1/11/2024 0 Comments Escape from laville clock![]() ![]() The early historians of Peoria and Tazewell counties tended to disparage the early French settlers of central Illinois, even to the point of claiming that they weren’t really settlers at all. The destruction of La Ville de Maillet essentially ended the French phase of the European settlement of central Illinois – afterwards only the French fur traders of Opa Post at the present site of Creve Coeur were left in the area. But the tribes of Peoria Lake had declined to join Tecumseh’s confederacy and were considered to be friendly until the unprovoked attacks of Territorial Gov. was based on the fact that the French not only lived peaceably with the tribes of the area, but even sometimes intermarried with them. Craig with unprovoked, malignant cruelty.”Ĭraig’s accusation that the French Americans of Peoria Lake were in league with Indians hostile to the U.S. All this the French have ever denied, and charge Capt. Craig excused himself for this act of devastation, by accusing the French of being in league with the Indians, with whom the United States were at war but more especially, by alledging (sic) that his boats were fired upon from the town, while lying at anchor before it. DeWitt Drown’s “Peoria Directory for 1844” says (italics as in original), “Capt. ![]() In relating the story of Craig’s burning of the French village, S. Thomas Craig had burned the year before during an Illinois militia campaign meant to warn the Indians of Peoria Lake not to ally with Britain during the War of 1812 (but which likely had the opposite effect). These new arrivals to central Illinois came up the Illinois River or overland from southern Illinois to Fort Clark (Peoria) and its environs – and as we shall see, these newcomers included William Blanchard and Nathan Dillon, names prominent in early Tazewell County history.Īs we saw previously, American soldiers built Fort Clark in 1813 on the ruins of the old French village of La Ville de Maillet, which Capt. Up to that time, American settlers in Illinois had come chiefly from southern states and had settled almost exclusively in southern Illinois.īut with the dawn of statehood a new wave of migration arrived, in which settlers from southern Illinois began to move north, joined by newcomers from states north of the Ohio River. The summer before Illinois was admitted as the 21st state of the Union in 1818, a territorial census counted 40,258 souls living in the soon-to-be state – but the new state’s population rapidly increased over the next decade. Our column this week recall the first of the post-War of 1812 settlers in our area. Admission is free and the public is invited.įor the pioneer settlers of central Illinois, farming wasn’t merely a business, but was crucial for a settler family’s survival. Like last month’s Finson video, it includes vintage film footage from around the county. The video that will be shown is 34 minutes in length and is entitled, “Farming in Tazewell County During the ’30s and ’40s,” presented by Tom Finson. On Friday, March 2, at 11 a.m., the Pekin Public Library will present the third video in its Illinois Bicentennial Series in the Community Room.
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