In 1809 the western part of the Territory of Indiana - covering Illinois, Wisconsin
and part of Minnesota - was detached and organized as the US Territory of Illinois
whose southern, most populated part became a state of the union in 1818. (the rest
becoming part of Michigan Territory)
FREE DISTRICT LAKE MICHIGAN
(This microstate would have been - like in many other cases - a big joke, hadn't it
been for the 15 killed and many injured who felt during its brief existence)
In 1886 George Wellington "Cap" Streeter (1837 - 1921), who had outfitted a boat
for gunrunning in South America, ran aground in Lake Michigan on a sand bar near
what is now Superior Street in Chicago. He stayed on the boat and started to fill
up the water separating him from the shore with sediment, in this way creating a
tract of land of 186 acre which he later claimed as his property.
His "territorial expansion" was soon seen as a threat by other landowners, who in
1893(?), hired a band of thugs to expell him, in his way starting both a conflict
- to be known as the "Streeterville War"- and judicial procedures which would last
until 1918 when Streeter - who, in the meantime had proclaimed his lands independent
from Illinois and proclaimed the Free District of Lake Michigan directly subject to
the federal government - was finally evicted.
Head of the Administration of the Free District
Military Governor
189. - 1... William Niles
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STATE OFFICERS
Governors
1846 - 1853 Augustus Chaflin French 1808 - 1864
1853 - 1857 Joel Aldrich Matteson 1808 - 1873
1857 - 1860 William Harrison Bissell 1811 - 1860
1860 - 1861 John Wood 1798 - 1880
1861 - 1865 Richard Yates 1815 - 1873
1865 - 1869 Richard James Oglesby 1824 - 1899
1869 - 1873 John Mc Auley Palmer 1817 - 1900
1873 Richard James Oglesby (2x)
1873 - 1877 John Lourie Beveridge 1824 - 1910
1877 - 1883 Shelby Moore Cullom 1829 - 1914
1883 - 1885 John Marshall Hamilton 1847 - 1905
1885 - 1889 Richard James Oglesby (3x)
1889 - 1893 Joseph Wilson Fifer 1840 - 1938
1893 - 1897 John Peter Altgeld 1847 - 1902
1897 - 1901 John Riley Tanner 1844 - 1901
1901 - 1905 Richard Yates 1860 - 1936
1905 - 1913 Charles Samuel Deneen 1863 - 1940
1913 - 1917 Edward FitzSimons Dunne 1853 - 1937
1917 - 1921 Frank Orren Lowden 1861 - 1943
1921 - 1929 Lennington "Len" Small 1862 - 1936
1929 - 1933 Louis Lincoln Emmerson 1863 - 1941
1933 - 1940 Henry Horner 1878 - 1940
1940 - 1941 John Stelle 1891 - 1962
1941 - 1949 Dwight Herbert Green 1897 - 1958
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