Kaskaskia, Illinois

Coordinates: 37°55′17″N 89°54′59″W / 37.92139°N 89.91639°W / 37.92139; -89.91639
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Kaskaskia
618/366
FIPS code17-39129
GNIS feature ID2398330[2]

Kaskaskia is a village in Randolph County, Illinois on the Mississippi River. Having been inhabited by indigenous peoples, the village was settled by France as part of the Illinois Country and was named for the Kaskaskia people. Its population peaked around 7,000 as a regional center in the 18th century. During the American Revolutionary War, the town, which had become an administrative center for the British Province of Quebec, was taken by the Virginia militia during the Illinois campaign. It was briefly designated as the county seat of Illinois County, Virginia, after which it became part of the Northwest Territory under the United States government in 1787. Kaskaskia was also named as the capital of the United States' Illinois Territory, created on February 3, 1809. In 1818 when Illinois became the 21st U.S. state, the town served as the state's first capital until 1819, when the capital was moved to more centrally located Vandalia.

Most of the town was destroyed by flooding in April 1881 when the Mississippi River shifted eastward to a new channel, taking over the lower 10 mi (16 km) of the Kaskaskia River.[3] This resulted from deforestation of the river banks during the 19th century, due to crews taking wood for fuel to feed the steamboat and railroad traffic.[3] The river then passed east rather than west of the town. The state boundary line, however, remained in its original location. A small bridge crosses the old riverbed, which became a creek that sometimes fills with water during flood season.

In the

incorporated community in Illinois behind Valley City (pop. 14) and Florence (pop. 17).[5] Kaskaskia has an Illinois telephone area code (618) and a Missouri ZIP Code (63673). Its roads are maintained by Illinois Department of Transportation, and its few residents vote in Illinois elections. The town was evacuated in the Great Flood of 1993
, which covered it with water more than 9 ft (3 m) deep.

History

The site of Kaskaskia near the Mississippi River was long inhabited by varying

Illiniwek peoples, colonized this area in the 1600s,[6]
and lived there at the time of European encounter and traded with the early French colonists. Historically this name was referred to with many spelling variations, as Kasklas, Kaskasky, Cas-caskias, Kasquskias, and Kaskaskias.

During the Beaver Wars, Kaskaskia grew as people sought common defense against Iroquois raids.[7] The numbers swelled to around twenty thousand people by the 1680s.[8] Kaskaskia aligned with the French to aid in defense against the Iroquois. The French also gave them trade goods, which Kaskaskia merchants used to trade with nations too far South or West for French traders to reach. Kaskaskia became heavily involved in the slave trade, capturing and selling people from neighboring nations.[9]

By the 1690s, Kaskaskia was in decline. This was in part due to an epidemic that hit the large town particularly hard.[10] By this time, it had also become harder to obtain sources of wood and bison near Kaskaskia.[10] The Great Peace of Montreal in 1701, which ended the Beaver Wars, also reduced the need for mutual defense.

French settlement

In 1703,

Canadien settlers moved in to farm and to exploit the lead mines on the opposite side of the river (now in Missouri
).

Favorably situated on a peninsula on the east side of the Mississippi River, Kaskaskia became a large settlement center attracting a large proportion of the region's Native American population. It became the capital of

Santo Domingo in the Caribbean, to work as laborers in the lead mines.[12][13]

In the years of early French settlement, Kaskaskia was a multicultural village, consisting of a few French men and numerous

mixed-race son for living "among the savage nations".[15]

Many of the

Claude Charles Du Tisne to establish trade relations with the Plains Indians
in 1719.

The bell donated by King Louis XV in 1741, later called the "Liberty Bell of the West", after it was rung to announce the U.S. victory in the Revolution

King

Lower Louisiana, especially New Orleans, with wheat and corn
, as these staple crops could not be grown in the Gulf climate. Farmers shipped tons of flour south over the years, which helped New Orleans survive.

The French settlers raised

Fort Kaskaskia
around 1759; the fort stood atop the bluff that overlooked the frontier village.[1] "Fort Kaskaskia" is not technically a "fort", but an earthen redoubt. Frontier settlers throughout Woodland North America often built such redoubts for defense during times of threat from Native Americans.

In 1763, the French ceded the Illinois country, including Kaskaskia and the redoubt, to Great Britain after being defeated in the Seven Years' War (known as the French and Indian War on the North American front). The British did not use the redoubt but from 1766 through 1772, maintained a rotating detachment of around 25 men under a junior officer, from Fort de Chartres. They used the Jesuit compound as their base.

Rather than live under British rule after France ceded the territory east of the river, many French-speaking people from Kaskaskia and other colonial towns moved west of the Mississippi to Ste. Genevieve, St. Louis, and other areas. In May 1772, when the British abandoned Fort de Chartres, Kaskaskia continued to survive as a primarily French-speaking village on the Mississippi River frontier.

American settlement

During one of the westernmost military campaigns of the American Revolution, the city fell on July 4, 1778, to George Rogers Clark and his force of 200 men, including Captains Joseph Bowman and Leonard Helm. The parish rang the church bell in celebration, and it has since been called the "liberty bell". The brick church, built in 1843 in the squared-off French style, was later moved to the restored village of Kaskaskia on the west side of the Mississippi.[16]

Kaskaskia state house as it stood in late 1880 or early 1881

In 1803, the Kaskaskia people, for whom the town is named, signed a treaty with the United States of America, arranged by future president

Indiana territory, and Kaskaskia chief Jean Baptiste Ducoigne. Ducoigne was of mixed descent, noted for being friendly with the United States and being hated by other tribal chiefs.[17]
The treaty specifically provides for a house on a lot of "no more than one hundred acres" for Jean Baptiste Ducoigne and that a "suitable sum" of all material and monetary payments to the tribe would be reserved for the chief and his family. This treaty was said to "rightfully represent" not only the Kaskaskia tribe but also the Cahokia, Mitchigamia, and Tamarois, though the signatures for those tribes were not made by chiefs and were marked only with 'X' and a notation of the individual's name, one of which was noted as "Micolas or Nicolas".

In exchange for ceding a tract of land comprising approximately half the area of modern-day Illinois, the Kaskaskia and associated tribes were allotted three hundred fifty acres "near the town of Kaskaskia", as well as the right to relocate to another larger settlement within the ceded territory.[18]

As a center of the regional economy, Kaskaskia served as the capital of Illinois Territory from 1809 until statehood was gained in 1818, and then as the state capital until 1819. The first Illinois newspaper, the Illinois Herald, was published here on June 24, 1814.[19] In 1818 it was the site of the state's first constitutional convention and first legislative session.

The city's peak population was about 7,000, before the capital was moved in 1819 to

steamboats on the Mississippi River stimulated the economies of river towns, in the 19th century, their use also had devastating environmental effects. Deforestation of the river banks followed steamboat crews' regular cutting of trees, which were used to feed the engine boiler fires as fuel to power the steamboats. Through this rapid, man-made erosion, river banks became unstable, resulting in massive amounts of soil to collapse into the flowing water.[20]

In 1832, during the era of

Indian Country in modern-day Kansas.[21]

Effects of the Mississippi River

1875 map of Kaskaskia, Illinois, overlaid upon satellite imagery from 2019. Most of the original town site of Kaskaskia is now covered by the Mississippi River, including the location of the first Illinois state house.

From

flooding and a channel change by the Mississippi River. Much of the former property of Kaskaskia and other French colonial towns on the river has been lost.[20] Following the Great Flood of 1844, residents of Kaskaskia relocated the town to the south. The original location of Kaskaskia became an island, surrounded by the Mississippi River. The flood of 1881 destroyed all remnants of the original town and the Mississippi shifted into the channel of the Kaskaskia River
, passing east instead of west of the town.

Parts of the town were rebuilt in the new area. As the Mississippi continued to flow through its new bed, earth was deposited so that the village land became physically attached to the west bank of the river, which primarily lies within the boundaries of the state of Missouri. Now a bayou, the old channel is regularly flooded by the river. A small bridge carries traffic from the mainland over the bayou to Kaskaskia and its surrounding farmlands in the floodplain. A levee lines the river to the east. In 1893 the people of the town moved and rebuilt the Church of the Immaculate Conception at Kaskaskia. They also built a shrine in a similar style nearby to house the "liberty bell".[16]

By 1950, only 112 people lived in Kaskaskia. By 1970, the population had fallen to 79, and it continued to decline to 33 in 1980. The town was submerged under nine feet of water by the Great Flood of 1993, which reached the roofs of the buildings. By 2000, with nine residents, Kaskaskia was almost a ghost town, the least populous incorporated community in the state of Illinois.

Geography

USGS topographic map of Kaskaskia

Kaskaskia is located at 37°55′17″N 89°54′59″W / 37.921395°N 89.916467°W / 37.921395; -89.916467.[22] According to the 2010 census, Kaskaskia has a total area of 0.11 square miles (0.28 km2), all land.[23] However, the village comprises only a small part of Kaskaskia Precinct, which includes all of Randolph County's land west of the Mississippi. Kaskaskia Precinct has a land area of 24.037 sq mi (62.256 km2) and a 2020 census population of 31 people.[24] In 1993 the Mississippi River almost completely flooded the island.

Demographics

Historical population
YearPop.±%
18187,267—    
1900177−97.6%
1910142−19.8%
1920152+7.0%
1930107−29.6%
1940131+22.4%
1950112−14.5%
196097−13.4%
197079−18.6%
198033−58.2%
199032−3.0%
20009−71.9%
201014+55.6%
202021+50.0%
U.S. Decennial Census[25] 2020[4]
Source:
U.S. Decennial Census[26]

As of the

Latinos
of any race.

There were four households, none of which had children under the age of 18 living with them. Two were married couples living together, one had a female householder with no husband present, and one was a non-family. One household was made up of individuals, and one had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.25 and the average family size was 2.67.

In the village two people were under the age of 18, both girls. There was one person from 18 to 24, one from 25 to 44, two from 45 to 64, and three who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 48 years. There were seven females and two males.

1993 flooding of Kaskaskia, looking south downriver; church spire is in center left

Notable people

See also

References

  1. ^ "2020 U.S. Gazetteer Files". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved March 15, 2022.
  2. ^ a b U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Village of Kaskaskia
  3. ^ a b needs citation
  4. ^ a b "2020 Census Data". data.census.gov.
  5. U.S. Census Bureau
    . Retrieved March 4, 2011.
  6. ^ Morrissey, p. 669
  7. ^ Morrissey, p. 677-8
  8. ^ Morrissey, pg. 682
  9. ^ Morrissey, pp. 678-80
  10. ^ a b Morrissey, p. 690
  11. ^ "Father William Faherty Papers", Symposium 2001, National Park Service, accessed April 14, 2010.
  12. ^ Wedel, Mildred Mott (Fall 1972). "Claude-Charles Dutisne: A Review of His 1719 Journeys". Great Plains Journal. 12 (1): 4–25.
  13. ^ Wedel, Mildred Mott (Winter 1973). "Claude-Charles Dutisne: A Review of His 1719 Journeys". Great Plains Journal. 12 (2): 147–173.
  14. ^ Norall, Frank. Bourgmont, Explorer of the Missouri, 1698-1725. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1988. p. 107
  15. ^ Ekberg, Carl J. French Roots in the Illinois Country: The Mississippi Frontier in Colonial Times, Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2000. pp. 153-154
  16. ^ a b c "Visitors' Guide: Immaculate Conception Church" Archived 2009-08-25 at the Wayback Machine, Great River Road, accessed November 9, 2009.
  17. ^ Hodge, Frederick Webb (1906). The Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico. Bureau of American Ethnology, Government Printing Office.
  18. hdl:2027/uc1.31210003349790
    .
  19. ^ "Anniversaries in 1949 of Events Recorded in The Missourian Files". Southeast Missouri. Cape Girardeau, Missouri. January 29, 1949.
  20. ^ a b F. Terry Norris, "Where Did the Villages Go? Steamboats, Deforestation, and Archaeological Loss in the Mississippi Valley", in Common Fields: An Environmental History of St. Louis, Andrew Hurley, ed., St. Louis, MO: Missouri Historical Society Press, 1997, pp. 73-89
  21. hdl:2027/uc1.31210003349790
    .
  22. ^ "US Gazetteer files: 2010, 2000, and 1990". United States Census Bureau. February 12, 2011. Retrieved April 23, 2011.
  23. ^ "G001 - Geographic Identifiers - 2010 Census Summary File 1". United States Census Bureau. Archived from the original on February 13, 2020. Retrieved August 4, 2015.
  24. ^ "DP1: PROFILE OF GENERAL POPULATION AND HOUSING CHARACTERISTICS". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved September 23, 2023.
  25. ^ "Census of Population and Housing". Census.gov. Retrieved June 4, 2015.
  26. ^ "Census of Population and Housing". Census.gov. Retrieved June 4, 2016.
  27. ^ "U.S. Census website". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved January 31, 2008.
  28. ^ 'Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois,' vol. 1, Newton Bates-editor, Munsell Printing Company, p. 166
  29. ^ 'Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois,' vol. 1 Newton Bateman-editor, Munsell Printing Company, p. 312

Further reading

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