Editing Collinsville, Illinois (section)

==History==
[[File:Illinois - Collinsville - NARA - 23939825 (cropped).jpg|thumb|right|View of Collinsville, 1938]]
[[Cahokia]], the largest [[Pre-Columbian]] settlement north of Mexico, was developed by the [[Mississippian culture]] and is located in what is now the westernmost part of Collinsville. At its peak about 1200 [[Common Era|CE]], Cahokia had a population of 20,000-30,000, more than any city in the present-day United States until after 1800. It includes [[Monks Mound]], the largest prehistoric [[earthworks (archaeology)|earthwork]] in the Americas, and more than 70 surviving smaller mounds. Monks Mound is larger at its base than the [[Great Pyramid of Giza]].

During the French colonial era of its [[Illinois Country]], a group of French Catholic monks had a settlement on Monks Mound, after whom it was later named. They cultivated agriculture on the terraces of the mound. They traded with bands of the historic [[Illinois Confederation|Illini]], who had migrated into the area after the peak of the Mississippian culture.{{citation needed|date=January 2023}}

Collinsville was subsequently settled by the Cook family and by a group of German-American settlers who arrived by [[Conestoga wagon]] in 1812 from [[Pennsylvania]]. They founded Holy Cross Lutheran Church. They also had a hardware store, though they were mainly farmers. Within five or six years, a number of other settlers arrived and began to organize the legal work required to form a town on the site. These original settlers are all buried in the Cook Cemetery or the Old Lutheran Cemetery. Other early settlers are buried in the Old German Cemetery near Sugarloaf Road near [[Maryville, Illinois|Maryville]].{{citation needed|date=January 2023}}

During [[World War I]], a Collinsville mob, composed mostly of local coal miners, [[lynched]] a [[German Americans|German]] immigrant, the only such wartime murder in the country. On April 5, 1918, the mob numbering up to 300 men took [[Robert Prager]] from his home and paraded him through the streets barefoot and wrapped in an American flag, forcing him to sing patriotic songs. Collinsville police interceded and took Prager into protective custody. The mob was later mistakenly allowed to search city hall, and two men found Prager hiding in the basement. They took Prager outside and the mob marched him to the outskirts of town, along the St. Louis Road, where they lynched him.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Stehman |first1=Peter |title=Patriotic Murder: A World War I Hate Crime for Uncle Sam |date=2018 |publisher=Potomac Books |location=Lincoln, NE |isbn=9781612349848}}</ref> His final request was to be buried in the American flag. Eleven men stood trial for the murder, but all were acquitted on June 1, 1918.<ref>"Hunt Started for Lynchers of Enemy Alien", ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'', 5 April 1918; "Collinsville Mayor Let Mob into Jail, Thinking Prager Had Been Removed", ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'', 7 April 1918; "Coroner Says He Knows Five of Prager Lynchers", ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'', 6 April 1918; "11 Men Placed on Trial for Lynching of Paul Prager", ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'', 13 May 1918; "Plea of Prager Defendants to be He Was Spy", ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'', 16 May 1918; and "Jury Acquits Defendants in Prager Lynching", ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'', 2 June 1918.</ref>

Several historical buildings survive in Collinsville. Built in 1885, the City Hall is still used today. It was built on property originally owned by the Collins family. The building features [[Italianate architecture]] with window crowns. A short, half-block walk from City Hall is the former State Bank of Collinsville at the corner of Center and Main streets. Designed in 1916 by architect Robert G. Kirsch, this structure features a limestone exterior and marble interior walls. To the west on Main Street, the Collinsville Public Library is a colonial-style brick building with an inviting circular stone walkway; the first section was completed in 1937. Additional wings were added in 1967 and 1980.<ref>Strebel, Neal. "Collinsville in Vintage Postcards". Collinsville Historical Museum. 2005.</ref>