It had to be quite a sight in this little pioneer town of Springfield in Sangamon County, Illinois

An area that had kind of just been settled ten years before soldiers from the 1812 war

Remember having gone into this area in Illinois and there was just a small path a little bit less rough than the other

Areas through the trees and through the wilderness that they named after the commander the Edward's trace and a few of those

1812 soldiers decided to settle in scattered log cabins

Tiny towns developed sometimes just on paper. Oh, there's a good spot here by the Illinois of the Sangamon River

Springfield starts as a prospective town. So it was quite a sight when a steamboat pulls up

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To the first settlers of Illinois so writes John Carroll power in his history of the early settlers of Sangamon County, Illinois

To the first settlers of Illinois transportation was on unusual importance on account of the vast extent of undrained soil

So rich and soft as to be almost impossible for transportation of heavy articles long distances

No other mode

Was possible nothing could be thought of to get through that sought except traveling by water

There could be conveyed three to four times the distance in that way much cheaper than a straight line by any

Known method

And so when the talesman comes from Cincinnati February 2nd

1832 trying this new route trade

Takes the Ohio River takes the Mississippi River the Illinois River and then

The Sangamon River into this central area of Illinois that everybody's talking about nation-wide

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