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Marker Near Belleville Recalls John Messinger

The writer has  achronic tendency to stop and read historical markers.  A recent rewarding  digression of this kind was made at the northeast edge of Belleville near the end of Lebanon Avenue.  An arrow points to  a small painted marker that is easily overlooked unless one observes carefully.  A simple legend on the marker says, "John Messinger Memorial."

Our recent visit was not the first time the writer has paused at the memorial.  But this time it was a pleasant spting morning, just the kind of day  on which to visit a site of historical interest.  So the writer drove about two miles north to Clinton Hill, where Messigner -- one of the most gifted, versatile and capable men of the territorial and early statehood days of Illinois -- lived and where he is buried.

John Messinger was a native of West Stockbridge, Mass., where he was born in 1771.  In 1783, the family moved to Vermont and young John was given a good education for that day, showing a particular aptitude for mathematics.  In Vermont he became a teacher, carpenter, builder, millwright and successful farmer, and he married Anne Lyon, a daughter of Col. Matthew Lyon who was a newspaper publisher much prosecuted for violation of the Alien and Sedition Laws.

In 1799, Col. Lyon and his family, including Messigner, floated down the Ohio from Pittsburgh on flatboats and settled in Kentucky near the mouth of the Cumberland River.  There Col. Lyon became an active slave trader.  This did not please Messinger nor another son-in-law, Dr. George Cadwell,  and they moved on to Illinois in 1902 [sic--1802].  Messigner first settled near New Design in Monroe County where he operated a grist mill on Rockhouse Creek east of the settlement.  In 1806 he moved to Clinton Hill, in the vicinity of the present memorial, and lived there until his death in 1846.

John Messinger was a man of many talents and great energy, and he exerted a wide influence in the state's early days.  He was by turns a teacher, farmer millwright, carpenter, cabinet maker, cartographer, and public official, and he was rated by many as the most profound mathematician and best land surveyor in the state.  He and another man, Philip Creamer, turned to the making of surveyor's compasses which were ranked wit the best in America.

In 1821 he published "A Manual or Handbook of Practical Surveying", a widely used text.  He taught mathematics in John Mason Peck's academy at nearby Rockspring.

There are no records to indicate that Messinger deliberately sought political office.  Nevertheless, he was elected to represent St. Clair county in the Indiana Territorial Legislature and became one of the leaders in the movement to establish Illinois as a separate territory.

He surveyed much of Madison and St. Clair Counties and the Military Tract between the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers.  He was the representative of Illinois on the staff appointed to establish the line separating Illinois and Wisconsin; he did the astronomical observations and calculations on which the work was based.

When the time came to form a constitution for the proposed state of Illinois, Messigner was one ofthe men elected for that  task.  His name appears on many  of the more important committees appointed, including the one that approved the final form of the constitution to be submitted.  Later, Messigner was elected to the first general assembly from St. Clair County and he was made the first speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives.

In earlier times it was common to say of someone, "He is a jack of all trades."  When he did a bungling job the designation was amended to:  "He is a jack of all trades and good at none."  Concerning John Messinger one apparently could say, "He was a jack of all trades and superior in each."  He was not only very capable in all his many endeavors, but he was also a man of established ideals.

A side trip to the John Messinger Memorial and the reading of the legends seen there will prove interesting to those passing that way.
 

Source:
A Newspaper Article (probably a St. Clair County newspaper, but which paper and the publication date are unknown)

My main Messenger Genealogy webpage

More Biographical information on John Messinger

Transcription of John Messinger's Will

Headstone Photos 

Scans of the Pamelia Anne (Messinger) Lienesch Family Bible (John Messinger purchased this Bible in 1816 and inscribed many of the family records before giving it to Pamelia and her husband, George Phillip Lienesch) 
 
 

Last Updated:  6 June 2002