously made by Boisbriant in 1722, was confirmed to it by Gov. Vaudreuil. The decade from 1740 to 1750 constituted the halcyon period of its existence, when the villagers enjoyed all the blessings of peace and contentment and a prosperous trade; and the village had a steady growth. In 1765, according to Capt. Pittman, it contained sixty-five families of whites, "besides merchants and casual people." In 1771, as stated by Thomas Hutchins--afterward the government geographer, it contained eighty houses, "many of them well built, several of stone, with gardens and large lots adjoining," and a population of 500 whites and 500 negroes.||

Although the largest village therein, Kaskaskia did not become the capital of the Illinois country until 1772, after the abandonment of Fort Chartres by the British, as before related. Before this time, however, it is supposed that one-third of the

Early Voyages Up and Down the Mississippi." Magazine of American History," Vol. VI, 161, article by E. G. Mason.

+ Historical Sketch, page 7, by William H. Brown, who formerly resided at Kaskaskia. Also confirmed by Pittman, p. 83.

French's "History of Louisiana," VI, 108.

§ "History of Randolph County," p. 304.

|| The statement of Maj. Bowman, with Col. Clark, that Kaskaskia contained 250 houses at the time it was captured, in 1778, was undoubtedly erroneous, probably a typographical error, as was that placing the number of inhabitants at 8000 at one time, an extra cipher making all the difference.

French inhabitants had removed to Ste. Genevieve and St.Louis rather than become subjects of British rule. After its capture by Col. Clark, the town still further declined in population, as well as in wealth, until the American immigration began after the Revolution. From this time its growth steadily increased, receiving a new impetus from the arrival of the territorial officers in 1809. In 1816, the number of houses had increased to 160.* Judge Breese, who became a resident of the place in 1818, and continued to live there for several years, says, that the population did not exceed 800 whites "in its palmiest days."

With the removal of the State capital in 1821, the fame of Kaskaskia began to wane. It still continued to be the countyseat of Randolph County, however, until 1847. The loss of this prestige, following the great overflow of 1844, was the finishingstroke to its greatness. The first brick-house built west of Pittsburg, in 1792, still stands, and the dwelling occupied by Gov. Coles; but the old academy, or convent as it was sometimes called, which cost $30,000, and the mansions of Edgar and Morrison have long since gone to decay. It is now a stilldeclining and out-of-the-way village, whose final destruction the mighty Mississippi, which has already made an island of its site by cutting its way through to the Okaw, threatens soon to accomplish.

For over half a century, however, it was the metropolis of the Upper- Mississippi Valley, and during this period it was the Mecca of all explorers, and the focus of commerce in the Northwest Territory. The most interesting associations cluster around its historic name.

Here resided John Edgar, Wm. and Robert Morrison, Pierre Menard, Ninian Edwards, Shadrach Bond, Edward Coles, Dan'l P. Cook, Nathaniel Pope, E. K. Kane, Jesse B. Thomas, Benj. Stephenson, Thomas Mather, Sidney Breese, David J. Baker, Richard M. Young, Philip Fouke, William H. Brown, James Shields, and Thomas Reynolds, all of whom have borne a distinguished part in the formative political movements of the State. Some of them were married there, and the remains of others are there buried. The old-church bell, memento of a dim past, cast expressly for the Church of the Illinois, and which * Brown's "Gazetteer," p. 27.