p1  Part I, Southern Illinois

They came down the Ohio from the east, or crossed it from the South — families who wanted land, in better and larger tracts than they had ever known before. A majority of these homeseekers who settled southern Illinois came from Kentucky, Tennessee, and the Carolinas. And so today, among the rural villages and energetic cities of this section, may be found traces of those pioneer Southerners — here and there an old, plantation-style house with white columns supporting comfortable galleries, here and there a gracious garden bordered by ancient, hospitable magnolias, here and there a lace-like wrought-iron balcony that might have looked down on the Vieux Carré of New Orleans. Rarely, though, are found the rough-hewn logs and "shakes" that sheltered those who made the first clearings.

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