Illinoistown and early nineteenth century settlement

This painting depicts the first contact between French fur traders and Native Americans.  It has served to convey the idea of European contact with Native Americans for many years. Query... Study the painting carefully.  What do you notice about individuals?  What is distinctive about the flatboat?

French Cahokia, founded in 1699, was not the first French outpost, but it was the earliest settlement that survived more than a few years.  Kaskaskia was the next place French settlers built, and it was followed by a series of east bank towns at Prairie du Pont, Fort Vincennes and Fort Chartres on the Wabash River.  Settlements by the French on the west bank of the Mississippi included New Madrid (then known as Ainse de la Graise or "Greasy Bend") and St. Genevieve.  These were followed by St. Louis, St. Charles, Carondelet in 1767, St. Ferdinand (now Florissant) and Portage des Sioux.  Settlement increased after the late eighteenth century and the end of the American Revolution.

Pen and Ink drawing of Illinoistown circa 1800

As settlers reached the American Bottom there were those who established homes within the Mississippi River's flood plain, on the eastern shore.  At the time, the area was swampy and prone to flooding.  Most settlers preferred the higher and better draining Missouri side of the river.  We know the identity of only a few of the first Illinois settlers.  The historical record begins in detail with the forceful presence of a single man, James Piggott, who, while instrumental to the region's development, certainly benefited from the help of his family and the other settlers of the area.

James Piggott took the long view regarding the development of Illinois territory.  Born in Connecticut, his fortunes took him further west throughout his life.  He served in the Revolutionary War as a member of the Eighth Pennsylvania Regiment.  After his military service he joined George Rogers Clark recruiting families to live in the proposed town of Clarksville, close to present day Wickliffe, Kentucky.  Chickasaw Native Americans forced the abandonment of this endeavor in 1782 and Piggott moved with seventeen families to Illinois territory.

In 1790 Illinois territorial Governor Arthur St. Clair made Piggott a territorial judge.  He settled in Cahokia and soon began the business of providing ferry service crossing the Mississippi to the more developed St. Louis side.  The ferry operation continued long after Piggott's death in 1799, later being operated by his sons and eventually absorbed into the Wiggins Ferry monopoly.

Map showing historical development of the East St. Louis waterfront over 200 years. From Gateway to the Past, Illinois Department of Transportation, 1982.

James Piggott, a late eighteenth century pioneer and a territorial judge for Illinois, settled in the American Bottom region of Illinois after migrating from the Eastern United States.  Once settled in Cahokia, Piggott and his family built a log and mud road from that settlement to a point on Cahokia Creek opposite St. Louis in 1792.  During that time the area that is present day East St. Louis was swampy and uninhabited.  Goods crossing the river from the Illinois side had to travel from Cahokia, upstream to St. Louis.  Piggott's road allowed him to move goods onto Cahokia Creek, into the Mississippi, and across the river to St. Louis.  This access was more direct than shipping from Cahokia and Piggott soon had a growing business providing access to St. Louis.

Once established Piggott refurbished the route to Cahokia Creek with a sturdy road consisting of rocks buttressed with logs through the swampy region.  Cahokia Creek, not wide or deep enough for regular use, quickly became an obstacle to Piggott.  He spanned a 150-foot wooden bridge over the creek to the river front where he built two log cabins.  Piggott's Ferry became a central point for travelers and soon the area further inland began to be developed.

The Illinois side of the River

This diagram shows the course of the Mississippi River around 1800, indicated by the striped area.  The shaded area represents the region around Piggott's Ferry that expanded during the first twenty years of the nineteenth century.  The underlying map is of present-day East St. Louis and shows the major highway system surrounding the Eads Bridge.

After James Piggott died in 1799, Piggott's Ferry remained in business.  The growth of St. Louis in the early nineteenth century encouraged further development of the Illinois side of the Mississippi River through the increased demand for transportation across the river.  Soon the Piggott family had a number of neighbors and their business faced competition from other entrepreneurs interested in capturing some of the ferry business.

Map showing historic locations of settlement in East St. Louis.  From Gateway to the Past Illinois Department of Transportation, 1982.

ILLINOISTOWN - a central river crossing

In the early years of Illinoistown it is clear that Samuel Wiggins, a politician and Illinois businessman, was an influential presence.  The Reverend John Mason Peck described the town as a small one of about a dozen families with a post office, hotel, livery, and store.  The post office was called Wiggins Ferry and Samuel was the postmaster.

Although a flood in 1826 (only one of many to damage the area) may have set back the growth of Illinoistown, Wiggins' concentrated ferry business helped spawn economic growth throughout the 1820s and 1830s.  According to a study by the National Park Service, by 1841 Illinoistown had  become a bustling place with numerous grocery stores, two bakeries, a clothier, a cooper, blacksmiths, taverns and hotels.  There were more than one hundred homes and a newspaper, The American Bottom Reporter.

Samuel Wiggins was apparently not a person to have others do his work.  He was involved in the lives of the people living in and around Illinoistown as an excerpt from William Wells Brown's narrative shows.

The first thirty years of the nineteenth century marked a period of regular growth along either side of the Mississippi.  St. Louis was established as the largest city in the region and a central starting point for people heading west.  The community on the Illinois side was growing as well, providing passage to St. Louis.

Steamboats brought Illinoistown and St. Louis a variety of new ventures.  Steamboats needed fueling stations and a means of transporting their goods once ashore.  The local ferry operations were a natural fit, developing shore facilities for steamboats and already possessing the ability to quickly move goods across the river at low cost.  By 1828 the Wiggins operation had converted its ferries to steam, taking advantage of its renovated facilities and the fairly low cost of constructing a steamboat.

 Early Beginnings in St. Louis

Below is an image of an early French map of St. Louis by Auguste Chouteau.

Thirty years before James Piggott arrived in Cahokia, French fur traders had established a settlement on the western side of the Mississippi.  Pierre Laclede and Auguste Chouteau sought to establish a fur trading outpost to attract Native Americans and their bounty of furs.  Auguste was the thirteen year old stepson of Laclede, who worked for a New Orleans trading company.  Almost twenty miles south of the convergence of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers they found the western shore had both access to the river and a high bluff offering protection from flooding.  In 1764 Laclede returned to the site with his stepson and a settlement party.  They named their settlement St. Louis after Louis IX of France.  (Louis IX ruled France from 1214 to 1270 and was canonized in 1297.  He was beloved by the French for his benevolent reign, improvement of finances in the kingdom, work toward peace and prosperity, and initiation of the right of direct appeal to the Crown in all cases.)

St. Louis, initially nothing more than rows of cabins, became a center for trade along the Mississippi River.  As it developed, the settlement was designed in the fashion of a colonial French city.  Unlike the cabins in Illinoistown, St. Louis featured vertically placed logs covered in plaster.  The French were not, however, the only group to build St. Louis.  Soon after it was established some French-Canadians brought African slaves.  Native Americans also came into the settlement to trade and it is possible some stayed.

Laclede did not learn until after St. Louis was established that France had signed a treaty ceding French possessions west of the Mississippi River to Spain.  This made St. Louis, a mostly French settlement, a Spanish town.  Thus the early period of St. Louis was marked by Spanish government and French culture.

When America went to war with Britain, the Spanish and French joined against the British.  In 1780 St. Louis faced a siege by Native Americans fighting for the British.  Advanced knowledge of the planned attack allowed the townspeople to construct defenses and a small stone tower they called Fort San Carlos.  Their defensive measures were enough to keep the British from mounting a strong attack.

St. Louis remained a fur trading outpost during its first forty years, becoming a gathering pace for goods and people heading south to New Orleans.  The town was becoming a city by 1800 when there were around one thousand inhabitants.  It was changing in appearance as people replaced the original log cabins with more substantial stone houses and buildings.

Napoleon Bonaparte had conquered Spain and its possessions and was willing to sell a good deal of it to the United States in order to raise the funds necessary to maintain his army.  The United States completed the Louisiana Purchase in 1803.  St. Louis was the capital of Upper Louisiana at the time and President Thomas Jefferson selected it as the site for the formal transfer of power from the French.  On March 10, 1804 the United States took formal possession of Louisiana territory and St. Louis became the central point for the westward expansion into this new acquired land.