The Cairo Citizen

Cairo Illinois History

Cairo, despite decades of decline and depression, remains one of the most fascinating cities in the state of Illinois... So much of the city's past glory and shame stands recorded in the streets and buildings that remain...individual works of architectural brilliance...What gives Cairo its magnificent sense of past times, however, is the same thing that threatens it future; decay... The history of Cairo is among the most complex and fascinating of any municipality in Illinois, rife with schemes, skirmishes, phenomenal growth and almost equally phenomenal decline. In many respects, it remains to this day the history of promise unfulfilled.

From the first, explorers and settlers dreamed of the grand city which would surely rise on the Mississippi-Ohio floodplanes. The prohibitive cost of levees, however, caused economic problems, political intrigue and frustrating delay to surround Cairo's founding. Finally, the levee system and the southern terminus of the Illinois Central Railroad, itself an important chapter in Illinois history, combined to make Cairo a prominent center connecting rail and river traffic.

With its strategic position, Cairo became all-important during the Civil War. Projecting deeply into the South, controlling major waterways and railroads and harboring citizens with Southern loyalties, Cairo was fortified immediately. General U.S. Grant, the Army of the Tennessee, the Siege of Vicksburg, the Naval Battle for the Mississippi---all were launched from Cairo's riverbanks. Somehow, Cairo housed the soldiers, managed their supplies, nursed their wounded and buried their dead. At nearby Mound City National Cemetery, the graves of over 2,000 unknown Confederate boys lie beside those of their former Union enemies.

With the return of peace, Cairo was quick to exploit its wartime profits and the booming riverboat trade. The town became a curious mixture of violence and gentility, Along the wharfs, saloons and gambling casinos catered to rough rivermen, while a discreet carriage ride away, the genteel sheltered in near-palatial mansions along "Millionaire's Row". Lavish church, opera houses, orchestras, hotels and monumental government buildings boasted of Cairo's wealth. In 1886, combined river and rail shipments---evaluated at $60,000,000---gave Cairo the highest per capita commercial valuation in the United States.

Echoes linger in Cairo's streets. At Fort Defiance, the clatter of caissons, the tramp of marching feet, the moans of wounded boys are nearly audible. Along Washington Avenue, stately Italianate mansions speak in the hushed, cultured tones of the wealthy elite who one inhabited them. The levees still echo with showboat calliopes and riverboat whistles. And the windowless storefronts by the river yet ring with honky-tonk pianos and raucous riverboat gamblers. Cairo is a place where those with sensitivity and imagination can revisit the nineteenth century.

The following excerpt was found in a past article of
The Evening Citizen (now known as The Cairo Citizen) in June, 1909.
It was entitled "Pioneer Cairo", by Miss Winifred Cox.
It was the commencement theme of Miss Cox, a member of the Cairo High School Class of 1909.

Far down the State of Illinois at the junction of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers lies Cairo, a thriving city of about twenty thousand people. It stands a memorial to the vast labors, and the stout hearted efforts of those early settlers, who in spite of every conceivable hardship, laid the foundation for a greater Cairo.

In 1795, William Bird, then a child, in company with his father's family landed at what is now called the Point; but remained there only a short time. This family was the first to set foot upon Cairo soil. In 1817, William Bird applied at the land office in Kaskaskia and entered that portion of Illinois south of the Cache River.

Shortly after the Bird's entry, John Comegye with eight men formed a corporation, and assumed the name of the City and Bank Company of Cairo. They applied for a charter from the Territorial Legislature permitting then to lay off and protect a city on their lands at the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. The location being somewhat similar to the of Cairo in the delta of Egypt. Mr. Comegyes' suggested the name of Cairo as an appropriate one, and entered it accordingly in the incorporation act.

Chronology

1673 Father Marquette and Louis Joliet pass the site of Cairo

1682 LaSalle's expedition stops at mouth of the Ohio

1702 Charles Juchereau de St.Denys established a Fort near the site of Cairo.

1779 George Rogers Clark stations armed boats off site of Cairo

1807 U.S. Engineers locate and survey Third Principal Meridian beginning at the mouth of the Ohio

1813 Gen. Andrew Jackson, halted by ice in the Mississippi, camped on the site of Cairo with 1,500 troops.

1817 William and Thompson Bird enter 318 acres of site of Cairo; John Comegys enters 1,800 acres

1818 The City and Bank of Cairo incorporated by act of the Territorial Legislature

1819 Alexander County organized

1835 Site of Cairo is purchased by Judge Sidney Breese, Anthony Olney, Alexander M. Jenkins, Thomas Stanwick, Miles A. Gilbert, and David J. Baker

1838 John Wright & Co., finance Cairo City & Canal Co. bonds

1840 Population of Cairo estimated at 1,000

1842 Charles Dickens visits Cairo

1843 Levee's completed

1844 Cairo undamaged by great flood in Mississippi valley

1846 Cairo City & Canal Co., reorganized as the Cairo City Property Trust

1851 Illinois Central Railroad Co., incorporated and the ground was broken at Cairo for construction

1853 Sales of lots begun. First public school built

1855 Illinois Central Railroad completed between Cairo and Chicago

1856 First jail built

1857 City Charter granted (Cairo Incorporated)

1858 Cairo Flooded

1859 Cairo becomes county seat of Alexander County

1860 Population 2,188

1861 Civil War, Camp Defiance built, Generals Prentiss and Grant establish headquarters at Cairo.

1862 General Grant leaves Cairo; with 17,000 troops

1865 Population estimated at 8,569. Cairo Association of Commerce organized.

1866 Egyptian Baseball Club of Cairo plays first game with the Monitor Club of Mound City and loses 71-38.

1867 Steamboat arrivals total 4,832

1870 Population 6,267. Great Steamboat Race between the Robert E. Lee & The Natchez

1878 Yellow fever epidemic

1880 Population 9,011. General Grant makes return visit.

1881 President Jefferson Davis visits Cairo

1883 Safford Memorial Library built

1885 Water Works established

1889 Illinois Central Bridge competed across the Ohio. Longest structure of it's kind in the world.

1890 Population 10,324

1892 Electric street cars put in operation

1906 The Hewer unveiled

1907 President Theodore Roosevelt visits Cairo

1909 President William H. Taft visits Cairo

1910 Population 14,548

1917 Ohio River frozen over - 17 inches of snow in December. The heaviest snowfall recorded in Cairo y the weather bureau. Temp. fell to 7 below 0.

1919 Aldermanic system replaced by commission form of government

1920 Population 15, 203. Cairo Rotary Club organized.

1921 Cairo Swimming Pool opens

1927 High water in the Mississippi

1929 Mississippi River Highway Bridge dedicated by Governor Louis L. Emerson. Gem Theatre reopened after being demolished by a fire, it was exceeded only in size by the Fox theatre in St. Louis. Cairo became a bigger cotton market, a fifth cotton seed cake mill was built. Mississippi levee enlarged by the United State Corps of Engineers, costing $670,488.

1930 Population 13,532. Federal barge line added 200 men to their local work force, they then employed 380 people.

1931 Armory built at cost of $200,000

1937 Cairo only city in lower Ohio Valley to escape flood

1938 Ohio River Highway Bridge open to traffic

1939 Hundreds of football fans watch the first practice of the Cairo High School Football Team under the brilliantly lighted new athletic field.

1940 Housing project completed. Draft numbers of Alexander County men listed in the Cairo Evening Citizen. Company K asked for volunteers, they needed their number up to 114, before they left for training at Camp Peay Tennessee In February of 1941.

1942 New Post Office opened. Coast Guard stationed at Cairo

1943 The St. Louis Cardinal baseball team trains at Cotter Field in Cairo, because of travel restriction during World War II. The St. Louis Brownies trained at Cape Girardeau, Missouri and the teams played exhibition games with each other.

1952 Langan home (Galigher) bought by Cairo Historical Society and called Magnolia Manor.

1955 Cairo National advertising Club formed to advertise Cairo in Wall Street Journal and other publications

1956 Cairo Comprehensive Plan accepted by City Council.

Special Thanks go to Monica Smith of Cairo Public Library for her assistance.
The library is a treasure that contributes greatly to making Cairo the special place it is.