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Famine in Central Illinois & the Naming of Little Egypt

Marie South Williams>UIS Collection T-Z>UIS Collection T-Z, Segment 20

Famine in Central Illinois & the Naming of Little Egypt,

duration 01:38
BACKGROUND
Tells the story that in 1850 a famine in central Illinois left people there without grain. They caravanned in covered wagons to southern Illinois, where there were crops, and bought as much as they could. It reminded them of the bible story of the Egyptians selling their grain. Saw the town named Cairo, so called the area Little Egypt.