John Edgar, a native of Ireland, was one of the largest landholders who ever lived in Illinois. At the outbreak of the American Revolution he was a British officer living at Detroit, but becoming implicated in the efforts of his American wife to aid British soldiers in deserting, he was imprisoned. He escaped, and in 1784 settled in Kaskaskia, where his wife joined him two years later, having saved from confiscation some twelve thousand dollars. This made Edgar the rich man of the community. “In very early times, he erected, at great expense, a fine flouring mill on the same site where M. Paget had built one sixty years before. This mill was a great benefit to the public and also profitable to the proprietor. Before the year 1800, this mill manufactured great quantities of flour for the New Orleans market which would compare well with the Atlantic flour.” Edgar built a splendid mansion in Kaskaskia and entertained royally. At a time when hospitality was common he improved upon it. His home was the fashionable resort for almost half a century. It was here that Lafayette was entertained. In addition to his flour mill, which attracted settlers to its vicinity near Kaskaskia and which for many years did most of the merchant business in flour in the country, Edgar owned and operated salt works near the Mississippi, northwest of Kaskaskia, and also invested largely in land. Before the commissioners appointed to settle land claims he claimed thirty-six thousand acres in one claim as the assignee of ninety donation-rights, while he and John Murry St. Clair claimed 13,986 acres which proved upon survey to cover almost thirty thousand acres. In territorial times Edgar paid more taxes than any one else in the territory. In 1790 Edgar was appointed chief justice of the Kaskaskia district of St. Clair county; in 1800 he was “Lieutenant-Colonel Commandant of the First Regiment of Militia of the County of Randolph”; in 1802 he was commissioned an associate judge of the Criminal Court of Randolph county, by Governor Harrison. He had never studied law “but common sense, a good education, and experience in business with perfect honesty made him a very respectable officer.” Edgar’s correspondence with Clark and Hamtramck show him to have been a leader in Illinois during its period of anarchy preceding the establishment of government in 1790. He offered to board a garrison on the credit of the United States, if a garrison should be sent to protect Illinois. At a time when slaveholding was regarded as eminently respectable by the people of Illinois, Edgar held slaves, and in 1796 he was one of four who petitioned Congress to introduce slavery into the territory. He was a member of the legislature of the Northwest Territory, was worshipful master of the first Lodge of Ancient Free and Accepted Masons in Illinois, constituted at Kaskaskia in 1806, and was major-general of militia, in which capacity he presided at reviews with much dignity. In person Gen.