Prairie du Rocher and the French Colonial Historic District
its National Significance in the Development of the United States
The French Colonial Historic District of Randolph County is the origin of 18th-century French colonization in southwestern Illinois and a decisive linchpin in the westward development of the United States. The Village of Prairie du Rocher interprets the French Colonial period of America’s early development before and after the Declaration of Independence (1776). Prairie du Rocher (1722) and Fort de Chartres (1720) were essential stops between New Orleans and Quebec. The French Colonial Historic District thrived for nearly 100 years before Illinois was added to the Union. Many current Prairie du Rocher residents can trace their lineage to the first French settlers. Their Village celebrates its Tricentennial in 2022.
The District includes a National Historic District (1974), incorporating three National Landmarks: Fort de Chartres, the Pierre Menard Home, and the Modoc Rock Shelter. Other nationally historic attributes include the Kaskaskia Cahokia Trail (before 1600), the Jesuit Windmill and the Native American, Kolmer sites (1720s), the Lee-Brickey Mansion and the Church of St. Anne sites (1721), St. Anne/St. Joseph’s cemetery, St. Joseph’s Church (1721), the Melliere home (1735), the Creole House (1800), and the Doiron/Bienvenue House (circa 1860).
The Kaskaskia Village site is within the District, as is the Pierre Menard Home, the only surviving building from Illinois' first state capital. Over a dozen French houses in Prairie du Rocher are also part of the District, including the poteaux-sur-sol-style Creole and Doiron/Bienvenue Houses. The Meilliere House in Prairie du Rocher is the oldest original 18th-century home in the District and remains in the Melliere family.
From the Mississippians, who opened the Kaskaskia Cahokia Trail, to the European explorers who established the first trading posts and villages, and through the American Revolution, the story of Prairie du Rocher and the French Colonial Historic District is an outstanding example of French colonization in early America. It is the history of the French, Native Americans, the British, the colonies seeking independence, King Louis XV, the Liberty Bell of the West, General Lafayette, Father Pierre-Gabriel Marest, George Rogers Clark and Father Pierre Gibault, Lewis and Clark, Pierre Laclede, founder of St. Louis, and Colonel Pierre Menard, the first Lieutenant Governor of Illinois.
The French Colonial Historic District is conveniently accessible by river ferry from Ste. Genevieve, Missouri, by Illinois SR 155 and the beautiful Bluff Road route.
By road or river, the splendor of the French Colonial Historic District and the Kaskaskia Cahokia Trail is waiting … in Randolph County, southwestern Illinois. Come see us soon!
before the europeans
Native Americans in the French Colonial Historic District
History predates the French Colonial Historic District by thousands of years, beginning with the end of the Pleistocene Ice Ages and the last Wisconsinian Glacier. Ice sheets, some two miles thick, covered much of the Earth. The Earth’s hydrosphere envelopes a finite water content, and much of that liquid is trapped in glaciation. As a result, sea levels dropped 300 feet or more, exposing flat, open coastline areas.
Wandering bands of Asian hunter/gatherers discovered the Bering Land Bridge, also known as Beringia, between Siberia and Alaska, and they continued to the North American continent over 13,000 years ago. These explorers ventured to the fertile lands of the Mississippi River bottom 4,000 years later. They are known as the Mississippian (Mounds) Culture. Their story is expertly interpreted at Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site in Collinsville, Illinois.
Pah-me-cow-ee-tah, or Man who Tracks, a Peoria, Illinois chief. Oil on canvas by George Catlin in the Fort Leavenworth area, 1830. Courtesy of Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington D.C. The Modoc Rock Shelter
Illinois evolved from the Native American word “iliniwok” or “illiniwek.” Either derivation translates to “best people” and encompasses the 10 to 12 tribes near the Mississippi River.
The people evolved mainly from the Mississippians, who first visited the region over 9000 years ago. Evidence of these Mound Builders can be found in several locations in and near the French Colonial Historic District.
The Illiniwek allied with the French and were central to developing the French Colonial Historic District.
From the Peoria Tribe of Oklahoma
Welcome to the land of our people and elders who came before us. The Confederated Peorias originated in the lands bordering the Great Lakes and drained by the mighty Mississippi.
These people are the Illinois or the Illini Indians, descendants of those who created the great mound civilizations in the central United States two to three thousand years ago.
Some Mississippians took shelter at a conspicuous hollow east of the Mississippi River.
Irwin Peithmann, an amateur archaeologist and Native American researcher, fortuitously discovered the site in 1951. Peithman named the outcrop the Modoc Rock Shelter.
After Peithman’s find, the Illinois State Museum began a series of exploration digs in the 1950s and again in the 1980s. The shelter has over 28 feet of sediment from millennia of river flooding.
A few feet down, around 4000 years ago, they discovered small hunting groups had used the location. Diggers found bone awls, scrapers, choppers, hammer stones, and concave projectile points. These people’s diet included fish, birds, raccoons, opossums, and deer.
A further excavation revealed that around 6,000 years ago, the shelter provided a base camp for several families.
Finally, at the bottom, 9,000 years ago, the excavation revealed that some of the first Mississippians used the Modoc Rock Shelter as a hunting camp.
The Kaskasia Cahokia Trail
More evidence of Mississipians emerged, including indications of a trace. The route was originally an animal path and used by these early inhabitants, who walked it for commerce, public relations and religious practices. There are mounds, indicating their culture, at several locations along the road.
The last Mississippian Period had ended by 1680, when Henri de Tonti, lieutenant of renowned explorer, Robert LaSalle, traveled the Mississippi River to its mouth at New Orleans. Other explorers had preceded him, but de Tonti established alliances with Native American Illini and other peoples along the way and, significantly, later claimed the entire region for New France. The French established settlements at Kaskaskia and Cahokia in 1699 and began to enhance the trail around 1718.
These original colonial villages spawned other outposts and forts along the trail for the next 100 years, including Fort de Chartres and the Village of Prairie du Rocher. The first road in Illinois, the Kaskaskia Cahokia Trail, was integral to many other routes and, to events that led to statehood. Kaskaskia became the first capital of the fledgling Illinois in 1818.
Fast-forward almost 200 years. In 2010, Landmarks Illinois proclaimed the Kaskaskia Cahokia Trail one of Illinois's Ten Most Endangered Historic Places.
Monroe, Randolph, and St. Clair Counties leaders met the following year and decided to form the Kaskaskia Cahokia Trail Coalition. The not-for-profit, all-volunteer group has worked since to study, document, and preserve the Kaskaskia Cahokia Trail.
In 2014, the Kaskaskia Cahokia Trail Coalition earned the Landmarks Illinois Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Award for leading efforts to protect the trail. The same year, the Kaskaskia Cahokia Trail was named an Illinois Historic and Scenic Route by the Illinois General Assembly.
French Exploration and settlement
Pierre-Gabriel Marest was born on October 14, 1662, and began his religious instruction in Paris circa 1681. Father Marest left France for Canada in 1694. Four years later, he was assigned to the Mission of the Immaculate Conception in Illinois.
Marest, a quick study of languages, embraced the privilege of ministering to the Native American Kaskaskias, Cahokias, Peorias, Tamaroas, and Michigameas. In 1700, he left the Des Peres River with the Kaskaskia and Tamaroa people, seeking French protection from marauding Iroquois.
In 1703, they founded the Village of Kaskaskia together. A log chapel was erected immediately. Father Pierre-Gabriel Marest continued to minister to the Village of Kaskaskia, including many French and Native Americans, until his passing on September 15, 1714. He was laid to rest in Kaskaskia.
By 1711, agriculture bloomed as Jesuits and French tilled the fertile bottom around the Kaskaskia settlement, providing much-needed wheat and corn to New France. This was the beginning of agriculture in Illinois. Today, more than 220,000 acres of wheat, corn, and soybeans are grown annually in Randolph County.
Civil government emerged for the new province of Illinois, and the territory was formally annexed and became part of Louisiana. In 1720, Pierre Dugué de Boisbriand built the first Fort de Chartres. In 1722, St. Thérèse Langlois, Boisbriand’s nephew, founded Prairie du Rocher on a tract of land donated by the Royal Indian Company. In 1735, the Melliere Family built a home in Prairie du Rocher. That dwelling is preserved and remains with the Melliere family to this day. Prairie du Rocher is one of the oldest extant French-founded villages in the United States.
Also, in 1753, Fort de Chartres was reconstructed from regional limestone. Today, the Fort’s Stone Powder Magazine is considered the oldest building in Illinois and one of the oldest in the Midwest.
1763 brought the Treaty of Paris, ending the French and Indian War. Under the accord's terms, the French conceded the Illinois Country east of the Mississippi River to the British. French settlers were ordered out and could only stay by special permission.
In 1714, a stone church replaced the original log chapel in the Village of Kaskaskia. Installed later in the steeple was a gift from King Louis XV of France, a bell for the Mission of the Church of the Immaculate Conception. Known as the Liberty Bell of the West, the 275-year-old sounder is securely housed in a shrine near the Church of the Immaculate Conception on Kaskaskia Island today. Many visit the bell each year.
One who did stay was a man who made history.
His name was Pierre Laclede.
Pierre Laclede Liguest was born in Bedous Béam, France on November 22, 1729, to well-to-do parents. In 1755, Laclede arrived in New Orleans and became a highly successful trader of goods. An energetic, big-picture thinker, Laclede curried relationships with local stakeholders, as well as Native Americans. He and his business partners purchased a house near Fort de Chartres. They quartered there through the winter of 1763 as the visionary Laclede made plans for his Gateway to the West.
According to lore, Laclede founded St. Louis on Saint Valentine’s Day of 1764 and he is honored on the St. Louis Walk of Fame. The St. Louis Riverfront is known as Laclede’s Landing. There is Laclede County, Missouri, and a college and elementary school named for the pioneer. Pierre Laclede is also honored with a placard in the French Colonial Historic District, where his home once stood.
Many French remained in Kaskaskia, Prairie du Rocher, and Cahokia, even though the British controlled the region. Pierre Gibault was born in Montreal on April 7. 1737, and ordained as a Jesuit missionary on March 19, 1768.
Father Gibault moved to the Illinois Country after entering the priesthood at age 31. He served an area from New Orleans to the Great Lakes and the Appalachians to the Rocky Mountains. The parish priest packed pistols and a long rifle as he traveled the often dangerous frontier. His circuit included Vincennes, Cahokia, and Ste. Genevieve and Kaskaskia.
He first arrived at the Village of Kaskaskia on September 8, 1768. Many of the Father’s parishioners were caught up in the war between the British and their colonies. Gibault became known as the Patriot Priest because of his sympathy with the American cause and became friends with a pivotal figure in the revolution. With assistance from Spaniard Francis Vigo, Gibault funded much of the war effort in Illinois.
Revolutionary War General George Rogers Clark, known as the Conqueror of the Old Northwest, was born November 19th, 1752 near Charlottesville, Virginia. He had nine brothers and sisters. Five of the boys became officers in the Revolutionary War. The sixth, and youngest, William, would co-lead the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
George Rogers Clark was trained as a surveyor by his grandfather and began that trade at age 19. The future general began his military career in 1774 as a captain in the Virginia Militia.
After campaigns in Kentucky, Clark led the Illinois Regiment of the Virginia State Forces across the Ohio River to capture Prairie du Rocher and the Village of Kaskaskia on July 4, 1778.
With the assistance of Father Gibault, Clark immediately proselytized the locals to the American side by assuring them of political and religious freedom. Clark spoke highly of his new-found-friend, the Father:
“I had some reason to suspect that Mr. Gibault, the Priest, was inclined to the American interest previous to our arrival in the Country. He had great influence over the people at this period. I made no doubt of his integrity to us.”
~ George Rogers Clark
On July 5th, Cahokia was also seized. Incredibly, no shots were fired in any of these engagements. Clark served with distinction and his accomplishments are considered integral to the westward development of the United States. General George Rogers Clark succumbed from a stroke on February 13, 1818. He is interred at Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville, Kentucky.
During his lifetime, Father Pierre Gibault was never honored for his vital assistance to George Rogers Clark and to the American cause. In an effort to remedy this oversight, a bronze statue of Gibault, by Albin Polasek, was erected during the summer of 1935.
Many in the French Colonial Historic District are graduates of Gibault Catholic High School in Waterloo, Illinois, the school that bears his name. Gibault passed on August 16, 1802 at the age of 65, having served more than 30 years. The Father is interred in an unmarked grave in his native Canada.
When the Treaty of Paris (1783) officially ended the war, the territory George Rogers Clark had gained helped America lay claim to a large swath of land. Kaskaskia, Prairie du Rocher, and Fort de Chartres, all in the French Colonial Historic District, now represented the western boundary of the United States.
Lewis and Clark
William Clark was born on August 1, 1770, in Caroline County, Virginia. The Clark family moved to Kentucky, and by 1789, William had joined a militia fighting the Northwest Indian War. Despite a lack of formal education, he kept a meticulous journal of his adventures, a practice that served history well when Meriwether Lewis recruited him for the Corps of Discovery.
Lewis was born four years after Clark on August 18, 1774, in Ivy, Virginia. The Lewis and Clark expedition was chartered to explore the territory of the Louisiana Purchase. President Thomas Jefferson, negotiating with Napoleon, was determined to acquire the Port of New Orleans and the Louisiana Purchase for the bargaining sum of $18 million, including New Orleans and 828,000 square miles west of the Mississippi River.
In addition to exploring the new lands, Lewis and Clark were to learn Native American Culture, discover a waterway to the Pacific Ocean, and claim the Oregon Territory for the new republic.
In speaking of Meriwether Lewis:
“It was impossible to find a character who is to a complete science in botany, natural history, mineralogy and astronomy, joined the firmness of constitution and character, prudence, habits adapted to the woods and familiarity with the Indian manners and character, requisite for this undertaking. All the latter qualifications, Captain Lewis has.”
~ President Thomas Jefferson
Meriwether Lewis and William Clark visited the Village of Kaskaskia and the site of Old Fort Kaskaskia on November 28, 1803.
The expedition sought young, solid men familiar with the woods, good at hunting, and able to endure a long, arduous journey. They found twelve candidates from the troops stationed at Kaskaskia, more than anywhere along their route.
From Kaskaskia Villagers, Lewis and Clark also enlisted several Engages, who were experienced woodsmen and had previously traveled west of the Mississippi River.
The group embarked north to stop at Camp Dubois. There, they bivouacked for the winter to secure provisions and prepare for their historic journey. Their visit to the French Colonial Historic District was a pivotal event in the success of their exploration.
On August 11, 1809, Meriwether Lewis passed at Grinder’s Stand on the Natchez Trace near Hohenwald, Tennessee. A monument stands at his gravesite, a short distance from where he died. William Clark died in St. Louis, Missouri, on September 1, 1838. Clark and six of his family are interred at Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis. A 35-foot monument marks their resting place.
Lafayette in the French Colonial Historic District
Sometime in 1825, General Marie-Joseph-Paul-Yves-Roch-Gilbert du Motier de Lafayette visited Kaskaskia in the French Colonial Historic District.
Lafayette donated his wealth, time, and military prowess to the colonists in their victory over the British during the American Revolution.
Upon his visit, Kaskaskia villagers gave Lafayette a hero’s welcome. They searched the woods and fields for wildflowers to decorate the banquet hall for a gathering in his honor.
Colonel Pierre Menard in the French Colonial Historic District
Pierre Menard was born at St. Antoine-sur-Richelieu, near Montreal, Quebec, on October 7, 1766. Fifteen years later, Menard and two brothers left Canada to seek their fortune as fur traders in Illinois. The Colonel married twice, first to Thérèse Godin in 1792. The couple had four children before Thérèse died in 1804.
After two years, Menard married Angélique Saucier, granddaughter of François Saucier, Engineer General in the French army and construction supervisor at Fort de Chartres. Pierre and Angélique had eight children.
Pierre Menard made his reputation as a soldier, an organizer, a mediator, a successful businessman, and a politician. He was also renowned for his kindness and generosity. The Colonel helped establish the Sisters of the Visitation in Kaskaskia, as recorded by Sister Mary Josephine Barber. The Sisters had left Georgetown, D.C., knowing that a ready facility awaited their arrival in Kaskaskia. It was not.
Menard invited the Sisters to use a store he owned in Kaskaskia as their home, rent-free.
He built furniture for the Sisters, had them make 32 pairs of warm and cold weather stockings, and donated supplies and victuals. During the great Flood of 1844, Menard’s home served as a shelter for the sisters and many others. The Colonel was on his deathbed, June 13, when he urged his sons always to take care of the sisters.
Like many prominent people of the time, Pierre Menard was a slaveholder. Unlike many masters, he was not cruel to his charges and provided excellent quarters, sustenance, and protection from southern slave kidnappers.
Menard served in the legislature of the Indiana Territory and later presided over the Illinois Territory Council. He was elected as Lieutenant to Illinois’ first Governor, Shadrach Bond. He left public service in 1822 and returned to private life. Pierre Menard passed away in 1844. He rests at Garrison Hill Cemetery on the bluff above his home on Kaskaskia Road.
French Colonial Historic District
The Pierre Menard Home
Colonel Pierre Menard purchased land along the Kaskaskia River in 1802. Construction of his home began soon after. Menard wanted his dwelling to be of Southern French Colonial design, sometimes designated, Creole. The beautiful gallery (porch) of the estate defines the style. The grounds include a stone spring house for food preservation, several outbuildings, gardens and old growth trees.
From the time construction was completed until the great Flood of 1881, Menard’s estate bordered the Kaskaskia River. By that flood’s end, the Mississippi River had changed course, flowing into the Kaskaskia River channel, thereby making the Village of Kaskaskia an island. The Pierre Menard Home today adjoins the Mississippi River. From the bluff above his home, the confluence of the Mississippi and the Kaskaskia Rivers can be seen just upstream.
Each year at his home, the Randolph County Historical Society celebrates Pierre Menard’s birthday with an open house, period victuals and interpretation.
The Pierre Menard Home is open to the public during warm months for tours and events. The buildings and grounds are preserved as a State Historic Site and considered integral to the French Colonial Historic District.
For more detailed information on the Pierre Menard Home, you may click on these links:
Creole House
Built in 1800, the Creole House in Prairie du Rocher is one of only two in Illinois with its extant vernacular architecture. The house holds a unique connection to the French Colonial Historic District. The Creole House is, in part, a typical example of a French Colonial style known as poteaux-sur-sol. The Creole House was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. The dwelling is a property of the Randolph County Historical Society. Visitation, interpretation, events and tours reveal the unique nature of this transitional home, its connection to the French Colonial Historic District, and America’s history.
For more detailed information on the Creole House, you may click on these links:
The Doiron/Bienvenue House
Below the bluffs of the American Bottom are terraces of rock not eroded by glacial outwash. On one of these plateaus sits the Doiron/Bienvenue House, twelve feet above the floodplain. Because of its location, the home has survived centuries as the Mississippi River periodically flooded the bottom from valley wall to valley wall.
Joseph Doiron moved from his native Canada before 1839. Circa 1860, the Doiron family built a poteaux-sur-sol, French style house with vertical posts and brick fill on one of these terraces. The Bienvenue family, descendants of Antoine Bienvenue of Kaskaskia, later occupied the house. Stephen Gonzalez now owns the Doiron/Bienvenue House.
Fort de Chartres
Fort de Chartres was a French fortification built in 1720 on the east bank of the Mississippi River. It was used as an administrative center in the era of French colonial control over Louisiana and the Illinois Country. The name of the bastion honored Louis duc de Chartres, the son of the Regent of France. Thousands visit the Fort each year. Several events are held each year at Fort de Chartres, honoring the heritage of the French Colonial Historic District. They are:
The Colonial Trade Faire
The Colonial Trade Faire is a juried, living history event for participants, depicting the French Colonial History of the Illinois Country circa 1750-1790. The Faire features costumed historic interpreters, shooting matches, and period games. Craftspeople and merchants offer reproduction period goods.
Kids Day
Kids Day features 18th century games, contests and crafts for children. Volunteer interpreters help young people try their hand at 18th century rope making, archery, games and other activities. Children may enlist in the Fort de Chartres French Marines, and take a chance at becoming King or Queen by finding the bean in the Kings cake.
Fort de Chartres June Rendezvous
The sound of cannons, the smell of campfires and a parade of colorful uniforms transport visitors to the 1700s during the Fort de Chartres annual Rendezvous. The celebration is the largest gathering of its kind anywhere in the Midwest, attracting thousands each year. Rendezvous features period military displays, Native American re-enactors, traditional craft demonstrations, French music and dancing, black powder shooting events and cannon exercises. Visitors can learn to throw a tomahawk, barter for hand-made period crafts, discover French kitchen gardens, watch swordsmen duel, taste delicious food and much more. Rendezvous is truly a journey in French Colonial history.
Summer Ball
Les Amis du Fort de Chartres hosts the Summer Ball. Period musicians provide live, eighteenth century music for dancing. The event is open to all and many attendees dress in period attire.
Fort de Chartres Muzzle Loading Black Powder Artillery Safety School
Artillery re-enactors participate in yearly safety training and demonstrate live cannon fire. Training runs 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM on Saturday.
Winter Rendezvous and Woods Walk
Winter Rendezvous is a weekend of colorful clothing, hand-made crafts, period music and delicious food. Soldiers, trappers, traders and Native American re-enactors gather to trade goods, buy supplies, and take part in a shooting event. Participants stalk the woods, firing flintlocks at pop-up targets. There is fun for all as participants demonstrate frontier life from 1700 to 1820. Visitors enjoy an autumn day watching the shoot, and wandering among the tents, campfires and Fort de Chartres.
La Guiannee
La Guiannee is a French holiday tradition dating to 1722. Celebrated on December 31, participants visit Fort de Chartres and homes in Prairie du Rocher to sing for residents. As part of the tradition, the audience provides refreshments at each stop.
Prairie du Rocher and the French Colonial Historic District Timeline
1703 French Jesuit Missionary, Pierre-Gabriel Marest, allied with Kaskaskia and Tamaroa Native Americans, established a new village along the west bank of the Michigamea River (now the Kaskaskia).
1714 Contruction of a stone church begins to replace the original log chapel of 1703 in the Village of Kaskaskia.
1717 Civil government emerged for the new province of Illinois and the territory was formally annexed, becoming part of Louisiana.
1720 Original Fort de Chartres built by the French - constructed of upright logs.
1721 Saint Anne Parish du Fort de Chartres established.
1722 Prairie du Rocher founded.
1735 Melliere home built in Prairie du Rocher.
1753 Historic Creole House built.
1767 Records and sacred vessels of St. Anne's Parish transferred to St. Joseph's Catholic Church, considered the only true French parish in the Diocese of Belleville.
1753-56 New Fort de Chartres built of regional limestone.
1765 French surrender Fort de Chartres to the British.
1772 Fort de Chartres abandoned by the British due to Mississippi River flooding.
1818 Illinois becomes a state and Kaskaskia is named the Capital.
1825 General Lafayette visits Kaskaskia.
1858 Cornerstone of current St. Joseph's church structure laid.
1881 Mississippi River flooding, due to an ice jam, alters the river’s channel and shifts the confluence with the Kaskaskia River east.
1913 Illinois legislature designates Fort de Chartres a state park.
1966 Fort de Chartres and Modoc Rock Shelter added to the National Registry of Historic Places and listed as National Landmarks.
1973 The Creole House added to the National Registry of Historic Places.
1974 The French Colonial Historic District created, encompassing 22 square miles in and surrounding Prairie du Rocher, and added to the National Registry of Historic Places along with the Kolmar site (ancient Indian village located between Prairie du Rocher and Fort de Chartres).