Have you ever visited Kaskaskia ? I have. That’s the first capital. You can only access it from Missouri because the Mississippi shifted course to the east of the old townsite. I learned recently that my GGG-grandfather’s father-in-law, Seth Gard, was a delegate from Edwards County to the 1818 Constitutional Convention at Kaskaskia. A tiny county today, but at its founding, it took in most of the eastern half of IL up to Wisconsin (which means all of Cook County & environs were in it). Gard would be considered an Illinois “Founding Father.”
I asked why Gard wasn’t my GGGG-grandfather, but it was a sad story. My GGG-grandfather had moved up from Middle Tennessee around IL’s statehood (he was the one who participated in the Creek Campaign under Andrew Jackson). He met and married Gard’s daughter and gave him a decent chunk of farmland. Unfortunately, both she (and their children) died before long, leaving just my GGG-grandfather and Gard. My GGG-grandfather remarried a young French widow whom had moved to the area (she had married a ship captain, probably en route from Europe, as she left from the Netherlands), but chose to stay on the land that Gard had given him. That French widow would become my GGG-grandmother.
The family apparently stayed on that plot of land for another century (my paternal grandmother would visit it as a child almost a century ago). At some point, they either sold or abandoned the land and farmhouse (that area lost a large % of its population, although not a lot in actual numbers). 27 years ago, we drove up to see it and all that was left was the shell of the farmhouse overgrown with weeds alongside a dirt road (my grandmother was with us and came close to having a big emotional episode at seeing the decayed farmstead - emotions not being something she much displayed, at least of that sort). Delegate Gard is buried in a nearby rural cemetery (that area having been named for him, which is now on the west side of Wabash County), and my GGG grandparents in another. I’d like to go back and visit again, if my health ever permits.
“Kaskaskia is a village in Randolph County, Illinois, United States. In the 2010 census the population was 14, making it the second-smallest incorporated community in the State of Illinois in terms of population”
only the fieldmarshal has visited.
I been to Cairo, ILL in Jan ‘84. The southern tip.
“Pronounced kay-row by local people, Cairo, Illinois is ... Ohio River and Mississippi River to the Nile delta area in Egypt. Cairo ...”
Vivid memories of my few days in Fort Campbell area, TN. Had a day off and rested instead of driving to Nashville. Never been back. Next time I drive to FLA I am taking the inland route and going thru Chattanooga. The I-95 coastal route is dullsville.
Another political connection (though not blood), cool.
Looking at it another way if your triple G gramps first family had lived you never would have been born.