The brigantine Illinois was built at the yards of William A. Jones & Edward Gillmore and Master Carpenter John Carrick. This ship is the second commercial brigantine ever constructed on the Great Lakes, the first being the Indiana, sister ship to the Illinois. The brig Illinois l was launched on 3 June 1834. The Illinois was described as "fitted up in a superior style for the accommodation of passengers." and "the fleetest vessel on the western waters." Both sister ships were the then "largest on the lakes". The brig was outfitted with one deck, two masts, six state rooms for passengers and was used to transport freight between ports on Lake Michigan and Buffalo, New York. The vessel was also outfitted with a figurehead and a special carving for the Illinois stern by a Mr. Werden (or Weeden), it was initially placed on display in downtown Buffalo. In 1836 a Buffalo reporter reviewed the various passenger ships of the day, he had this to say about the brig: "If you want to keep up with the wind, and leave large vessels and small, long, and short captains "In the wake" step with me, kind reader, on to the clean decks of the well manned brig Illinois and if you don't like her accommodations and her goodly Captain, Jim Shooks, I will pay passage to the remotest port where vessel of any kind hath yet approached onto."

Initially in its career, the Illinois operated for the "Eagle Line" and would typically carry passengers, immigrants, and merchandise to ports on the western Great Lakes and then return to Buffalo with cargoes of wheat, hay, and corn. On 23 July 1834 the Illinois made the voyage from Detroit to Buffalo a distance of 350 miles in 20 hours. Their motto was "beat this, who can." The brig made its first voyage to Chicago in September 1834. Later in October 1834, the brig also made the speedy voyage from Cleveland to Buffalo in 16 hours. On 17 June 1835 the Illinois carried a cargo of 282 tons of produce along with a cargo of 1,000 barrels of flour, 1,091 bushels of wheat, 14,024 cedar rails and 90 hogsheads of tobacco. At some point while the Illinois was under the command of Captain Wagstaff 1834 - 1835, the vessel was departing Buffalo and traveling down the Buffalo River when some of the sheets got foul and the vessel became unmanageable, and a gust of wind blew up and the vessel struck a warehouse, running the head gear completely into the building with a tremendous crash. The Illinois struck so hard that it moved the building several inches off its foundation. It made one of the workers inside believe there was an earthquake.

On 18 April 1836 the Illinois ran aground in the Niagara River at Black Rock in Buffalo where the vessel was becalmed near Black Rock Pier where it anchored and the current dragged the ship and carried stern first onto the beach. The ice then running in the river swept off the end of the pier. The vessel was grounded until the wind shifted down the lake and raised the surface of the river and the Illinois floated off. A passenger aboard the Illinois, James Cockburn passed away while aboard from an inflammation of the bowels on 6 August 1836.

On 6 July 1841, the Illinois delivered 60 passengers at the port of Milwaukee. Later that month on 28 July, the brig Illinois ran aground again in the Detroit River and would later be pulled off by 2 August 1841. In September 1841 the Illinois had to patch up its sails at Mackinaw after sailing through a gale and in October during another gale, the brig had to shelter in the lee of Point Albino on Lake Erie. On 26 November 1841 the Illinois was grounded again in the river in St. Joseph, Michigan and would be pulled off by 22 December. A year later on 24 November 1842, the brig ran aground again in the Detroit River while bound for the upper lakes and was pulled off by the steamer Constellation.

On 13 May 1843 the Illinois brought 200 immigrants to Milwaukee. In May 1845, Captain Rossman, the then captain of the Illinois caught smallpox in Westfield, New York while visiting a friend, he survived his affliction. On 24 November 1845, came "the most disastrous gale of the season" and the Illinois was heavily loaded, bound from Dunkirk to Cleveland and the wind blew the ship safely into port at Sandusky, Ohio.

On 14 March 1846, the Illinois was docked in the Buffalo River when an ice dam formed in the Buffalo Creek burst sending ice and water downstream. Many ships and buildings were damaged, the Illinois had its bulwarks stove in and its figurehead torn off and was "badly bruised". Several ships were piled up on the Illinois.

Final Voyage

In November 1847, the brig Illinois was blown ashore in Whitefish Bay, Door County. Though due to the unpopulated environment of Lake Michigan of the time, the location of the wrecking was listed variously as north of Manitowoc, south of Manitowoc, Two Rivers, and Kewaunee. The cargo was for lumbering industry on the northern end of Lake Michigan. The crew and cargo except 800 bushels of corn and 40 barrels were saved. The brigantine was entirely stripped and abandoned. The newspapers at the time described the Illinois as "quite an old vessel, having first come out in 1834."