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Elsah: A Historic City
Chelsea Wilson Fifteen miles east from Grafton to Alton along the Mississippi River is a bluff of white limestone from 100 to 250 feet high. It is overlaid by brown silt ranging up to 40 feet thick. The bluffs there are interrupted occasionally with small streams and valleys. In one of the valleys sits the little town of Elsah. The first white people to pass the Elsah bluffs were Jolliet and Marquette in 1673. A few years later, LaSalle and Jolliet also stopped near the Elsah bluffs. Earlier Marquette had described the Elsah bluffs as "ruined castles." During the year 1817- 38 ILLINOIS HISTORY / FEBRUARY 2002
1818, the first white settlers arrived. These settlers reached Elsah by boat on the Mississippi River. They stopped because of the white limestone cliffs. They simply wanted to explore. These settlers were Josiah Cummings, John Garroll, William Bates, John Thompson, and Colonel Josiah T. Askew. John Carroll became the first owner of land along this Mississippi River shoreline. These early settlers were from different places and had diverse backgrounds. In the 1850s General James Semple came to the area and became one of the most significant nineteenth-century citizens in the region. General James Semple was born in Green County, Kentucky. Starting in 1883, he gave free land to anyone willing to build houses on the property. The land was very fertile. The only thing the landowners had to do before they could build their house was clear the trees. When railroads superseded steamboats, Elsah became a backwater. Trade was not very important to Elsah at this time. Soon the town grew. In 1853 the village of Elsah was surveyed and a post office was created. James Semple then developed gristmills and a distillery. Elsah was once a busy river port and did not change through most of the twentieth century. Many people came to Elsah because of its beautiful bluffs, free lots, the Mississippi River atmosphere, and Askew Creek. Limestone was an important commodity. The people used it to build their houses. They got it from the natural limestone bluffs on either side of the town. Limestone is made of whole shells and also ground up fragments of shells. Some scientists think that a sea once covered the area. Elsah has many geographical features surrounding it. One of them is Askew Creek. Askew Creek is a narrow creek that runs through Elsah valley and empties into the Mississippi River. This creek adds beauty to Elsah and the Mississippi River valley. In 1894 heavy rains caused a flood in the village. This time, when the Mississippi flooded, it reshaped the bluffs. The Mississippi River is a very important geographical feature. Along with shaping the limestone bluffs, it made the soil on either sides of it fertile farmland. Farming was not actually very good because Elsah is such a small town. Elsah today is still a very small town. It has a lot of bed and breakfasts. Tiny flower-filled yards surround little, old stone houses. Elsah gives people a strong hint of the setting of the nineteenth century along the Mississippi River. Elsah is not strongly influenced by the Mississippi River except to add to its scenery. It also brings many people to Elsah. In conclusion, Elsah is a small, quaint town, but very complex. The Mississippi River has played an important role for Elsah. It has shaped the Elsah bluffs, brought people to the small city because of its beauty, and helped transportation. The first people who found Elsah got there by the Mississippi River. Elsah was and is a very prosperous town.— [From Gary Gentry, "Series of Historical Perspectives," Elsah History; Lonnie Russell, Richard Goldstein, and Les Winkler, Enjoy Southern Illinois; Meredith Books, Mississippi River Getaways; Charles B. Hosmer and Paul O. Williams, Elsah; Marcia Schnedler, Country Roads of Illinois; Percival Robertson, The Great River, Master Sculptor.] ILLINOIS HISTORY / FEBRUARY 2002 39 |
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