Emergency Crime Scene and Biohazard Cleanup in Ste. Marie, IL

Ste. Marie, also spelled Sainte Marie, is a village in Jasper County along the Embarras River that began as a French Catholic colony founded by families alarmed at the French Revolution's effects on the Catholic Church.

In 1835 the Picquet family sent 19-year-old Joseph Picquet to America to scout for land, and after traveling through Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne, Indianapolis, Vincennes and St. Louis, he chose a site in eastern Illinois near French-speaking Vincennes.

On October 28, 1837, the settlers — 25 colonists, all related by blood or marriage, who had arrived on the ship Mogul — formally took possession of about 12,000 acres and dedicated the village to the Virgin Mary, first naming it Colonie des Freres, the 'Colony of Brothers.'

Father Stephen Theodore Badin, the first Catholic priest ordained in the United States, came to Ste. Marie to bless the colony and celebrate Mass for the settlers.

Ste. Marie quickly built its first church, free school, post office and store and served as a cultural and commercial center for Jasper County amid miles of wilderness, until the railroads later shifted trade toward Newton.

The settlement's name was changed from St. Marie to the French feminine spelling 'Ste. Marie' in 1892.

In 1839 Joseph Picquet put up the first steam sawmill in Jasper County, buying the machinery near Vincennes.

The village population peaked at 450 in the 1910 census, and the 2020 census counted 238 people living in 112 households.

Ste. Marie is known for its remarkably young population for a small rural village — the 2020 census put its median age at just 29 years, with about 35% of residents under 18.

The village's churches include St. Mary of the Assumption Catholic Church, reflecting its French Catholic founding, and children attend Ste. Marie Elementary School.