Madison County History
This website is in Copyright 2008-2025. All Rights Reserved.
HISTORY OF ILLINOIS
Source: Alton Telegraph, June 16, 1848
The
pioneers of Illinois brought little property than such as they could
pack on horses or carry on watercraft. A few implements of husbandry
in the simplest form, and such culinary utensils as were
indispensable, and confined to a very few articles; the rifle, the
axe, auger, saw, and very few other tools used by the mechanic
[laborer] were all that was deemed necessary. The primitive Western
log cabin, with its clapboard roof held on by poles, its stick and
clay chimney, its floor of split slabs called puncheons, and its
door, made of boards split from a log, smoothed with a
drawing-knife, united together with wooden hinges and fastened with
a wooden latch, was the uniform style of architecture. Not a nail or
any other piece of metal was used; not a pane of glass kept out the
air and storm from the aperture left for a window; all was wood, and
all constructed by the backwoodsmen.
The pioneers were exposed to common dangers, and became united by
the closest ties of social intercourse. Accustomed to arm in each
other’s defense, to aid in each other’s labor, to assist in the
affectionate duty of nursing the sick, and the mournful office of
burying the dead, the best affections of the heart were brought into
habitual exercise.
__________________
MADISON COUNTY ESTABLISHED
On
September 14, 1812, Madison County was established in the Illinois
Territory out of Randolph and St. Clair Counties, by proclamation of
the Governor of Illinois Territory, Ninian Edwards. It was named for
U. S. President James Madison, a friend of Edwards, and had a
population of 9,099 people. At the time of its formation, Madison
County included all of the modern State of Illinois north of St.
Louis, as well as all of Wisconsin, part of Minnesota, and
Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.
A meeting was held on April 5, 1813 at the home of Thomas
Kirkpatrick in Edwardsville, where appointed commissioners were to
report on their selection of a county seat. A meeting was held on
January 14, 1814, where the court ordered the sheriff to notify the
commissioners appointed by law to fix the place for the public
buildings (courthouse and jail) for Madison County. The county seat
was established in the town of Edwardsville, with the first public
building – the jail – being erected in 1814. The first county
courthouse was erected in Edwardsville in 1817.
During the period 1819 to 1849, Madison County was reduced in area
to its present size, about 760 square miles. All of the public lands
had become the property of individuals and had been converted into
thousands of productive farms. New towns and villages were
established, such as Collinsville, Highland, Marine, Venice,
Monticello [Godfrey], Troy, and Alton.
__________________
QUICK LINKS
Confederate Cemetery (North Alton)
Western Military Academy (Upper Alton)
Shurtleff College (Upper Alton)
Monticello Ladies Seminary (Godfrey)
Illinois State Penitentiary in Alton (1833-1860)
Federal Military Prison at Alton (1861-1865)
__________________
