Editing Monroe County, Illinois (section)

==History==
[[Indigenous peoples]] lived along the Mississippi River and related waterways for thousands of years before European contact. [[French people|French]] [[Jesuit]] priests in the [[Illinois Country]] encountered the [[Kaskaskia]] and [[Cahokia]], bands of the [[Illiniwek]] confederacy.

The first [[Europe]]an settlement in this area was [[St. Philippe, Illinois|St. Philippe]], founded in 1723 by [[Philip Francois Renault|Philippe François Renault]], a [[French people|French]] [[courtier]], on his concession about three miles north of [[Fort de Chartres]] along the [[Mississippi River]]. This early agricultural community quickly produced a surplus, and grains were sold to the lower [[Louisiana]] colony for years. They were integral to that community's survival, as its climate did not allow cultivation of such staple grains.

Monroe County was formed in 1816 out of [[Randolph County, Illinois|Randolph]] and [[St. Clair County, Illinois|St. Clair]] counties, as the 8th county created from the then [[Illinois Territory]].
<blockquote>Beginning on the Mississippi River where the base line, which is about three-fourths of a mile below Judge Briggs's present residence, strikes the said river; thence with the base line until it strikes the first township line therefrom; thence southeast to the southeast corner of township two south, range nine west; thence south to the southeast corner of township four north, range nine west; thence southwestwardly to the Mississippi, so as to include Alexander McNabb's farm, and thence up the Mississippi to the beginning shall constitute a separate county, to be called MONROE.<br />
Illinois ''Territorial Laws 1815-16'', p. 25<ref>[https://archive.org/details/countiesillinoi00statgoog/page/n7 <!-- pg=1 --> ''Counties of Illinois''], p. 32-33. With Twenty-three Maps Showing the Original and the Present Boundary Lines of Each County of the State, Retrieved on January 22, 2008.</ref></blockquote>

It was named in honor of [[James Monroe]],<ref>{{cite book|last=Gannett|first=Henry|title=The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States|url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9V1IAAAAMAAJ|year=1905|publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office|page=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9V1IAAAAMAAJ/page/n211 212]}}</ref> who had just served as [[United States Secretary of War]] and who was elected [[President of the United States|President]] later that same year. Its first county seat was [[Harrisonville, Illinois|Harrisonville]], named for [[William Henry Harrison]], former governor of the [[Northwest Territory]] and future President. Harrison invested in several tracts of land in the [[American Bottoms]] above Harrisonville, mostly in the present precinct of Moredock, ownership of which he retained until his death.<ref>''Combined History of Randolph, Monroe and Perry Counties, Illinois,'' J. L. McDonough & Co., Philadelphia, 1883</ref>

[[Waterloo, Illinois|Waterloo]] was designated as the mantle of county seat in 1825. The sites of the colonial towns of St. Philippe and Harrisonville were submerged by the [[Mississippi River]], in flooding caused by [[deforestation]] of river banks during the [[steamboat]] years. Crews cut so many trees that banks destabilized and collapsed in the current, making the river wider and more shallow from [[St. Louis]] to the confluence with the [[Ohio River]]. This change caused more severe flooding, as well as lateral channel changes, such as the one that cut off the village of [[Kaskaskia]] from the Illinois mainland.<ref>F. Terry Norris, "Where Did the Villages Go? Steamboats, Deforestation, and Archaeological Loss in the Mississippi Valley", in ''Common Fields: An Environmental History of St. Louis'', Andrew Hurley, ed., St. Louis, MO: Missouri Historical Society Press, 1997, pp. 73-89</ref>

An unincorporated community of Harrisonville was re-established east of the original site. The bounds of Monroe County in 1816 did not include Precincts 1 and 6 (village of Hecker and Prairie du Long), Precinct 1 and most of 6 was added in 1825 from [[St. Clair County, Illinois|St. Clair County]].<ref>"[https://archive.org/details/countiesillinoi00statgoog/page/n7 <!-- pg=1 --> Counties of Illinois pg. 46-47]". 1825 Retrieved on January 22, 2008.</ref> The strip of Precinct 6 from the survey township line east to the Kaskaskia was added, once again from St. Clair, two years later in 1827.<ref>"[https://archive.org/details/countiesillinoi00statgoog/page/n7 <!-- pg=1 --> Counties of Illinois, pg. 49-50]". 1827 Retrieved on January 22, 2008.</ref> Some minor adjustments and clarifications of the boundaries have taken place, but the borders have remained essentially static since 1827.

<gallery>
File:Monroe County Illinois 1816.png|Monroe County from the time of its creation to 1825
File:Monroe County Illinois 1825.png|Monroe County between 1825 and 1827
File:Monroe County Illinois 1827.png|In 1827, an adjustment to Monroe County's border with St. Clair brought it to its present territory
</gallery>