USA > Illinois > Atlas of the State of Illinois, to which are added various general maps, history, statistics and illustrations > Part 28
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River, and have about 3,000 inhabitants eacb. Indian an- tiquities abound in this territory, among which are a number of earthworks. Agricultural resources are great, and incx- haustible quantities of coal and stone are found. The coloni- zation of the county was led by natives of Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York, while the foreign born number 3,098.
MASON COUNTY.
MAJ. OSSIAN M. Ross, who located at Havana in 1832, was doubtless the pioneer of Mason County. An alleged counter- feiter, named Spurlock, lived on an island in the river, but left upon the advent of settlers. The Indians vacated the county before the arrival of the first permanent whites. Previous to tho Blackhawk war, a couple of block houses were erected at Havana, and for some years adorned the site of the town. Rev. Peter Cartwright was among the earliest preachers, and the first church organization was formed at Big Grove in 1838, under the Rev. Mr. Shunk. The Baptists built a eburch on Crane Creek in 1856. The Methodist Church at Havana and the Presbyterian Church at Bath, erected some years earlier, were the first built within the county. Settlers began to pour in rapidly about 1837, and population increased with great rapidity. The county was organized in 1841, with a popula- tion of about 2,000, the number of votes east being about 400. Smith Turner obtained a charter for a ferry across the Sanga- mon in 1843. Havana was first selected as the county scat, only to be distanced in the struggle by the rival town of Bath, the officers permanently removing to Havana in 1851. It is claimed that the sentence of death has never been executed within the limits of the county. Tho soil of Mason County lying along the Illinois River partakes of a sandy character, hut is valnable for agricultural purposes, and capable of mak- ing the finest farms. Corn is the lending staple, and the pm- duct is so superior to that of the black prairie lands as to ad- mit of a distinct quotation in the Eastern market. Grapes grow in abundance, and ecrtain portions of the county offer great advantages as sites for vineyards. Four leading lines of railway traverse the county, giving it direct communication with Chicago and St. Louis. The principal towns are Havana, Bath, Mason City and Topeka. The former now bas nearly 3,000 inhabitants. Mason City, in 1871, sbipped over one million bushels of corn.
MASSAC COUNTY.
MASSAC COUNTY forms the jutting southeastern corner of the State, hordering half of its surface on the Ohio, with an area of but 241 square miles. It was erected into a county in 1843, and, in 1870, was credited with 0,581 inbabitants. Its surface in the north is hilly and broken; in the south is a belt of low lands called the ponds, a small part of which is over. flowed most of the year. Judicious drainage will ultimately add thousands of acres to the fine farming lands of the county. A great part of the natural wealth of the region is in the tim- ber that covers the bottoms and the hills. Oak, hickory, pop- lar, walnut, eypress and cottonwood grow into splendid trees. Every town has one or more saw-mills. Grain and tobacco are largely raised. There are thirty-five publie schools, with: 3,507 seholars. The original settlers were mostly from Ohio, North Carolina and Kentucky. The Ohio River forms a grand high- way for commerce and trade, and landing places are ahundant. The Chicago & Padneah Railway is surveyed through, but there are at present no railway facilities. Metropolis, the county seat, is a thriving town of 3,000 inhabitants, laid out in 1839, by J. H. G. Wilcox and William McBaen. It ex- ports the finest quality of sawed timher to all parts of the world. Its sister eity, Massae, has 800 inhabitants, and builds fine river steamers. Here are the remains of the old fort ereeted by the Freneb in the last century. The connty has 50,669 acres of improved and 89,066 acres of unimproved or timber land. Twelve hundred acres are annually devoted to tobacco. Illinois is credited with the paternity of 4,283 citizens of the county, Kentucky with 1,354, and other coun- tries with G87.
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McDONOUGII COUNTY.
THE pioncer of the region constituting the county of Me- Donough was William Carter, who built a log cabin near the present town of Industry, in the year 1826. In the following spring, James Vance located in the same neighborhood, and William Job, John Vanee and others settled in the vicinity of Blandinsville. William Pennington located on Spring Creek in 1828. The first frame house erceted in Macomb was by James M. Campbell, in 1831, at which time a tribe of Indians was located two miles away. The county was organized in 1830, when it had a white population of but two hundred. John Huston was elected County Treasurer; William South- ward, Sheriff; Peter IIalc, Coroner, aud Jesse Bartlett, Sur- veyor. Macomb was platted for the county seat in 1831, and William Southward erected the court house for $69.50. The second court house was the building uow called " the old cala- boose," which cost $4,832. Hon. Richard M. Young presided over the first term of the Circuit Court, which was held in October, 1830. James Clark received from the county three dollars for his services in going to Springfield and entering the quarter section upon which Macomb was laid out. James M. Campbell was Clerk of the Circuit Court for eighteen years, and his daughter was the first child born in the village. John Logan, pastor of the Baptist society in Job Settlement, preached the first sermon ever listened to hy a white congregation in the county. Small hunting parties of Indians were daily secu until the elose of the Blackhawk war. The census of 1870 gives the county a population of 36,000. The first railway was the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, completed in 1857. The district is also traversed by the Toledo, Peoria & Warsaw, and the Rockford, Rock Island & St. Louis roads. Bushnell was laid out in 1854 and incorporated iu 1865, and now has 2,500 inhabitants.
McHENRY COUNTY.
McHENRY COUNTY is a rich and highly productive agri- cultural region. It contains a large proportion of tillable land, is in appearance a beautiful landscape, is abundantly supplied with hard-wood groves, and well watered by living springs. Fruits and berries are easily grown, and the Kentucky blue grass is indigenous to the soil. Dairying is the chief oeeupa- tion of the leading farmers, nearly thirty butter and cheese factories hcing in successful operation, and large shipments of milk daily going forward to the Chicago market. It is bordered on the north by Wisconsin, and has 624 square miles. To- gether with what is now the county of Lake, it was ereeted into a county in 1836, with the seat of government at Mc- Henry. Three years afterward, the eastern portion became the county of Lake, and the McHenry county scat was changed to Woodstock. Samuel and John Gillilan are said to have been the first settlers, and the first school house was erected at McHenry village. Four lines of railway penetrate the county, affording transportation facilities to every village of importsnec. Crystal Lake is the clearest sheet of water in the State. Woodstock is the geographical center of the county, and is on the Chicago & North-Western Railway. A publie school was erected in 1867, at a cost of $50,000, and the churches are six in number. Marengo, the second largest town, is on the Galena line, was laid out in 1846, and enjoys a prosperous trade. Harvard is a spirited town, with good public and private buildings. MeHenry County had, in 1870, a population of 23,762, of whom 10,214 are natives of Illinois, 4,790 of New York, and 4,628 of foreign countries. The geological forma- tious comprise the drift and the Cincinnati and Niagara groups of roeks. In the vicinity of Fox River, gravel ridges are met with. Logs of wood and vegetable remains have been found at varieus depths in the deposit of the drift ; in one instauce, a cedar log, seven inehes in diameter, having been discovered forty-two feet below the surface. Pcat is found in all parts of the county, the most extensive deposits being in the northern half They exist in sloughs, which cover several thousand acres of surface. The census shows the produetiou, at that period, of ahout 1,000,000 pounds of hutter and 200,000 pounds of cheese.
COUNTY HISTORIES.
McLEAN COUNTY.
MCLEAN COUNTY lies in the northeastern quarter of the State, and contains 1,154 square miles. The carly immigrants came largely from Ohio ; New York and Kentucky being also well represented. It was organized in 1830, when the popu- lation was about 1,200. Bloomington, the county seat, was laid out by James Alliu, in 1831, and stands on high rolling ground. The earliest steam mill was ereeted in 1835, and the first hrick building in 1839. The soil of tho region is un- surpassed in fertility, and the value of its live stock exceeds that of any county in the Union west of the Alleghanies, amounting by the last eensus to over $4,000,000. There are also nearly 200 manufacturing establishments, employing $2,500,000 capital. The county is underlaid with coul, and large amounts are excavated. A few tracts of comparatively low bottoms and marshy land exist, but they are rapidly improv- ing under drainage. The county is penetrated by four railways with their hranches-the Chicago & Alton, the Illinois Cen- tral, the Indianapolis, Bloomington & Western and the La- fayette, Bloomington & Mississippi. The Alton shops at Bloomington employ about seven hundred men. A horse railway, two miles in length, connects Bloomington and Nor- mal. The court house at Bloomington cost $400,000, and the MERCER COUNTY. Wesleyan University $200,000. A park in the city contains an appropropriate monument to the soldiers of MeLean MERCER COUNTY is in the northwestern quarter of the State, and contains 548 square miles. The pioneer of the re- County in the late war. There are two female seminaries, a Catholic school and convent, and four public school edifices | gion was William Denuison, a native of Pennsylvania, who erected at a cost of $30,000 each. Normal is a beautiful towu, settled in New Boston Township in 1828, and whose son, H. W. Dennison, was the first white ehild born in the county. John and Benjaiuin Vannatts located in Keithsburg Township in 1830, and the former sold to Robert Keith the site of the town. William T. Jackson settled in Abington Township, and William A. Wilson in Keithsburg, in 1834; John Farlow in Prečmption, and Col. Morris in Ohio Grove, during the suc- eecding year. James Bridges was the first settler in Rivoli ; Dr. Perry the first in Perryton, and Govert Fleharty located in North Henderson before the Blackhawk war. In 1835, Mercer County was divorced from Warren, the first officials being Silas Drury, Sheriff; Edward Willetts, Coroner; Erastus Dennison, Abraham Miller and Isaac Drury, Commissioners. The successive county seats have been Millersburg, Keithsburg and Aledo, the last selection having been made in 1857. The town of New Boston was surveyed on September 30, 1834, by Abraham Lincoln, and chartered as a city in 1859. Millers- burg aud Keithsburg were laid out in 1837. The early settle- ments within the county were made along the Mississippi River, which forms the western boundary. The soil of the county is rich, black loam, admirsbly adapted to eorn. Good building stone is found in various parts of the county. The whole re- gion is on the outskirts of the Illinois coal fields. Mining commeneed in Green Township as early as I845, and this branch of industry bids fair to become an important interest. Edwards River runs through northern and central part of the county, and Pope Creck and North Henderson through the southern. The railways are the Galva Branch of the Burling- ton Road, and the Rockford, Rock Island & St. Louis. Aledo lies in the center of the county, and is developing rapidly. Keithsburg and New Boston are on the Mississippi, and are towns of' considerable commercial importance. The census of 1870 shows a population of 18,741 in the county celebrated as the location of the State Normal University and the Soldiers' Orphans' Home. The nursery business is the most prominent. No saloons exist. Lexington is in the midst of a rich farming district, and is an important stock shipping point. Chenoa has some manufactures, and is quite a grain market. Leroy is one of the oldest towns in the county, and has a considerable dry goods trade. McLean is a grain-shipping point, and its region was settled in 1836, by a colony from Massachusetts and Rhode Island. The popula- tion of MoLcan County, in 1870, was 53,988, of whom 22,964 were born in Illinois, 7,580 in Ohio, and 7,962 in foreign countries. Eight towuships each report farms valued at over $1,000,000. The surface over the greater portion is high undulating prairie, with occasional groves and belts of timber. The soil is generally a rich hrown mold, varying somewhat in the proportion of clay which it contains. In the timber, how- ever, the lighter colored subsoil appears nearer the surface. Sugar and Mackinaw Creeks and nameless tributaries drain the region thoroughly. The principal kinds of timber in the upland wooded tracts are oak, hickory, black walnut, but- ternut, maple, basswood and sassafras. On the river bottoms flourish sycamore, buekeye, blaek ash and elm, and the sandy ridges are covered with seruhhy oak and black jack. The geo- logical formations consist almost entirely of the drift and later formations. The sand and gravel beds make up but a very small part of the total thickness, though sometimes single beds attaiu a very considerable thickness, as at Chenoa, where a boring for coal passed through a bed of sand aud gravel thirty feet in thickness, overlaid by forty-five feet of the usual clays of this formation. The upper seam of coal in the Blooming- ton shafts is No. 6 of the general section, the lower is No. 4, the latter being now mined in all the principal workings of the distriet, and averaging four feet in thickness.
MENARD COUNTY.
MENARD COUNTY lies near the center of the State, having been detached from Sangamon, and derived its name from Col. Peter Menard, who settled at Kaskaskia before Illinois was organized as a Territory. Its arca is 197,975 acres. Tho pioneer settlement of this region was made by the Clarys, in the southwestern part of the county, in April, 1819. Mat- thew Rogers located at Athens, and Amor Batterton in Rock Creek. Solomon Pritt also came in that year upon a claim on the southern horder, and set out an orchard. Among those arriving previous to 1835 was William Gideon, who, in 1850, pushed a wheelbarrow through to California. Charles L. Montgomery, James Meadows and Jacob Boyer located in Sugar Grovo in the spring of 1820; Roland Grant in 1822. James McNahb taught one of the earliest schools. The first
church was either the Clary's Grove Baptist or the Presby .. terian at Indian Point. At one period, the nearest mill was at Alton, and seventeen days were required to make the trip. The Pottawattomies regularly made sugar in the groves. The settlers raised cotton until the " deep snow" of 1830. After 1835, there was a marked improvement in agriculture. Organ- ization was effeeted in 1839, the Provisional Commissioners being Joseph Watkins, William Engle and George W. Simp- son. Thic steamer Talisman aseended the Sangamon River after the " deep snow." Menard County furnished a company of eighty-six men for the Mexican war. Three of the finest bituminous coal veins underlie the county. The principal occupation is stock raising. The Springfield & Northwestern Railway orosses the Jacksonville Branch of the Chicago & Alton at Petersburg, the county seat. Salem, laid out in 1829, but now extinct, was for years the home of Abraham Lincoln, who was once Postmaster, and who marched thence to the Blackhawk war as Captain of a company of volunteers. By the last census, the population of Menard County was 11,756.
MONROE COUNTY.
THIS county, situated in the southwestern portion of the State, was organized in 1816, with an area of 377 square miles ; is of an irregular shape, bounded east by St. Clair, south hy Randolph County, and west by the Mississippi, and lies in close proximity to the city of St. Louis. The Cairo & St. Louis Railway passes diagonally through its territory.
A peculiar feature of the county is the presence of several lakes, lying back from and parallel with the river, the largest being Kidd's Lake. This region was the scene of the earliest settlements in the Mississippi Valley. Fort Chartres was com- menced in 1820, and remained for years tho center of attrac- tion in the West. About this period, Prairie du Rocher and other villages sprang into existence. In 1870, the American Bottom was settled. James Moore, Sr., was the first Ameri- ean who settled on the highlands between l'rairie du Rocher
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and Cahokia, also laying out the town of Belle Fontaine, now Waterloo, and building a fort in 1781. Two years later, Capt. Piggott established a fort in the bottom called the Fort of the Grand Rissenu. In 1790, he, with forty-five inhabitants of the fort, petitioned Gov. St. Clair, under the name of Fort Big Run, for grants of land for the settlers. Congress afterward gave 400 acres to each settler, and one hundred to each militiaman. This same gentleman was later made Judge of St. Clair County.
" New Design" settlement was established by Rev. James Lemen, in 1786, and was at ono timo the largest American settlement in Illinois. In 1792, William Whiteside settled on the Dr. Copp farm, midway between Waterloo and Columbia, and built a fort. In 1802, Tate aud Singleton erected a mill on Fountain Creek, doing a flourishing business. In 1817, a score of families from Lancashire, England, settled on Prairie du Long Creek, and established a Catholic Church. The government surveys were completed from 1810 to 1815, The county has been under four different governments, each of which made gmnts of land, the most important being that known as the Renault Grant, squatters still holding farms on which no taxes are paid and no improvements made. In the vicinity of Waterloo, the county seat, are quarries of a fine quality of sandstone, and of a hard gray stone. Sink holes, funnel-shaped depressions in the elay, are a peculiar feature of this section. In 1800, there was but one school in the county-at New Design. The first Methodist Church in this State was that founded at this place, in 1793, by Rev. Joseph Lillard.
In 1870, the population was 12,982, one-third of foreign and two-thirds of native birth; the latter, mostly natives of Illinois. There were 92,810 acres of improved land. The principal agricultural products were winter wheat and corn; of the former, fi51,767 bushels; the latter, 543,718 bushels.
MONTGOMERY COUNTY.
MONTGOMERY COUNTY is in the southwestern quarter of the State, and contains 702 square miles. The carliest settle- ments were on the Hurricane and East Fork, late in 1816. Among those conspicuous as pioneers was an old Revolutionary soldier, named Harris Reavis, as also Henry Pyatt, John Levi, Aaron Casey, Joseph and Charles Wright, John and Henry Hill, William McDavid, Jesse Johnson, Henry Sears, Jamcs Card, John Russell and Easton Whittens. Up to 1874, Mr. Card was living, and only Mrs. John Hill remained of the feminine settlers. The next settlement was on Shoal Creek, and among the settlers were William Clark, Melcher Fogleman, James Street, Jarvis Forchand, Roland Shepherd, Gordon B. Crandall, Luke L. Steel and Jesse Townsend. The settlers on Hurricane erected a log church in 1820, and James Street preached the first sermon. The earliest school was taught in Street's settlement hy Mr. Brazzleton in the winter of 1818-19, and the Indian children come at noon time and recess to play with the whites. Peter B. Hill, of Nokomis, says his father came into the county in 181fi. John Beek hnilt an ox tread- mill in 1824. Mrs. Israel Seward and Mrs. William McDavid rank next to Mrs. Hill among the living pioneer mothers, and Hiram Rountree and wife date from 1821. Mrs. John Mess- man dug out at llillsboro a spring with her own hands. John Tilson opened the first store at Hillshoro. Melcher Fogleman was the earliest blacksmith, aud Rev. Jesse Townsend the first resident Presbyterian minister. The county was organized in 1821, when it contained less than one hundred famdies. Hills- boro was soon after made the seat of government. The Com- missioners were John Beck, John MeAdams and John Sew- ard ; the Clerk, Hiram Rountrec; the Treasurer, John Tilson; the Sheriff, Joel Wright, and the Prohate Judge, Eleazer M. Townsend. The latter held that office for thirty-two years. Dr. Levi D. Boone raised a company for servico in the Black- hawk war. The surface of the county is undulating, the nume- rous streams being skirted by thrifty growths of fine timber. The railways are the Indianapolis & St. Louis, and the Toledo, Wabash & Western. The population in 1870 was 25,314. Litchfield lies at the crossing of tho railways, on the highest ground between St. Louis and Terre Haute. It has a car shop, several manufacturing establishments, and excellent Protestant and Catholic schools, with 4,000 inhabitants. Hillsboro is a grain-shipping point of considerable importance, and has a profitable trade with the rich agricultural region by which it is surrounded.
COUNTY HISTORIES.
MORGAN COUNTY.
ELISHA AND SEYMOUR KELLOGG were the first white men to settle iu what is now Morgan County. They located on Mauvaisterre Creek in October, 1818. Similar colonies were founded at intervals for the four years succeeding, when the flood of immigration commenced in earnest. The county was organized in 1823, the first election being held in that year at the house of James G. Swinerton, six miles southwest of Jacksonville. The temporary county seat was located at Olm- stead's Mounds, and the permanent one at Jacksonville. In December, 1827, the court houso aud all tho records, save those of decds, were burned. Cass County was cut off from Morgan in 1836, and Scott County in 1838. Jacksonville was laid out in March, 1825, the owners of the land, Thomas Arnitt and Isaao Dial, cach giving to the county a twenty-acre tract for the purpose. It was named in honor of Gen. Jackson. The county offices were removed thither in 1825, and the first court house erected in the year following. Among its early lawyers were Richard Yates and Ira O. Wilkinson. It has a popula- tion of 10,000, with four railways and five puhlio schools. It also possesses the State institutions for the insane, the deaf and dumh, the blind and the weak-minded, with the Illinois College, Illinois Female College, Jacksonville Female Academy and Young Ladies' Atheneum. Jacksonville justly ranks as one of the most beautiful citics iu the West. Scattered through the county are seventeen small villages enjoying a good local tmde. The population of the county was, in 1870, 28,463, of whom 16,254 are natives of Illinois, 1,630 of Kentucky, 921 of Ohio, and 4,658 of foreign lands, among the latter being 1,463 from Ireland and 1,062 from Germany. The arca of Morgan County is 567 square miles, of which nearly one-half is well wooded and the remainder prairie. Besides the Illinois River, which forms a portion of its western horder, there are several lesser streams, among which are Indian, Mauvaisterre, Sandy aud Apple Creeks. The eoal measures underlie nearly the whole surface, the principal natural exposures of which are along the Illinois River bluffs. Sandstone, excavated in the northwestern part, has been used, to some extent, for building, and sand and gravel are sufficiently abundant in all parts. Boulders are frequently found.
MOULTRIE COUNTY.
MOULTRIE COUNTY is in the southeastern quarter of the State, and contains 341 square miles. The Indian occupants of this region were the Kickapoos, who were ever friendly to the whites. The first white settlers were from the Southwest, and were followed by families from the Northern States. Among the pioneers were Jaeoh McClure, who served as a soldier in the defense of Sandusky, John Wilburn, William Ward, Andrew and Joseph M. Bone, John Perryman, James Canfield, the Purvis brothers, Ivan Waller, John Bracken, Archibald Standerfer, Joel Freeman, Jesso Ellis, Abrahamı Keller, Harry Snyder, James Cunningham, Jerry Souther, Richard and Joseph Thomasson, Ezekiel Sharp, Nathan Ste- vens, Mr. Whittley and sons, the Waggoner brothers, William Walker, Hal McDaniel, Samuel Liuley, Philip Vaddakin, Levi and William Patterson, William Whitford, Hamilton Bonam, the Fulton brothers, John Drew, Jolin Guire, the Lilley brothers, the Selby family, and John A. Freeland. Moultrie County was erected from Shelby and Macon in 1843, the Com- missioners being Abraham H. Keller, Andrew Seott and Reu- ben B. Ewing. The first two courts wero held two miles southeast of Sullivan, when a removal was effected to East Nelson, the county scat being removed to Sullivan in 1845. Isaao Walker was Sheriff, and John A. Freeland held office as County Clerk for fifteen ycors. David Patterson was County Judge; John Perryman, Treasurer; Parnell Hamlin, Surveyor, and L. G. Berry, Coroner. Sullivan, the oldest and largest town, was located in the spring of 1845. It stands upon forty aeres purchased of Philo Hall for $100 and donated to the county hy several leading citizens. John Perryman erected the first house, and David Strain and Susan Ball were the earliest to be married. Here Senator Oglesby hegan the practice of law. In November, 1864, tho court house was burned, with part of the county records and all the carly papers of the Circuit Court-those of the latter for May, 1849, when the term was held hy Hon. David Davis, being the carliest extant.
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