Eli Short

by | Mar 1, 2014 | Biographies

Eli Short – When we saw Mr. Forster of the Irish Settlement operating a still and taking an active part in church work, we discovered that such action did not strike the people of that  time as particularly out of place.  Eli Short, who settled a short distance...

James Shields

by | Mar 1, 2014 | Biographies

James Shields an Irishman, came to Kaskaskia and began his career by teaching school. Later he studied law and became a successful attorney. Entering politics, he was elected as United States Senator from Illinois. Leaving Illinois, he went to Minnesota, where he was...

Rectors Brothers

by | Mar 1, 2014 | Biographies

Whoever looks at the records of early government surveys in the archives of southern Illinois counties will note the frequency with which the name of Rectors appears. This is explained by the fact that most of the nine Rectors brothers who came to Kaskaskia in 1806...

John Pulliam

by | Mar 1, 2014 | Biographies

John Pulliam, after living in Kentucky and Missouri, and later at New Design settlement in the adjoining county of Monroe, came in 1799 to open a farm near the village of Washington, a short distance to the west of the Kaskaskia River and some two miles south of...

Nathaniel Pope

by | Mar 1, 2014 | Biographies

Nathaniel Pope first appeared in Kaskaskia in 1804 but shortly moved to St. Genevieve, Missouri. He returned to Kaskaskia in 1808 and became, by appointment, Secretary of Illinois Territory in 1809. Before the arrival of Governor Edwards, Pope, as acting governor,...

John Pollock

by | Mar 1, 2014 | Biographies

James Pollock settled near Preston in 1818 and started a tanning yard. He did not find it easy to secure the needed hides and began a meat packing industry to aid in supplying his requirements. Cattle were bought and slaughtered. The meat was shipped by flatboat to...

John Pettit

by | Mar 1, 2014 | Biographies

The number of gristmills established at an early date leads one to wonder if there were not quite a number of unrecorded settlers in the nearby area. We find John Pettit in 1798 with a mill beside the trail that crossed Nine Mile Creek between the regions of Chester...

William Nelson

by | Mar 1, 2014 | Biographies

Grist mills and distilleries were very convenient combinations, at least, William Nelson found it so when he established this combination near the present town of Red Bud in 1812. A distillery near at hand doubtless lessened the tedium of waiting ones turn at the...

William Morrison

by | Mar 1, 2014 | Biographies

William Morrison came to Kaskaskia in 1790 as a representative of Bryant and Morrison of Philadelphia. He was a very capable person and the business he established prospered greatly, though much of his time was given to public service. The extent of his business is...