Twenty-first and first – Illinois Centennial Commemorative Silver Half Dollar Coin

Today, the Illinois Centennial Commemorative Silver Half Dollar Coin remembers the centennial celebration in 1918 recognizing the state’s statehood date.

They were the 21st state to be added to the Union, however they were the first state to have their star added to the flag under the new flag law.

In recognition of the centennial, the Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society of 1917 included the following article.

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THE ILLINOIS CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION A HUNDRED YEARS OF PROGRESS

Prepared for the Blue Book of Illinois 1917-1918. By Jessie Palmer Weber, Secretary Illinois Centennial Commission.

If it were possible to look back over the past one hundred years and see the pioneer settlements of the Territory of Illinois when its people sought admission to the Union, we would see a few small towns and villages scattered along the banks of the rivers, and mostly situated in the southern part of the State.

Chicago, Peoria and Springfield were still unborn though the military post, Fort Dearborn, on the site of Chicago, was founded in 1804. It was evacuated August 15, 1812, and the fort destroyed by the Indians. It was rebuilt in 1816.

Where the city of Peoria now stands, was Fort Clark, an important trading post of the Indians. This location was always a favorite one with the Indians and was visited by LaSalle and his brave little party of French explorers as early as 1680, in which year, LaSalle founded his Fort Crevé Coeur, the exact location of which is in dispute to this day.

Fort Massac on the Ohio River; Fort Armstrong erected, 1816, on Rock Island in the Mississippi River; Fort Russell, where Edwardsville; founded in 1812, now stands; and Fort Edwards, on the Mississippi, near the site of the present city of Warsaw, were the other important military posts in the Territory.

Gov. Thomas Ford, in writing of the population of Illinois in 1818, says, “The settled part of the State extended a little north of Edwardsville and Alton; south along the Mississippi to the mouth of the Ohio; east in the direction of Carlyle to the Wabash, and down the Wabash and the Ohio, to the mouth of the last named river.

“But there was yet a very large unsettled wilderness tract of country within these boundaries, lying between the Kaskaskia River and the Wabash, and between the Kaskaskia and the Ohio of three days’ journey across it.”

Kaskaskia, the territorial capital and chief town, was then more than one hundred years old, having been founded by the French as an Indian mission in 1700. This little city, with Shawneetown, were in 1818, the two most important towns in the Territory.

In 1778, Kaskaskia and the northwest were captured by George Rogers Clark. The little army of Virginians which accompanied Clark, saw the beauty and fertility of the country, and in spite of the many hardships they endured, some of the soldiers returned after the war, with their families and friends, to make the Illinois Country their permanent homes.

The land grants to the soldiers of the War of 1812- 1814, the second war with Great Britain, brought a still greater tide of emigration.

Most of the people came from Virginia, Tennessee, North and South Carolina and Kentucky. These people had a natural fondness for politics.

By 1817, the neighboring territory, Missouri, was making efforts to secure admission to the Federal Union, and as slavery was permitted in it, it was thought to have more influence and friends in Congress.

Ninian Edwards was the Governor of Illinois Territory. Illinois had a group of brilliant young men who had come to this new country to seek their fortunes. Among them was Daniel Pope Cook, for whom Cook County was named.

Cook, although he was in 1817 but twenty-one years of age, must be given the credit for the inauguration of the movement for immediate Statehood. Mr. Cook was the nephew of Nathaniel Pope and was later the son-in-law of Gov. Ninian Edwards.

It is not the object of this article to recount the political and factional struggles which led to the admission of Illinois into the Union, but no account of the struggle, however brief, would be complete without paying a tribute to the energy and foresight of Nathaniel Pope, territorial delegate in Congress who came to Illinois from Kentucky in 1809 as Secretary of the Territory, whose keenness, energy and activity not only secured the prompt admission of the Territory, but as is well known, succeeded in having the northern boundary line of the proposed State changed to forty-two degrees and thirty minutes north latitude, which was about forty-one miles north of the boundary as fixed in the original bill, and fifty-one miles north of the dividing line as proposed in the Ordinance of 1787.

Mr. Pope said in forwarding a copy of the bill to a friend, “I shall not attempt to explain the importance of such an accession of Territory; it is too obvious to every man who looks to the prospective weight and influence of the State of Illinois.”

Mr. Pope said that the object of the change in boundary “was to gain for the proposed State a coast on Lake Michigan. This would afford additional security to the perpetuity of the Union, inasmuch as the State would thereby be connected with the States of Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York through the Lakes.

“The facility of opening a canal between Lake Michigan and the Illinois River is acknowledged by everyone who has visited the place.

“Giving to the proposed State the port of Chicago, (embraced in the proposed limits) will draw its attention to the opening of the communication between the Illinois River and that place, and the improvement of that harbor.”

This change in the border added to the State of Illinois over eight thousand square miles in which lie the greater part of our fourteen northern counties, which today contain, including the city of Chicago, over half the population of the State.

It would seem appropriate that in the celebration of the one hundredth anniversary of its admission to the Federal Union, the people of Illinois should show their appreciation of the services of Nathaniel Pope by the erection of some permanent memorial in his honor.

Many of the worthy fathers and founders of the State might be mentioned, but suffice to say that on December 2, 1817, Gov. Ninian Edwards, in his message to the Legislature of the Territory, called its attention to the flattering prospects for statehood.

On December 10, 1817, a memorial to Congress, passed by the Legislature, praying statehood, was presented to the Governor for his signature.

On January 16, 1818, the memorial was laid before Congress by Nathaniel Pope.

On January 23, 1818, a bill was reported in Congress to “enable the people of Illinois Territory to form a Constitution and a State government, and for the admission of such State into the Union on equal footing with the original States. ”

After much debate and many amendments, the bill was passed, and it was approved by the President, April 18, 1818.

The State of Illinois was the eighth State to be added to the original thirteen States.

Our present flag law describing our national flag and prescribing that a new star be added to the national flag on the admission of each new state into the Union, the state star to be placed on the flag on the 4th of July following the admission of the state, was passed by Congress April 4, 1818, the year Illinois was admitted to the Union.

Thus, while Illinois is the twenty-first State in the order of its admission to the Union, its admission was the first to be recognized under our present flag law.

A hundred years ago when the territory of Illinois sought admission into the Federal Union, it was on the outposts of civilization. Settlements were few in number.

In 1818, the legislature of the Territory ordered a census taken to ascertain whether or not it had a sufficient number of inhabitants to entitle it to statehood, as the territorial delegate in Congress, Nathaniel Pope, expressed grave doubts on that point, and a population of forty thousand was required for admission.

The census, however, showed forty thousand, two hundred fifty-eight (40,258).

There were fifteen counties in the Territory of Illinois in 1818. Crawford County was the largest in area. It had, in 1818, a total population of 2,946 persons.

The election of delegates to the convention to frame the Constitution was held July 6, 7, and 8, 1818.

The Constitutional Convention met at Kaskaskia, August 3, the first Monday in August, 1818. It was composed of thirty- three members.

Jesse B. Thomas was elected President, William C. Greenup, Secretary, and Ezra Owen, Sergeant at Arms, of the Convention.

The leading spirit of the convention was Elias Kent Kane, who has been called the author of the Constitution of 1818. The Convention completed its labors and adjourned August 26, 1818.

The first election of State and County officers in Illinois, took place September 17, 18, 19, 1818, as provided by the newly adopted Constitution.

The first General Assembly of the State of Illinois convened October 5, 1818, at Kaskaskia.

The first Governor, Shadrach Bond, and the first Lieutenant Governor, Pierre Menard, were inaugurated October 6, 1818.

The first General Assembly adjourned October 13, 1818, to await formal admission by Congress, and to convene at the call of the Governor.

On the 3d of December, 1818, the resolution of Congress, approving the Constitution of the State of Illinois, and formally admitting the State into the Union, was approved by the President of the United States.

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The Illinois Centennial Commemorative Silver Half Dollar Coin shows below the design of the US flag for 1819-1820 with the addition of the 21st star.

Illinois Centennial Commemorative Silver Half Dollar Coin