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Visitors Guide to
Millstadt
St. Clair County, Illinois |
The earliest European
settlers in the Millstadt area were Americans, mainly veterans of the
Revolutionary War you claimed their 100-acre grants for military service.
George Lunceford, a Virginian member of George Rogers Clark’s expedition
to the Illinois Country that captured Kaskaskia and Prairie du Rocher in
July of 1778, is usually considered the first white settler to have lived
in the area. In 1836 Simon Stookey was building a barn with the help of
Joseph Abend and Henry Randleman when some one proposed to Randleman that
a piece of his land would make an excellent site for a town. Abend
proposed the name "Centerville" for the new town since it was
seven miles from Belleville, seven miles from Columbia, and seven miles
from Pittsburg Lake. Randelman agreed and in March of 1837 the town of
Centerville, consisting of 40 lots was platted.
Large
group of German immigrants began to arrive in the Millstadt area in 1834.
The 1840’s were a time of economic hardship in Europe. The largely
agricultural German states were being affected by the Industrial Revolution
and America offered a new start in life. This brought a second wave of
German immigrants to the Millstadt area. The failure of the 1848 Revolution
and the crackdown on subversive thought brought additional immigrants to the
region. Many preferred to use their native German and when the town was
incorporated in 1867 the name was changed from Centerville to Millstadt (milltown.)
By 1880 about 1200 people live in Millstadt, mostly of German descent. In
the 1881 HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY it was reported that only "seven
families of English descent" were still residing in the community.
Although mills were a prominent industrial activity, other included meat
processing and coal mining.
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