USA > Illinois > Christian County > Historical encyclopedia of Illinois and history of Christian County, Volume II > Part 3
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Total other mineral and organic content, 053.44 parts per 1,000.
The river bottom lands are richer in organic matter, and have usually a greater percentage of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, while the more hilly and broken uplands have usually a less percentage of the same. The substances named, with carbon, magnesium, calcium, and the sili- cates are the usual and principal constituents of all plant growth, and all these except nitro- gen, phosphorus, potassium, and calcium are found in abundance in all the soils of this county. Where soils are deficient in any of these plant-producing elements, they can usually be readily added in the way of lime phosphates and nitrates, prepared in various forms, and sold as fertilizers in the markets.
J. W. DAPPERT, Civil and Structural Engineer. Taylorville, Ill.
REASONS FOR PREFERRED SECTIONS.
Records of the land offices of the country show that the pioneers of every newly opened terri- tory, preferred the timberland to the prairie. As in those days the prairies were covered with a sod that the primitive agricultural imple- ments could scarcely dent, and they were some distance from the water courses with their growth of timber, there is little wonder that the early settler who had to depend upon natural resources for his water supply and material for housing his family and stock, as well as his means for heating, should take up first that land which gave him what he needed. It was thought that only in the timberland could farming land worth working be obtained. The contention was that it was because of the lack of fertility that the prairie land had not grown timber. Thus the pioneer took upon himself a heavy task, that of clearing off his land before he could put in a crop. With the influx of set- tlers, however, and the taking up of much of the prairie and swamp lands by the railroads, it be- came necessary to develop some of the less
sought for land, and then it was that the pioneers discovered that they had passed over the richest possessions of their section, in not choosing the prairie land. The swamp land was left to the last. One of the pioneers would have laughed to scorn the idea that out of the low lands, then given over to swamp grasses and the mosquito, would be made the most valu- able farms of the county, and yet to science nothing seems impossible. Before any system of drainage was adopted, or even advocated, the farmers who possessed much of this swamp land, tried to drain it by plowing furrows into which it was proposed to drain the surplus water, and these channels were in time deepened with scrapers drawn by teams, but any undue fall of rain rendered them almost useless, and the surrounding land would again be submerged.
DRAINAGE DISTRICTS.
Finally, about 1883 or 1884, the more progres- sive agriculturalists started three drainage dis- tricts in Stonington Township, although there was considerable opposition to them, their pur- pose not being fully understood. Litigation was started that ended in the Supreme Court, where a decision was rendered in favor of the drainage district, and not only settled this matter, but opened the eyes of the county to the value of the establishment and maintenance of such dis- tricts.
LAKE FORK DISTRICT.
The Lake Fork District north of Pana was organized about 1884, with a fourth district in Stonington Township, which was particularly in need of drainage owing to its low land, one in Taylorville Township and three in South Fork Township. . All of these drainage districts, however, were established and worked upon somewhat primitive plans, the greater part of the work being the deepening and widening of the ditches already made, at a cost of from one dollar to five dollars per acre to the owners of the land in question.
As these ditches were not of great depth, and the tendency of the spring freshets was towards filling them with deposits, those having the work in charge found that if any permanent advan- tages were to be obtained from this system, there must be an annual cleaning and repairing. This of course greatly increased the expense,
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and much dissatisfaction was expressed. At that time the majority of the farmers were still in debt for their land, and this further tax upon their resources was felt to be too great consider- ing the meagre returns from the outlay. As there was no certainty with regard to the efficacy of these ditches, the agriculturalists were dubious about going to the expense of planting and cultivating lands that might at any moment be submerged once more, and all their labor be lost.
GOVERNMENTAL EXPERIMENTS.
The United States government made many experiments and gave to the country at large the results of its investigation. Individuals also con- ducted experiments, and the combined results have been adopted by all of the leading farming regions of the country, although not until much bitter controversy had taken place, and an infinite amount of time and labor been expended by the advocates of scientific drainage.
DREDGE BOAT DITCHES.
In 1894 the work of constructing five miles of large dredge boat ditches in Stonington, Buck- hart and Taylorville Townships was commenced, and completed early in 1895. Ten miles of sim- ilar construction work was done in the southern portion of Ricks Township during 1898-9. Seven miles of these ditches were dug in the South D'Arcy lands in King Township, and eleven miles of large open drains in the northern por- tion of the same township. In the land about the upper portion of Big George Creek there were seven miles of these ditches put in, running throughi Assumption and Pana townships. Since then the drainage construction work has rapidly multiplied until within Christian County at the present time, there are Farm Drainage District Works constructed and in successful operation as follows :
One hundred and ninety-seven miles of open ditches in forty-three drainage districts, cost- ing, $271,700.00.
Three hundred and sixty-two miles of larger tile drains in seventy-four drainage districts, costing $499,550.00.
Some of these districts comprise original open ditches which were constructed previous to 1890, and were afterward improved by re- constructing with tiles, and their first cost
should be added to the foregoing, there being seventy-five miles of such drains, which origin- ally cost approximately $95,250.00.
Total cost of all public farm drainage districts in Christian County, approximately $866,450.00.
Approximately, there are within regularly or- ganized Farm Drainage Districts in Christian County, 202,000 acres of land. Of the smaller joint systems of drainage, such as those con- structed mutually by a few land-owners in each case, there are approximately 98,000 acres, or an area of 300,000 acres in all mutual and regular Farm Drainage Districts. Of this latter named drainage, the greater portion is by means of large tiles, with little open ditches.
It might be interesting to state that all the river and creek bottom lands in Christian County figure out 694 miles in length and com- prise an area of 32,200 acres, including only the main streams, those twenty feet in width or greater. The total length of drainage ditches amounts to 559 miles, costing on an average $1,550.00 per mile, or in all about $866,450.00, as given above.
TILING.
In addition to these public ditches, the farm- ers have been converted to the belief that tiling will return to them many times the amount of their investment, and Christian County has spent an immense amount in laying tile with more than satisfactory results. The first tile drains in Christian County were laid as early as 1878, but there was no concerted action in this direction until 1885. These earlier tile drains were in general, too small and many of them poorly laid, and the results obtained were not always satisfactory or profitable, but with the introduction of proper scientific methods of construction, a great impetus was given to the business, and great benefits resulted. At present the manufacture of tiling for drainage purposes is an important industry, and it is estimated that there have been 10,000 miles of tile laid in Christian County, at a probable cost of $260.00 per mile-$2,600,000.00.
The result of all this agitation with regard to proper drainage is that the once almost value- less swamp lands have been converted into fer- tile farm lands, and that regions almost un- habitable by reason of the miasma and mos- quito pest, are now regarded as the most desirable sections of the county. Those barely
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in middle life can easily recall driving along almost any of the roads in the county, and look- ing during the spring season upon submerged land, and in the summer upon these same sec- tions covered with the unhealthy green scum, harboring the mosquito, snakes, frogs and other apparently useless forms of insect and animal life, while from the marshy soil sprung only the ditch grasses and cat o'nine tail. To those who thus remember, the change is gratifying and illu- minating. It teaches that as time goes on the tendency is going to be toward conservation and development. While there has ceased to be vast regions of free lands at the disposal of the pioneer, there are many square miles of land that are either suffering from a surplus of water, or burning up because of a lack of this neces- sary element. The work of the future pioneer is to subtract in the first case, and add in the second, so that the hope exists that in time there will be no waste lands, but that all the country will be producing something that will add to the happiness and well being of the peo- ple living here.
FAUNA.
In presenting a list of the animals of the county that existed here prior to and after the advent of the white man, while the list may not be complete, it will, however, be of interest to the student and the scientist. Of the ruminat- ing animals that were indigenous to this terri- tory, we had the American elk, and the deer of two kinds, the more common well known Ameri- can deer, and the White-tailed deer. At a period not very remote, the American buffalo must have found pastures near the alluvial and shaded banks of the Sangamon and the plains and prairies of this portion of the state, for the heads, horns and bones of the slain animals were still quite numerous in 1820. The black bear were quite numerous, and within the memory of the oldest settlers, and bears have been seen in the county within the last fifty years.
The gray wolf and prairie wolf are now ex- tinct, as is also the gray fox, which through its superior cunning existed in comparatively large numbers. The panther was occasionally met with in the early times, and still later and more numerous was the wild cat. The weasel, one or more species; the mink, American otter, the skunk, the badger, the raccoon and the opossum
were also found. The two latter species of animals are met within every portion of the United States and the greater part of North America. The coon-skin among the early set- tlers was universally regarded as legal tender. The bear and otter are now extinct in the county, but were formerly valuable for their furs.
Of the squirrel family, we have the fox, gray, flying, ground and prairie squirrel; the wood- chuck ; the common muskrat also abound, while the bats, shrews and moles are common. Of the Muridae we have the introduced species of rats and mice, as well as the native meadow mouse, and the long-tailed jumping mouse, fre- quently met with in the clearings. Of the hares. the so-called rabbit is very plentiful. Several species of the native animals have perished, be- ing unable to endure the presence of civilization, or finding that the food congenial to their tastes has been appropriated by stronger races. The greater part of the pleasures, dangers and ex- citements of the chase are known and enjoyed by most of us at the present time only through the talk and traditions of the past. The buffalo and the elk have passed the borders of the Mississippi, never to return.
Of the fish, the most common known are the cat, bass and sunfish, while the perch, pike and buffalo are also occasionally met with, the com- mon carp chub is found in great numbers, and the bass, a game fish, is found at times, when it affords the fisherman fine sport.
In giving a list of the birds of the county, as in the list of animals, only the common names are given. Among the game birds most sought after are the prairie hen, pinnated grouse, ruffled grouse, quail, woodcock, English snipe, red-breasted snipe, telltale snipe, yellow-legs, marbled godwit, short-billed curlew, long-billed curlew, and Virginia rail. The Canada goose, brant, mallard, black duck, pintail duck, green- winged teal, blue-winged teal, shoveler, Ameri- can widgeon, summer, or wood-duck, red-head duck, canvas-back duck, butter ball, hooded merganser, rough-billed pelican, killdeer plover, ball-head, yellow-legged and upland plover, visit this locality somewhat infrequently. The white heron, great blue heron, bittern, sand hill crane, wild pigeon, common dove, American raven, common crow, blue jay, bobolink, red-winged black bird, meadow lark, golden oriole, yellow bird, snow bird, chipping sparrow, field sparrow, swamp sparrow, indigo bird, cardinal red bird,
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HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN COUNTY
cheewink, white-bellied nuthatch, mocking bird, cat bird, brown thrush, house wren, barn swal- low, bank swallow, blue martin, cedar bird, scar- let tanager, summer red bird and the robin, came to this country about sixty years ago. The blue bird, king bird, pewee, belted kingfisher, whip- poorwill, night hawk, chimney swallow, ruby- throated humming bird, hairy woodpecker, gold- en-winged woodpecker, Carolina parrot, great horned owl, barred owl, snowy owl, turkey buzzard, pigeon hawk, swallow-tailed hawk, Mis- sissippi kite, red-tailed hawk, bald eagle, and ring-tailed eagle, are frequently seen.
FLORA.
In the following it is not the purpose to speak exhaustively of the plants of the county, but rather to give a list of the national trees and shrubs and grasses found within its limits. The intelligent farmer looks at once to the native vegetation as a sure indication of the value and fertility of the soil.
The botanist, in making a survey of the state of Illinois, would consider it under three heads, or ordinances, to-wit: the heavily timbered region of the south, the flora, which is remark- able for its variety ; and the central portion, consisting mainly of prairie, yet not without groves which are usually adjacent to water courses. The county of Christian, lying, as it does, in the prairie region, presents all the char- acteristics of a prairie county. Upon the flora of this county civilization has produced its in- evitable effect. Here will be mentioned the more valuable woods utilized in the mechanic arts, and the grasses, plants, vegetables and flowers most beneficial to man, and particularly those which are natives of the county.
Many species of the vegetable kingdom have fled; the buffalo grass, which grew only on the prairies, in different places, and almost wholly the large pampas grass, have become extinct, and have given place to blue-grass, which, in places where domestic cattle feed, is rapidly and quietly displacing all others. The plants are many and rare, some being valuable only for their beauty, while others are highly esteemed for their medicinal properties. The pinkroot, the columbo, the gingseng, the boneset, the pennyroyal and others are used as herbs for medicine and much is claimed for them in times of sickness. Plants of great beauty are the phlox, the lily, the asclepias, the mints, the
golden rod, the eye-bright gerardia, and hun- dreds more which adorn in profusion the meadows and the brooksides. Besides are the climbing vines, the trumpet creeper, the bitter sweet, the woodbine, the clematis, and the grape, which fill the woods with gay festoons, and add grace to many a decaying monarch of the forest. The trees and grasses, the former so lordly and permanent, the latter so humble and transient, are the true glories of the county. The oak, with its at least twenty varieties ; the hickory, with as many more species; the thirty kinds of elm, from the sort which bear leaves as large as a man's hand to the kind which have leaves scarcely larger than a man's thumb-nail; the black-walnut, so tall and straight ; the hackberry ; the gum tree, black and sweet; the tulip; the giant cottonwoods, and hundreds more attest the fertility of the soil and the mildness of the cli- mate, while the blue-grass, in its ten varieties, the timothy and red-top, with clover so abundant in its succulence, afford excellent pastorage and open a fine field for the dairyman and stock- raiser.
Following is found a partial list of the trees and plants of the county. There may be some plants omitted, but the list, as a whole, is quite complete : Spear-grass, blue grass, common, In- dian turnip, cat-tail, arrow-head, yellow lady's slipper, white lady's slipper, common, hemp, hop, not common, Jamestown weed, jimson weed, milk weed, white ash, black ash, poke weed, pig weed, sour dock, sassafras, fever bush, hore- hound, night-shade, ground cherry, horsemint, catnip, pennyroyal, persimmon, plantain, mul- lein, common, common thistle, burdock, dande- lion, common, introduced during the last sixty years ; buckthorn, recently introduced, fire weed, rag weed, cockle burr, Spanish needle, beggar ticks, May weed, ox-eye daisy, common, pie inarker or stamp-weed, careless weed, thorough- wort, not common, dogwood, elder, very common, wild gooseberry, wild crab, abundant, climbing rose, dwarf wild rose, blackberry, abundant, pawpaw, quite abundant along the creek bot- toms, May apple, abundant in shady places, wild pepper-grass, purslane, linden, not abun- dant, prickly ash, scarce, sumach, poison oak, summer grape, common, frost grape, Virginia creeper, buckeye, scarce, sugar maple, white ma- ple, box elder, indigo weed, not abundant, red- bud, Kentucky coffee tree, honey locust, red plum, Chickasaw plum, wild cherry, wild straw- berry, black cap raspberry, dewberry. common,
1
F Wander Zin
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HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN COUNTY
cottonwood, abundant, willow, several varieties, Alder, birch, horn-bean, not common, hazelnut, abundant, chinquapin, red oak, water-oak, com- mon, black oak, black jack, laurel oak, chestnut white oak, yellow oak, not common, white oak, common, post oak, abundant, pig-nut hickory, overcup oak, common, white-heart hickory, shell- bark hickory, pecan, not common, black walnut, abundant, butternut, not common, sycamore, red elm, red mulberry, stinging nettle, white elm, abundant, chestnut oak, buckeye or horse-chest- nut. red-haw, black-haw, white-hawthorn, crab- apple and red-haw.
THE TORNADO OF 1917.
Christian County was visited by a destructive tornado on Saturday, May 26, 1917. It passed through Johnson, Locust and Assumption Town- ships, causing great destruction of property, but fortunately no loss of life. Great trees were torn up by the roots, or broken off as if by a giant hand. Several large two-story resi- dences were totally destroyed, leaving their former owners no shelter except that provided by their neighbors. The Dunkel schoolhouse in district No. 14 was blown and twisted into fragments, while an outbuilding close by was untouched. The schoolhouse had been remod- eled recently and would have served the needs of that community for several years. Plans have already been made by the directors, W. D. Fribley, W. I. Davidson and Mr. Wagner, to erect a modern building to replace the one destroyed. The tornado after leaving Chris- tian County struck the village of Westervelt in Shelby County, causing the loss of much prop- erty and several lives. Proceeding eastward it tore through the cities of Mattoon and Charles- ton, where it caused the death of nearly 200 people. This was by far the most destructive storm that ever visited Central Illinois.
CHAPTER III.
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INDIAN HISTORY.
ORIGINAL AMERICANS-PRESENT CONDITIONS-IN- DIANS, IN CHRISTIAN COUNTY-THE GHOST OF
BASSINA-INDIAN ATTRIBUTES-FIRST TREATY- SECOND TREATY-BOUNDARIES-INITIAL CAUSES OF BLACK HAWK WAR-FAR-REACHING RESULTS -CHRISTIAN COUNTY REPRESENTATION-INDIAN INFLUENCE.
1185734 ORIGINAL AMERICANS.
It is universally conceded that the American Indian is the original American, and as such he deserves better treatment than has fallen to his lot from the hands of his white brother. His name dates back to the day when Columbus, landing upon the soil of the new world, and see- ing for the first time the copper-colored natives who ran to meet him and his followers, bestowed upon the race the name of Indian, for the ex- plorer believed that he had reached the shores of India, in search of which he had set out on his momentous voyage that was to result in the opening up of a new continent instead of the charting of a different route to an old one. The poor native of the newly discovered continent little knew that this invasion had rung the knell of his people. For countless years, centuries perhaps, he and his kind had roamed the country upon which as far as is known no white foot had been set, and they possessed the land from the Arctic Ocean on the north to Terra del Fuego on the south, and from the Atlantic Ocean on the east, to the Pacific Ocean on the west. No other race ever possessed so mighty an empire, and it is doubtful if such dominion will ever again exist. With the dawning of 1492, however, this supremacy was disturbed.
PRESENT CONDITIONS.
In that fateful year occurred an incident, simple in itself, and yet one that was to change the history of the world and have its influence upon all yet unborn. Three little vessels bore to the shores of the new world the representa- tives of the white race, and from then on until today, the Indian has been under subjection. From time to time different tribes and nations have rebelled against the power of the white man and sought to recover some of their prestige, but in vain, and now the red man is gradually passing. At present there are probably 250,000 Indians in the United States, for the main- tenance of whom the government spends about $9,000,000. The Indian wars of the country number about nine, in addition to the countless local conflicts between the red man and his
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HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN COUNTY
white brother, and all have cost heavily in human life and money, but it is doubtful if ever again there be any more disturbances. As the Indian is viewed in retrospect, however, his wrongs are better understood, and he receives sympathy and his due need of appreciation from the generation that has not dearly paid for his revengeful attempts to wrest from his conqueror that which he considered his own by right of inheritance and eminent domain.
INDIANS IN CHRISTIAN COUNTY.
The following article was contributed by W. E. Andrews, principal Township High School, Pana, Ill.
Of those Indians who passed through this area, stopping but for a time, the records are necessarily meager. The bands of Indians that came to the headwaters of the Sangamon River were evidently transient hunters and fishermen of the forests and streams of the times when the aborigines wandered from place to place. Two places seem to have been centers for con- gregating, or for remaining for a long time. On the area of upland that pushes forward toward the juncture of the Flat Branch with the South Fork of the Sangamon, east of Taylorville, are many burial mounds. The cut of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad passes directly through this Indian cemetery. Twenty-three mounds are still intact ; several having been destroyed by the grading gangs at work on the right of way.
These mounds are uniformly small, rising but a few feet above the surrounding level area. No excavation has been rewarded with finds that encourage further exploration. It is evident that the tribes that frequented the region were very poor. Their chief concern seems not to have been the accumulation of those things which constituted Indian property ; they ex- hausted their ambitions in the quest for means of subsistence, having little concern to bury with their dead the customary trophies of primeval achievement.
The mounds along the Illinois River bluffs upon the upland which projects down toward the juncture of that river with the Mississippi River are very much larger and contain many things which were counted worth while by the more prosperous tribes of that favored hunting and fishing country. There the mounds are sev- eral feet high and large in proportion. More
permanent settlements prevailed where the con- ditions of subsistence were so auspicious.
Another area where arrow heads and other implements of the humble equipments of the mis- erably poor wanderers are found in noticeable abundance is on the Allen farm, about four miles southwest of Pana. Here were springs of flow- ing water where it was the custom to gather and doubtless to camp. The plow still upturns evi- dence of the stone age in which these people lived then. The occasion of scattering these stone im- plements of the chase and of intertribal battle gives one's fancy free sway. Stalking animals that knew these flowing springs evidently was a favorite mode of primeval hunting. Rivalry for the possession of the supply of water, 110 doubt, brought on many a deadly encounter. The flint points and heads, now scattered over the farm, could recount many a tragic story of their final flight.
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