Edwardsville is either
the third- or fourth-oldest city in
Illinois, depending on whom you ask.
Predecessors include Shawneetown, Kaskaskia
and Cairo.
Edwardsville and Glen Carbon are in
Madison County, the third-oldest county in
the state.
Edward Coles arrived in frontier
Edwardsville and became Illinois’ second
governor.
Edwardsville has produced five governors:
Ninian Edwards, Edward Coles, John Reynolds,
Thomas Ford and Charles Deneen.
Fort Russell, a wooden stockade northwest
of Edwardsville, was built for the War of
1812. It was used by rangers to protect
communities in the area from attack by
Indian tribes allied with the British.
The Klingel House, located at 1801 N.
Main, was once the site of one of
Edwardsville’s many breweries.
John Gillespie was a Whig political friend
of Abe Lincoln. When Lincoln came to town
and gave a speech on Nov. 11, 1858, he went
to a reception at Gillespie’s brother’s
house at 606 N. Main Street in Edwardsville.
The Richards Brick Company, established
during Edwardsville’s early days, still
supplies brick throughout the St. Louis
region. In 1921, its 175-foot smokestack was
the second-tallest structure in Southern
Illinois.
The very first Methodist Church in
Illinois was built in Glen Carbon in 1805.
The two-story Benjamin Stephenson House on
South Buchanan Street is the oldest brick
building in Edwardsville (circa 1820).
Hadley House, constructed in 1875, is the
public school district’s central office.
Edwardsville’s Griffin House, located at
705 St. Louis Street, was built in 1910 by
Walter Burley Griffin. He received training
in the Chicago office of Frank Lloyd Wright
and designed the residence using Wright’s
distinctive horizontal Prairie Style.
A monument was built in City Park to
commemorate the Madison County Centennial in
1912. There are figures on each of its four
sides that pay tribute to early pioneers,
representing Plenty, Virtue, Justice and
Wisdom.
Edwardsville’s Leclaire area was placed on
the National Register of Historic Places in
1979. N.O. Nelson built a company town there
that was inspected by Nellie Bly, the famous
reporter for the New York World, in 1894.
She described it in glowing terms.
Glen Carbon’s name translates to “Valley
of Coal”; however, its coal mines, founded
in 1892 by the Madison Coal Company, shut
down around 1930.
Col. Samuel Judy of Glen Carbon became the
first resident of Madison County.
The highlight of Glen Carbon’s Centennial
celebration in 1992 was the dedication of
the 1853 Yanda Log Cabin on Main Street as a
museum and educational center operated by
the Village.
Sam Birger built his first store in Glen
Carbon in 1893, and a street in town is
named for his family. Ironically, Charlie
Birger, his notorious brother, was the last
man to be hanged in Illinois.
Rev. David Badgley, a Baptist minister
from Virginia, scouted the area looking for
a new place to settle. He was so impressed
with the American Bottom and bluff area near
present-day Route 157 and Glen Carbon Road
that he called it Land of Goshen, from the
Book of Genesis.
Ed Hightower, District 7 Superintendent,
is also a highly respected NCAA basketball
official for Division I universities.
Mannie Jackson, an Edwardsville High
School alumnus, is the current owner of the
Harlem Globetrotters.
Glen Carbon has a new fire house, library,
village hall and post office; it is
currently one of the fastest-growing
communities in the state.
Jackson Browne recorded part of his album,
Running on Empty, at the Edwardsville
Holiday Inn, currently Comfort Inn, on Route
157/Route 66.
Laurie Metcalf, another Edwardsville High
School graduate, portrayed Roseanne Barr’s
sister, “Jackie,” on the award-winning
Roseanne show.
In 1998, Edwardsville’s American Legion
baseball team won the national championship
in Las Vegas, Nevada, and the high school
Tigers baseball team was undefeated and
ranked No. 1 in the nation.
