Pictured, county officer participating in a ceremonial reenactment of the first county board meeting Saturday at St. Mary’s Parish Center in Valmeyer are, from left, assessor Carl Wuertz, coroner Vicki Koerber, treasurer Kevin Koenigstein, circuit clerk Sandy Sauget, county clerk and Bicentennial co-chairman Dennis Knobloch, commissioners Terry Liefer, Delbert Wittenauer and Bob Elmore, and sheriff Neal Rohlfing.

History sure has a way of repeating itself.

The new county of Monroe established its first county seat of government in the then-economic engine of Harrisonville along the Mississippi River in 1816.  The county was carved out of parts of Randolph and St. Clair Counties in the Illinois Territory on Jan. 6 of that year.

A county government headed by three appointed “Gentlemen Judges” evolved, establishing laws and regulations in the early years, even as Illinois achieved statehood in 1818.

But by 1825, even though they had sunk some $1,400 in building a jail in Harrisonville, the county’s leaders had been washed out enough times by floods from the Mississippi River that they decided to move up to the bluff, and to the emerging community of Waterloo.

On, Saturday, the Monroe County Bicentennial Committee and current county government scheduled an outdoor 200th anniversary re-do of the first county government meeting in New Harrisonville, a distance inland from the now submerged original community site.

Pictured during Saturday’s reenactment, Monroe County commissioners Delbert Wittenauer, Terry Liefer and Bob Elmore display bronze grave markers that commemorate the original county board members, known then as gentlemen judges. Their names are Caldwell Cairns, James Lemen and Abraham Amos. (Alan Dooley photo)

But this one, too, was washed out – this time by heavy rains overnight and into the morning.

The government officials and Bicentennial Committee again went up the bluff — this time to re-enact the first meeting in Valmeyer’s St. Mary’s Parish Hall on Saturday.

Word went out by social media and phone calls, and people planning to journey to Harrisonville switched plans and headed to Valmeyer. Nearly 100 citizens of all ages were in place in the comfortable indoor facility there when the program started.

Each current county officer represented his historic first office holder, proffering an appointment by “His Excellency the Governor of the Territory of Illinois.” Following those formalities, the county government was seated and called to order.

The fast-paced event melded historically accurate information about the county’s opening sessions of government with humor, often connecting to today’s concerns.

There was a discussion of “new” prohibitions against dueling. It seems that issuing or accepting such a challenge would disqualify one from seeking public office. It seemed, also, that a great deal of time was devoted to reliving issuance of a large number of tavern and liquor licenses.

As they are today, taxes and other fees emerged as contentious matters.  The early county leaders also discussed and set firm costs of goods and services in taverns, as well as fees for ferry boat rides across the Mississippi.  Funding various government operations was also reenacted as contentious issues.

Another issue revisited from early days of county governance was the possibility of setting speed limits for roads.  But one commissioner, speaking for his early predecessor, said he thought the number of potholes made such laws unnecessary.

A current issue, courthouse security, also came up – tongue in cheek in this case.  But it was noted that everyone was armed in those days, so this was not likely necessary.

The reenactment concluded with a serious remembrance of the Monroe County’s first “commissioners.” Bronze markers that will be placed to mark those first leaders’ graves, were revealed to the public.  They will commemorate Caldwell Cairns at Wallace Cemetery just east of New Harrisonville; James Lemen at Lemen Cemetery south of Waterloo and, since Abraham Amos’ burial place has not been discovered, his marker will be placed with Cairns at Wallace Cemetery.

The next Monroe County Bicentennial celebration event is slated for Saturday, June 18, at the Sondag farm west of Valmeyer. Starting at 11 a.m., there will be demonstrations of cutting and threshing wheat the old way – with horses and by hand.

If it rains – and Dennis Knobloch said we’ve had enough of that for Bicentennial events – the date will slip to the following Saturday, June 25.