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As more and more Euro-American settlers
migrated into Illinois, conflict with Native Americans of the region ensued and escalated.
In 1830, the American federal government passed a bill ordering the removal of resident
Native Americans. Two years later, following a series of ultimatums and minor skirmishes,
came the Black Hawk War, and the final removal of Native Americans from the area east of
the Mississippi River.
These events, along with the construction of
the Illinois and Michigan Canal, escorted in the Homestead Period. There were four
distinct Euro-American groups who settled in the vicinity of the Midewin site.
The Upland South included settlers from Indiana, Ohio,
and Virginia. These people first settled into Jackson Township in 1829. Among these people
were the Reeds, for whom the Reed Cemetery, a site on the National Register of Historic
Places, is named.
The New Englanders arrived in Manhattan Township in 1834,
but also settled in Jackson, Wilton, and Channahon Townships. They were mainly from New
York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Vermont, and Nova Scotia.
The Irish also settled into the area, arriving to work as
canal workers in the late 1840s. They mainly settled in the Channahon and Wilmington
townships.
Finally, two groups of German peoples move into the area
around 1850 into the Jackson Township area--the Reformed German Lutherans and the German
Methodists.
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