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Visitors Guide to
On
April 27, 1790, before 500 people assembled on the parade grounds of
Cahokia, a proclamation issued by Governor Arthur St. Clair was read that would lay out
the county that was to be the first in Illinois and would bear his name. The
original boundaries of St. Clair County included about two-thirds of the
State of Illinois. Cahokia was chosen as the seat of one of three judicial
districts and would be the westernmost outpost of democracy of the new
United States. In 1795 Governor St. Clair divided the county into two creating
Randolph County to the south and Cahokia became the sole seat of St. Clair
County.
Parts of St. Clair County continued to be portioned off to make new counties
until it reached its present size in 1818. European
settlement of St. Clair County dates back to 1699, with the founding of the
village of Cahokia, the same year as the founding of Colonial Williamsburg
in Virginia, by French-Canadian missionaries. By the 1740’s Cahokia became
the center for the French trade in Native American goods and furs. On July
5, 1778 Captain Joseph Bowman who was part of George Rogers Clark and his
“Long Knives” expedition to the Illinois Country captured Cahokia
without resistance. During the winter of 1803-04 Lewis and Clark used Cahokia as an administrative center
as the prepared for their journey into the
west. After
the Revolutionary War there came an increase in the number of settlers from
America, in particular veterans taking advantage of the one hundred acre
land grants they received for their service in the war. These immigrants
chose to settle, not in the bottomlands near Cahokia, but on the high ground
inland from the Mississippi River. By 1814 these Americans wanted a more
centrally located seat of government and the county seat was moved to
Belleville. A second wave of immigrants, mostly of German descent, began in
the 1830’s and together with the American settlers caused St. Clair County
to outgrow its French roots. St. Clair County and in particular Belleville prospered due to an abundance of agricultural products. An abundance of another resource, bituminous coal, caused a number of industries to flourish. Visitors to the Belleville Labor and Industry Museum will learn about a variety of these industries including industries that manufactured bricks, glass, carriages, caskets, monument works, farm machinery, cigars, shirt and pants, and shoe. Belleville was once had so many stove foundries that it was called the "Stove Capital of the World." Visitors to the Great River Road region of St. Clair County will find a variety of historical and entertaining things to do. A trip to the Colonial Cahokia State Historic Sites complex will reveal how the county’s early French roots. St. Peter’s Cathedral in Belleville is the largest cathedral in the state of Illinois and is modeled after the Cathedral of Exeter, England and its English Gothic style of architecture. Also in Belleville is the recently opened William & Florence Schmidt Art Center. greatriverroad.com invites to visit this interesting and vibrant region.
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