History of Old Six Mile

Indians had farmed and trapped in the flat, marshy area east of the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers, known as the “Mississippi Bottoms” for centuries before the first white settlers arrived in 1801.  That year, the Wiggins family, together with a bachelor, Patrick Hanniberry settled an area north of
Horseshoe Lake, six miles east of the French Settlement at St. Louis.

Within a year, news of the fertility of the soil in this area was spreading eastward and Dr. John Caldwell and John Messinger and their families purchased two hundred acres and began farming the area.

In 1809 the Mississippi Bottom area was withdrawn from the Indiana Territory and reorganized as the Territory of Illinois.  Ninian Edwards was appointed the first Governor of the newly established territory.

By 1812, when Six Mile Township was made part of Madison County, an area that extended from the Mississippi River in the west to the Wabash River in the east and from St. Clair County on the South to the Canadian border on the north, many other families, including the Cummins, Gillhams, Kirkpatricks,
Davidsons, Waddle and Griffins had settled in the Six Mile area.

Throughout the 19th century, aided by the building of a 100 foot wide plank road, the area known as Six Mile continued to grow and flourish as a farming community. In 1896, William F. Niedringhaus and his brother Fred moved their steel and graniteware business across the Mississippi River from St. Louis and founded the City of Granite City.

In the past 100 years Granite City has grown to be a city of more than 35,000 and, because of the amount of steel produced at the Granite City Steel Plant, has come to be known as the “Pittsburgh of the West”.