Editing Bone Gap, Illinois (section)

==History==

According to local historians, the [[Piankeshaw Indians]] established a village in the vicinity of modern Bone Gap prior to the arrival of permanent European settlers.  This village was situated in a gap in the treeline.  When the first permanent European settlers arrived in 1830, they found a large number of discarded animal bones left by the Piankeshaw inhabitants, and named the settlement "Bone Gap."<ref name=seq>''Edwards County Sesquicentennial Book, 1814-1964.</ref>
  
Surnames among early settlers included Rude, Morgan, Knowlton, Phillips, Leach, Gibson, Rice, and Gould, the latter belonging to Methodist minister Ebenezer Gould.  Many of the settlers came from [[northeastern United States|northeastern states]], and the community that developed became known as "Yankeetown."  This area, now known as "Old Bone Gap" as it was situated just east of the current village, consisted of a store, post office, doctor's office, blacksmith shop, a Baptist church, and a Methodist parsonage.  The current village of Bone Gap voted 38–7 to incorporate on March 29, 1892.<ref name=seq />