Cahokia Illinois

The Didier Family of Prairie du Rocher Illinois

Our country, which has been called the melting-pot of nations, has received citizens from every quarter of the known world. All races and peoples have sent their representatives to swell the numbers of our population. And of all these nations none has done more for America than France. Who can ever forget that it was the courageous Frenchmen who first penetrated the wilds of the new world, and, not content with a mere sailing along the coast, ascended its rivers and explored the interior of an unknown and dreaded wilderness? They settled vast areas such as the Mississippi Valley, which … Read more

Cahokia Tribe

Cahokia Indians. A tribe of the Illinois confederacy, usually noted as associated with the kindred Tamaroa. Like all the confederate Illinois tribes they were of roving habit until they and the Tamaroa were gathered into a mission settlement about the year 1698 by the Jesuit Pinet. This mission, first known as Tamaroa, but later as Cahokia, was about the site of the present Cahokia, Illinois, on the east bank of the Mississippi, nearly opposite the present St Louis. In 1721 it was the second town among the Illinois in importance. On the withdrawal of the Jesuits the tribe declined rapidly, … Read more

Escape From The Robber Band

Monday, Nov. 8, 1819.–The disappointment experienced from the unmanly conduct of Dr. Hill had a happy effect on our little company. It bound us more firmly and nearer together, and, I may add with truth, almost fitted us for the field of battle. The hour of 9 o’clock had now arrived, the night uncommonly dark and cloudy. On our going into the house one of the strangers went into the yard and gave the Indian warwhoop three times very loud. About 10 o’clock they took their six rifles, went into the yard with a candle and shot them off one … Read more

Illinois, Diocese of Belleville, Catholic Parish Records, 1695-1956

Illinois Bellville Church Records

A help guide for accessing the images of parish registers recording the events of baptism, first communion, confirmation (to 1907), marriage (to 1930) or death (to 1956) in the Diocese of Belleville (Illinois), Roman Catholic Church. The index to some volumes may reference pages within a given volume beyond current publication dates. As such, these images are not currently available. In addition to traditional parish registers, this collection includes a small number of census, church history, family and financial records. To assist the researcher I have broken down the available registers by county and name of parish, including the years covered by those parish records.

Early Exploration and Native Americans

De Soto and his band gave to the Choctaws at Moma Binah and the Chickasaws at Chikasahha their first lesson in the white man’s modus operandi to civilize and Christianize North American Indians; so has the same lesson been continued to be given to that unfortunate people by his white successors from that day to this, all over this continent, but which to them, was as the tones of an alarm-bell at midnight. And one hundred and twenty-three years have passed since our forefathers declared all men of every nationality to be free and equal on the soil of the North … Read more

Cahokia Mound

The ancient civilization at Cahokia took advantage of the nearby waterways and the rich soil to sustain life in the American Bottom.

Cahokia Mound. The largest prehistoric artificial earthwork in the United States, situated in Madison County, Illinois, in what is known as the American bottom, about 6 miles East of St Louis, Missouri, and in plain view of the railroads entering that city from the East. Before their partial destruction by the plow the principal mound was surrounded by an extensive mound group, numbering, according to Brackenridge (Views La., 187, 1814), who visited the place in 1811, “45 mounds or pyramids, besides a great number of small artificial elevations.” The name Cahokia is that of a tribe which formerly occupied a … Read more