USA > Illinois > Winnebago County > Historical encyclopedia of Illinois and history of Winnebago County, Volume I > Part 40
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 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105 | Part 106 | Part 107 | Part 108 | Part 109 | Part 110 | Part 111 | Part 112 | Part 113 | Part 114 | Part 115 | Part 116 | Part 117 | Part 118 | Part 119 | Part 120 | Part 121 | Part 122 | Part 123 | Part 124 | Part 125
GENESEO, a city in Henry County, about two miles south of the Green River. It is on the Chi-
197
HISTORICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ILLINOIS.
cago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway, 23 miles east of Rock Island and 75 miles west of Ottawa. It is in the heart of a grain-growing region, and has two large grain elevators. Manufacturing is also carried on to a considerable extent here, furniture, wagons and farming implements con- stituting the chief output. Geneseo has eleven churches, a graded and a high school, a col- legiate institute, two banks, and two weekly news- papers. Population (1890), 3,182; (1900), 3,356; (1910), 3,199.
GENEVA, a city and railway junction on Fox River, and the county-seat of Kane County; 35 miles west of Chicago. It has a fine courthouse, completed in 1892 at a cost of $250,000, and numerous handsome churches and school build- ings. A State Reformatory for juvenile female offenders has been located here. There is an ex- cellent water-power, operating six manufac- tories, including extensive glucose works. The town has a bank, creamery, water-works, gas and electric light plant, and two semi-weekly news- papers. The surrounding country is devoted to agriculture and dairy farming. Population (1890), 1,692; (1900), 2,446; (1910), 2,451.
GENOA, a village of De Kalb County, on Omaha Division of the Chi., Mil. & St. Paul, the Ill. Cent. and Chi. & N. W. Railroads, 59 miles west of Chicago. Dairying is a leading industry; has two banks, shoe and telephone factories, and one weekly paper. Pop. (1900), 1,140; (1910), 1,257.
GEOLOGICAL FORMATIONS. The geological structure of Illinois embraces a representation, more or less complete, of the whole paleonic series of formations, from the calciferous group of the Lower Silurian to the top of the coal meas- ures. In addition to these older rocks there is a limited area in the extreme southern end of the State covered with Tertiary deposits. Over- spreading these formations are beds of more recent age, comprising sands, clays and gravel, varying in thickness from ten to more than two hundred feet. These superficial deposits may be divided into Alluvium, Loess and Drift, and con- stitute the Quaternary system of modern geolo- gists.
LOWER SILURIAN SYSTEM .- Under this heading may be noted three distinct groups: the Calcifer- ous, the Trenton and the Cincinnati. The first mentioned group comprises the St. Peter's Sand- stone and the Lower Magnesian Limestone. The former outcrops only at a single locality, in La Salle County, extending about two miles along the valley of the Illinois River in the vicinity of Utica. The thickness of the strata appearing
above the surface is about 80 feet, thin bands of Magnesian limestone alternating with layers of Calciferous sandstone. Many of the layers con- tain good hydraulic rock, which is utilized in the manufacture of cement. The entire thickness of the rock below the surface has not been ascer- tained, but is estimated at about 400 feet. The St. Peter's Sandstone outcrops in the valley of the Illinois, constituting the main portion of the bluffs from Utica to a point beyond Ottawa, and forms the "bed rock" in most of the northern townships of La Salle County. It also outcrops on the Rock River in the vicinity of Oregon City, and forms a conspicuous bluff on the Mississippi in Calhoun County. Its maximum thickness in the State inay be estimated at about 200 feet. It is too incoherent in its texture to be valuable as a building stone, though some of the upper strata in Lee County have been utilized for caps and sills. It affords, however, a fine quality of sand for the manufacture of glass. The Trenton group, which immediately overlies the St. Peter's Sandstone, consists of three divisions. The low- est is a brown Magnesian Limestone, or Dolomite, usually found in regular beds, or strata, varying from four inches to two feet in thickness. The aggregate thickness varies from twenty feet, in the northern portion of the State, to sixty or seventy feet at the bluff in Calhoun County. At the quarries in La Salle County, it abounds in fossils, including a large Lituites and several specimens of Orthoceras, Maclurea, etc. The middle division of the Trenton group consists of light gray, compact limestones in the southern and western parts of the State, and of light blue, thin-bedded, shaly limestone in the northern por- tions. The upper division is the well-known Galena limestone, the lead-bearing rock of the Northwest. It is a buff colored, porous Dolomite, sometimes arenaceous and unevenly textured, giving origin to a ferruginous, sandy clay when decomposed. The lead ores occur in crevices, caverns and horizontal seams. These crevices were probably formed by shrinkage of the strata from crystallization or by some disturbing force from beneath, and have been enlarged by decomposi- tion of the exposed surface. Fossils belonging to a lower order of marine animal than the coral are found in this rock, as are also marine shells. corals and crustaceans. Although this limestone crops out over a considerable portion of the terri- tory between the Mississippi and the Rock River, the productive lead mines are chiefly confined to Jo Daviess and Stephenson Counties. All the. divisions of the Trenton group afford good build-
198
HISTORICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ILLINOIS.
ing material, some of the rock being susceptible of a high polish and making a handsome, durable marble. About seventy feet are exposed near Thebes, in Alexander County. All through the Southwest this stone is known as Cape Girardeau marble, from its being extensively quarried at Cape Girardeau, Mo. The Cincinnati group immediately succeeds the Trenton in the ascend- ing scale, and forms the uppermost member of the Lower Silurian system. It usually consists of argillaceous and sandy shales, although, in the northwest portion of the State, Magnesian lime- stone is found with the shales. The prevailing colors of the beds are light blue and drab, weathering to a light ashen gray. This group is found well exposed in the vicinity of Thebes, Alexander County, furnishing a durable building stone extensively used for foundation walls. Fossils are found in profusion in all the beds, many fine specimens, in a perfect state of preser- vation, having been exhumed.
UPPER SILURIAN SYSTEM .- The Niagara group in Northern Illinois consists of brown, gray and buff magnesian limestones, sometimes evenly bedded, as at Joliet and Athens, and sometimes concretionary and brecciated, as at Bridgeport and Port Byron. Near Chicago the cells and pockets of this rock are filled with petroleum, but it has been ascertained that only the thirty upper feet of the rock contain bituminous matter. The quarries in Will and Jersey Counties furnish fine building and flagging stone. The rock is of a light gray color, changing to buff on exposure. In Pike and Calhoun Counties, also, there are out- croppings of this rock and quarries are numerous. It is usually evenly bedded, the strata varying in thickness from two inches to two feet, and break- ing evenly. Its aggregate thickness in Western and Northern Illinois ranges from fifty to 150 feet. In Union and Alexander Counties, in the southern part of the State, the Upper Silurian series consists chiefly of thin bedded gray or buff-colored limestone, silicious and cherty, flinty material largely preponderating over the lime- stone. Fossils are not abundant in this formation, although the quarries at Bridgeport, in Cook County, have afforded casts of nearly 100 species of marine organisms, the calcareous portion hav- ing been washed away,
DEVONIAN SYSTEM .- This system is represented in Illinois by three well marked divisions, cor- responding to the Oriskany sandstone, the Onon- daga limestone and the Hamilton and Corniferous beds of New York. To these the late Professor Worthen, for many years State Geologist, added,
although with some hesitancy, the black shale formation of Illinois. Although these comprise an aggregate thickness of over 500 feet, their exposure is limited to a few isolated outcroppings along the bluffs of the Illinois, Mississippi and Rock Rivers. The lower division, called "Clear Creek Limestone," is about 250 feet thick, and is only found in the extreme southern end of the State. It consists of chert, or impure flint, and thin-bedded silico-magnesian limestones, rather compact in texture, and of buff or light gray to nearly white colors. When decomposed by atmospheric influences, it forms a fine white clay, resembling common chalk in appearance. Some of the cherty beds resemble burr stones in poros- ity, and good mill-stones are made therefrom in Union County. Some of the stone is bluish-gray, or mottled and crystalline, capable of receiving a high polish, and making an elegant and durable building stone. The Onondaga group comprises some sixty feet of quartzose sandstone and striped silicious shales. The structure of the rock is almost identical with that of St. Peter's Sandstone. In the vicinity of its outcrop in Union County are found fine beds of potter's clay, also variegated in color. The rock strata are about twenty feet thick, evenly bedded and of a coarse, granular structure, which renders the stone valuable for heavy masonry. The group has not been found north of Jackson County. Large quantities of characteristic fossils abound. The rocks composing the Hamilton group are the most valuable of all the divisions of the Devonian system, and the outcrops can be identified only by their fossils. In Union and Jackson Counties it is found from eighty to 100 feet in thickness, two beds of bluish gray, fetid limestone being sepa- rated by about twenty feet of calcareous shales. The limestones are highly bituminous. In Jersey and Calhoun Counties the group is only six to ten feet thick, and consists of a hard, silicious limestone, passing at some points into a quartzose sandstone, and at others becoming argillaceous, as at Grafton. The most northern outcrop is in Rock Island County, where the rock is concretion- ary in structure and is utilized for building pur- poses and in the manufacture of quicklime. Fossils are numerous, among them being a few fragments of fishes, which are the oldest remains of vertebrate animals yet found in the State. The black shale probably attains its maximum development in Union County, where it ranges from fifty to seventy-five feet in thickness. Its lower portion is a fine, black, laminated slate, sometimes closely resembling the bituminous
199
HISTORICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ILLINOIS.
shales associated with the coal seams, which cir- cumstance has led to the fruitless expenditure of much time and money. The bituminous portion of the mass, on distillation, yields an oil closely resembling petroleum. Crystals of iron pyrites are abundant in the argillaceous portion of the group, which does not extend north of the coun- ties of Calhoun, Jersey and Pike.
LOWER CARBONIFEROUS SYSTEM. - This is di- visible into five groups, as follows: The Kinder- hook group, the Burlington limestone, and the Keokuk, St. Louis and Chester groups. Its greatest development is in the southern portion of the State, where it has a thickness of 1,400 or 1,500 feet. It thins out to the northward so rapidly that, in the vicinity of the Lower Rapids on the Mississippi, it is only 300 feet thick, while it wholly disappears below Rock Island. The Kinder- hook group is variable in its lithological charac- ter, consisting of argillaceous and sandy shales, with thin beds of compact and oolitic limestone, passing locally into calcareous shales or impure limestone. The entire formation is mainly a mechanical sediment, with but a very small por- tion of organic matter. The Burlington lime- stone, on the other hand, is composed almost entirely of the fossilized remains of organic beings, with barely enough sedimentary material to act as a cement. Its maximum thickness scarcely exceeds 200 feet, and its principal out- crops are in the counties of Jersey, Greene, Scott, Calhoun, Pike, Adams, Warren and Henderson. The rock is usually a light gray, buff or brown limestone, either coarsely granular or crystalline in structure. The Keokuk group immediately succeeds the Burlington in the ascending order, with no well defined line of demarcation, the chief points of difference between the two being in color and in the character of fossils found. At the upper part of this group is found a bed of calcareo-argillaceous shale, containing a great variety of geodes, which furnish beautiful cabinet specimens of crystallized quartz, chalcedony, dolomite and iron pyrites. In Jersey and Monroe Counties a bed of hydraulic limestone, adapted to the manufacture of cement, is found at the top of this formation. The St. Louis group is partly a fine-grained or semi-crystallized bluish-gray limestone, and partly concretionary, as around Alton. In the extreme southern part of the State the rock is highly bituminous and susceptible of receiving a high polish, being used as a black marble. Beds of magnesian limestone are found here and there, which furnish a good stone for foundation walls. In Hardin County, the rock
is traversed by veins of fluor spar, carrying galena and zinc blonde. The Chester group is only found in the southern part of the State, thinning out from a thickness of eight hundred feet in Jackson and Randolph Counties, to about twenty feet at Alton. It consists of hard, gray, crystalline, argillaceous limestones, alternating with sandy and argillaceous shales and sandstones, which locally replace each other. A few species of true carboniferous flora are found in the are- naceous shales and sandstones of this group, the earliest traces of pre-historic land plants found in the State. Outcrops extend in a narrow belt from the southern part of Hardin County to the southern line of St. Clair County, passing around the southwest border of the coal field.
UPPER CARBONIFEROUS SYSTEM .- This includes the Conglomerate, or "Mill Stone Grit" of Euro- pean authors, and the true coal measures. In the southern portion of the State its greatest thick- ness is about 1,200 feet. It becomes thinner toward the north, scarcely exceeding 400 or 500 feet in the vicinity of La Salle. The word "con- glomerate" designates a thick bed of sandstone that lies at the base of the coal measures, and appears to have resulted from the culmination of the arenaceous sedimentary accumulations. It consists of massive quartzose sandstone, some- times nearly white, but more frequently stained red or brown by the ferruginous matter which it contains, and is frequently composed in part of rounded quartz pebbles, from the size of a pea to several inches in diameter. When highly ferruginous, the oxide of iron cements the sand into a hard crust on the surface of the rock, which successfully resists the de- nuding influence of the atmosphere, so that the rock forms towering cliffs on the banks of the stream along which are its outcrops. Its thickness varies from 200 feet in the southern part of the State to twenty-five feet in the northern. It has afforded a few species of fossil plants, but no animal remains. The coal measures of Illinois are at least 1,000 feet thick and cover nearly three-fourths of its entire area. The strata are horizontal, the dip rarely exceeding six to ten feet to the mile. The formation is made up of sandstone, shales, thin beds of limestone, coal, and its associated fire clays. The thickness of the workable beds is from six to twenty-four inches in the upper measures, and from two to five feet in the lower measures. The fire clays, on which the coal seams usually rest, probably represent the ancient soil on which grew the trees and plants from which the coal is formed.
200
HISTORICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ILLINOIS.
When pure, these clays are valuable for the manufacture of fire brick, tile and common pottery. Illinois coal is wholly of the bitumi- nous variety, the metamorphic conditions which resulted in the production of anthracite coal in Pennsylvania not having extended to this State. Fossils, both vegetable and animal, abound in the coal measures.
TERTIARY SYSTEM .- This system is represented only in the southern end of the State, where cer- tain deposits of stratified sands, shales and con- glomerate are found, which appear to mark the northern boundary of the great Tertiary forma- tion of the Gulf States. Potter's clay, lignite and silicious woods are found in the formation.
QUATERNARY SYSTEM .- This system embraces all the superficial material, including sands, clay, gravel and soil which overspreads the older for- mations in all portions of the State. It gives origin to the soil from which the agricultural wealth of Illinois is derived. It may be properly separated into four divisions: Post-tertiary sands, Drift, Loess and Alluvium. The first- named occupies the lowest position in the series, and consists of stratified beds of yellow sand and blue clay, of variable thickness, overlaid by a black or deep brown, loamy soil, in which are found leaves, branches and trunks of trees in a good state of preservation. Next above lie the drift deposits, consisting of blue, yellow and brown clays, containing gravel and boulders of various sizes, the latter the water-worn frag- ments of rocks, many of which have been washed down from the northern shores of the great lakes. This drift formation varies in thickness from twenty to 120 feet, and its accumulations are probably due to the combined influence of water currents and moving ice. The subsoil over a large part of the northern and central portions of the State is composed of fine brown clay. Prof. Desquereux (Illinois Geological Sur- vey, Vol. I.) accounts for the origin of this clay and of the black prairie soil above it, by attribut- ing it to the growth and decomposition of a peculiar vegetation. The Loess is a fine mechan- ical sediment that appears to have accumulated in some body of fresh water. It consists of marly sands and clays, of a thickness varying from five to sixty feet. Its greatest development is along tlie bluffs of the principal rivers. The fossils found in this formation consist chiefly of the bones and teeth of extinct mammalia, such as the mam- moth, mastodon, etc. Stone implements of primeval man are also discovered. The term alluvium is usually restricted to the deposits
forming the bottom lands of the rivers and smaller streams. They consist of irregularly stratified sand, clay and loam, which are fre- quently found in alternate layers, and contain more or less organic matter from decomposed animal and vegetable substances. When suffi- ciently elevated, they constitute the richest and most productive farming lands in the State.
GEORGETOWN, a city (incor. 1909) of Ver- milion County, on the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway, 10 miles south of Danville. It has a bank and one weekly paper; extensive coal mines in vicinity. Pop. (1910), 2,307.
GERMAN EVANGELICAL SCHOOL, located at Addison, Du Page County ; incorporated in 1852; has a faculty of three instructors and reports 187 pupils for 1897-98, with a property valuation of $9,600.
GERMANTOWN, a village of Clinton County, on the Southern Railroad 25 miles east of Belle- ville, in a farming and stock-raising district. Pop. (1910), 655; (1910), 711.
GEST, William H., lawyer and ex-Congress- man, was born at Jacksonville, Ill., Jan. 7, 1838. When but four years old his parents removed to Rock Island, where he has since resided. He graduated from Williams College in 1860, was admitted to the bar in 1862, and has always been actively engaged in practice. In 1886 he was elected to Congress by the Republicans of the Eleventh Illinois District, and was re-elected in 1888, but in 1890 was defeated by Benjamin T. Cable, Democrat.
GIBAULT, Pierre, a French priest, supposed to have been born at New Madrid in what is now Southeastern Missouri, early in the eighteenth century; was Vicar-General at Kaskaskia, with ecclesiastical jurisdiction over the churches at Cahokia, St. Genevieve and adjacent points, at the time of the capture of Kaskaskia by Col. George Rogers Clark in 1778, and rendered Clark important aid in conciliating the French citizens of Illinois. He also made a visit to Vincennes and induced the people there to take the oath of allegi- ance to the new government. He even advanced means to aid Clark's destitute troops, but beyond a formal vote of thanks by the Virginia Legisla- ture, he does not appear to have received any recompense. Governor St. Clair, in a report to Thomas Jefferson, then Secretary of State, dwelt impressively upon the value of Father Gibault's services and sacrifices, and Judge Law said of him, "Next to Clark and (Francis) Vigo, the United States are indebted more to Father Gibault for the accession of the States comprised
.
201
HISTORICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ILLINOIS.
in what was the original Northwest Territory than to any other man." The date and place of his death are unknown.
GIBSON CITY, a town in Ford County, situ- ated on the Lake Erie & Western Railroad, 34 miles east of Bloomington, and at the intersec- tion of the Wabash Railroad and the Springfield Division of the Illinois Central. The principal mechanical industries are iron works, canning works, a shoe factory, and a tile factory. It has two banks, two newspapers, nine churches and an acadeiny. A college is projected. Popula- tion (1890), 1,803; (1900), 2,054; (1910), 2,086.
GILL, Joseph B., Lieutenant-Governor (1893- 97), was born on a farm near Marion, Williamson County, Ill., Feb. 17, 1862. In 1868 his father settled at Murphysboro, where Mr. Gill still makes his lome. His academic education was received at the school of the Christian Brothers, in St. Louis, and at the Southern Illinois Normal University, Carbondale. In 1886 he graduated from the Law Department of the Michigan State University, at Ann Arbor. Returning home he purchased an interest in "The Murphysboro Inde- pendent," which paper he conducted and edited up to January, 1893. In 1888 he was elected to the lower house of the Legislature and re-elected in 1890. As a legislator he was prominent as a champion of the labor interest. In 1892 he was nominated and elected Lieutenant-Governor on the Democratic ticket, serving from January, 1893, to '97.
GILLESPIE, a village of Macoupin County, on the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway. 10 miles southwest of Litchfield. This is an agricultural, coal-mining and stock-raising region; the town has a bank and a newspaper. Pop. (1890), 943; (1900), 873; (1910), 2,241.
GILLESPIE, Joseph, lawyer and Judge, was born in New York City, August 22, 1809, of Irish parents, who removed to Illinois in 1819, settling on a farm near Edwardsville. After coming to Illinois, at 10 years, he did not attend school over two months. In 1827 he went to the lead mines at Galena, remaining until 1829. In 1831, at the invitation of Cyrus Edwards, he began the study of law, and was admitted to the bar in 1837, having been elected Probate Judge in 1836. He also served during two campaigns (1831 and '32) in the Black Hawk War. He was a Whig in politics and a warm personal friend of Abraham Lincoln. In 1840 he was elected to the lower house of the Legislature, serving one term, and was a member of the State Senate from 1847 to 1859. In 1853 he received the few votes of the
Whig members of the Legislature for United States Senator, in opposition to Stephen A. Douglas, and, in 1860, presided over the second Republican State Convention at Decatur, at which elements were set in motion which resulted in the nomi- nation of Abraham Lincoln for the Presidency for the first time, a week later. In 1861 he was elected Judge of the Twenty-fourth Judicial Circuit, and re-elected in 1867 for a second term, serving until 1873. Died, at his home at Edwards- ville, Jan. 7, 1885.
GILLETT, John Dean, agriculturist and stock- man, was born in Connecticut, April 28, 1819; spent several years of liis youth in Georgia, but, in 1838, came to Illinois by way of St. Louis, finally reaching "Bald Knob," in Logan County, where an uncle of the same name resided. Here he went to work, and, by frugality and judicious investments, finally acquired a large body of choice lands, adding to his agricultural operations the rearing and feeding of stock for the Chicago and foreign markets. In this he was remarkably successful. In his later years he was President of a National Bank at Lincoln. At the time of his death, August 27, 1888, he was the owner of 16,500 acres of improved lands in the vicinity of Elkhart, Logan County, besides large herds of fine stock, both cattle and horses. He left a large family, one of his daughters being the wife of the late Senator Richard J. Oglesby.
GILLETT, Philip Goode, specialist and edu- cator, born in Madison, Ind., March 24, 1833; was educated at Asbury University, Greencastle, Ind., graduating in 1852, and the same year became an instructor in the Institution for the Education of the Deaf and Dumb in that State. In 1856 he became Principal of the Illinois Institution for the Education of the Deaf and Dumb at Jackson- ville, remaining there until 1893, when he resigned. Thereafter, for some years, he was President of the Association for the Promotion cf Speech by the Deaf, with headquarters in Washı- ington, D. C., but later returned to Jacksonville, where he died Oct. 2, 1901.
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.