ARCHAEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS AT THE LOUVIER SITE:
PART OF THE ORIGINAL SETTLEMENT OF
FRENCH COLONIAL PRAIRIE DU ROCHER, ILLINOIS
Eciward T. Safiran,
.Jr.
Midwestern Archaeologlcal Research Center
Illinois State University
Normal, Illinois
ABSTRACT
Preliminary archaeological testing was conducted at the Louvier Site, Prairie du
Rocher, Illinois, in December of 1986. Documentary research and previous surface
collections suggested that this site was part of the original settlement of the
town. Early land records and census data show that the Louvier family owned the
property in the 18th century. The pn;sent owners, the Parish of St ..Joseph of
Prairie du Rocher, plan to expand their cemetery into this area. The preliminary
testing consisted of a control led surface collection and excavation of test
trenches through the plow zone. Early analysis of the data collected indicate
that .intact features dating to the early occupation of Prairie du Rocher 1ie
within the area to be impacted by the cemeteq•'s future. Further excavations,
planned for the spring of 1987, wi 1l concentrate on fully exposing and identifying
the nine features located during the earlier testing. These excavations, combined
with further documentary research, should provide valuable information on an
important part of Illinois history.
INTRODUCTION
This paper reports on preliminary test excavations at the Louvier Site in
Pcairie du Rocher, Illinois.
In i985 and 1986, Drs. Edward B. Jelks and Carl
Ekberg of Illinois State University's CISU) Anthropology Program and
Department of History conducted documentary and field research in pursuit of
information on, and evidence of, the early French Colonial Village of St.
Phil l lppe. While largely unsuccessfu l in their primary task, they noted that
land near the vi l l age of Prairie du Rocher, thought to be part of an early
French settlement
there, was staked for some kind of survey.
Upon
investigation, they found that the Parish of St. Joseph of Prairie du Rocher
planned expansion of its cemetery In this area.
Arrangements were made to
allow the Midwestern Archaeologlca.l Research Center <MARC> at ISU to test the
area before any burials were placed there. Jelks and Ekberg obtained research
funds from the ISU Graduate School and a crew conducted test excavations and
very limited documentary survey over a period of nine days in late 1986. The
crew was composed of volunteers, including Dr. Margaret Kimbal I Brown <Cahokia
Mounds Site Super in tenden U, who graciously provided the use of her home in
Prairie du Rocher-.
Dr. Brown, who had made surface collections at the site
and done considerable work in the documentary analysis of the French Colonial
per l od l n the area, was most helpful throughout the proJ ect.
SETTLEME:NT HISTORY
For most of t he 18th centtJry, the Illinois country consisted of all
Fcench-clalmed ten-ltocy from the mouth of the Ohio river north to the Grea.t
Lakes, including the valleys of the Mississippi, Mlssouci, and Oh lo Pivecs
(Ek!)erg 1985:2). Marquette and Joliet were the first to enter the area, in a
trip down the Mississippi and up the Illinois in 1673. La Salle established
Fort Crevecour at Peoria In 1680 and Fort St. Louis at Starved Rock in 1682.
This post, the Mission of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin, and
the Kaska.skia Indians of the Iliniwek group, moved down the Iilinois River ln
1692. After yet another move, the vil !age of Kaskaskia was founded in 1703 at
the south end of the American Bottom.
French control of the watersheds of the Ohio, Mississippi, and Missouri
Rivers was consolidated over the next 15 years.
Detroit had been established
in 1701.
The Il I inois country became part of Louisian a in a Royal Decree of
1717 a.nd New Or 1eans was est ab l l shed as its capitol 1n 1718. Construe ti on of
the first Fort de Chartres was begun 15 mi Jes upstr·eam from Kaskaskia in 1719.
Subsequent forts were built as administration and mil ita.ry centers for the
French territory in the interior of North America.
During this period, the
French also established settlements at such previous trading locations as Fort
Wayne, Ouiatenon, and Vincennes.
Prairie du .Rocher and St. Phillippe were
established early in the 1720s.
The French continued to control this area
t hrough the French and Indian War, ceding it to England in 1763.
Prairie du Rocher was one of the early French settlements In the Illino i s
country, along with Cahokia, Kaskaskia, Fort de Chart res , and St. Phillippe.
The chapel of St. Joseph at Prairie du Rocher, a mission of the Parish of St.
Anne at Fort de Chartres, was established in the early 1720s (Alvord 1915).
The original vl l lo.ge grew up around this church.
Early plats of the area
Indicate that the village of Prairie du Rocher was laid out similarly to the
other French settlements of the Illinois country. Houses were clustered in a
village around the church and cultivated lands were laid out in long strips
with only a few rods of frontage and lateral measures sometimes a mi le or more
Jong CA!vord 1915:206).
These cultivated lands were known as common fields
and at Prairie du Rocher they stretched from the Mississippi River to the
village.
Documentary information suggests that the site we call Louvier,
after an early resident of the original vii !age of Prairie du Rocher, was the
site of a domestic unl t and a. locus of farmstead activities from some time in
the 18th century to the first half of the 19th century.
Like other houses In the French colonial district, the Louvier house was
probably a rectangular shaped vertical log structure. This type of structure
was known as "potteaux en terre" or "posts in the earth".
A rectangular
trench was dug and dressed logs were inserted in the trench, after which the
trench was backf il led. The spaces between the logs were filled with saplings
and nagging made of straw and Giay, or stones a.nd mortar, and whitewash was
smeared over the exterior to seal the walls <Ekberg 1985:28). In addition to
the house, the original lots in the villages often contained a cow barn, a
stable, a vegetable garden, a wel J,
and (sometimes) slaves' quarters
(ibid.:284).
Ea.ch lot was also surrounded by a picket fence to keep out
grazing animals.
The census of Prairie du Rocher of 1752 notes Francois
Louvier as the owner of six black slaves, one Indian slave, 26 head of cattle,
and four horses.
The vi I !age of Prairie du Rocher remained relatively smal 1 until after
the British took control of the Illinois country in 1763.
A. census taken by
the commandant at Fort de Chartres ln 1752 shows 13 families living in the
village while a British officer passing through the town in 1766 noted 14
56
families there <Alvord 1917:298). A subsequent census taken by the British in
1767 notes 25 families at Prairie du Rocher, and only three fami 1ies each in
the towns of St. Phl 1 J ippe and Fort de Chartres <ibid. :202).
Frequent
flooding by Pra.irie du Rocher Creek caused the town to grow to the north
towards highec ground nearer the bluffs.
The result was the abandonment of
the original town In the first half of the 19th century.
The area around the
original church and cemetery ls pre sently farmland.
PRELIMINARY ARCHAEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS
Following a surface survey and shovel testing in October of 1986,
preliminary archaeological investigations were conducted from 5-14 Decembec.
The testing took place just west of the cemetery of the Parish of St. Josephs
of Prairie du Rocher and was designed to locate any Intact features that may
be threatened by the church's planned expansion of the cemetery.
The testing was begun by establishing an arbitrary 5.0 m grid system ovec
a scatter of artifacts in a 60.0 m area.
Surface material was collected in
this grid over the nine day period of our excavations although visibility was
restricted by heavy corn stubble in the field. While not an ideai controlled
collection, the distribution of material col Jected in the grid clearly showed
the area of concentration of cultural debris.
A series of 0. 5 x 2. 0 m test trenches were a J so dug. The pl ow zone Cca..
30 cm) was removed and the base of the pl ow zone scraped by trowel in an
at tempt to l oc:ate intact cu J tura 1 features.
A total of 23 trenches were dug
loc ating nine subsurface
features.
Time
limits did not allow the
investigators to ful Jy expose any of these features.
The main goal of the
preliminary excavations was to locate as many features as possible in order to
ju stify further work at the site.
°!',wide variety of artifacts were recovered from the surface col iectlons
and test t renehes.
These included historic Indian artifacts, micmac and
catlinite pipe bowl fragments, 18th century French faience , Spanish maJolica,
creamwa.re, pearlware, and a variety of coarse earthenwares.
Metal artifacts
included wrou9ht and machine cut nails, sheet brass , brass buttons, part of an
18th century silver coin, and an 18th century fl intlock rifle side plate.
A
large sample of wel 1 preserved animal bone was also recovered.
Other
artifacts reco vered from the plow zone i ncluded honey colored French and dark
gray Engl lsh manufactured gunfl ints and gunspai ls, and white clay pipe stem
and bowl fragments.
A significant fact that emerged from the archaeological testing at the
Louvier site was that the plow zone across the site was fairly shallow C30
cm) , indicating that features below should be relatively undisturbed.
.l\lso,
the plowzone/subsoil interface may contain valuable information about cultural
aGtl vlties at the site In addition to the cultural material found in the
features, many of which may contain cultural material from the time of
abandonment of the site.
Three of the features exposed by the test trenches were
of 60-80 cm below the plow zone. These features cons.isted of
common constcuc:tion ma.terial of the 18th and early 19th
pceliminary archaeological testing at the Louviec Site seems
57
coced to a level
a lime-mortar, a
centt. tr es.
The
to Ina ea t e t hat
intac t features associated with the 18th and 19th century settlement of
Prairie du Rocher lie within the area to be affected by the future expansion
of the cemeter y of the Parish of St. Josephs. Further excavations are planned
at the site in the spring of 1987.
These excavations will concentrate on
exposing and identifying the features that were located during the earlier
.
t.
i:es._
rng.
CONCLUSIONS
Further analysis of the material recovered from the 1986 testing at the
Louvier Site, combined with a thorough documents search and addi t ional
archaeological testing, should provide important data concerning the everyday
life of people In the Upper Mississippi Valley in the 18th and 19th centuries.
The wide variety of actifacts recovered during the preliminary testing may
reflect the cu l tural adaptations of the French, British, Spanish, and American
periods of Influence In the Illinois country.
REFERENCES CITED
Alvord, Clarence W.
1915
The Critical Period: 1763-1765. Coliections of the Illinois State Historical
Library Vol. 10, Springfield.
1921
Trade and Polltlcs:1767-1769. Collections of the Illinois State Historical
Library, Vol. 16, Springfield.
1922
The Illinois Country: 1673-1818. A.C. McClurg and Company, Chicago.
Alvord, Clarence W. and C. Carter
1916
The New Regime: 1765-1767. Collections of the Illinois State Historicai Library,
Springfield.
Ekberg, Car 1 .J.
1985
Colonial Ste. Genevieve. An Adventure on the Mississippi Frontier. Patrice Press,
Gerald, M'issouri.
58