EARLY PEORIA HISTORY

NORMAN  V.  KELLY

 

1819 a small group of settlers came here to the Peoria area and settled their families where Peoria in now situated.   In 1835 that area became The Town of Peoria, Illinois.  In 1845 The City of Peoria, Illinois. Peoria started out as One Square Mile and blossomed into 9.1, then 9.3 and up to 12.3 miles of city limits.  Our growth south was stopped by the Illinois River, west Bartonville and West Peoria.  To the North of us was Peoria Heights.  All these villages, towns or whatever you wanted to call them wanted no part of being annexed to Peoria.  AHA!   Look east and what you saw was a nice little village of 5,000 people and the Avery Factory.  This place was called Averyville and our city father’s lusted after it during more than one time in our history.  There was animosity between Peoria and Averyville and a lot of mistrust.  In 1925 a lower court voted in favor of Averyville and it looked like we were stymied again.  However, by 1928 the Illinois Supreme Court ruled in our favor and we annexed a very rich little area.  The aftermath was a couple of indictments against Averyville officials for ‘cooking the books,’ and Peoria won those rounds. Today there is still a sign there marking Averyville, but it is all part of the City of Peoria.

 

                                    WILLIAM  HAMILTON

 

William Stephen Hamilton was the first son of Alexander Hamilton who at one time was the first Secretary of the United States Treasurer. We all know about his Dual with Burr.  William Alexander came to Peoria as an employee of the Surveyor General’s Office in Springfield, Illinois. He was assigned the task of surveying 147 ½ acres of land situated in what we now call our downtown area of Peoria, Illinois. 

 

The first thing he did was lay out a plot for the courthouse and then worked on the streets. Of course he named Hamilton Boulevard after himself then named streets after Presidents; Washington through Monroe.  He did not bother with alleyways and that was left up to Charles Balance in 1824 to complete.  Hamilton was allowed to bill Peoria officials the sum of $58.75 for his work.  The public record showed that instead of the money he took two lots.  I found another source that clearly said that the Town of Peoria did not have the money to pay him so he took two lots instead.  Hamilton was not happy about that and was irritated that he had to stay here until he sold those lots to get his money.  Here is my favorite part.  Later, in 1834 there was a big ‘downtown land auction,’ and the town offered lots for sale for $25.00 to $96.25.  That was all well and good and the sale went very well.  Here is the catch. It was soon learned that the Town did not have clear title to any of that property and it took 9 years to clear all this up.  Imagine what went on, if you can, during that period of time.

 

                         MORE  WILLIAM  HAMILTON

 

Hamilton was here just before the Blackhawk war, probably 1832, and defended an Indian man named Nomaque.  Seems he got in an argument with a Frenchman and killed him. I can tell you that there was a time in Peoria’s history that killing a Frenchman was not really frowned upon.  At any rate the folks here tried him for murder.  William Hamilton was the defense attorney.  Frankly that stunned me since they were so far apart in ranking. Hamilton put up a vigorous fight and according to the record he was held in contempt twice.  But…alas Nomaque was found guilty.  Now here again within our old records are three stories about the result of that murder conviction.  One was, since we had no jails, a large group of Peorians formed a double line, a gauntlet, as the convicted man walked along each took turns kicking in the rear-end.  That’s in the record.  Another was a man named John stepped forward an offered a shed out at his farm as a cell.  Well, Nomaque’s friends decided that they would free their pal.  They went out and began tearing the side of the shed open and from his house came John, the enraged owner. The record shows that he beat the hell out of all four of those Indians, but Nomaque escaped.  The invaders were severely injured and the next morning they were still lying around moaning.  Nomaque was said to have run off to join Blackhawk in his uprising.  The Illinois Militia was called out and that brought Captain Abraham Lincoln up to this area.  After the skirmish, our men were coming home when they ran across a severely wounded Nomaque.  Being the sympathetic guys that they were, they up and shot the Indian dead. After the skirmish Lincoln walked through Peoria after his horse was stolen, bought a canoe and went off toward Pekin on the Illinois River.  Abraham Lincoln, according to early historians, was here seventeen times.

norman.kelly@sbcglobal.net