In 1702, two years after Marie Rouensa Accault and her family moved from Peoria, Fort St. Louis (or Fort Pimiteoui) was more or less abandoned by the French traders because of French trade restrictions. But other unlicensed trading continued.

The fort became the southern- most point of Canadian and northern-most point of Louisianan jurisdiction. There were about 3,000 Indians still living there at the lake, and De Liette (Tonti's nephew) continued trading in the area until 1711.

The dark years

In 1717, the Peoria area became a part of Louisiana, but the time between 1712 and 1750 is considered Peoria's dark years, since very little documentation exists. We do know that the Peoria mission was re-established here between 1711 and 1714 by Father DeVille, and Father De Kereben was at the mission from 1718 to 1720. And when Father Charlevoix passed through in 1721, he reported finding several hundred Indians and four Frenchmen at the site.

But, on a trip upriver the following year, De Lisle found no one at Peoria. The Illinois Indians had moved north to join those at Starved Rock. Then in 1723, Renault was given a grant at Peoria under the Company of the West. In 1733, the village of Peoria was reoccupied by Peoria Indians, but no French soldiers or priests were present. In 1750, the Peoria village had 1,200 Indians and a small Jesuit mission under Father Meurin. From then until 1773, there apparently was a small garrison here as well as occasional traders.

In 1752 the garrison was under the command of a man named Adamville, and in 1757 an author and soldier, Louis Antoine Bougainville, reported finding a commandant residing in a fort named Pimiteoui among the Peorias on the Illinois River.

English take over

There was little or no impact on the settlement when the English defeated France and the Illinois Country was surrendered to England in 1763. The French commandant, De Villiers, recalled Sieur Toulon and his garrison, which was, presumably, stationed in the Peoria Lake fort.

The fort had probably been rebuilt several times and was still in existence when the British actually took over the area in 1765. It was described as "stockades of green timber, enclosing a square with log structures within."

The French were farming around old Fort Pimiteoui at this time. Antoine Saint Francois sowed corn here in 1765, but the population seems to have been a floating one. Patrick Kennedy, a man who visited the region in 1773, found the stockade of the fort destroyed by fire, but the houses in the village were still standing.

`Old Peoria Village'

But the small settlement continued intermittently for more than 30 years, ranging from six to 15 residents until 1796, when the names of 63 individuals who lived at this "Old Peoria Village" became known.

The town had a horsemill, and a blacksmith was living behind the fort. Among these old village residents were Pierre de Beuro (for whom Bureau County was named), Pointe du Sable (the founder of Chicago), Jean Baptiste Maillet (the founder of the new Peoria village) and Louis Buisson (who later established a trading house at Wesley City).

The old village was abandoned because of Indian attacks during the American Revolution, and by 1796 the residents had all moved away. But the blockhouses of old Fort Pimiteoui were still visible. In 1826, property owner John Birket reportedly saw fragments of burned pickets and heaped earth (presumably the remains of the fort) at the foot of Mary Street. This was about 150 feet above the Peoria Pottery. By 1933, the site was an abandoned stone and gravel pit.

New founding father

The French of Peoria were mostly illiterate, but they were a care-free people. Able to adjust quickly to changes of political fortune, many of their lives were filled with adventure and romance.

Maillet, who was born at St. Denis in Richelieu County, Quebec, Canada, on July 3, 1753, founded the new village of Peoria. He was the son of Augustin and Marie Madeleine Ebert Maillet, and his grandfather, Pierre, came from Paris, France, in 1685. Maillet had one known son, Hypolite, who was born in Peoria.

Maillet, a French trader, settled at "Old Peoria's Fort" probably before 1773, because on March 13, 1773, he sold land to Pointe du Sable. He moved 1 1/2 miles south in or before 1778, and founded the new Peoria village known by the French as Au Pied du Lac (translation: at the foot of the lake). It was later referred to as La Ville de Maillet (although probably not in Maillet's time).

Maillet built a stockaded house here near the foot of the present Harrison Street. He was an influential member of French Peoria, and, gradually, the inhabitants of the old village followed him.

New Peoria Village

A U.S. survey in 1840 showed the New Peoria Village beginning at a point 125 feet above the river at Liberty Street, up to Washington Street, southwest on Washington to Oak Street, then back down Oak to the river. This new site featured a fort and about 50 buildings along the river. It was described as having "narrow streets, log houses surrounded by fences and gardens and larger tilled fields behind and around the village. The inhabitants raised cattle, pigs and chickens.

There were stockyards and barns, a wine-press and underground vault for wine, a windmill for grinding grain, about six stores or places of trade with Indians and a church with a large wooden cross on the roof and gilt lettering over the door.

There were blacksmiths, wagon makers, carpenters and shoemakers." Out of this new village, on the riverfront at the south end of Lake Peoria, sprang Peoria's still ever-changing downtown area. (Sources: Matson's "Pioneers of Illinois," Judith A. Franke's "Peoria Chronology," Ernest E. East's "History of Peoria" and Sister Mary Borgias Palm's "The Jesuit Missions of the Illinois Country.")

On March 13, 1773, five years before he founded the new village of Peoria, Jean Baptiste Maillet sold a house and 3-acre farm at "Old Peoria Fort" to Jean Baptiste DuSable, the French black man who was later credited with founding Chicago. DuSable is also believed to be the first black resident of Peoria.

It is generally believed that DuSable was born around 1750 of an African mother and French father in either Santo Domingo or Canada. This future wealthy proprietor of trading posts at both Peoria and Chicago was a free man in a rampant age of slavery.

Here in Peoria, this young man in his 20s was already showing extraordinary trading skills. It's also thought to be here that he met and married Kittihawa (Catherine), a Potawatomi Indian. They had two children, Jean Baptiste Jr. and Suzanne.

The large, handsome, intelligent and well-liked senior DuSable sold his Peoria property in 1783 and located his base of operations at Eschikagou (Chicago). DuSable had been on the site of Chicago in 1779, but he was driven out by the British, who suspected him of giving aid to the Americans. But he later moved to Chicago, and it appears he lived there until 1800, when he sold his property, consisting of a house and seven other buildings, to Jean Lalime. DuSable was known to be back in Peoria in 1802 or 1803, because he signed his initials, J.B.P.S., as a witness to two real estate transfers. He died Aug. 28, 1818, at St. Charles, Missouri Territory, and was buried in the cemetery of St. Borromeo Catholic Church.

Stockaded house

After selling his property to DuSable, Maillet was appointed commandant at Peoria by George Rogers Clark. He continued in that capacity under Gen. Arthur St. Clair, the governor of the Northwest Territory.

The stockaded house Maillet built in 1778, near the foot of the present day Harrison Street, was part of what became a fort and two block houses. It was surrounded by earthworks and palisades, with an open gateway to the south, next to the town. This stockade was only intended as a place of retreat in case of trouble with the Indians. The fort was never occupied, except for a short time by Maillet.

One of these two block houses was his dwelling, and the other was a store. Some years later, it is said, he moved to a more desirable place to live and trade. The fort then remained vacant for many years, the enclosure being used by the citizens as a common for their cow-yard.

In 1820, Maillet's son, Hypolite, in sworn testimony relating to French claims at Peoria, stated that he was (then) 45 years old and was born in a stockade fort that stood near the southern extremity of Peoria Lake. This must have been the first Maillet house. Hypolite also testified that his father was killed in 1801.

Along came the soldiers

In the summer of 1780, Virginia soldiers visited French Peoria, when Col. John Montgomery, with 225 men in nine companies, led a punitive expedition against Indians in the Rock River Valley. His forces included a fifer and a drummer, and a flag (description unknown) was carried by the troops.

A wealthy trader in Cahokia, Daniel Maurice Godfrey Linctot, offered his services to Col. Clark and came to Peoria during the Revolutionary War period with 30 mounted militia. He came to encourage a large number of Indians here to join them and offset the savage allies of England in the north. When Col. Clark took possession of Illinois in 1778, he sent three soldiers, accompanied by two Frenchmen, in a canoe to Peoria to notify the people there that they were no longer under British rule but were now citizens of the United States. Among these soldiers was a man named Nicholas Smith of Bourbon County, Ky.

(Smith's son, Joseph "Dod Joe," was later among the first American settlers of Peoria).

A large town

Smith described Peoria at the time of his visit as a large town (for those frontier days), built along the beach of the lake, with narrow, unpaved streets and houses constructed of wood. In back of the town were gardens, stock yards, barns, etc., and among these was a wine press, with a large cellar or underground vault for storing wine. There was also a church with a large wooden cross raised above the roof, and gilt lettering over the door. There was an unoccupied fort on the bank of the lake, and close by there was a windmill for grinding grain. The town contained six stores or places of trade, all of which were filled with goods for the Indian market.

The inhabitants included French settlers, Indians and people of mixed heritage, and not one of them could understand or speak English.

Spanish banner

The royal banner of Spain was carried by militiamen who spent one day in Peoria in January 1781. Commanded by Don Eugenio Pouree, the Spanish, supported by a company of Indians, came by river from Pancour (St. Louis) and marched over land to the British post of St. Joseph, which was captured. Jean Baptiste Maillet guided this expedition.

Spain claimed the Illinois River and all its tributaries by right of conquest, but its claims were rejected when England made peace with the American colonies, and with France and Spain, in 1783.

In the winter of 1788, a party of Indians came to Peoria to trade. They made their quarters in the abandoned fort, and then went on a drunken spree, burning the fort down. Hugh Heward, a clerk for Detroit traders, visited Peoria in May 1790. He found Louis Chatelreaux here, and recorded in his journal: "At the village of the Pioras at the South Side of this small lake are Seven French settled among the Indians." He identified Maillet (whom he called "Capt. Mye") as one of those settlers.

(Sources: Matson's "Pioneers of Illinois," and Earnest E. East's unpublished "History of Peoria.")

Back in 1778, Col. George Rogers Clark, who had captured the British outpost at Kaskaskia on the Mississippi with fewer than 200 men, sent word up to Peoria that they were no longer under British rule and were now citizens of the United States. In 1795, the Treaty of Greenville was negotiated by the former revolutionary general, "Mad" Anthony Wayne. Under this treaty, the Indians ceded a 6-mile-square piece of land at the old fort and village, near the south end of Peoria Lake. But by around 1796, the old French village had been completely abandoned for the new village.

In 1807, 24 men asked that Peoria be placed within the jurisdiction of the Kaskaskia Land Commission for consideration of claims at Peoria Lake. Congress granted petition, and a number of claims at Peoria were subsequently confirmed.

Early inhabitants

Thomas Forsyth, who was born at the British post of Detroit, was an important figure in the last years of New Peoria. Not only was he Chicagoan John Kinzie's half-brother and partner in the Indian trade, he was appointed U.S. Indian secret agent at Peoria in 1812, reporting on the movements of unruly Indians.

Other inhabitants of New Peoria who left their imprint on the pages of history were: Antoine "Delard" Deschamps, Illinois brigade manager of the American Fur Co.; Antoine Le Claire, who later was a founder of Davenport, Iowa; and Michael La Croix's common-law wife, Catherine, who became the wife of John Reynolds, governor of Illinois from 1830 to 1834.

Militia attack

In October 1812, mounted militia under the command of Col. William Russell, came up from Fort Russell near Edwardsville and attacked a Potawatomi village at the head of Peoria Lake. It was the village of Chief Black Partridge, the hero of the Fort Dearborn Massacre. Gov. Ninian Edwards accompanied the expedition. Without waiting to see if the Indians were friendly, the troops stormed the Indian camp at night, killing 25 to 30 people. Expected reinforcements failed to arrive and, fearing for its safety, the governor's army hurried away and set up camp near Cruger.

However, at the time of the attack, Black Partridge was with Forsyth on a mission of mercy to rescue a Lt. Helm from Indians on the Au Sable River. Helm was married to Forsyth's niece, Kinzie's daughter. When Black Partridge returned, he found his village destroyed and his favorite daughter and her infant child killed.

End of New Peoria

Capt. Thomas E. Craig of Shawneetown and his militia company had been sent to cooperate with the mounted militia. But reaching Peoria Lake several days after the land forces had departed, Craig found New Peoria half empty. Craig's men then proceeded to loot vacant houses, including the Kinzie & Forsyth warehouse.

Forsyth returned to New Peoria and demanded restoration of the plunder. Only a portion of the stolen goods was surrendered, however. During the night, shots were fired at Craig's boats. The angered commander accused the French of perpetrating the attack, but the French denied it. Craig then took the inhabitants under his "protection." He forced 41 men, women and children into two open boats and transported them to Savage's Ferry near Alton.

There, the prisoners were held for four days before Gov. Edwards ordered their release. Forsyth charged that before departing Peoria, Craig had set fire to four houses and four barns, two of which were full of wheat. Two weeks later, Craig reported to the governor: "I burnt down about half of the town ... The damned rascals may think themselves well off that they were not scalped." Actually, he had destroyed most of the village.

New Peoria never rose from the ashes. A few of the kidnapped inhabitants returned to an Indian village on the east side of the Illinois River, three miles below the outlet of Peoria Lake. In 1818, the American Fur Co. established a trading post here, called Opa Post. Early Peoria and Tazewell county records refer to it as the French Trading House. This village was incorporated in 1836 as Wesley City, and in 1921, the name was changed to Creve Coeur.

Peoria French claims

The famous Peoria French claims, which were before Congress and in the courts for more than a half-century, arose as a consequence of Craig's lawless act.

The evicted inhabitants petitioned in 1813 for redress, and Congress passed acts in 1820 and 1823 that provided grants to the French lots they had occupied. By 1837, when surveys were made, American settlers were occupying these lots -- but the sales to these inhabitants were made subject to the French claims.

Approximately 32 French inhabitants (or their heirs) filed claims to 70 lots in both the Old and New Peoria villages. A series of suits also arose for claims that were in Peoria's business section. Thirty-six suits were filed in Peoria County Circuit Court, while others were brought in to the U.S. Court at Chicago, the Illinois Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court. Abraham Lincoln was engaged in four U.S. Circuit Court cases and one U.S. Supreme Court case. The French won nearly all of these claims.

Finally, in 1867, Charles Ballance, a landholder, paid Robert Forsyth, the son of Thomas, $31,000 to release the claimant's interest in eight lots. This ended 20 years of litigation over Peoria's French claims. (Source: The unpublished "History of Peoria" by Ernest E. East.)

After Col. Clark of Virginia captured Kaskaskia from the British in 1778 (which is when he sent word to Peoria about U.S. rule), he led about 170 men -- called "long knives" because of the long, deadly knives they carried -- and recaptured Vincennes (now Indiana) from the British on Feb. 25, 1779.

The previous Dec. 9 the Virginia Assembly had established far-off Illinois as a county of Virginia. Then, in 1784, Virginia gave up all claims in Illinois and ceded this area to the central government. The Ordinance of 1787 established the pattern for all future territories to proceed toward statehood. It provided for the organization of a new unit of government to be known as the Northwest Territory. It included what is now Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin and part of Minnesota.

Gen. Arthur St. Clair, an officer in the Revolution, was named territorial governor, with headquarters at the newly formed town of Cincinnati. He then came to Kaskaskia and organized the area west of the Wabash River and gave it his own name, the County of St. Clair. For political reasons, Cahokia, Kaskaskia, and Prairie du Rocher were all made its county seats.

In 1800, the Northwest Territory was divided and a new territory of Indiana was created, which included much of the present state of Illinois, including Peoria. Then, in 1809, Illinois became a territory in its own right, and Ninian Edwards was appointed territorial governor, a post he held during all of Illinois' territorial period. The present Wisconsin was included in this territory.

The year 1811 brought the first steamboat to the Ohio River and the first major earthquake to be recorded in the area. The quake centered near New Madrid, Mo., but was felt over a vast area that must have included Peoria. That year also saw an increase in plundering and robbery by the Indians, and Gov. Edwards dispatched Capt. Samuel Levering with a small escort to Peoria to confer with the Indian chiefs here, headed by Chief Gomo.

They demanded the surrender of the slayers of some white settlers and the return of stolen property. However, the net outcome of the meeting was the return of two stolen horses and promises. The following year brought another kind of violence to the territory. It was the War of 1812, in which the United States and Great Britain went to war for a second time.

This is how it was in the fledgling United States and its Illinois Territory in October 1812, when Gov. Edwards joined Col. William Russell and his militia on a raid of Black Partridge's village and Capt. Thomas E. Craig's followup raid on Peoria's New French village.

This last raid resulted in the destruction of most of the town and the transporting of 41 of its inhabitants by boat to Savage's Ferry near Alton. American military forces took possession of the Peoria Lake area in 1813, when they erected and garrisoned a stockade and named it in honor of George Rogers Clark. Fort Clark stood at the foot of the present Liberty Street.

Benjamin Howard, governor of the Missouri Territory, had resigned to accept a commission as brigadier general in the U.S. Army, and he commanded this expedition. A detachment of 150 men of the 1st U.S. Infantry, headed by Lt. Col. Robert Carter Nicholas, first arrived here on Aug. 29. They came from St. Louis in reinforced keel boats and immediately began to build the stockade.

While the first blockhouse was under construction, 150 Indians, under the command of Black Partridge, made an attack on the troops but were beaten off. This was obviously in retaliation for the attack the previous year on Black Partridge's village, in which his daughter and grandchild were killed.

A troop of 800 mounted rangers from Illinois and Missouri reached Peoria Lake three days after the arrival of the regulars. The rangers marched to the head of the lake and destroyed two Indian villages from which the occupants had already fled. Six years later, on April 15, 1819, after hearing reports of Peoria's beauty and looking for a favorable place to settle, two men arrived by horseback. Two days later, five of their companions came by keel boat and joined them. This group of seven formed the first permanent American settlement here.
 

The story of the city of Peoria begins with that of Peoria County in 1825. It was in January 1825 that the county commissioners court authorized William Holland to employ someone to survey the county seat.

William Stephen Hamilton, son of Alexander Hamilton, was then attached to the surveyor general's office in Springfield, and subsequently was engaged to survey the town. But it wasn't until 1835 that Peoria became the town of Peoria and, finally, in 1845, it became the city of Peoria. On March 1, 1835, the state Legislature passed an act providing for the incorporation of towns and cities. On the following July 18, the citizens of Peoria met and voted to incorporate the town of Peoria.

The voters at this meeting elected five trustees: Rudolphus Rouse, a physician; Chester Hamlin, a carpenter-contractor; Rufus P. Burlingame, a merchant; Charles McClallen, a contractor; and Isaac Evans, a blacksmith. Evans, however, refused to serve as a trustee, and Cyrus Leland, a lawyer, was appointed to fill the vacancy. Rouse was elected president of the board.

Annual elections were held until the city of Peoria was chartered 10 years later. At the initial meeting, the trustees fixed the boundaries of the town to embrace an area of 1 square mile, with its center at Main and Madison streets. Meetings were held in the courthouse and the places of business of the trustees. The first and only building owned by the town was a "market house" constructed in 1838, at a cost of $500. It stood in the middle of the 100 block of North Washington Street. The roof covered open stalls, which were leased for one-year periods. Rentals were $25 to $27 a year.

When the city was incorporated, it took over the market house and operated it until 1856, when it became so dilapidated, the council voted to abandon it. The structure was sold to Peter Lamb for $25. Early facts about the town were included in the first issue (April 1, 1837) of the Peoria Register and North-Western Gazetteer newspaper. Its editor and publisher, Samuel H. Davis, printed a history of the town, which included information on industry, population and growth.

The newspaper listed 17 dry goods stores and nine other retail outlets; two Presbyterian meeting houses; one Presbyterian, one Methodist and one Unitarian clergyman; two schools, one for girls and one for boys; 10 physicians; 12 lawyers; eight carpenters and 41 other craftsmen in several trades; five saw mills; three flour mills and one brewery.

In the winter of 1844-45, the Illinois Legislature passed a measure entitled "An Act to Incorporate the City of Peoria," providing that the charter be submitted to a vote of the people. An election was held at the courthouse on April 21, 1845, and a large majority voted in favor of the incorporation. Of the 197 votes cast, only 35 were against the proposition.

A week later, an election for new city officials was held. William Hale was elected mayor, and Jesse L. Knowlton, Peter Sweat, Charles Kettelle, Clark Cleveland, John Hamlin, Chester Hamlin and Hervey Lightner were elected aldermen, with a tie between Jacob Gale and Amos P. Bartlett for the last seat. Knowlton also was elected city clerk.

Hale and the other aldermen were sworn in the next month, and they immediately passed an ordinance allowing the mayor to decide the tie vote. Hale voted in favor of Bartlett. At the time Peoria became a city, its population numbered 1,619. By 1910, just 65 years later, the thriving city had 66,950 residents. On March 21, 1848, a committee was appointed to purchase Lot No. 3 in Block 6 for $300, for a city hall and engine house. (This is believed to have been in the middle of the 100 block of SW Adams, between what is now a Caterpillar parking lot and the Jefferson Bank.)

A two-story building was erected, with the first floor devoted to the fire company. The cellar was used as a "calaboose," and the second floor consisted of a council room and offices for the police magistrate, city clerk and others. In 1858, lots were purchased at Madison Avenue and Fulton Street and a new city hall was built the next year, at a cost of $10,000. This two-story brick and stone structure had a 60- foot bell tower. The fire engine room and offices for the mayor and police were on the ground floor, with the city prison in the rear. The second floor consisted of rooms and offices for the council, city clerk, city engineer and other officials.

Also in 1859, a market house was built adjoining City Hall facing Madison Avenue, which also cost $10,000. Our present day City Hall was completed on this same corner in 1898, at a cost of $234,592. The four-story structure includes a tower extending above the roof, where the alarm bell, formerly used in the old city hall, was hung. The city prison was erected at the same time, adjoining the new city hall, on Fulton Street. (Sources: "History of Peoria City and County, Vol. I" and Ernest E. East's unpublished "History of Peoria.")

This history was written from the beginning, when Fort St. Louis moved here from Starved Rock in 1691, to the building of our current Peoria City Hall in 1898. Now that the Tricentennial year has drawn to a close, it only seems appropriate to remember some of the early settler families that have been a part of Peoria's growth since the first American settlement in 1819. Here, then, are four of those pioneer families and their descendants who still live in our town:

VIRGINIA BIRKET BOGGS and HELEN BIRKET live in East Peoria and are direct descendants of the pioneer Birket family. In 1826, one year after Peoria County was formed, John Birket drove his horse and wagon into town, and on that same day he bought 154 acres of prime real estate. His claim stretched from 1 1/2 to three miles north of Peoria's present downtown. It included portions of today's Glen Oak Park, Woodruff High School, Detweiller Marina and most of the North Side from Spring Street to the Peoria Waterworks. It also included all of the site of former Old Peoria's fort and village.

Birket was born in England in 1798 and came to the United States when he was 21. Trained as a carpenter, he built his first home at the foot of Caroline Street and in the spring of 1827, planted Peoria's first apple orchard. He later built old-fashioned plows, the first recorded farm implements made here. Birket married Marjorie Thomas of Chillicothe, Ohio, and they began their married life here in 1831. Their first child, John C., was born in 1834. Five years later the family moved to a location near Washington in Tazewell County, where their second son, Arthur T., was born.

In the 1840s, the family moved back to Peoria, where Birket built a home at 800 Hayward. There, a third son, William, was born. Today's Virginia Birket Boggs and Helen Birket are daughters of Arthur's son, Alonzo Lorenzo Sylvester Birket. DR. HARRY C. STONE resides on Galena Road with offices at 5401 N. Knoxville. He's a direct descendant of the Gistorf-Stone-Proctor family that dates back to a German immigrant, Frederick Julius Gustorf, who arrived here in 1836.

Gustorf married Harriet Benson in 1837 and they had three children, one of whom was Gertrude, who later married William E. Stone, the first cashier of the First National Bank. One of their seven children, Harry Clayton Stone, married Edith Proctor, the daughter of John Proctor II. One of their three children was John Proctor Stone, who became president and treasurer of H.C. Stone Lumber Co. Today's Dr. Harry C. Stone is his son.

FLORENCE GILES is now a retired District 150 schoolteacher, and lives at Proctor Home. She's a direct descendant of Thomas and Ann Picken Giles, who also came to Peoria in 1836. Thomas Giles was born in Gloucestershire, England, of Welsh parents. Upon arriving here, he immediately purchased 80 acres of land from William Hale, at $9 an acre, in the vicinity of Knoxville Avenue, Mount Hawley Road, Kellar School and Giles Lane. He died in 1838 when his son, William, was 20 years old. William and his three brothers worked the farm until 1849, when William joined the California gold rush, experiencing moderate success. He later returned to, again, work the family farm, and married Ann Uphoff. Their son, Albert E., was born here in 1862. In 1890, son Albert opened a brick yard on Sheridan Road, across from Buehler Home, and later married Jane Merritt of Champaign. Their two children were Florence and Merritt Giles.

HELEN RADLEY MARQUESS of 725 W. Eleanor Place is descended from the Schimpff-Triebel-Radley family that began when Carl Schimpff brought his family here from Landau, Germany, in 1849, and Louis Green brought his bride, Karolina Triebel, from Springfield in 1855. Schimpff's son, Albert, enlisted in the Civil War as a bugle boy in Peorian Col. Greenhut's regiment. He later became a merchant, school board member, founder of the German Merchant's Bank and co-founder of the Commercial National (now First of America) Bank.

Albert married Frieda Green, the daughter of Karolina Green, who was Fritz Triebel's aunt. (Fritz was the sculptor who, among other things, sculpted the Civil War monument that still stands in Courthouse Plaza.)

Albert and Frieda Green had a daughter, Lilly Caroline, who married Henry Radley of Jubilee Township, and today's Helen Radley Marquess is their daughter. There are more present-day Peorians who have lineage dating back in our town's early history, and we'll look at some of them in future columns.

The facts on these pioneer families came from Gloria Hetherlin LaHood's "Tricentennial Homecoming" article, which appeared in Peoria County Old Settler's Association's 125th Annual Reunion program.)