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If JB Pritzker wants to be president, he should start in Pike County
POSTED BY: 6ixStringJack
UPDATED: Sunday, August 31, 2025 09:26
VIEWED: 270
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Sunday, August 31, 2025 9:26 AM
Quote:
HULL, Illinois — If you drive across the country on U.S. 36, which runs together with Interstate 72, the final exit leads to a tiny Pike County village. It’s the last stop before you cross the Mississippi River from Illinois into Missouri, or the first if you’re heading the other way.
Veer off onto Illinois Route 106, and you’re on a narrow, two-lane road that leads into a village of fewer than 400 people, a place that recalls countless villages, suburbs, towns, and boroughs I’ve passed through on my drives along the backroads of America.
All across Pike County, set between the Mississippi River on the west and the Illinois River on the east, conversations with locals and drives through its backroads reveal a place steeped in history, including the unlikely fact that it was once home to the first settlement called Chicago.
In 1822, the Gazetteer of the States of Illinois and Missouri described Chicago as “a small village within Pike County, containing 12 to 15 houses and 60 to 70 inhabitants at the time.” The article detailed a colorful snapshot of the early Midwest, with information on the region’s counties, towns, and villages.
That same year, Pike County, then an immense jurisdiction covering all of Illinois west of the Illinois River, from the state’s southern border up to the Wisconsin line (which is why Chicago once fell within it), was already on the verge of being divided. By late 1822, local newspapers were carrying notices of the legislative process that would soon carve it up.
In 1825, the Illinois legislature divided the vast territory into smaller, more manageable counties, and Chicago ceased to be part of Pike County. Yet this did not diminish Pike County’s place in American history. In 1836, something remarkable for the era occurred: Frank McWorter became the first black man in the United States to plat and register a town legally before the Civil War. He named it New Philadelphia.
As the story goes, McWorter developed the town to make money to buy the rest of his family out of slavery. The National Park Service, which named it a national historic site, noted that “census records and other historical documents tell us that New Philadelphia was a place where black and white villagers lived side by side, but we know that the town’s dead lie buried in cemeteries separated by color.”
The rural town, like many bucolic towns today, had a church, post office, hotel, and school. Unlike today, it also had two cobblers and a blacksmith shop.
As with many small frontier towns, when the railroad bypassed it in the late 1880s, most residents were forced to leave in search of work elsewhere. The town was eventually plowed under, but today, dedicated volunteers are working tirelessly to uncover what life was once like in this historic place.
Pike County reminded me of the towns and places I’ve visited in Appalachia. The pace is slower, the opportunities aren’t as robust as they used to be when manufacturing and coal drove the economy, and visibility from elected officials in statewide office, all Democrats, appeared minimal.
I reached out to Gov. JB Pritzker’s (D-IL) office to ask how often the governor had visited the county, in part because of his recent criticism of President Donald Trump and also because he appears to be interested in running for the Democratic nomination for president in 2028. It is also important to see how he works with voters who, until recently, had been reliable Democrats.
Despite multiple emails, phone calls, and text messages over several days, I received no reply. This is the sort of record I routinely track for governors such as Josh Shapiro in Pennsylvania, Gretchen Whitmer in Michigan, or former North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper.
Google provided no evidence of Pritzker visiting the county, nor did newspaper archives. That does not mean Pritzker has never visited Pike County, but the silence was interesting. PerhaNOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME