Marine Township
Welcome to the Marine Township page of Marine Histroical Society.
Early History
1717 - Illinois became part of the French colony of Louisiana.
1778 - George Rogers Clark(1752 - 1818) defeated the British at Kaskaskia, securing the Illinois country for Virginia.
1783 - Treaty of Paris extended the United States boundary to include the Illinois country.
1784 - Virginna relinquished its claim to Illinois.
1787 - Northwest Ordinance placed Illinois in the Northwest Territory.
1800 - Congress created the Indiana Territory, which included Illinois.
1809 - Illinois became an independent territory. History indicates that the Kickapoo Indians lived in Illinois during the 1700s and early 1800s following the departure of the Illinois/Illiniwek Indians.
1812 - The Prairie Kickapoo Indians joined the Vermilion Band against the United States during the War of 1812 (1812-1815).
1818 - Illinois became the twenty-first state. Population of the state was 34,620.
1819 - Kickapoo Indians signed a land treaty on 30 July 1819, at Edwardsville, Illinois ceding all their lands in Illinois and Indiana.
1832 - The Kickapoo Indians were ordered west. The last holdouts went in 1834.
MARINE TOWNSHIP
Marine Township (Township 4, Range 6) was one of the most fertile townships in the country, adapted to both grain and stock growing. Originally, about one-third of the area of this township was timber. In 1873, about one-half was cleared and in cultivation. It is well watered by the Sugar Fork of Silver Creek, which transverses its entire length, from north to south, a little east of the center.
The area was described as beautiful rolling land with bits of wooded areas. The rich soil, the creeks with smaller streams containing a water supply was an inviting place for these pioneer home seekers.
In the very early days, buffalo roamed as buffalo horns were scattered over the prairie for years after the first settlement. Wild elk horns could also be seen. Animals and birds in the prairie were: gray wolves, black and prairie wolves: wild cats were numerous; a panther occasionally attacked animals and man; a bager was occasionally killed but not after 1830; lynx were sometimes seen; deer were plentiful; four varieties of squirrels (fox, grey, flying and ground squirrel); gray and bald eagles were common in pioneer times; pheasants came after the first settlement; several varieties of owls (screech owls, large prairie owls and the largest horned owl); wild ducks and geese, cranes, herons, and swans were found about the lakes. There were also prairie chickens and beavers.
The Kickapoo Indians lived and hunted in all Madison County which included Marine Township. It is not known how many Indians remained in the area when the early settlers came to Marine Township but buy 1834, they had all moved west.