Friday, September 11, 2009 4:09 PM CDT
USA's Yesterdays: Old Shawneetown -- An important early Illinois ‘metropolis’
By Hal Malehorn
Old Shawneetown is located at the very southeastern extremity of the state of Illinois. A story is told that, in the 1830s, persons in charge of affairs in Chicago dispatched an urgent request to the Illinois State Bank in Old Shawneetown. These Chicagoans asked that the State Bank invest in bonds issued by Chicago, to fund much-needed improvements there.
According to the story, the officials managing the State Bank in Old Shawneetown refused the request, opining that “no town so swampy and not on a navigable river would ever amount to anything.”
And thus it happened that investors in Southern Illinois missed out on a golden opportunity — which the Chicagoans never forgave. And, according to modern political pundits, that slight is precisely what created the upstate-downstate contention that plagues Illinois to this very day.
Granted, Old Shawneetown would all too soon be outdistanced, out-produced and out-populated by that upstart, upstate village built upon a smelly wild onion patch. Nonetheless, Old Shawneetown did figure prominently in the early history of Illinois.
Named after the Shawnee Indians that lived nearby, Old Shawneetown, long before Illinois statehood in 1818, served as an administrative center for the Northwest Territory that stretched from the Ohio River all the way up to Lake Superior. And the town also hosted a Land Office, in which emigrants from the Near South filed their claims to “government ground” in the southeast quadrant of the state.
Old Shawneetown was also the county seat of Gallatin County, which boasted a collection of salt springs, many of which had been worked since prehistoric times.
Indeed, the Shawneetown Salt District was created by Congress in 1812. This enabling legislation set aside some 180 square miles for leasing in the portion of Gallatin County that lay west of the village.
Entrepreneurs promptly laid a network of wooden pipes to transport the salt water to the several furnaces that dotted the area. Collected there in large metal kettles set upon fire grates, some 200 gallons of brine were boiled down to produce a single bushel of salt.
With the labor provided mainly by hundreds of slaves imported temporarily from cross-river Kentucky, the furnaces were tended and the salt carried to Old Shawneetown on the Ohio River, where it was loaded aboard boats for transport to distant places.
The production of salt reached its height in the middle of the 19th century, when large boilers, engines and pumps were installed, and shallow pans up to 20 feet in length replaced the kettles. Eventually, however, high tariffs on exported salt, competition from comparable sites elsewhere, and a nascent coal and iron industry nearby combined to drastically curtail salt-making.
In the years immediately following statehood, Old Shawneetown was the largest community in Illinois, with Gallatin County one of several running all the way from the Ohio River up to the Wisconsin Territory.
In addition to welcoming emigrants and salt workers, Old Shawneetown as a river port trans-shipped major ladings of lumber and farm products. The village also became a financial center, as it hosted one of four official State Banks, as well as a private bank. Then, too, mills, foundries, schools, churches and other enterprises promised the town continuing prosperity.
And, Old Shawneetown was eventually named the terminus of a branch of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.
In 1818 Old Shawneetown welcomed the second newspaper published in Illinois, when a man named Henry Eddy from Vermont offloaded his press there, instead of proceeding on to St. Louis. It mattered little to him that advertisers in his pages, as well as subscribers, offered in payment clean linen and cotton rags, bacon, tallow, beeswax, feathers, deerskins or pork.
Old Shawneetown was also singular in that it was one of only two communities in Illinois to welcome General Lafayette, who in 1825 returned to the United States from France upon the 50th anniversary of the start of the American Revolution.
Gov. Edward Coles and the state legislature invited the general to include this state on his itinerary, and the general graciously agreed.
An eyewitness described the scene of the general’s arrival in Old Shawneetown: “People of all stations, degree and color stood in a double line extending from the boat where the distinguished party landed upon a calico-covered path strewn with fragrant and lovely blossoms.”
The distinguished celebrants then repaired to the hospitality of the Rawlings tavern, where glasses were raised in toasts to the memory of George Washington and the heroes of the Revolution.
As the steamboat “Natchez” approached the landing, a salute of 24 guns rang out. After the customary round of speeches and other formalities, the steamboat “Artisan” carried the general to his next destination.
As the city progressed, streets were laid out parallel to the river: Along with Main and Market, these were Poplar, Walnut, Locust and Spruce. And crossing them at right angles were Gallatin, Monroe, Jefferson, Madison, Washington, Adams — and, later, Garfield, McKinley and Grant.
Unfortunately, the town’s proximity to the Ohio River proved unfortunate, for on several occasions Old Shawneetown was disastrously inundated by waters, most notably in 1883, 1898 and 1913. Upon each occasion the levee was built higher, only to be breached by the Ohio’s torrent. Still, Old Shawneetown kept coming back.
A flood in 1937 (along with bank failures during the Great Depression) nearly ruined the community’s resistance. But it did, in fact, split the residents into two factions. The majority of the residents, tired of having waters up to their second stories, abandoned the old town, and established a new settlement, christening it with the community’s original name “Shawneetown.” It was (and is) located safely upon a bluff some three miles west of Old Shawneetown.
But some 200 residents doggedly remained (and yet remain) in the original location, calling themselves “River Rats,” and trusting to the levee to hold — next time.
Not much is happening in Old Shawneetown these days. Granted, occasional tourists wander about, visiting notable sites in town. And, Gallatin County boosters periodically stage festivals celebrating regional history.
But, day after day the river — and time — slip slowly by.
By the way, what ever happened to Chicago?
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