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Reflections: The six flags that have flown over Illinois and the Fox River Valley · Kendall County News - Shaw Local

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  Speaker 1: Reflections the six flags that have flown over Illinois and
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  the Fox River Valley. This article is being read by
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  an automated voice brought to you by Everlett. In front
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  of almost any public building in the area, you will
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  see a flagpole with old glory proudly waving in the breeze,
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  even during these dreary winter months. Nowadays, we take it
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  for granted that the US flag belongs in front of
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  our schools, post offices, and other public structures, not to
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  mention in front of so many private homes. But over
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  the last three hundred and fifty years or so, a
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  number of different flags of a number of different nations
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  and governments have flown over the area that now comprises
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  our Fox River Valley. The history of the arrival and
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  exit of those flags in fact mirrors the history of
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  the region itself, something worth considering as we celebrate this
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  the two year of our nation's independent If the Illinois
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  Indians had a flag, they would have had it proudly
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  flying in front of their public buildings when Marquette and
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  Joliet arrived at what we now called Starved Rock in
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  sixteen seventy three, Alas they had no flags and no
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  comprehension of the disaster that was about to befall them.
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  As the first Europeans pushed southwest from Canada into Illinois.
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  The first white man bring a flag with him was
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  explorer and businessman Robert Cavalier Seer de la Salle. Lasal
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  unsuccessfully tried to colonize the Illinois country in sixteen seventy nine,
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  but due to a number of mishaps, failed and was
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  forced to regroup and try again a few years later.
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  In sixteen eighty three, he finally succeeded injurying all the
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  way through Illinois and then down the Mississippi River to
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  the Gulf of Mexico. There he claimed the entire Mississippi
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  watershed for France. Returning upriver, LaSalle and his faithful Italian companion,
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  Henry Detont Empty paddled up the Illinois River and established
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  the first permanent French fort in Illinois, a top starved rock. Thus,
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  the royal flag of France was the first to float
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  over Illinois and the Fox Valley. Although the French claimed Illinois,
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  they managed to hold onto it for only eighty years.
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  Illinois was a rich region, and both the French and
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  their commercial enemies in North America, the British wanted control
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  of it. After several colonial wars between the French and British,
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  aided by both their Native American allies, the British finally
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  prevailed during the Seven Years War. In seventeen sixty three,
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  France ceded Illinois to the British. Though the French abandoned Illinois,
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  the area's Indian inhabitants decided they didn't want to be
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  given abandoned, and that same year seventeen sixty three, proceeded
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  to slaughter every brit they could find. The war, called
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  Pontiac's Rebellion, was quashed by a Swiss colonel fighting for
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  the Brits, but it took two years before British troops
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  finally arrived at Fort de Chartbers in southern Illinois to
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  raise the Union jack in October seventeen sixty five. Thus
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  Flag number two waived over Illinois. The British held on
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  too Illinois for even less time than the French. On
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  July fourth, seventeen seventy eight, George Rogers Clark, at the
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  head of about one hundred and seventy Virginia militia, seized
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  the Illinois country for the State of Virginia during the
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  Revolutionary Thus we became Illinois County of the State of Virginia,
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  Flag number three. Clark was able to withstand the continued
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  assaults of the British, largely due to the assistance of
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  the Spanish, who at that time controlled the lands across
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  the Mississippi from Illinois, and Spain, like France and England,
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  also had men willing to spend a few months working
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  to become heroes. Therefore, on a couple occasions, including the
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  most successful one in seventeen eighty one, small Spanish forces
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  marched northeast from Saint Louis to try to capture the
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  Illinois country for Spain. One time, one of these small
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  and eccentric groups even managed to reach Fort Saint Joseph
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  on the Saint Joseph River over in Indiana, captured the
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  place and raised the flag of Imperial Spain, claiming the
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  Illinois country for the Spanish crown, before marching home again.
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  Although this unlikely development is little more than a historical
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  footnote in Spain never really tried to capitalize on it,
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  it does add one more flag that has flown over Illinois,
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  making it Flag number four. The Revolutionary war caused a
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  lot of confusion here in Illinois. No one, not even
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  George Rogers Clark, really knew who was in charge. Was
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  it Clark, the military commander, or was it the Virginia
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  representative sent out from Williamsburg. The confusion eventually led to
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  no order at all, and Illinois became the truly wild
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  and lawless frontier. Seeing little profit but more than a
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  little expense arising from an area whose inhabitants attacked each
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  other with such zest, the Virginia Assembly sensibly decided to
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  wash their hands of the whole area. They happily signed
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  Illinois County over to the federal government. After the war
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  ended and the United States flag flew at last asked
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  over what would one day be the state of Illinois
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  Flag number five. Although England ceded Illinois to the United
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  States via the Treaty of Paris at the end of
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  the Revolution, like their brothers after the French and Indian War,
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  the Indians living in the area decided they didn't want
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  to be seated either. A series of embarrassing Indian wars resulted,
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  and the United States was actually forced to call back
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  to service soldiers who knew something about fighting a war
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  political General Arthur Saint Clair, having lost an entire army
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  somewhere between Ohio and Illinois, battles at Fallen Timbers Gen.
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  Matt Anthony Wayne and Tippecanoe Gen. William Henry Harrison finally
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  quelled the Indian threat on the frontier. Although I admit
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  the British flag again flew over northern Illinois during the
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  War of eighteen twelve, I consider it a repeat, so
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  it doesn't count. In seventeen eighty nine, the US Congress
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  created the Northwest Territory, a huge area north and west
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  of the Ohio River, including the current states of Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois,
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  and Wisconsin. In eighteen oh nine, Illinois Territory was carved
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  out of the rest of the Northwest Territory, and finally,
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  with statehood on December third, eighteen eighteen, came the sixth
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  and final flag to fly over the Fox Valley, the
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  Illinois state flag. Looking for more local history, visit