Under Three Flags: The Roots Of Education In Illinois

Book excerpt: Under Three Flags; The Roots of Education in Illinois was transplanted by the first missionary explorer Jesuits who traversed the 17th century Illinois wilderness from the mouth of the Mississippi to the Great Lakes and terminating in Quebec Canada. The Jesuits founded an agricultural college before 1720. They experimented quite successfully with botany and animal husbandry. They developed and refined a French gaited carriage pony which was mistaken for a Hackney by coureur des bois and voyageur alike. Early American heroes such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and George Rogers Clarke among others are discussed with surprising revelations such as the only capture and surrender of George Washington to a group from Fort des Charters, Prairie du Rocher and Kaskaskia. While some Indians were hostile by reputation and actions; others tribes befriended the French and Jesuit explorers treating them as their brothers. The Illinois Confederacy consisting of the five tribes were the first Americans in Illinois.