USA > Illinois > Illinois, historical and statistical, comprising the essential facts of its planting and growth as a province, county, territory, and state, Vol. I > Part 2
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Beside this general variation, there are important local differ- ences. The soil of the river bottoms is alluvial, and is practi- cally inexhaustible. Some tracts of land on the American Bottom, which stretches from Alton to Kaskaskia, have been in cultivation for over a century without perceptible deterioration. The river-bluffs composing the loess formation, as at Alton, Quincy, Warsaw, and other points, are specially adapted to fruit-culture and the production of a fine quality of vegetables.
* Illinois Horticultural and U .- S. Special Census Reports.
+ Porter's "The West."
23
INTRODUCTORY-PRODUCTIONS.
Resulting from the peculiarities of soil, the midland coun- ties of Morgan, Sangamon, Menard, Macon, Tazewell, etc., have proved best suited of the upland regions for corn-culture; while Madison, St. Clair, Monroe, Randolph, etc., lead in winter-wheat. In the Grand Prairie there is a wide tract of country lying at the source of a radiation of rivers, and apparently only lately left uncovered by water, in which there is found a peaty char- acter in the fertile soil. The flat prairies in the counties of Clinton, Marion, Washington, etc., develop another condition of the soil. Still farther south, in the hills of the grand chain, appears another variety on which is found the tulip tree, the beech, and other forest growths, unknown elsewhere in the State. Here are grown some of the finest varieties of fruit which the State produces. Everywhere, also, the prairie differs from the forest soil in the same locality. The former is usually darker, more crude, and coarser than the latter. But these differences, more or less, disappear with improved cultivation and drainage .*
But the lands of Illinois possess a twofold and sometimes a threefold value-not only for the unexcelled productions of the surface, but for what is found a few feet below it. The first-recorded evidence of the discovery of coal in the United States is that of Father Hennepin, near Ottawa, in Illinois, made in the exploring expedition of LaSalle in 1679. It is now estimated that of the 195,407 square miles of coal area in the United States, Illinois has 36,800, embracing two-thirds of the entire State. The coal measures may be divided into six principal seams of workable coal, ranging from two and three feet in thickness to seven feet, which are found at a depth vary- ing from a few feet to eight hundred. The most valuable mines for commercial purposes now being worked are those in the vicinity of Belleville, Springfield, Braidwood, LaSalle, Peoria, and in Jackson County.
Just above, as well as beneath, these seams of coal are found, in many localities, thick beds of superior fire-clay, the manu- factures from which, together with those from potters-clay, which is found in nearly every county, are yearly increasing in value and importance. In Pope and Hardin counties is found
* Prof. Worthen, W. C. Flagg, in Agricultural Reports.
24
ILLINOIS-HISTORICAL AND STATISTICAL.
the Kaolin clay, from which is manufactured the finest kind of porcelain.
In various portions of the State there are also valuable quar- ries of limestone, both of the upper and lower Silurian forma- tion. The most extensive of these, called the Niagara lime- stone, are at Joliet, from which was furnished the material for the construction of the State capitol at Springfield, the hospital for the insane at Kankakee, and some of the finest structures in Chicago. The same formation is found also at Grafton, where was quarried the stone for building the St. Louis bridge. Nauvoo furnishes the Keokuk limestone, from which the cus- tom-house at Galena and the post-office at Springfield were constructed. Sagetown, in Henderson County, furnishes the Burlington limestone, from which the court-house at Monmouth was built. In Adams County, the same variety occurs, and is used not only for buildings but also for culverts, and for the manufacture of a fine quality of lime. The Alton beds, called the St. Louis limestone, are used for building, but more exten- sively in lime-making. At Chester, are found not only lime, but a superior quality of sandstone, from which the peniten- tiary is built. The Galena limestone, found in the northwestern portion of the State, is also used for both buildings and lime. In Alexander County there is found the Trenton limestone, equivalent to the Cape Giradeau marble.
A heavy bed of sandstone is extensively worked near Rosa Clare, on the Ohio River; and in the same vicinity there is an outcrop of the celebrated Bedford limestone. In Scott and other river counties, are also found the Burlington, Keokuk, and St. Louis groups; and in the former and Hancock counties, a sandstone is found which dresses beautifully and makes a fine-appearing and durable building. At Ottawa is found the St. Peter's sandstone, which is used there for glass; the same formation appearing at Cape au Gris, from which the Alton glass-works obtain their supplies; and also on Rock River at Grand de Tour. A quarry of magnesian limestone is found at Utica, in LaSalle County, which is extensively used in the manufacture of hydraulic cement.
Beds of peat are also found in northern Illinois, the most extensive of which are in Whiteside County, where they are
25
INTRODUCTORY-CLIMATE.
from twenty to thirty feet thick. Veins of lead are confined to Jo Daviess County in the northern and Pope and Hardin coun- ties in the southern portions of the State. In connection with lead-ore is worked also fluor-spar, which is ground and used in fluxing refractory ores. Iron, which is only found in the south- ern portion of the State, does not appear in regular beds, and has not as yet been much worked.
The State of Illinois extends, as before stated, from 42° 30' north latitude a little over five and one-half degrees south, and from 10° 25' west longitude from Washington four degrees and five minutes west. The northern portion of the State is in the same latitude as Massachusetts and Connecticut; the middle, as that of the lower half of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and northern half of Maryland; the southern as that of Virginia.
But the climate of a country does not altogether depend upon its relative distance from the equator or from Washington. It is modified by its height above and distance from the sea, by the nature of its surface, the proportion of humidity, its prox- imity to lakes and mountains, its distance from arid or frozen plains and atmospheric and oceanic currents .* Thus the Gulf Stream, extending into the waters which wash Western Europe, causes a higher temperature there than in the same latitude in any other quarter of the globe. The mean temperature of Western Europe at 40° north latitude is 65.50º F, while in North America it is 54.11º. These differences are manifested when places having the same mean temperature are connected by what Humboldt denominates isothermal lines. The mean temperature of London, which lies at 51º 31' north latitude, is 50.30°, while that of Philadelphia, which is at 39° 56', is 52.10°. Continents and large islands are warmer on their western than on their eastern sides, so that as we advance from the Atlantic slope to the interior the summers become warmer and the winters colder.+ The extremes of heat and cold on the sea- board become still more apparent on the prairies of the West, thus showing the effect of the earth's radiation over vast sur- faces remote from the sea and deprived of forest belts.+
* "Encyclopedia of Geography, " by Hugh Murray. Amer. ed., Vol. I.
+ Humboldt.
± Foster's "Mississippi Valley," page ISI.
26
ILLINOIS-HISTORICAL AND STATISTICAL.
While Illinois, with other states in the great basin of the Mississippi Valley, has the Rocky Mountains on the west and the Appalachian range on the east, no great barrier is presented to arrest the hot, southerly winds of summer or the cold, north- erly blasts of winter. Not only is the climate of Illinois modi- fied by its distance from the sea and mountains, but it is also materially influenced by the trade-winds which blow from the Gulf of Mexico between May and October, to which may be, perhaps, mainly attributed the sub-tropical character of the summers in the southern and middle portions of the State; while the unhindered winds from the bleak Northwest, accom- panied by an extraordinary depression of temperature, produce our almost Arctic winters.
The annexed table* of mean annual temperatures, made up from a series of observations, which agree with reports to the State Department of Agriculture, shows that the general aver- age for the entire State is 50.65°, or 48° in the northern half of the State and 56° in the southern. That of New York is 48°; Pennsylvania, 54°; Ohio, 53°; Indiana and Kansas, 51°; Mis- souri, 55°; and Iowa, 49°.
Lat. Alt. feet. Spring. Summer. Autumn. Winter. Mean.
Chicago,
41.45
66.76
48.32 24.78 45.85
Peoria,
40.43
512 550 683 620 600
43.55 50.63
74.45
52.94 27.40 51.36
Springfield,
39.48
48.37
48.94 27.62 49.74
Manchester,
39.31
51.16
74.02 73.90
53-34
28.86 51.82
Highland,
38.44
56.55
77.69
56.60
34.13 56.24
From a paper prepared by Prof. Cyrus Thomas, State ento- mologist, the following facts in regard to the rainfall in the State are obtained: "For the period extending from 1840 to 1877, inclusive, the average annual rainfall was 38.30 inches. Divided into sections of seven years, the several averages were found to be as follows: 1842 to 1848, 41.37 inches; 1849 to 1855, 39.12 inches; 1856 to 1862, 36.04 inches; 1863 to 1869, 37.26 inches; 1870 to 1877, 35.82 inches." From which statement and table it appears that while there has been a decrease of rainfall, there has also been a small increase in temperature.+
* "Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge." By A. C. Schott.
+ Foster's " Physical Geography of the Mississippi Valley, " p. 191.
27
INTRODUCTORY-CLIMATE.
Springfield, the capital of the State, is on the same parallel of latitude as Philadelphia in the new, and Lisbon in the old, world. It lies south of Madrid, Venice, Constantinople, and Rome. It is six hundred miles south of Paris and eight hun- dred miles nearer the equator than London; and while the mean temperature of the State is about the same as that of England, its summers are those of Italy and the south of France, while its winters are like those of Sweden or Northern Germany. But happily the winters, kept back by the long, delightful autumns and cut short by the early approach of warm weather, are not of long duration.
While the mean temperature, from observations covering many years, is found to vary but little-the greatest difference being only 3.58° in 1843-the particular seasons are variable. A cold winter is often succeeded by an early spring, and two cold, snowy winters rarely succeed each other; while an unusu- ally wet spring is generally followed by a dry fall.
The winter of 1830-I, which has become famous in the cli- matic history of the State, particularly in Central Illinois, where it constitutes an epoch in the memory of the early settlers, has long been known as the "winter of the deep snow." The storm began in the latter part of November, and the snow continued to fall, with but brief intermissions, until January. Then there came a cold rain which froze as it fell, forming a crust of ice; and then again came the snow; and after that a continuous blast of cold winds from the north, lasting over two weeks. Although there was only an average fall of from three to four feet on the level, in some places, where it had drifted, the banks were seven feet in depth, covering fences and filling up lanes. Add to this unprecedented snowfall the very low temperature, with the Borean tempest from the north, and the fact that the people generally who then inhabited the State had never expe- rienced anything of the kind, and were wholly unprepared for it, and it is not difficult to believe the stories of the suffering and destitution which its prolonged visitation entailed.
Nearly all kinds of game were destroyed, especially deer, which were unable to run in the snow and fell an easy prey to the hunter and his dogs. The corn not gathered and the wheat from the buried stack had to be dug out of the snow for food;
28
ILLINOIS-HISTORICAL AND STATISTICAL.
and roads cut through the drift to the distant mills. Stock perished for want of sustenance. But as no one then lived very far from timber, fire-wood was close at hand, though hauled with great difficulty; and the old-fashioned fireplace was never without its cheerful blaze until the snow began to disappear, early in March. In the towns, after the roads were made, the people enjoyed the splendid sleighing which lasted nearly three months.
While the average temperature in winter is 29.26°, cold "snaps" are of frequent occurrence. On February 15, 1876, the thermometer fell at Beardstown to 26° below zero, and on January 28, 1873, it fell to 40° below throughout the central and northern portions of the State. With the snow in some places sixteen inches deep, this was the coldest day ever known in Illinois.
On the other hand, periods of extreme heat have been expe- rienced, rivalling that of the torrid zone. One of the most marked of these was the 14th, 15th, 16th, and 17th days of July, 1887, when the thermometer registered above 100° nearly all over the State, and on the last-named day 103° at Springfield, 104° at Galesburg, and 100° at the signal-service station in Chicago, being the hottest day of record in that city.
Not more remarkable is the climate of Illinois on account of its variableness, than for the extremes of heat and cold to which it is subject, the most memorable of which occurred in the central and northern parts of the State, December 20, 1836. Several inches of snow had fallen on that day, and it was warm enough for rain to fall in the forenoon, which melted the snow into slush and water. At about two o'clock in the afternoon it began to grow dark, from a heavy, black cloud which was seen in the northwest. Almost instantly the strong wind, traveling at the rate of seventy miles an hour, accompanied by a deep, bellowing sound, with its icy blast, swept over the land, and everything was frozen hard. The water of the little ponds in the roads froze in waves, sharp edged and pointed, as the gale had blown it. The chickens, pigs, and other small animals were frozen in their tracks. Wagon wheels, ceasing to roll, froze to the ground. Men, going to their barns or fields a short distance from their houses, in slush and water, returned a few
29
INTRODUCTORY-CLIMATE.
minutes later walking on the ice .* Those caught out on horse- back were frozen to their saddles, and had to be lifted off and carried to the fire to be thawed apart. Two young men were frozen to death near Rushville. One of them was found sitting with his back against a tree, with his horse's bridle over his arm and his horse frozen in front of him. The other was partly in a kneeling position, with a tinder-box in one hand and a flint in the other, with both eyes open, as if intent on trying to strike a light. Many other casualties were reported. As to the exact temperature, however, no instrument has left any record; but the ice was frozen in the streams, as variously reported, from six inches to a foot in thickness in a few hours.
Such sudden, violent, and extreme changes, such abrupt rising and falling of the mercury, however, are so exceptional as to be remarkable. It is to this extreme range of climate, neverthe- less, during the growing season, that we are indebted for our superiority in the cultivation of many trees, plants, and fruits, the most useful to man; of corn in its native soil, and of those indispensable cereals, wheat, rye, and oats, which, indigenous to the dry plains of Central Asia, find on the prairies of Illinois a soil and climate partaking of the same nature, yet on which they attain a higher degree of perfection as regards growth and yield.
While the climate of Illinois-although far from being ideal -presents many features commonly supposed to be character- istic of climes better favored geographically, the level surface of the State has, from an early period, rendered it peculiarly liable to the visitation of those violent storms, whose anger may be traced to disturbing influences of either an atmospheric or electric nature, which have marked their relentless pathway with death and desolation. To the citizen who is unwilling to admit the inferiority of Illinois in any particular, it may be a source of gratification to know that the record of the State in this respect is second to none, with the possible exception of Iowa.
The first destructive hurricane of which there is any histori- cal mention is that which occurred on June 5, 1805. The storm moved from the southwest toward the northeast, crossing the
* Judge Blodgett and S. Woods of Morgan County.
30
ILLINOIS-HISTORICAL AND STATISTICAL.
Mississippi just below the Merrimac River. It swept across the American Bottom, cutting a swath about three-quarters of a mile in width, demolishing houses, tearing up trees, and destroy- ing cattle, stock, and everything movable in its tempestuous pathway. It swept the water out of the lakes, scattering the fish therein far out upon the prairies. It carried in its wrathful embrace, the tops of pine trees from Missouri, fifty miles away. No lives were lost, but several persons were severely wounded by flying rails and timbers .*
Among the most extensive of these tornadoes of late years the following are noteworthy: That which crossed the Mis- sissippi at East St. Louis, March 8, 1871, and continued in a northeasterly direction, with great violence, as far as Sangamon County. A very destructive storm coming from the southwest swept over Mt. Carmel, at 3.20 p.m., on June 4, 1877. Its path was about two hundred feet wide. Seventeen persons were killed and over one hundred wounded and maimed. Nearly one hundred houses were totally wrecked, including the court- house,-the loss of property being estimated at a quarter of a million of dollars.
But what in many respects was the most terrible of these dread visitants was that which occurred May 18, 1883. This storm had its rise in the vicinity of Springfield, Missouri, and extended nearly to Chicago. In its whirling, ruthless course it touched the earth at forty different points, and at each contact its descent was marked by the destruction of property and loss of life. But it was not until it reached Morgan County in this State, toward which it manifested a special animosity, that its uncurbed powers were fully displayed. Striking Greasy Prairie, south of Jacksonville, about six o'clock p.m., it literally wiped out everything that stood in its way, and then, proceed- ing on its course, came down again at Round Prairie, in Sangamon County, marking its contact with the earth there by equal violence and devastation. At both of these places many lives were lost. The storm-fiend here casting a backward glance over its pathway, as if not satisfied with its work of ruin and desolation, gathered back on its course and again broke out with increased fury about five miles northwest of
* Reynolds' "Pioneer History of Illinois," 2d Ed., p. 347.
31
INTRODUCTORY-TORNADOES.
Jacksonville, having for its objective point the inoffensive vil- lage of Literberry.
The day was unusually warm for the season, and a high southwesterly wind had prevailed from early morning, reaching its greatest velocity about four p.m., when there was a slight fall of rain, accompanied by thunder and lightning. The omi- nous, funnel-shaped cloud was first descried about eight o'clock in the evening. It projected far below the clouds which accom- panied it, and was in a state of violent agitation, its rotary movement being plainly discernible. Its lower extremity rose and fell and swayed from side to side in irregular alternations; its motion was frightfully rapid, and it was soon lost to sight as it pursued its northeastern course. At first its work of devasta- tion was confined to fences and fields, but as its track became wider it gathered strength and fury. The first occupied house which it encountered was a two-story frame dwelling, which it lifted from its foundation and deposited some distance to the northwest, leaving two other buildings, one on either side, with- in a short distance of each other, entirely undisturbed. The width of its swath at this time was about ten rods. Subse- quently its path was widened, and the circular motion, charac- teristic of cyclones, was more pronounced as was evidenced by the rending of trees and fences and the hurling of the frag- ments in opposite directions.
As the cloud, now balloon shaped, approached the fated village, its madness and rage increased. A roaring, likened by a veteran soldier to the booming of artillery, and a hissing sound, as of escaping steam, accompanied the black monster, while its upper portion was illuminated with continuous flashes of lightning, and balls and sparks of fire. Large hailstones fell from it, together with portions of the debris which it had gath- ered in its destructive folds. Houses, fences, implements, trees, and entire orchards crumbled at its touch, and were scattered and thrown in every conceivable direction. A building would be torn to pieces and thrown to the north, while its contents would go to the south. Trees were pulled up by the roots, and some of them, two feet thick, twisted off a few feet from the ground; growing wheat was leveled to the ground in some fields as close as if cut by a reaper, and in others the stalks
32
ILLINOIS-HISTORICAL AND STATISTICAL.
were bent to the ground, flattened, and covered by a thick deposit of mud, evenly spread out; corn-cribs were blown away out of sight, while their contents were left unhoused in heaps. Twenty-two houses, fourteen of them in Literberry, occupied by sixty-four adults and forty-four children, stood directly in the tornado's path, all of which were shattered, and their con- tents scattered to the four winds. Ten persons were killed and twenty-four injured in various degrees.
The freaks of this storm were, more numerous and astonish- ing than those of any other heretofore known. The feathered occupants of the barn-yard were rudely lifted from their perches and, after being carried for a brief space in the cloud, were dropped upon the ground as bare of feathers as though they had been picked and singed by the housewife for the next day's dinner. Freight-cars standing upon the railroad tracks were raised high from the ground and their boxes carried six hun- dred feet away, while their wheels and trucks were strewn broadcast over the fields in the opposite direction. A solid, pine plank, one inch thick and six inches wide, was literally driven into the trunk of a wild-cherry tree, and there firmly imbedded. A family was imprisoned in a storm-cave by the " sills of their house having been blown across its door. The top of another cave, to which the family had fled for pro- tection, was destroyed by the house being blown across it. A corner-post of a shed in Literberry was picked up eight miles distant in Cass County. A house was lifted from its foundation and carried twenty-two feet, the L part being broken off; a coal-oil lamp, which was left lighted when the family fled from the house, was found on their return where it was left, and burning as if nothing had happened. A two- story house and small barn stood on opposite sides of a ravine about two hundred feet apart; the barn was first struck and hurled some rods to the northeast, where it was broken to pieces. The dwelling was carried twenty feet to the south, and after plowing up the earth to the depth of two feet, landed on one corner and shared the same fate-material and contents being scattered around. When the terrified inmates of the house came together soon after, it was found that, excepting a scalp wound which one had received, no one was seriously
33
INTRODUCTORY-FLORA AND FAUNA.
injured. But, to the horror of all, the baby was missing. The speedy search which followed was soon rewarded by finding the missing member peacefully sleeping in the feather-bed upon which it had been laid to rest early in the evening, which had been carried into the spreading, sheltering arms of an uprooted tree, now serving as a cradle, five hundred feet away. This storm extended with more or less violence into Cass and Menard counties, where great damage was also inflicted .*
The native flora of the State is as numerous as its soil is prolific and its climate varied, from the deciduous cypress and cane of the South to the juniper and tamarack of the North. Six species are found peculiar to the northern part of the State, sixteen to the southern, and sixty-one common to the whole;+ in all eighty-three varieties, as against thirty-four in Europe. The oak family is represented by twelve varieties, the hickory by six, the ash by five, the maple by three, and the walnut by two. In addition to these there are the tulip, cucumber, beech, birch, sassafras, catalpa, elm, poplar, hackberry, cottonwood, sycamore, pecan, cypress, and redbud. Of wild fruit-trees, the State produces the plum, cherry, mulberry, crab and thorn apple, haw, pawpaw, and persimmon; besides the grape-vine in endless variety and profusion.
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