USA > Illinois > Logan County > History of Logan county, Illinois : its past and present.. > Part 20
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As has been stated, maize is the main cereal grown. It is the first crop both in importance and chronology. Speaking of the agricultural dis- tricts of Illinois in November, 1779, George Rogers Clark, the famous Western general in the French and Indian war, said: "On the river You'll find the finest Lands the Sun ever shone on. In the high country You will find a Variety of Poor and Rich Lands with large Meadows ex- tending beyond the reach of Your Eyes, Varigated with groves of Trees appearing like Islands in the seas, covered with Buffloes and other Game : in many places with a good Glass You can see all those that is on their feet in half a Million of Acres ; so level is the country which some future day will excell in cattle." .In 1673 Marquette speaks of maize ; Allouez in 1676; Membre in 1679; and in 1680, Robert de LaSalle found maize in large quantities hidden under the lodges of a tribe of Indians at the present town of Utica, Illinois, who were temporarily absent on the chase. Charlevoix in 1721; Du Pratz in 1758, and Pitman in 1770, speak of the early French residents as cultivating this important grain. Its cultivation in a large extent was not begun, however, until the war of 1812, when the French learned from the Americans the use of the plow, and from that date, as the Americans settled the state, the raising of this grain increased. Wheat does not grow so well here as nearer the river. It was first raised in the state as early as 1758, and from letters of that date, written from the early colonies, we learn it was an important factor in the products of the pioneers. In 1757 4,000 barrels were shipped down the Mississippi to New Orleans, then the market for this country. In 1770 quite a large number of mills for grinding wheat and corn were in operation, and annually shipping large quantities of corn-meal and flour south.
The early pioneers of Logan County used prairie hay for feeding, and in many cases that growing in swamps or sloughs, owing to its great length, for making shelter for their stock. The introduction of tame hay ha's largely superseded that primitive article, until now it is almost a rarity. Potatoes, turnips, and other roots are now grown abundantly. Carrots were grown in the gardens of the Indians, and Father Allouez, in 1676,
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speaking of the Kaskaskia Indians, says: "They eat fourteen kinds of fruits which they find in the prairies. They made me eat them ; I found ·them good, and very sweet." Some of these are, no doubt, domesticated and daily used by the present residents of the prairies.
The earliest settlers of the county found wild fruits in great abund- ance. "They gather," says Allouez, speaking of the Indians in 1667, " fruits of forty-two different kinds, which are excellent."
Father Membre, in 1680, mentions grapes whose clusters were of prodigious size and of very agreeable taste. Pittman, in 1770, says : " European fruits come to great perfection." Strawberries grew all over the west; raspberries and other small fruits grew well, and when culti- vated, excited the expectations of the growers.
The oldest orchards in the state are found in St. Clair and Randolph Counties. Being farther south, and in a milder climate than Logan County, fruit there does better as a general thing ; but good orchards are now seen on every hand throughout the county, and from every station, fruit by the car load, is sent to city markets.
As corn is the chief and most productive crop in Logan County, large numbers of cattle and hogs are raised. Over twelve thousand horses ; about fifty thousand hogs ; five thousand sheep ; three thousand mules, and nearly thirty thousand head of cattle were returned for taxation in 1877. The value of these vast herds of domestic animals, was fully two millions of dollars, which amount being added to the fourteen millions mentioned elsewhere, gives a total wealth of sixteen millions of dollars within the county.
The first domestic animals brought to the state were by the French resi- dents in Randolph County. In 1800, Gov. Reynolds says large stocks of horses were grown by the inhabitants. He adds that the horses were of the Arabian strain. "The Spaniards introduced them into their American possessions, and from this race originated the French horses." In 1797, Col. Whiteside brought fine blooded horses of the Janus stock into the country. Major Woods, says : in 1820, " most of the horses are of Spanish origin. They are light and clean, but not very handsome." Ford says : "A French pony is a marvel for strength and endurance." As late as 1831, wild horses were often found on the prairies in Central and Southern Illinois. Peck, in his Gazetteer, says: "They are small of size, of the Indian or Canadian breed, and very hardy." Cattle were early known in the west. The early French missionaries called the bison found on the prairies, " wild cattle." In 1770, "plenty of cattle and poultry," says Pittman, " are found at Cahokia.'
Swine were first introduced by the French. "Hams are furnished to the troops," says Pittman, referring to the war of 1812. When Logan county was first settled, wild. hogs were often found, as well as in all other parts of the state. These were of an inferior quality, however, and not until a superior stock was introduced, and they were fed on corn, did they become a staple article of food and merchandise.
In the early days of the county, agricultural implements were in ac- cordance with the times, and strongly spoke of primitive days. The old bar-share was used by the earliest American settlers, while the French and Spanish used the same class of implement in use in the mother country. It was wholly of wood, save a small iron fastened to the point
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HISTORY OF LOGAN COUNTY. 223
of the wood to cut the earth. This metal was tied on by means of a piece of untanned raw hide. The hoe of the American settlers was similar to that used at the present day. As shops of all kinds were scarce in pioneer days, it was often difficult to obtain iron implements of any kind. Some of the earliest mould-boards of plows were made of wood, sometimes covered with hoop iron. All this has changed as if by the hand of magic. Improved riding plows and cultivators are common occurrences, and farming is becoming an easy and pleasant vocation.
AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES.
Before leaving this part of the narrative it will be well to notice the advances made in public exhibitions, especially relating to this county. The earliest fair held within the limits of Illinois was organized in 1819, says Hon. W. C. Flagg, of Mono, Illinois, from whom many of these items are obtained. An Agricultural Society was formed in 1819, and Mr. Birbeck was made president. It held its first meeting at Kaskaskia, the first state capital. This fair continued to meet, it appears from various records, several years, " until the members becoming tired," says George Churchill, one of the members, "of keeping up their organization, turned over their surplus funds to the Sunday school agent (Rev. J. M. Peck), and dissolved." In 1822, an agricultural society was organized in Madi- son County, and in 1839, the " Union Agricultural Society" of Northern Illinois was chartered. Judge John Dean Caton was its first president, Wm. B. Ogden its first treasurer, Lewis Ellsworth its first vice president, and John S. Wright its secretary. M. L. Dunlap, widely known as " Rural " of the Chicago Tribune, was also a secretary.
Another society was organized in Springfield in 1841, which did not for some reason succeed. In 1846, the " Buel Institute" of Putnam County was organized, and is now the oldest organization in Illinois. An horticultural society was formed at Farmington, Fulton County, in November, 1847, and one at Chicago. In December, 1850, the North- western Fruit Growers' Association was constituted, and in 1851, the Alton Agricultural Society was formed. In 1853, the Illinois State Agricultural Society was organized and chartered, and continued until 1871, when it was reorganized and continued under the name of the State Board of Agriculture.
In 1852, a "rope fair company," as it was often called, organized in Logan County, and that Autumn a public exhibition was held at Mt. Pulaski. A rope was stretched around the articles exhibited, and at the close of the day's exhibition a hat was passed around among those attend- ing to raise the necessary funds to pay premiums. . One or two other fairs were also held there, the same means being used to inclose the articles exhibited and to collect money. Hence the name attached to the fair. In 1856, a fair was held in Lincoln under like circumstances. The Gen- eral Assembly of 1867 incorporated the "Logan County Agricultural Society and Mechanical Institution," and under its management annual fairs were held until 1862, when the One Hundredth and Sixth Illinois Volunteer Infantry being quartered on the grounds of the association, a fire occurred in some of the booths, which resulted in serious damage to the buildings and improvements, and which, together with the effect of
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war upon such matters, broke up the association. In the latter part of 1868, and in the early part of 1869, some of the leading citizens of the county, including the prominent. " rope fair " company, organized a joint stock company, and formed the Logan County Agricultural Society and Mechanical Association. One hundred and sixty acres of highly improved land, about one mile east of the court house, were purchased at a cost of $70 per acre, and over $20,000 expended in improvements and grading; all but seventy-one acres were used for a fair ground. This much had been sold to Martin Spitley. Here annual fairs were held until 1873, when a new stock company was organized and purchased the old grounds, and are yet holding annual fairs, which are a credit to the county. The grounds are about six hundred yards east of the cor- porate limits of Lincoln, and are among the most eligible, well improved, and beautiful fair grounds in the state. Attached to the grounds is a full mile track, laid off and completed in the most approved style, and which is owned by persons belonging to the association, whose purpose is finally to make it a part of the fair association property. In 1860, the citizens of Atlanta, joined by the majority of the people from the northern part of the county, and several citizens of Tazewell, McLean, and De Witt. Counties, organized the Atlanta Union Central Agricultural Society.
The society obtained its charter from the General Assembly of 1860- 61. From this latter date the exhibitions have occurred each fall until the present date without an interruption, and have all been an excellent success.
This society has now over two hundred members, and property valued at $8,000. About two thousand entries are annually made, and over two thousand dollars paid in premiums.
The number of members in the Logan County Agricultural and Mechanical Association is nearly two hundred, and their property is valued at over twelve thousand dollars. Over two thousand articles are entered for premiums, and over three thousand dollars paid out to reward the successful competitors.
These two societies elect a county board who gather statistical mat- ter from each, and who represent the county in all agricultural and horti- cultural conventions.
MINERALS, COAL AND STONE.
But one coal mine is in active operation in the county. The company operating it was formed in December, 1867, under the general incorpora- tion law of Illinois, but afterwards became incorporated under a special charter, adopted at a special session of the General Assembly of 1869. The stock of the company was divided into five hundred shares of one hundred dollars each. Two hundred and ninety were sold and paid for in full, ten were donated to Mr. James Braucher, who had previously. bored for coal about six miles south of Lincoln, and had awakened some interest on the subject, and the remaining two hundred shares were apportioned among the stockholders, according to the number of shares each held, upon their paying thirty dollars for each share. This company was composed of some of the most energetic citizens of Lincoln and vicinity, among whom were Silas Beason, Dr. A. M. Miller, Frank Frorer, and James Coddington.
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A tract of land comprising one and a half acres was leased, at what is now the crossing of the Chicago, Alton and St. Louis, and Indianapolis, Bloomington and Western Railroads, and on the first day of January, 1868, the company began to sink a shaft. The work was pushed forward until a depth of fifty-two feet was reached, when a bed of quicksand and water, eighteen feet in depth, retarded their progress. They labored long and at great expense in overcoming this, and it was not until September, 1869, that the present vein of coal was reached at a depth of two hundred and seventy-one feet. Preparations were immediately made for putting in machinery for raising coal, and on the 15th of December, 1869, nearly two years after the commencement of the work, coal was brought to the surface. In sinking the shaft several veins of coal were passed. At a depth of one hundred feet, a vein eighteen inches thick was found ; at a depth of one hundred and fifty feet, one of thirty inches ; and seventy feet farther down, one forty-two inches in thickness was passed. The vein operated is five feet in thickness, and proves to be of an excellent quality. The cost of the shaft was $70,000, or $30,000 more than the amount of capital paid in. Bonds of the corporation were issued to the amount of $10,000, and a trust deed was executed on the property of the company as security. These bonds maturing in August, 1871, and the hold- ers refusing to extend the time, the property was advertised and sold on the 23rd day of December, 1871. Frank Frorer became purchaser for the amount of the indebtedness of the company, for the use of all the stock- holders who should join in forming a new company, and contribute thereto in proportion to the stock held by them in the old company. By this purchase a new company was formed, and a capital of $80,000 contributed. The name of the old company was the Lincoln Coal Company; that of the new, the Lincoln Coal Mining Company. This latter company is now composed of four stockholders, of whom Silas Beason is president, D. H. Harts, secretary and treasurer, and Frank Frorer, superintendent. The amount of coal varies from fifty to two hundred and fifty tons per day, according to the demand. The trade increasing about fifteen per cent. annually. Did the demand warrant it five hundred tons daily could be raised. The vein of coal operated underlies the entire county. In adjoining counties it is reached at about the same depth, and found generally of the same thickness. But very litttle building stone is found in Logan County. At Rankin's mill, on Salt Creek, in the northwest quarter of section seven in Broadwell Township, the creek flows over a bed of limestone, which is quarried at one or two places on the southern bank. The rock is a light gray, or bluish-gray irregular bedded limestone, and . contains a few of the common coal measure fossills. Its thickness here, as ascertained by a well dug in one of the quarries, was eleven feet. Underneath it was found four feet of black slate, underlaid by seventeen feet of fire clay, and then six feet of limestone. The well was continued to a depth of eighty feet below the surface, where a seam of good coal was struck. On this same creek, some distance above Middletown, a few tumbling masses of bluish limestone are found, but no good exposures. Messrs. Boyd, Paisley & Co., of Lincoln, made a boring in the side of the bluff in the southeast quarter of section thirteen, in Corwin Township. This boring passed through one hundred and thirty feet of alternating qeds of limestone, and arenaceous and argillaceous shales, passing through
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HISTORY OF LOGAN COUNTY.
the drift and surface deposits at a depth of only fifteen feet. A seam of of coal was met with near the bottom of the boring, but its thickness was not accurately ascertained.
The early settlers of the county obtained some coal and much build- ing stone, of a rough quality, along this part of Salt Creek. These lime- stone ledges furnish a fair material for the rougher kinds of masonry, and have been considerably quarried for this purpose. Dimension stone, and that used in building have generally been brought from the quarries at Joliet.
Saline springs occur in various places, but of insufficient value to be utilized.
Logan County is eminently an agricultural county, the soil being so well adapted to the various cereals, and of such a depth as to banish any fear of its durability.
TIMBER .- The various streams flowing throughout the county are skirted with groves of timber, in which at one time stately forest trees were growing. In addition to these belts of timber, various groves were also found by early settlers who always located therein. The principal varieties of trees were the oak, maple, bass-wood, red-bud, sassafras, etc. On the river bottoms, and in low damp lands generally, the sycamore, buckeye, black ash, elm, etc., are abundant. The sandy ridges are gen- erally covered with a growth of scrubby oak and black-jack, with a sparse admixture of other species.
In the early occupation of this county, trees of an immense size were found along the streams and in the groves. These were generally oak or black walnut. The latter is yet found in many places of a good size and excellent quality. Oak trees have been found from six to nine feet in diameter, and walnut logs have been shipped to extensive cabinet-dealers, that were a marvel for size and soundness. Much of this class of timber has already been cut off, and only occasionally is a giant of the forest seen to remind the passer-by of the grand trees that once graced. these forests.
· Fruit and shade trees are now abundantly set out. Nearly every farm- house has an orchard, and a yard of fine shade trees. Of late years the culture of the apple has attracted attention, and when sufficiently pro- tected from the cold, prairie winds, good crops of this fruit are raised. Peaches do not do as well as farther south, or in a more sandy soil.
Many of the farmers throughout the county are beginning to see the utility and economy of drainage, and are reclaiming fields once worthless, · and bringing into cultivation a class of lands whose productive qualities are unbounded, and whose soil never wears out.
POLITICAL ORGANIZATION.
When Illinois was admitted into the Union it was composed of fifteen counties, one of which, Bond, included the present county of Logan, and much of the northern part of the state. During the legislative session of 1820-21, Sangamon County was created, the act being approved Janu- ary 30, 1821. Its limits then included the following defined territory, which any reader can readily trace on a township map of the state. Commencing at the northeast corner of Locust Township in Christian
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HISTORY OF LOGAN COUNTY.
County, then north to a point on the Illinois River about two miles below . the City of Peru, down the middle of the river to the boundary line between Cass and Morgan Counties, then east to the northeast corner of Morgan County, then south on the line between Morgan and Sangamon Counties to the northwest corner of Otter Township in Macoupin County, then east to the place of beginning. The territory defined included what is now a part of Christian County, a small part of Macon, all of LOGAN, part of McLean, all of Tazewell, part of Woodford, part of Marshall, part of Putnam, and all of Mason, Menard and Cass.
Logan County remained a part of Sangamon until the session of 1838-9, when a bill was presented to the Legislature by prominent citi- zens of this portion of Sangamon, asking for a separate county organiza- tion, under the name of "Logan County." The origin of the name of the county is not now definitely known. It is ascribed to the Indian Chief Logan, to Judge Logan, and to Logan County, Kentucky. Which of these, is correct, can not now be determined. In February, 1839, the act was approved. Its prominent parts read as follows :
" Act to incorporate Logan County." Section one of the act defines the boundaries of Menard County. Section two related especially to Logan and reads : " Be it enacted by the people of the State of Illinois rep- resented in the General Assembly. That all the tract of country lying within the following boundaries, to wit: Beginning at the northwest corner of township twenty north, of range four west; thence south to the southwest corner of section eighteen ; thence east one mile; thence south to the southeast corner of Menard; thence east to the line divid- ing ranges three and four; thence south to the southwest corner of sec- tion seven, township seventeen north, of range three west; thence east to the northeast corner of section fifteen, township last aforesaid ; thence south one mile ; thence east to the eastern boundary of Sangamon County ; thence with the present boundary of Sangamon County to the place of beginning, shall constitute the County of Logan."
Section eight of the same act provides as follows for the location of the county seat :
" That Charles Emmerson, of Macon County, Cheney Thomas, of McLean County, and Charles Matheny, of Sangamon County, be, and they are hereby, appointed commissioners to locate the seat of justice of Logan County ; and who, or a majority of whom, shall in all respects perform their duties in the manner that the commissioners for the loca- tion of the county seats of the Counties of Menard and Dane are by this act required to do ; and shall meet at the town of Postville, in the said County of Logan, on the first Monday of May next, or within twenty days there- after, for the purpose of performing the same; and such location, when so made, shall be and remain the seat of justice of the said County of Logan until the end of the session of the General Assembly in the year 1841."
The act further provided for an election to be held in each of the counties on the first Monday of April following. In Logan County the election for county officers was to be held at Postville and Mt. Pulaski.
These new counties were attached to and became a part of the first judicial district. Logan was allowed one representative in the next General Assembly, and until the officers were qualified to act in the
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newly formed counties, the sheriff of Sangamon County was empowered to transact all new business arising therein.
On the day appointed the election of officers was held, which resulted in the choice of Michael Mann, probate justice ; John Deskins, sheriff; George B. Lucas, coroner ; Jabez Capps, recorder ; and Thomas R. Skin- ner, surveyor.
The county was now divided into two election precincts, the voting places being at Mt. Pulaski and the county seat. Three commissioners transacted all the business for the county ; laid out roads ; regulated licenses ; attended to the poor, then generally " farmed out," as it was termed, that is, given to some one who would feed and clothe them for a certain consideration paid out of the county treasury. The commission- ers, at their first meeting, drew lots for their respective terms of office, one serving for three years; one for two years, and one for one year. Thereafter one commissioner was elected annually. Soon after the organization of the county, it was found inconvenient for all voters to come to Mt. Pulaski and Postville to vote, and an additional precinct was made with a voting place at Middletown .. Another was soon after made on Salt Creek, one on Sugar Creek, one at Elkhart, and one at the Kick- apoo. On Salt Creek the voting place was Eli Fletcher's barn. Other voting places were formed from time to time as the county settled, until 1865, when the vote on township organization was made, which resulted in the adoption of that mode of division for the county.
The law creating township organization in Illinois passed the General Assembly in 1861. By its provisions, the people of any county could so organize their county for judicial and civil purposes whenever a majority so desired. The vote on this question was held in November, 1865, but for some cause was declared illegal, and the next year another vote was obtained, which resulted in the adoption of the law in this county. The county court, at the December term of 1866, appointed Asa C. Barnes, of Atlanta, H. C. St. Clair, of Mt. Pulaski, and L. D. Dana, of Elkhart, commissioners to divide the county into townships, and to give to each a name. This duty was performed in March of the following year, when the commissioners defined the limits of each township, and gave to each the name it yet bears. An election for township officers was held in each township on Tuesday, April 2, and on the 13th of May the new board of supervisors, seventeen in number, met for the first time. Since that date this board has performed the functions of the old board of commissioners, and the civil division remains the same.
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