Timeline

1673
French Explorers Pere (Father) Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet descend the Mississippi; first Europeans to reach the Illinois Country.

 

1680-1763
French controlled territory, known as "Illinois Country;" first as part of French Canada, and then as part of Louisiana.

 

1699
Priests of the Quebec Seminary of Foreign Missions found the Holy Family Mission at Cahokia - the first permanent settlement in the Illinois Country.

 

1754-1763
French and Indian War. Great Britain gains control over the region with the 1763 Treaty of Paris, marking the end of the French and Indian War.

 

1775-1783
American Revolution.

 

1778
George Rogers Clark defeats the British at Kaskaskia, securing the Illinois Country for Virginia.

 

1783
Treaty of Paris extends the U.S. boundary to include the Illinois Country.

 

1784
Virginia relinquishes its claim to Illinois.

 

1787
Northwest Ordinance places Illinois in the Northwest Territory. Arthur St. Clair becomes first Governor of the Northwest Territory in 1788.

 

1799
Reverend David Badgley and others explore the country later known as the County of Madison, and called it "Goshen" because of the lush and fertile soil and vegetation.

 

1800
July 4, 1800 - Congress creates the Indiana Territory, which included Illinois.

 

1801
First white settlers locate in Six Mile Prairie (so named because it was 6 miles above St. Louis in the American Bottoms).

 

1803
The United States purchased the Louisiana Territory from France - 872,000 square miles west of the Mississippi River.

 

1804
May 14, 1804 - William Clark and his troops depart from Camp Dubois (mouth of the Wood River), Madison County, to join Meriwether Lewis for their westward explorations.

 

1806
First surveys of the U. S. lands into township were made. Zebulon M. Pike, later destined to discover Pike's Peak in Colorado, escaped death by Indians while attending a friend's wedding at a "settlement below the Wood River and down from the mouth of the Missouri."

 

1807
Baptist Church organized in the Wood River settlement. Influenza epidemic in Illinois.

 

1808
First brick house in Madison County built by Colonel Samuel Judy. Abel Moore and Joseph Bartlett settle in Wood River Township.

 

1809
Settlement established on Silver Creek, near Highland.

 

1809
March 01, 1809 - Illinois Territory created by an act of Congress (included the future states of Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin), with Kaskaskia as the capital of the Territory, and Ninian Edwards the Governor of Illinois Territory.

 

1811
1811-1812 - Series of three very large earthquakes - named after the town of New Madrid, Missouri. The first earthquake occurred on December 16, 1811; the second on January 23, 1812; and the last on February 7, 1912.

 

1812
Governor Edwards erects Fort Russell, northwest of Edwardsville. The fort was named in honor of Colonel William Russell. Smallpox epidemic.

 

1812-1815
War of 1812. Colonel Rufus Easton of St. Louis purchases land in Illinois, and laid out a town plat that would be called Alton, after one of his sons. His plat extended from the Mississippi River to Ninth Street, and from Piasa to Henry Streets.

 

1812
September 14, 1812 - Madison County established in the Illinois Territory, out of Randolph and St. Clair Counties, by Proclamation of Governor Edwards.

 

1813
Major Isaac H. Ferguson builds the first house erected in Marine prairie.

 

1814
First newspaper printed in Illinois - the Kaskaskia Illinois Herald.
July 10, 1814 - The Wood River Massacre.

December 1814 - First Madison County jail completed. Constructed of logs, it was built by William Otwell.

 

1816
April 29, 1816 - Land Office established in Edwardsville, Madison County, Illinois Territory, by President James Madison.

 

1817
First banking institution chartered under the name of the Bank of Edwardsville. Upper Alton laid out by Joseph Meacham. Town of Milton near the Wood River established. Town of Salu (near Upper Alton) laid out by Bennett Maxey, Isaac Waters, Erastus Brown, and Zachariah Allen.
February 12, 1817 - First courthouse erected in Edwardsville (built by Samuel G. Morse0.

 

1818
December 03, 1818 - State of Illinois admitted to the Union, with Kaskaskia the capital, and Shadrach Bond as Governor of Illinois.

 

1819
First newspaper published in Edwardsville, Madison County - The Edwardsville Spectator. Kickapoo Indians move west of the Mississippi, relinquishing most claims to central Illinois lands.

 

1820
Vandalia becomes the State capital.

 

1820
May 1, 1820 - Sabbath School organized at Upper Alton by Enoch Long and Henry Snow. Said to have been the first taught in Illinois.

 

1823
First recorded murder in Madison County. Eliphalet Green shoots and kills a man at Abel Moore's distillery.

 

1824
February 12, 1824 - First recorded hanging - Eliphalet Green. This was also the first trial in the county, and the second in the State of Illinois.

 

1827
Nathan Scarritt, Joseph Reynolds, and Captain Benjamin Godfrey arrive in Godfrey Township. Rock Spring Seminary in Upper Alton organized by Dr. John Mason Peck - later renamed Shurtleff College.

 

1832
Black Hawk War ends with Sauk and Fox Indians leaving the Illinois lands they had ceded in 1804.

 

1833
First case of cholera occurred at Alton. State penitentiary opens in Alton with 23 cells.

 

1834
July 5, 1834 - Rufus Easton, founder of Alton, dies in St. Charles, Missouri.

 

1835
Steamboat Packet established between Alton and St. Louis. Steamer was named the "Tiskilwa." James Clayton Tibbitt laid out a town site south of Buck Inn, called Greenwood. This later became North Alton.

 

1836
January 20, 1836 - Alton's Telegraph printed its first issue as a weekly newspaper. Proprietors and editors were Richard M. Treadway (age 20) and Lawson Parks (age 23).

 

1837
June 14, 1837 - Daniel Webster visits Alton by steamboat. Cannon salute given from the bluffs.

July 31, 1837 - Alton incorporated as a city by the state legislature. Upper Alton also incorporated.

November 7, 1837 - Reverend Elijah Parish Lovejoy murdered in Alton by mob.

 

1838
April 11, 1838 - Monticello Ladies Seminary opens.

 

1839
Springfield becomes the State capital.

 

1842
June 24, 1842 - Former President Martin Van Buren visits Alton, Middletown, and Upper Alton.

September 22, 1842 - Abraham Lincoln and James Shields “duel” on Sunflower Island, across from Alton.

 

June 1844
The Great Flood of 1844 - Mississippi, Missouri and the Illinois Rivers flood.

 

1845
First public school in Alton completed at a cost of $580.70.

 

1847
May 14, 1847 - Anti-Slavery Convention held in Upper Alton.

 

1846-1848
Mexican-American War. Alton served as a gathering point for troops before their journey to Mexico.

 

1848
Empire House (hotel) in Alton constructed by J. F. Hoffmeister.

 

1849
Cholera outbreak.

 

1851
Cholera outbreak.

 

1852
September 9, 1852 - Engine and three coaches were the first railroad cars to pull into Alton on the Alton & Sangamon Railroad (later renamed the Chicago & Alton Railroad).

 

1853
Plank road constructed from Alton to Godfrey.

February 16, 1853 - Sinking of the "Independence"

 

1856
September 30, 1856 - Agricultural State Fair opens in Alton.

October 8, 1856 - The Great Fremont and Dayton Demonstration (Republican) in Alton. Lincoln gives a speech.

October 8, 1856 - The Great Millard Fillmore demonstration in Alton. (1856 Presidential Campaign)

 

1857
June 24, 1857 - The hanging of George W. Sharpe and John Johnson for the murder of Jacob Barth.

September 1857 - Madison County Fair opens in Edwardsville.

 

1858
March 9, 1858 - Alton State Prison guard Clark C. Crabb held hostage by prisoner. Guard stabbed multiple times; prisoner shot.

October 15, 1858 - Abraham Lincoln - Stephen Douglas debate in Alton.

November 1858 - Alton's new city hall completed on Market Square.

 

1860
Abraham Lincoln elected President.

June 02, 1860 - Tornado strikes downtown Alton, causing much destruction.

 

1861
1861-1865 - American Civil War (The War of the Rebellion)

 

1862
Alton prison reopens as military prison.

July 25, 1862 - Colonel Ebenezer Magoffin, brother of Kentucky Governor Magoffin, escapes from Alton prison, along with 34 prisoners.

August 13, 1862 - Captain Benjamin Godfrey dies

 

1865
Alton military prison closes.

February 7, 1865 - Illinois Black Laws repealed.

April 15, 1865 - Abraham Lincoln dies after being shot by John Wilkes Booth.

 

1869
Rocky Fork A.M.E. Church/school founded by Rev. Erasmus Green and Andrew Jackson Hindman.

November 12, 1869 - William Bell hung for the murder of Herman Wendell.

 

1870
April 4, 1870 - Colored men vote for the first time in Madison County, at the town election in Edwardsville.

 

1873
William Eliot Smith and Edward Levis erect a small glass manufacturing plant on Belle Street in Alton - later becomes Illinois Glassworks.

 

1874
Gilbert Duncan and Brutus Brunner start a foundry on Piasa Street in Alton - later becomes Duncan Foundry.

July 30, 1874 - Alton Lyceum Hall destroyed by fire.

 

1875
Madison County divided into Townships.

 

1885
January 16, 1885 - Felix Henry hung for the murder of Henry DePugh and Albert Ross at Rocky Fork.

 

1890
March 27, 1890 - Lucy Jane Haskell, daughter of Dr. W. A. Haskell, died of diptheria.

April 6, 1890 - Former Senator Daniel Brown Gillham dies in Upper Alton, as a result of being shot during a robbery in his home on March 19.

 

1892
January 23, 1892 - Patrick Boyle hung for the murder of John Muench.

 

1893
January 21, 1893 - The Wann Disaster (East Alton).

 

1893
September 4, 1893 - East Alton incorporated as a village.

 

1894
May 1, 1894 - Formal opening of the Alton railroad bridge across the Mississippi River.

 

1897
November 8, 1897 - Lovejoy monument dedicated.

 

1898
Spanish-American War

 

1899
June 30, 1899 - Lovejoy monument officially completed with the sealing in of a timecapsule.

 

1900
July 01, 1900 - Jennie D. Hayner Memorial Library established by John Hayner.

 

1901
Rudolph Porter purchases more than 400 acres, and founded the Federal Lead Company in Alton, which began production in 1902.

 

1901
September 6, 1901 - President William McKinley shot, died September 14.

October 02, 1901 - Alton's E. O. Stanard Mills and Elevator destroyed by fire. Nearly an entire block of businesses destroyed.

 

1903
June 18, 1903 - The assault and murder of Laura Bailey. Driving home in her buggy with her two children, she was assaulted and left for dead.

 

1904
August 5, 1904 - The drowning of Michael Reilly, his daughter Elizabeth, and 6 of her playmates.

 

1907
May 1, 1907 - Wood River platted by Fred W. Penning, who subdivided his 80-acre farm.

June 15, 1907 - Rock Spring Park in Alton formally opened to the public.

 

1909
May 20, 1909 - William Eliot Smith, co-founder of Illinois Glass Company, dies in Rome, Italy.

September 4, 1909 - Illini Hotel in Alton officially opens.

 

1910
September 11, 1910 - Wood River Massacre monument dedication.

 

1914
1914-1918 - World War I

 

1917
Alton State Mental Hospital officially opens.

 

1918
February 22, 1918 - Robert Pershing Wadlow, Alton's "Gentle Giant," born in Alton.

April 5, 1918 - The lynching of Robert Paul Prager in Collinsville.

 

1922
November 15, 1922 - The death of Amos Edward Benbow (founder and mayor of Benbow City).

 

1924
April 22, 1924 - Historic Alton City Hall destroyed by fire.

 

1927
May 30, 1927 - Norman Eugene Walker (actor Clint Walker) born in Hartford.

 

1928
July 16, 1928 - Alton's Clark Bridge officially opens.

 

1937
1937-1945 - World War II

 

1940
July 15, 1940 - The death of Robert Pershing Wadlow, Alton's "Gentle Giant."

 

1946
March 16, 1946 - Russell-Miller Flour Mill (Stanard-Tilton Division) in Alton destroyed by fire.

 

1948
March 19, 1948 - Devastating tornado hits North Alton, Fosterburg, and Bunker Hill.

 

1949
May 21, 1949 - Tornado devastates Wood River, Livingston, and Worden.

 

1960
October 03, 1960 - Senator John F. Kennedy gives speech in Lincoln-Douglas Square in Alton.