Talk:Griggsville Landing, Illinois

Moved from article
This was added without a source, which is absolutely required per WP:V. The last part is either from some public domain text or a copyright violation, there isn't enough information about the source to tell. I am moving this here until some referencing can be provided. It was all added to the notes section, which would need to be corrected when it is readded, i.e. not added back to the notes section.

Griggsville Landing a.k.a. Phillips Landing, In Valley City, Illinois is a former town site on the Illinois River in Pike County, Illinois. The town was a steamboat stop which began sometime in the 1830s. There was a lime kiln there that was part of a commercial lime operation prior to post-Civil War industrial intensification in the lime industry.[1] The town at Griggsville Landing was home to a boat yard, a grist mill and a hotel in addition to the Griggsville Landing Lime Kiln, built around 1850, which is still standing as of 2007. The town was eventually abandoned, rendering it a ghost town. The abandonment resulted due to annual flooding which began after the levee was built on the Illinois River by Congressional mandate by the United States Army Corps of Engineers. Once the levee was erected waters rushing downstream from Chicago overtook the town of Valley City each spring, destroying homes, ruining crops, destroying businesses, and reaking havoc on residents. People eventually grew tired of having to outrun the high water, make expensive repairs, clean up their homes, and relocate each spring. Many gave up living there. Those who have remained in the dessimated town live on higher ground away from the center of Valley City. There were seasonal camp sites, commercial fishing, and recreational boating in addition to commercial boats that hauled grain, apples, cattle and hogs packed in oak barrels down river to the markets in St. Louis for many years. Tate Cheese was the last processing plant to close down in the late 1990's. During the winters prior to the levees people could walk across the frozen Illinois River. The Illinois River was shallow enough to walk across in many places until the levees made the water treacherous. The Ice House in Valley City packed ice from the frozen river every winter in sawdust and delivered it to residents in Griggsville year round which, was four miles east of the Illinois river.

Out on the wild frontier how was it that Griggsville escaped the travail of pioneering? It was due to three simultaneous historic events about 1830: completion of the great canals linking the rivers and Great Lakes into a waterway all the way from Boston and New York to Griggsville Landing; coming into its own of the river steamboat following it's invention by Fulton in 1807 and evacuation of Indiana after the Black Hawk War of 1832. The floodgates of migration were suddenly opened and handbooks recommended the new states of Indiana (1816) and Illinois (1818), advising that the best Kentucky lands were sold out. The great Erie Canal, 365 miles long, completed in 1827, linked the Huson River with Lake Erie at Buffalo; the Ohio & Erie Canal (1830) took the passenger from Lake Erie at Cleveland to the Ohio River at Portsmouth; and a canal at Louisville, Kentucky circumvented the rapids on the Ohio river where river pirates had been such a bane to flat-boatmen. The route continued down the Ohio and up the Mississippi and Illinois to Griggsville Landing. What had been a torturous land route over the Appalachians was now a pleasant boat ride by river, lake, and canal with plenty of room for household and farming equipment. Lycurgus Eastman took the inter route from Boston to Griggsville in 1834. At a cost of $119.11, covering 2154 miles in forty days. Before leaving Boston he visited David R. Griggs at his place of business at No. 22 Wharf, Boston; who had helped lay out Griggsville the year before.
 * From a prologue to the genealogy of the Steads written by George A. Stead:

River steamboats, stern-wheelers and side-wheelers, were ready when the canal-lake-rivers linkage was completed in the early 1830's. Since Fulton's invention in 1807 these boats had become efficient and popular. Pilots had learned to "read the water" and "run the rivers." By 1827 the Illinois River had it's first steamboat, The Mechanic.

IvoShandor (talk) 17:48, 24 November 2007 (UTC)
 * Please provide a source, I can add it if you just post it here. Thanks. IvoShandor (talk) 14:55, 27 November 2007 (UTC)


 * Okay, this appears to be a word for word copy, or at least that is what is implied, it cannot be included unless you can provide evidence that the book is public domain, please paraphrase this:

From Griggsville-Boomtown on the Frontier by George A. Stead'': Out on the wild frontier how was it that Griggsville escaped the travail of pioneering? It was due to three simultaneous historic events about 1830: completion of the great canals linking the rivers and Great Lakes into a waterway all the way from Boston and New York to Griggsville Landing; coming into it's own of the river steamboat following it's invention by Fulton in 1807; and evacuation of the Indiana after the Black Hawk War of 1832. The floodgates of migration were suddenly opened, and handbooks recommended the new states of Indiana (1816) and Illinois (1818), advising that the best Kentucky lands were sold out. The great Erie Canal, 365 miles long, completed in 1827, linked the Hudson River with Lake Erie at Buffalo; the Ohio & Erie Canal (1830) took the passenger from Lake Erie at Cleveland to the Ohio river where the river pirates had been such a bane to the flat-boatmen. The route continued down the Ohio and up the Mississippi and Illinois to Griggsville Landing. What had been a torturous land route over the Appalachians was now a pleasant boat ride by river, lake, and canal with plenty of room for household and farming equipment. Lycurgus Eastman took this inter route from Boston to Griggsville in 1834. At a cost of $119.11, covering 2154 miles in forty days. Before leaving Boston he visited David R. Griggs who had helped lay out Griggsville the year before. At his place of business at No. 22 Commercial Wharf, Boston. Perhaps Griggs had taken this route himself. When he left Griggsville Landing after erecting a sign pointing east and reading "4 miles to Griggsville," he might have gone down the Mississippi to New Orleans and from there taken the sea route.

River steamboats, stern-wheelers and side-wheelers, were ready when the canal-lake-rivers linkage was completed in the early 1830's. Since Fulton's invention in 1807 these boats had become efficient and popular. Pilots had learned to "read the water" and "run the rivers." By 1827 the Illinois River had its first steamboat, '''the Mechanic. —Preceding unsigned comment added by IvoShandor (talk • contribs) 15:01, 27 November 2007 (UTC)

Merger proposal
I support the proposal to merge Griggsville Landing, Illinois with Valley City, Illinois, based on the geographical location of the small modern crossroads and the historic landing. They are located less than one half-mile from each other.Bigturtle (talk) 01:54, 2 August 2010 (UTC)

Flint
I removed the mention of Flint to here. With a citation, it can return to the article.--DThomsen8 (talk) 00:35, 2 May 2011 (UTC)

The town was once called Flint.

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