Marking the boundaries and draining its central prairies, rivers flow around and through the state of Illinois. In the century before World War II the largest and slowest flowing gave home to groups of people who lived on the rivers, along their banks, and who made their meager livings by harvesting the waters. In those days, the rural societies that bordered the river formed themselves into social hierarchies: farm owners and town folk; tenant, farmers; share croppers; and at the bottom people described in Southern Illinois communities along the Ohio River as “them river rats.” The same opinion held for the clam diggers of the Illinois River in the center of the state. Although mostly of the same American stock as their neighbors, mostly of Appalachian origin, these river people were recognized as distinct not only by their occupations and relative lack of cash, but their diets. Surprisingly, as much as they were able, it was deficient in fish. World War II ended these generations-long traditions, but they are remembered by some as authentic folkways that are now lost.

Bruce Kraig With a Ph.D. in History and Archeology, Dr. Bruce Kraig is Professor Emeritus in History and Humanities at Roosevelt University in Chicago.

Dr. Kraig’s Riverworld presentation was from the recent Oxford Symposium on Food & Cookery 2005.  In December, we will have another presentation from the Oxford Symposium: Anthony F. Buccini, Ph.D. on Western Mediterranean Vegetable Stews and the Integration of Culinary Exotica.

Program was hosted at Roosevelt University