In 1819, a group of sea captains from Connecticut—Blakeman, Allen, Breath, Deselherst, and Mead—arrived just north of here, built log cabins, and named the settlement Marine. Captain Curtis Blakeman built an ox driven mill in 1823 and served in the Illinois state legislature as a Whig from 1822 to 1826. He, his wife, and daughter, along with many others, died in the 1833 cholera epidemic and are buried here. Curtis Blakeman Jr. also served in the legislature from 1842 to 1844 and from 1846 to 1848, was a charter member of the Marine Masonic Lodge in 1859, was a captain in the Civil War, and built the Cable Mill in 1866.