498
HISTORICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ILLINOIS.
running thence southerly in a direct line to the mouth of the little river above Fort Massac upon the Ohio Eiver; thence with the said river to its junction with the Mississippi; thence up the Mississippi to the mouth of the Illinois, and so up the Illinois River to the place of beginning, with all the adjacent islands of said rivers, Illinois and Mississippi." The "Little Michillimackanack," the initial point mentioned in this description- also variously spelled "Makina" and "Mackinaw," the latter being the name by which the stream is now known-empties into the Illinois River on the south side a few miles below Pekin, in Tazewell County. The boundaries of St. Clair County, as given by Gov. St. Clair, indicate the imperfect knowledge of the topography of the ''Illinois Country'' existing in that day, as a line drawn south from the mouth of the Mackinaw River, instead of reaching the Ohio "above Fort Massac," would have followed the longitude of the present city of Springfield, striking the Mississippi about the northwestern corner of Jackson County, twenty-five miles west of the mouth of the Ohio. The object of Governor St. Glair's order was, of course, to include the settled portions of the Illinois Country in the new county; and, if it had had the effect intended, the eastern border of the county would have followed a line some fifty miles farther eastward, along the eastern border of Marion, Jefferson, Franklin, Williamson and Johnson Counties, reaching the Ohio River about the present site of Metropolis City in Massac County, and embracing about one-half of the area of the present State of Illinois. For all practical purposes it embraced all the Illinois Country, as it included that portion in which the white settlements were located. (See St. Clair, Arthur; also Illinois Country.) The early records of St. Clair County are in the French language; its first settlers and its early civilization were French, and the first church to inculcate the doctrine of Christianity was the Roman Catholic. The first proceedings in court under the common law were had in 1796. The first Justices of the Peace were appointed in 1807, and, as there was no penitentiary, the whipping post and pillory played an important part in the code of penalties, these punishments being impartially meted out as late as the time of Judge (afterwards Governor) Reynolds, to "the lame, the
