The 1913 Commercial History of  

Clinton County, Illinois

In the latter part of the year, 1808, a wagon road was laid out through that section of the territory of Illinois now comprised within the boundaries of Clinton County. This road extended from what was called the "Goshen Settlement" to the Ohio salt works. It crossed the Kaskaskia river at the site of the present city of Carlyle, thence via the Walnut hills to the salt works mentioned. This was known in the early days as the "Goshen road." The survey of this highway, doubtless, marked the time when the white man first set foot in the present limits of Clinton County, and from that date on for several years civilized man occasionally traversed this region on his way from the settlement on the American bottom to those on the Ohio river.

In 1811 a fort, or block house, was established on an elevation of ground lying some six blocks east of the present court house square in Carlyle which subsequently became the nucleus for the "lower" or old town of Carlyle. This block house was about sixteen feet square, made of logs, arranged in palisade form. At this fort there assembled the Illinois "Rangers" whenever the tocsin of alarm was sounded announcing that the Indians had committed, or were about to commit some murderous acts upon the whites of the surrounding country.

Between the years 1809 and 1817 some thirty thousand acres of land were entered within the limits of the present county of Clinton, the first of these entries being made by John JOURNEY, Charles COX and James MCCRACKEN in September, 1814. The lands thus entered were located in what is now Sugar Creek Township.

In the timbered portions of that region settlements were made about the 1810. The following year these settlers ere greatly annoyed by the predatory bands of Indians that hovered around the defenseless settlements and watched with jealous eyes these first invasions of their time-honored hunting grounds. To guard against their depredations, Nathaniel JOURNEY in 1812 constructed a rude log fort a short distance northwest of the present site of Aviston. So far ass can be learned by tradition, only one person, the wife of Jesse BAYLES was killed by the Indians in this settlement.

In the year 1810 William TAYLOR emigrated from Kentucky to Illinois and in 1813 he built a cabin for his family on a piece of land in what is now Brookside Township. This was one of the first in Clinton County. James MCCRACKEN, a native of Kentucky, and an intrepid trapper and hunter, settled in the county prior to 1814, in which he entered land and commenced to clear up a farm.

In 1815 John ROW came with his wife from Tennessee. He was one of the early Justices of the Peace and a Baptist preacher as well. Thomas HIGGINS, the celebrated Indian fighter, built a cabin about three miles northeast of the site of the present town of Trenton, on the west bank of Sugar Creek. In November 1815, the first permanent settlement in the eastern part of the county was made by William and Simon WALKER, who accompanied by John MARTIN, came from Turkey Hill, an old settlement in St. Clair County, and camped on the banks of the Kaskaskia river, near a body of water called TOWNSEND’s Lake.

The first white man that located in the northern part of the county, embraced within the present limits of Irish Township was James BURNSIDE, Jr. who located there early in the year 1817. In the same year Mr. SHERWOOD located in that neighborhood, soon erecting a grist mill which was designed to grind corn and was propelled by horse power.

It was not until 1835 that a large immigration of German settlers set in. About that time Gerhard HAHNEWINKLE, Herman KOELKER, Frank H. SHRADER, Sr., Henry J. HOCHEHLER, J. H. HILMES, H. Bernhardt WOBBE, Sr., J. Gerhard WOBBE, Joseph F. BECKMANN, W. H. BECKMANN and G. Henry HORCHELER came to Clinton County, and all settled north and west of Shoal Creek. It was characteristic of their thrift and frugality that all cultivated farms.

Among the prominent early settlers was likewise Zophar CASE, Sr. who was an honored citizen of Carlyle from 1833 to 1891.

The entire population of Clinton County in 1825, when the first census was taken was 1,106.

Time is fast sweeping away the pioneers of our country. Their early trials and tribulations will soon be forgotten, unless the pen of history records in permanent form the traditions of those yet living. Such history has a beginning but no definite end. It begins with arrival of the first white man, but ends nowhere. A little more than a century has elapsed since Clinton County’s bounteous soil belonged to nature’s wild domain.

The progress of that county, prior to the completion of the Ohio and Mississippi was slow. This road was completed in 1855 and marked the beginning of a new and better era in the history of Clinton County. The locomotive with its splendid train now goes thundering along, where formerly the slow stage coach bore its load of weary travelers. The telegraph and telephone, electric paths of thought, now stretch from city to hamlet, palpitating with the daily news from every quarter of the globe.

Palatial residences have taken the place of pioneer cabins; spacious school buildings, with all the convenient equipments, and elegant church edifices with their spires pointing heavenward, have superseded the rude structures of the early days; the threshing machine has destroyed the demand for the old fashioned flail, ingenious machinery of every kind has driven from the filed the rude implements of our forefathers.

In the erstwhile quiet village we hear the hum of industry, factories and mills belch forth their smoke, electric lights make radiant the darkest night; the brick paved streets reverberate to the sound of the speeding automobile; the buzz of the aeroplane even is hard in the skies.

In short the old has gone; the new has come.
 
 

Population of cities and towns in Clinton county, alphabetically arranged:
 

Albers	Southern Ry	250
Aviston	B. & O.	500
Breese	B. & O.	1,800
Beckemeyer	B. & O.	700
Bartelso	Southern	600
Boulder	C. B. & Q.	150
Carlyle	B. & O.	2,300
Damiansville	Inland Town	300
Ferrin	B. & O.	100
Frogtown	Inland Town	100
Germantown	Southern Ry	200
Hoffman	Southern Ry	350
Huey	B. & O.	300
Jamestown	Inland Town	300
Keyesport	C. B. & Q.	600
New Baden	Southern Ry	1,300
New Memphis	Inland Town	250
Posey	Southern Ry	100
St. Rose	Inland Town	272
Shattuc	C.B.&O. & B.&O.	300
Trenton	B. & O.	2,300
	Total	15,702
Farmers & others not living in cities		7,760
Total population of county		22,832
Number of registered voters in county		5,423

 

Baltimore and Ohio Railroad 30 miles for East to West.

Southern Railroad 31 miles for East to West.

Chicago, Burlington and Quincy 15 miles from North to South.

The Baltimore and Ohio runs through the center of the county from East to West, the Southern through the southern part of the county from East to West, while the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy runs from the North to South through the extreme eastern part of the county, passing through Shattuc, Boulder and Keyesport.

Kaskaskia. There are several small creeks in the county.
 
 

This county is well watered, first by the Kaskaskia river, which passes from north to south through the whole width of the county, east of the center and then forms its southern border, then in the eastern part by tributaries of the Kaskaskia running parallel to the upper course of the main stream from north to south; then by Sugar Creek and Shoal Creek and its tributary, Beaver Creek. In the eastern part of the county the branches on the contrary, tend more toward the west, or southwest, and are the East Fork in the north, and Crooked Creek in the south, with its tributaries, Lost Creek and some others of minor importance.

Along the principal water-courses we find timbered bottom lands, and more or less wide belts of timbered uplands, while the intermediate uplands are prairies. In the western part of the county long prairies, extending from north to south, alternate with belts of timber. The eastern part of the county is, however, much flatter and timber is scare, except along the main streams, the East Fork and Crooked Creek, and diminishes rapidly on the smaller branches. Although some of these are many miles in length and drain large areas, they have the appearance of mere prairie drains. East of the Kaskaskia the county is mainly prairie and rather uniform, and comparatively low and wet.

The prairies are about the same as those usually found in this part of the State (except the low bottom prairies) like the Santa Fe prairie in the principal bend of the Kaskaskia river. There is no definite landmark between that prairie and the river bottom, no elevated hank whatever, and the bottom timber gradually yields to the grasses, so that there is an intermediate district occupied by oak openings where patches of prairie alternate with clumps of trees, mainly consisting of the water oak Most of this prairie is so wet that it is covered with the coarsest grasses and absolutely needs artificial drainage before it can produce ordinary crops. Along all the ravines of any size there are timber belts which intersect the prairies. Creeks many miles in length which at certain seasons discharge vast volume of water appear only as slightly depressed prairie drains. This is due partly to the flatness of the land, but the changed quality of the soil is not without its influence in this respect.

The timber is all of the same type as that in Southern Illinois generally. The only existing differences are produced by the gradual change of the surface configuration.
 

1913 Commercial History Index

Return to Clinton ILGenWeb Page

Copyright ©  2000 - 2001

The Clinton County portion of this Directory was transcribed by Laura Baumhueter Cordingley.  All materials contained on these pages are furnished for the free use of those engaged in researching their family origins. Any commercial use,
without the consent of the host/author of these pages is prohibited.