Samuel Wiggins and Illinoistown:
In the early years of Illinoistown it is clear that Samuel Wiggins,
a politician and Illinois businessman, remained an influential
presence. The Reverend John Mason Peck described the town as a
small one of about a dozen families with a post office, hotel,
livery, and store. The post office was called Wiggins Ferry and
Samuel was the postmaster.
Although a flood in 1826 (only one of many to damage the area)
may have set back the growth of Illinoistown, Wiggins' concentrated
ferry business helped spawn economic growth throughout the 1820s
and 1830s. According to a study by the National Park Service,
Illinoistown had by 1841 become a bustling place with numerous
grocery stores, two bakeries, a clothier, a cooper, blacksmiths,
taverns and hotels. There were more than one hundred homes and
a newspaper, The American Bottom Reporter.
Samuel Wiggins was apparently not a person to have others do his
work. He was involved in the lives of the people living in and
around Illinoistown as an excerpt
from William Wells Brown's narrative shows.
Locations of Wiggins Ferry and Illinoistown