Dawn’s Light Woman & Nicolas Franchomme Marriage

and Law in the Illinois Country

Carl J. Ekberg and

Sharon K. Person

“Ekberg and Person have done it again, training their tenacious research and creative analysis on the complex social world of early Illinois families. Foregrounding marriage, kinship, property, and law, the authors explore day-to-day dramas that also reveal the workings of empire and power in an early American community.”—Robert Michael Morrissey, author of Empire by Collaboration: Indians, Colonists, and Governments in Colonial Illinois Country

A life of principles, service, and faith

This first biography of Glenn Poshard traces the life of a young man who rose from rural poverty in Southern Illinois to become a United States congressman and president of the Southern Illinois University system. This profound portrait unveils a life and career dedicated to making higher education affordable and improving the quality of life for the community of Southern Illinois.

Native women’s marital rights and roles in colonial Illinois society

Carl Walworth worked for thirty-one years as a reporter, editor and later publisher in the newspaper industry in Illinois. He currently is the library director at the Mattoon Public Library. He is the author of The Mayor of Moultrie Avenue and a researcher for Lake Sara, the Hidden Jewel in America’s Heartland. Walworth has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Illinois in Urbana and an MBA from Nova Southeastern University.

Glenn Poshard has been at the forefront of educational and economic development initiatives at the regional, state, and national level for more than five decades. His lengthy service-oriented career has included time as a soldier, teacher, Illinois state senator, a member of the U.S. Congress, chairman of the Southern Illinois University Board of Trustees, and President of the SIU system. The Poshard Foundation for Abused Children, a volunteer organization founded by Poshard and his wife, Jo, has served the needs of vulnerable children in Southern Illinois for nearly 25 years.

Beginning with his childhood in a two-room home near Herald, Illinois and the early, tragic loss of his sister, this biography navigates Poshard’s service in the military, his time as a state senator and United States congressman, his run for governor, his years at Southern Illinois University, and the establishment of the Poshard Foundation for Abused Children. Intimacies of his personal life are disclosed, such as his struggles with and treatment for depression, his passion for education, and the lasting bonds he formed with his teachers. His unpopular decision to refuse PAC donations is also highlighted, along with the work that went into sponsoring the Illinois Wilderness Act, and his relationship with civil rights activist John Lewis. Glenn Poshard’s efforts for the Wilderness Act designated Southern Illinois’s famous Garden of the Gods as a National Wilderness Preservation System, which continues to attract visitors from around the world.

Poshard’s path from poverty was riddled with hardship, but his perseverance and family values ultimately allowed for longstanding personal and civic growth. From an admirable work ethic to a steadfast commitment to problem-solving, this biography illuminates the life and accomplishments of an impressive and generous leader.

Learn more and order at siupress.com/sonofsouthernillinois.

Kaskaskia, Illinois, once the state’s capital, torn from the state by flood waters, and now largely forgotten, was once the home to a couple who helped transform the region in the 1720s from a frontier village to a civil society. In the heart of France’s North American empire, the village was a community of French-Canadian fur traders and Kaskaskia Indians who not only lived together but often intermarried. These Indigenous and French intermarriages were central to colonial Illinois society, and the coupling of Marguerite 8assecam8c8e (Dawn’s Light Woman) and Nicolas Franchomme, in particular, was critical to expanding the jurisdiction of French law.

While the story of Marguerite and Nicolas is unknown today, it is the story of how French customary law (Coutume de Paris) governed colonial marriage, how mixed Indian-French marriages stood at the very core of early colonial Illinois society, and how Illinois Indian women benefited, socially and legally, from being married to French men. All of this came about due to a lawsuit in which Nicolas successfully argued that his wife had legal claim to her first husband’s estate—a legal decision that created a precedent for society in the Illinois Country.

Within this narrative of a married couple and their legal fight— based on original French manuscripts and supported by the comprehensively annotated 1726 Illinois census—is also the story of the village of Kaskaskia during the 1720s, of the war between Fox Indians and French settlers, with their Indian allies, in Illinois, and of how the spread of plow agriculture dramatically transformed the Illinois Country’s economy from largely fur trade–based to expansively agricultural.

Paper: 978-0-8093-3886-3

E-book: 978-0-8093-3887-0 $27.50, 264 pages, 24 illus.

Read more and order at www.siupress.com/dawnslight.

Carl J. Ekberg is emeritus professor of history at Illinois State University. He has published many books and articles including Stealing Indian Women: Native Slavery in the Illinois Country. Sharon K. Person, emerita professor of English at St. Louis Community College, is the author of Standing Up for Indians: Baptism Registers as an Untapped Source for Multicultural Relations in St. Louis, 1766–1821 Together, they are the authors of St. Louis Rising: The French Regime of Louis St. Ange de Bellerive.

Paper: 978-0-8093-3855-9

E-book: 978-0-8093-3856-6

$28.50, 242 pages, 14 illus.