USA > Illinois > Mason County > Centennial history of Mason County, including a sketch of the early history of Illinois, its physical peculiarities, soils, climate, production, etc. > Part 2
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26
The Colonial Commanders learned the art of war as they fought side by side with the veterans of Great Britain, and the soldiers of the western frontier compared favorably with the flower of the British army. This was illustrated in the notable defeat of Gen. Braddock. The skill and bravery of Washington saved the Brit- ish army from annihilation in Pennsylvania.
Various acts were passed by the British Parliament in 1763 and 1764, acts obnoxious and adverse to the interest of the colonies, which our intended brevity compels us to omit, and refer to the obnoxious stamp act of 1765. Also, an act authorizing the British Ministry to send any number of troops to America, for whom the colonists were to find "quarters, firewood, bedding, drink, soap and candles."
Various colonies passed resolutions, in their House of Burgesses, claiming the rights of British subjects, and remonstrating with the mother country to the burdens thus imposed. On October 7, 1765, an assembly of committees or delegates from nine colonies met, in New York. This was the first Continental Congress. The ex-
.
14
HISTORY OF MASON COUNTY.
perience of one year convinced England that the Stamp Act could not be enforced in America.
While the colonies rejoiced over the repeal of the Stamp Act, the home government was framing laws for their more serious oppression, and in 1767 taxes were levied on tea, paint, paper, glass and lead, and so exorbitant were these demands, that the colo- nies determined to pay no more taxes or duties at all, illustrating a principle in that early day that has since became patent to the even casual observer, that the best way to get rid of an obnoxious law is to rigidly enforce it. In 1768, the Massachusetts General Court is- sued a circular to the other colonial assemblies, inviting co-opera- tion for the defense of their common and mutual rights, and gener- ally, received most cordial replies.
In 1770 the indignation of the people of Boston at the British soldiers breaks out iuto an affray of so serious a nature that the troops fire on the citizens, killing three and wounding several others. Importations are nearly discontinued, and home manufactured goods superceded the foreign article, and so, popular did this be- come that the graduating class at Harvard College took their de- grees in homespun this year.
Through 1770 the feeling becomes more intense, and the year following, a British Revenue Schooner was burned by a party of colonists, at Providence, Rhode Island.
Parliament offered $3,000 and a pardon to any one of that party who would betray his accomplices, that they might be arrested. Though they were known by all the colonies, no legal evidence was ever brought against them.
In 1773, the celebrated Boston tea party comes off, and the car- goes of three ships are emptied into the sea.
The year following the Tea Party, the feeling acquires intensity, and a Continental Congress was ordered by all the colonies but Georgia. They assemble in Philadelphia, and Peyton Randolph, of Virginia, is chosen President, and a "Declaration of Colonial Rights" is the result of their labors, and agree on fourteen articles as a basis of an "American Association." This body was hence- forth the real government, and their requirements were the laws of the country, to which the people gave strict allegience.
We have been more minute in the details of these transactions because they prove the loyalty of the people to their former gov-
15
HISTORICAL EVENTS.
ernment, and the gradually tightening system of tyrany and op- pression that drove them from that loyalty to a state of revolt.
The inauguration of the war of the Revolution, the variable successes of the contending armies, the progress of public opinion gradually growing stronger on the side of patriotism, ripened into the
DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, JULY 4, 1776.
The Declaration of Independence was followed by the Articles of Confederation, and they being, after a few years experience, found insufficient and unsatisfactory, were superceded by the Con- stitution of the United States, in the year 1787.
-
SKETCH OF THE EARLY HISTORY OF ILLINOIS.
By a treaty between the general government and the Kaskaskia Indians, made January 13, 1803, a large part of Illinois was opened to settlement, though it was first visited by Europeans in the per- sons of French Jesuit missionaries in the year 1672, who explored the north part of the State. The oldest permanent settlement was made in 1720, at Kaskaskia, by the French. The name of the State is derived from the Indians, and the term " Illini," signifying in the Indian tongue, a perfect man. It was modified by the French into its present form.
This State was formed out of what was known as Northwestern Territory, and was the twenty-first of the great American Union, whose Centennial we celebrate the present year.
A territorial government was formed February 3, 1809, and April 3, 1818, it was authorized to adopt a state constitution, and became an independent State on the 3d day of December, the same year.
It has an area of 55,405 square miles, equal to 35,459,200 acres. , Population in 1870, 2,539,638. This State extends over a range of latitude of five and a half degrees, giving a greater diversity of
16
HISTORY OF MASON COUNTY.
climate than any other State in the Union, and for fertility is un- equaled by any other territory of equal extent in the world. The great agricultural staples do not constitute her entire wealth, but she is rich in iron, lead, copper, zinc, lime, marble, gypsum, etc., etc. Some single counties contain as many square miles of coal-fields as all of England combined. Brevity compels important omissions, of which our State may boast, viz: her beautiful cities and her grand prairies, her thousands of miles of railroads and her majes- tic rivers, her schools and her churches, her law-abiding, intelligent population, her beneficent laws, and her noble constitution, second to none in the Union.
GOVERNORS OF ILLINOIS.
Perhaps it will afford some of our readers a little pleasure to see a list of all the early governors of Illinois, commencing with its organization as a territory in 1809. If so, they can read the fol- lowing :
Ninian Edwards was appointed Governor of the Territory in 1809, and held the office until it was admitted as a State in 1818. His term of office expired in 1822, when he was succeeded by Ed- ward Coles, second Governor. His term expired in 1826, at which time Ninian Edwards succeeded as third Governor. He was suc- ceeded, in 1830, by John Reynolds, commonly called the "Old Ranger," who was the fourth Governor. The fifth, Joseph Dun- can, was inaugurated in 1834. Thomas Carlin, the sixth, in 1838. Thomas Ford, the seventh, in 1842. Augustus C. French, eighth Governor, was inaugurated first in 1846, and again in 1849, under the new Constitution. He was succeeded by Joel A. Matteson, ninth Governor, in 1853; and he by Wm. H. Bissell, the tenth Governor, in 1857.
PHYSICAL PECULIARITIES, BOUNDARIES, EXTENT, ETC.
The rich and highly favored region forming the State of Illinois is bounded on the north by Wisconsin, east by Lake Michigan and the States of Indiana and Kentucky, south by Kentucky, and west by the States of Missouri and Iowa. Its extent from north to south is from thirty-seven degrees to forty-two degrees thirty min- utes north latitude, and east and west from ten degrees thirty-two minutes to fourteen degrees thirty-three minutes longitude, west
-
17
HISTORICAL EVENTS.
from Washington City. Its extreme length is three hundred and eighty miles, its breadth in the north one hundred and forty-five miles, but it extends in its centre to two hundred and twenty miles, from whence it contracts towards the south to a narrow point.
The whole area of the State is fifty-nine thousand square miles, of which fifty-five thousand square miles, or about thirty-five million acres, are capable of cultivation. The act of Congress admitting this State into the Union prescribes boundaries as follows: Beginning at the mouth of the Wabash river, thence up the middle of the main channel, thereof to a point where a line drawn due north from Vincennes last crosses that stream, thence due north to the northeast corner of the State of Indiana, thence cast with the boundary line of the same State to the centre of Lake Michigan, thence due north along the middle of said lake to latitude forty degrees thirty minutes, thence west to the centre of the Mississippi river, thence down the middle of the main channel thereof to the mouth of the Ohio river, thence up the latter stream, along its northern or right shore to the place of beginning.
The outline of the State is in extent about one thousand one hundred and sixty miles, the whole of which, except three hundred and five, is formed by navigable streams and waters. As a physi- cal section Illinois is the lower part of that inclined plane of which Lake Michigan and both its shores are a higher section, and which is extended into and embraces the greater part of Indiana. Down this plane, in a very nearly southwestern direction, flows the Wabash and its confluents, the Kaskaskia, the Illinois and its con- fluents, and the Rock and Wisconsin rivers. The lowest section of the plane is also the extreme southern angle of Illinois, at the mouth of the Ohio river, and is about three hundred and fifty feet above the level of the sea. Though the State of Illinois does con- tain some low hilly sections, as a whole it may be regarded as a gently inclining plane in the direction of the rivers, as already in- dicated. Without including minute parts, the extreme arable ele- vation may be safely stated at eight hundred feet above sea level, and the mean height at five hundred and fifty feet above the sea. Next to Louisana and Delaware, Illinois is the most level State in the Union. A small tract in the southern portion of the State is hilly, and the northern portion is also somewhat broken. There are likewise considerable elevations along the Illinois river, and the bluffs of the Mississippi in some places might almost pass for -3
IS
HISTORY OF MASON COUNTY.
mountains. But by far the greater portion of the State is either distributed in vast plains, or barrens, that are gently rolling like the waves of the sea. We may travel on the wide prairie for days without encountering an elevation that is worthy to be called a hill. In no part of the peopled portion of the United States are there such vast sections of prairie country. One vast prairie, with but little interuption, spreads from the shore of the Mississippi to that of Lake Michigan. Undoubtedly, the most remarkable feature of the State of Illinois is its vast prairies, or unwooded plains. They begin on a comparatively small scale in the basin of Lake Erie, and increase as we proceed westward, already form the bulk of the land about Lake Michigan, the Upper Wabash and the Illinois, but west of the Mississippi they are still more extensive, covering the whole country, interspersed with groves of timber, or patches of wood land, chiefly confined to the river vallies and the borders of streams. The characteristic peculiarity of the prairies is the ab- sence of timber; in other respects they present all the variety of soil and surface that are found elsewhere. Some are of inexhaust- able fertility, others are of hopeless sterility. 'The latter condition, the exception, and by no means the rule. Some spread out in a vast boundless plain, others are undulating or rolling, while others are broken by hills. In general, they are covered with a rich growth of grass, excellent natural meadows, from which circum- stance they take their name.
Prairie is a French word, signifying meadow, and is applied to any description of surface that is destitute of timber, and clothed with grass. Wet, dry, level or undulating, are terms of descrip- tion, merely, and apply to prairies in the same sense they do to for- est lands. Indians and hunters annually set fire to the prairie grasses to dislodge their game; the fire spreads with tremendous rapidity, and presents one of the grandest and most terrible specta- cles in nature. The flames rush through the long grass with a noise like thunder; dense clouds of smoke arise; and the sky itself seems almost on fire, particularly during the night. Travel on the prairies, during the burning season, is extremely dangerous, and when pursued by the fires the only escape is to fire the grass around them, and taking shelter on the burnt part, where the approaching flames must expire for want of fuel.
The groves and belts of timber bordering on the prairies have frequent springs of water, and are covered with bushes of hazel
19
HISTORICAL EVENTS.
and furze, small sasafras shrubs, festooned with the wild grape vine and the amepolopsis, and in the season of flowers becomes beauti- fully decorated by a rich profusion of gaily colored herbaceous and perennial flowers. In March, and early in April, the forests are in bloom. The brilliant red bloom of the cercis canadensis, hand- somely exhibits its charms. The yellow blossoms of the fragrant leonicera diffuses its fragrance, and the jasminum fruticans im- pregnates the air with its delicious odors, and a vast variety of other odoriferous plants are passively engaged in the faithful dis- charge of their offices, either of the display of gay colors or the emission of rare odors. The prairies are thus referred to by one of the early western poets-
"Travelers entering here, behold around A large and spacious plain on every side, Strewed with beauty, whose fair grassy mound Mantled with green, and goodly beautified With all the ornaments of Flora's pride."
The deep, rich, black soils of the prairies are of exhaustless fertil- ity, and equally adapted to the growth of vegetables, corn, wheat, rye, barley and oats. All the fruits of this latitude are grown with extraordinary success.
From May to October the prairies are covered with tall grass, and the flower producing weeds. In June and July they seem an ocean of flowers, of various hues, waving to the breezes that sweep over them. The numerous tall flowers that grow luxuriently over these plains, present a striking and delightful appearance. Early in the history of the settlements of these prairies, herds of deer were frequently seen bounding over these prairie undulations.
In the southern part of the State the prairies are comparatively small, varying in size from a few acres to several miles in extent. As we go northward, they widen and extend on the more elevated ground, between the water courses, to a vast distance, and are fre- quently from six to twelve miles wide. Their borders are by no means uniform, but are intersected in every direction by strips of forest land, advancing into and receding from the prairie towards the water courses, whose banks are always lined with timber, prin- cipally of luxuriant growth.
Between these streams are, in many instances, copses or groves of timber, containing from 100 to 2000 acres, in the midst of the prairie, like islands in the ocean. This is a common feature be-
20
HISTORY OF MASON COUNTY.
tween the Sangamon river and Lake Michigan, the region of Illi- nois in which our own Mason county, forms so conspicuous and desirable a part. The largest tract of prairie in Illinois is called Grand Prairie. Under this general name is embraced the country lying between the water which fall into the Mississippi, and those which enter the Wabash rivers. It does not consist of one vast tract boundless to the vision, and uninhabitable for want of timber, but made up of continuous tracts, with points of timber projecting inward, and long arms of the prairie extending between the creeks and smaller streams. The southern points of the Grand Prairie are formed in the northeastern parts of Jackson county, and extend in a northeastern course between the streams, of various widths, from one to ten or twelve miles, through Perry, Washington, Jef- ferson, Marion, the eastern part of Fayette, Effingham, through the western part of Coles, into Champaign and Iroquois counties, where it becomes connected with the prairies that project eastward from the Illinois river and its tributaries. This part alone is fre- quently called the Grand Prairie.
On the origin of the prairies, it is difficult to decide; various speculations have arisen on this subject, and have given rise to vari- ous opinions; the most practical of which is ably set forth by Prof. Winchell, in another part of this work, in the section entitled the "Treelessness of the Prairies." When Capt. John Smith visited the Chesapeake, he found extensive prairies, and first bore witness to the practice of circular fires as a mode of hunting among the savages. These tracts have been early inhabited and cultivated by the colonists, and the prairies have long since disappeared.
Probably one-half of the earth's surface, in a state of nature, consisted of prairies or barrens; much of it, like our western prai- ries, were covered with a luxurient coat of grass and herbage.
The Steppes of Central Asia, the Pampas of Buenos Ayres and Venezuela, the Savanahs of Louisiana and Texas, and the prairies, designate identical, or at least similar, tracts of country. Mesopot- amia, Syria and Judea had their ancient prairies, on which the Patriarchs pastured their flocks. Travelers in Burmah, in the in- terior of Africa and New Holland, mention the same description of country. Mungo Park describes the annual burnings of the plains of Manning, western Africa, in the same manner as the prairies of the western States, and the practice is attended with the
2I
HISTORICAL EVENTS.
same results, the country being in short covered with a luxurient crop of young tender grass, on which cattle feed with avidity.
FORESTS OF ILLINOIS.
In general, Illinois is abundantly supplied with timber, and were it equally distributed through the State, there would be no part wanting. The growth of timber within the State is such, and its preservation an object with the inhabitants, that it is estimated that there is from one-fourth to one-third more timber in the State than there was forty years ago. The apparent scarcity of timber through the State, where the prairies predominate, is not an ob- stacle to settlement, as has been supposed. For many of the pur- poses to which timber is applied substitutes have been found.
The rapidity with which the young growth pushes itself for- ward, without a single effort on the part of man to accellerate it, and the readiness with which prairies become converted into thickets, and then into a forest of young timber, shows that in another genera- tion timber will not be wanting in any part of Illinois.
The growth of the bottom lands consists of black walnut, sev- eral species of ash, three varieties of elm, hackberry, sugar maple, soft maple, and the ash-leaved maple or box-elder, honey locust, mulberry, buckeye, sycamore, cottonwood, pecan, and three or four other varieties of the hickory family, numerous varieties of the oak family, among them the cup oak, burr oak, swamp or water oak, white oak, red oak, black oak; of the shrubbery, we note the red- bud, pawpaw, dogwood, two varieties, spice brush, hazel, green- briar, and many others, even the names of which we have been unable to learn. We have now a collection of the native woods of Illinois, numbering ninety-eight varieties, and we have not all. Perhaps no other State in the Union can furnish such a variety of timber, and shrubs, and vines, as Illinois. Along the banks of streams the sycamore, the cottonwood, the elm and the pecan predominate, and attain to an immense size, and are of rapid growth.
Uplands are covered with various species of timber, among which are the post oak, white and black oak, of several varieties, and the black jack, adwarfish gnarled tree, good for little else than firewood, for which purpose it is equal to any we have, of hickory, both the . shellbark and the smoothbark, black walnut, white wal- nut or butternut, American linn or basswood, several varieties of
22
IIISTORY OF MASON COUNTY.
cherry, and many of the species produced on the bottoms. In some parts of this State yellow poplar prevails, principally in the south, interspersed with occasional clumps of beech. Near the Ohio, on low creek bottoms, the deciduous cypress is found.
No poplar is found on the castern borders of the State till near Palestine, while on the opposite shore of the Wabash, in Indiana, poplar and beech predominate. Occasional clumps of stunted cedar are to be seen on the cliffs that overhang the bottoms along the Illinois river north of Peoria; but no pines have come to our knowledge that are natives of Illinois.
Timber not only grows more rapidly than in other States, but decays sooner when put into buildings, fences, or is in any way ex- posed to the weather. It is more porous, and will shrink and ex- pand, as the weather becomes wet or dry, to a greater extent than the slow growing timbers of other States. From the above it will be perceived that Illinois does not labor under the great incon- veniences for timber that many have supposed. Our excellent and numerous facilities for transportation assure us us that the future will be better provided for than the past. Timber may be artifi- cially produced, with but little trouble or expense, to an indefinite extent.
The black locust, a native growth of Ohio and Kentucky, may be raised from the seed with far less trouble than a nursery of apple trees, and as it is of very rapid growth, a lasting timber for fencing, buildings and boats, it must claim the attention of farmers. Already it forms one of the cleanliest and most beautiful shades, and when in bloom presents a rich prospect, and sheds a most deli- cious fragrance.
THE ILLINOIS RIVER AND ITS TRIBUTARIES.
The Illinois river, which gives name to the State, may be con- sidered the most important, whose whole course lies within the limits of the State, and whose waters lave the western line of Mason county. It is formed by the junction of the Kankakee and the Desplaines rivers, near the towns of Dresden and Kankakee. Thence it curves nearly to a west course, until a short distance above Hennepin. Here it curves to the south, and then to the southwest. Passing the beautiful and flourishing cities of Peoria, Pekin, Havana and Beardstown, it reaches Naples. Hence to its mouth its course is nearly due south. It enters the Mississippi
23
HISTORICAL EVENTS.
twenty miles above the mouth of the Missouri, and at that point is four hundred feet above the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. From Havana to the mouth there is fifteen feet fall, and from Peoria to Havana four feet eleven inches. At high floods this river over- flows its banks and covers the bottoms for a considerable extent. The Mississippi, at extreme high water, backs the water seventy miles up the Illinois. The commerce of the Illinois river is very extensive, and increases with a rapidity only known to the rich agricultural regions of the western states. Several steamboats are constantly employed in the Illinois river trade, and others make occasional trips. At as early a date as 1836, thirty-five different steamboats passed and landed at Havana, and the total arrivals and departures for the season were four hundred and fifty. The year 1828 was the beginning of steam navigation on the Illi- nois river. Forty miles below the junction of the Kankakee and Desplaines rivers the Illinois receives the Fox river from the north. Both above and below the mouth of this river there is a succession of rapids in the Illinois, with intervals of deep and smooth water. From the mouth of Fox river to the foot of the rapids is nine miles, the descent in all eight feet, the rocks of soft sandstone mixed with gravel and shelly limestone. Nine miles above Fox river the rapids begin, and extend ten or twelve miles. They are formed by ledges of rocks in the river, and rocky islands. The whole descent from the surface of Lake Michigan, at Chicago, to the foot of the rapids, a distance of ninety-four and one-fourth miles, is one hundred and forty-one feet and ten inches.
At the foot of the rapids the Vermilion river enters the Illinois from the south, by a mouth about fifty yards wide. It is an excel- lent mill stream, and runs through extensive beds of bituminous coal. Sixty miles down the Illinois from the termination of the rapids, commences Peoria Lake, an expansion of the river, and about twenty miles in length by an average of two wide. Such is the depth and the regularity of the bottom, that it has no percepti- ble current. Its waters are very transparent, its margin exhibits beautiful scenery, and its surface is spotted with innumerable flocks of pelicans, swan, geese and ducks. It also abounds in all the varie- ties of fish, in bountiful supply, usually found in the western waters. A few miles below Peoria lake the Mackinaw river comes into the Illinois on the east side, from the south. It is about one hundred miles in length, and was formerly boatable for a considerable dis-
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.