Illinois Confederacy Indians roamed this prairie land, rich in game, which became Illinois County of Virginia. Ceded in 1784 to the United States it was successively included in the Northwest, Indiana; and in 1809, Illinois Territory. Formed in . . . — — Map (db m34169) HM
Where the Illinois Central Railroad saw land it didn't need, Henry Hedrick Smith saw opportunity.
In the mid 1800s, Smith, an ambitious outspoken entrepreneur, bought 800 acres of Bond County prairie from Illinois Central. When the St. Louis, . . . — — Map (db m169984) HM
Hill's Fort, a War of 1812-era fort that stood on the western perimeter of the Territory of Illinois, was located six miles southwest of this spot. A reconstruction of the original fort is located here at the Farm Heritage Museum. On September 9, . . . — — Map (db m232486) HM
Imagine a world without books--a frontier where print is a luxury, often out of reach. It's the world you would have known in 1815, when George Davidson settled the bluff overlooking Little Shoal Creek, just a short walk from where you stand. . . . — — Map (db m144131) HM
In the 1820s, not far from where you stand, passengers could board a stagecoach traveling west to Alton, Ill., or east to the Illinois Capitol at Vandalia.
According to local lore, if passengers at the town tavern were waiting for a coach, the . . . — — Map (db m144132) HM
