Editing Old Shawneetown, Illinois (section)

==History==
At least one record suggests that a village was established here by the [[Pekowi|Pekowi Shawnee]] led by [[Peter Chartier]] about 1758.<ref name = "Wisconsin">[https://books.google.com/books?id=IWYOAAAAIAAJ Thwaites, Reuben Gold. ''The French Regime in Wisconsin and the Northwest,'' Vol I 1634-1760. State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1908]</ref>{{rp|216–217}} In early November 1803, [[Lewis and Clark]] are believed to have stopped at Old Shawneetown on their way to [[Fort Massac]], just down the Ohio River.<ref>[http://lewisandclarkjournals.unl.edu/read/?_xmlsrc=1803-11-11.xml&_xslsrc=LCstyles.xsl ''The Journals of Lewis and Clark'', Nov. 11, 1803.]</ref>

After the [[American Revolution]], Shawneetown served as an important United States government administrative center for the [[Northwest Territory]]. Shawneetown and [[Washington, D.C.]], share the distinction of being the only towns chartered by the United States government.

Old Shawneetown is the site of the first [[bank]] chartered in Illinois, in 1816.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=Q_lOAAAAIBAJ&sjid=WEwDAAAAIBAJ&pg=5320%2C4181963 | title=Tidbits | work=Ludington Daily News | date=August 4, 2001 | access-date=October 15, 2015 | pages=33}}</ref> Originally in a log cabin, it was replaced in 1822 with a brick structure (only the second one in the town) now known as the [[John Marshall House Museum|John Marshall House]].<ref>Christiana Holmes Tillson; Milo Milton Quaife, ed. 1919, Reprint 1995. ''A Woman's Story of Pioneer Illinois''. Carbondale, Ill.: Southern Illinois University Press. 49-65.</ref>

Local legend states that the Shawneetown Bank refused to buy the first bonds issued by the city of [[Chicago]] on the grounds that no city located that far from a navigable river could survive.

Another historic bank building, the Bank of Illinois, was constructed in 1839–41 to house the offices of the Bank of Illinois at Shawneetown. It later housed numerous other financial institutions before it was closed in the 1930s. This fine example of [[Greek Revival architecture]] survives as the [[Shawneetown Bank State Historic Site]].

Residents long remembered the visit by [[Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette]] of France to the city on May 8, 1825, as a high point for the early community's social history.<ref>1887. ''History of Gallatin, Saline, Hamilton, Franklin and Williamson Counties, Illinois''. Chicago: Goodspeed Publishing Company. 96-97.</ref>

After the [[Great Flood of 1937]], many residents moved to the current location of [[Shawneetown, Illinois|Shawneetown]]. The old courthouse was torn down and a new [[Gallatin County Courthouse (Illinois)|Gallatin County Courthouse]] was constructed in 1939.{{sfn|Weiser|2009|p=53}}