USA > Illinois > Peoria County > Peoria > Peoria city and county, Illinois; a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Vol. I > Part 12
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It was while Robert Will was working upon the old Jubilee college building at Jubilee that he met the old pioneer preacher of the Methodist Episcopal church, Father Cummins, whom he invited to come to Blue Ridge to preach. It was he who organized the Methodist church at the settlement in 1840. with John Furge- son and wife, Jacob Booth and wife and two daughters, and Maverick Pratt and wife as charter members-an organization that stands to this day. The fol- lowing spring a revival was held, which increased the membership to forty. It
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is said that some young men of a rowdyish turn of mind went out from Chilli- cothe with the avowed object of breaking up the meeting but with such men as John Furgeson, Jacob Booth and Maverick Pratt in the front rank, men with the courage of their convictions and the physical ability to defend them, the rowdy crowd reconsidered the matter and concluded that under these circum- stances "discretion was the better part of valor." and as they rode away one of them called out "I name this place Blue Ridge," and Blue Ridge it has been called from that day to this.
PART TWO
CHAPTER XII
GEOLOGIC FORMATION AND GEOGRAPHY OF THIS SECTION OF THE COUNTY-MANY VALUABLE COAL VEINS-STONE OF COMMERCIAL IMPORTANCE-GRAVEL-SAND- TIMBER-SOIL AND ITS PRODUCTIVITY-VEGETATION.
GEOLOGY AND GEOGRAPHY
The contents of this article, showing the physical features of the county, are taken from the "Geological Survey of Illinois," and from articles prepared by William Gifford, of Radnor township, to be found among the collections of the Peoria Scientific Society :
"The cretaceous and tertiary periods are not represented in this or adjacent counties. They were probably lost by denudation, together with some of the upper coal veins, during the long and turbulent period.
"The four divisions of the quaternary are well defined. They rest directly on the upper carboniferous, a coal measure. The alluvial deposits are confined chiefly to the right bank of the Illinois river, forming a terrace of about twenty- four square miles, called La Salle prairie, one of the best corn producing sections of Illinois.
The great geological feature of Peoria county consists in its coal measures, which are coextensive with its borders. Only two veins (four and six) are worked to any extent. Coal from vein four is brought to the surface by hori- zontal tunnels at an expense of one cent per bushel, and half a cent in localities where it can be stripped. At no place in Illinois, or perhaps in the world, can coal be mined and brought to market so cheaply as in this county. It is now delivered to consumers in the city of Peoria for one dollar and fifty cents per ton. The thickness of this vein is from three feet, ten, to four feet, eight inches, and is generally covered with a ferruginous shale and concretions of bi-sulphuret of iron, richly stored with marine fossils, which are eagerly sought for by scien- tists. Its horizon is thirty-two feet above low water of the Illinois river.
Coal vein six is also worked with little labor, by horizontal tunnels. It is sixty-two feet above coal vein four, and is a good blacksmith coal, makes a hard vitreous coke, and is exclusively used in Peoria and contiguous cities for making gas. It contains but little pyrite, and in most localities has a good limestone cov- ering. One distinctive mark of this vein is a clay seam, or parting, from one to two inches thick, dividing the coal horizontally into two equal sections. The fossils overlaying this vein are well preserved and the species numerous. Among the most common are nyalena angulata, pleurotomania carbonana, solenomia radiata, and productus pratteninus.
"Coal vein five has no reliable outcrop in this county, but its horizon is well defined in the towns of Limestone, Jubilee, and Kickapoo by its characteristic fossils-fusalina ventriccosa, hempunites crasa, chonetas messeloba, etc. The horizon of this vein has furnished a number of fossil coal plants, which have been figured and described by Leo Lesquereux, and published by the state of Penn- sylvania.
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"Coal veins seven, eight and nine are the only other veins represented in this county above the Illinois river, and they are too thin for mining and not easily stripped.
"The horizon of coal vein nine in this county has given to paleontologists the most perfect coal-measure fossil found in this state, if not in the world. Coal vein three lies one hundred and thirty-three feet below four, consequently about one hundred and twenty feet below the Illinois river. It is about three feet thick, and is considered a good coal. It is not worked in this county. One hun- dred and twelve feet below three, a coal vein was reached in Voris' boring- opposite Peoria-three feet thick, which is considered coal vein one of the Illi- nois field, and the base of the coal measure resting on the conglomerate, twenty feet above the St. Louis limestone. Coal vein two has not been explored in Peoria county, but crops out on Spoon river in the southwest part of Fulton county.
"Sandstone of good quality may be obtained from the beds overlying coal No. 4, which at some points on the Kickapoo, is fully twenty feet in thickness and it outcrops at many points under very favorable conditions for quarrying. The rock is a brown micaceous, and partly ferruginous sandstone, in massive beds, some of which are two feet or more in thickness. It presents a bold escarpment at many points where it outcrops, indicating a capacity for with- standing well the ordinary influences of the atmosphere. The ferruginous layers harden very much on exposure, and would form the best material for bridge abutments, and for all other purposes where a rock was required to withstand well the influences of frost and moisture.
"On Aiken's and Griswold's land, on the south side of the Kickapoo, on sec- tion 24 (Limestone township) this sandstone has been somewhat extensively quarried, and the bed presents a perpendicular face of solid sandstone fully twenty feet in thickness. It is rather soft when freshly quarried and can be easily dressed, and splits freely into blocks suitable for building and for foundation walls. These quarries are located just above the level of the railroad grade, and very conveniently situated for the transportation of the stone by railroad to the city of Peoria, or wherever else it might be in demand.
"At Lonsdale's quarries, on section 14, town 8 north, range 7 east, the lower part of the limestone affords a durable building stone, though the layers are not usually more than from four to six inches thick. This rock is in common use in this part of the county for foundation walls, and there are several small build- ings in this neighborhood constructed of this material. That portion of the beds which affords a building stone is from four to six feet in thickness.
At Chase's quarries, three miles northeast of Princeville, the limestone is nearly twenty feet in thickness, and though for the most part thin-bedded, yet the greater portion of it can be used for foundation walls, flagging, etc., and is the only building stone available in that portion of the county. The thickest layers are at the bottom of the bed here, as well as at Lonsdale's, but the middle and upper portion is more evenly bedded at this point, and may be quarried in thin, even slabs of large size.
"The limestone coal over No. 6 may answer for rough foundation walls where it can be protected from the atmosphere, but is generally too argillaceous to make good building stone.
"Concretionary bands of iron ore occur in the shales overlying coals No. 4 and 7, but not in sufficient quantity to be of any economical importance. In the south part of the county, concretions of iron and clay, the former mostly in the form of the bi-sulphuret, are quite abundant in the roof shales of No. 4 coal. Some of these concretions are two feet or more in diameter.
"No beds of fire or potter's clay were found in this county in connection with the coal seams that appear to be sufficiently free from foreign matters to be of much value, but excellent brick clays are abundant, the sub-soil clays over a large portion of the uplands throughout the county being used for this pur- pose, and furnishing an abundant supply of brick of good quality at a moderate
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GREAT WESTERN DISTILLERY- THE LARGEST IN THE WORLD
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cost. The best beds of fire and potter's clay known at the present time in this state are associated with coal No. I, of our general section of the Illinois valley coals, and, should a shaft be sunk to that horizon in this county, good clays may probably be found here and mined successfully in connection with these lower coals.
"The modified drift deposits, forming the terrace upon which the city of Peoria is mainly built, will furnish an inexhaustible supply of sand of various qualities adapted to the varied economical uses to which this material is applicable, and it will also afford an excellent molder's sand, in quantities sufficient for the supply for all the adjacent region.
"An inexhaustible supply of clean gravel may be obtained from the gravel beds forming the bluffs at Peoria, and along the north side of the Kickapoo for a distance of eight or ten miles above the outlet of that stream. All the railroads in the state might obtain here an ample supply of ballast for their road beds, without greatly diminishing the amount of this material to be found in this county.
"There is an ample supply of timber in this county, the proportion of timber and prairie land being originally about the same. The timbered land is mostly confined to the ridges and valleys of the streams, though occasionally fine groves are met with on the level land adjacent to the prairie. The growth on the upland is mostly black and white oak, pignut and shell-bark hickory, elm, linden, wild cherry, honey locust, wild plum and crabapple, while on the bottom lands and the slopes of the hills, we find white and sugar maple, black and white walnut, pecan, cottonwood, sycamore, ash, red birch, coffeenut, hackberry, mockernut, hickory, post-Spanish and swamp-white-oak, red-bud, dogwood, persimmon, mul- berry, serviceberry, buckthorn and three or four varieties of willow and box elder.
"As an agricultural region this county ranks among the best in this part of the state. The western and northern portions of the county are mostly prairie, and generally level or gently rolling. The soil is a dark, chocolate colored loam, rich in organic matters, and producing abundant crops annually of corn, wheat, rye, oats and barley, and, with judicious cultivation, this kind of soil will retain its fertility for an indefinite period of years without the application of artificial stimulants. On the more broken lands adjacent to the streams, the soil is of a lighter color, but when it is predicated upon the marly beds of the loess, it is still productive, and scarcely inferior to the best prairie soils. Where the soil overlies the yellow driftclays, the timber is mostly white-oak and hickory; the soil is thin and would be greatly improved by the annual liberal application of manure. These lands, however, produce fine crops of wheat and oats, and are excellent for fruit orchards and vineyards. The soil on the terrace and bottom lands is a sandy loam, and generally very productive."
VEGETATION OF PEORIA AND VICINITY
Though the city of Peoria is centrally located in one of the prairie states of the Upper Mississippi valley, its immediate surroundings present a diversity of surface that would hardly be looked for from its geographical location. The city is situated on the west bank of the Illinois river, the main part on a plateau beginning at the river and gently sloping upwards, until terminating a mile or more back in a chain of prominent and picturesque bluffs, that completely encircle it, in a natural amphitheater.
This chain terminates above the city, in a commanding eminence, rising almost abruptly from the river, known as Prospect Heights, and affording a panoramic view of the beautiful Illinois valley for miles.
The river at this point known as the "Narrows," spreads out into a placid sheet of water termed Peoria Lake, so shallow on the east side, as to afford a most congenial home to a rich aquatic flora. The east bank of the river is very Vol. 1-6
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low, subject to overflow and still heavily wooded, running back to a chain of bluffs similar to those on the Peoria side. From these bluffs numerous springs gush forth, and making their way towards the river, form cold bogs affording a home to a peculiarly characteristic flora, that would be sought for farther north. The bluffs on both sides are frequently intersected by deep rocky defiles, the sides of which under the influence of moisture and shade, support a luxuriant vegetation. The splendor of the prairies, owing to the march of civilization, has almost disappeared, and the prairie flora, is now, nearly confined to the right of way of the railroads, or the gravelly and sandy bluffs, when it has crept up from the original prairie, and secured a foothold it is likely to maintain, as these bluffs are not susceptible to cultivation. The flora of the vicinity of Peoria is a rich and varied one. About 900 native trees and plants grow in the immediate vicinity of the city, and fully a hundred introduced plants have found a congenial home of adoption. It has drawn outlying types from all points of the compass, who foregather here in a harmonious whole.
The cold bogs and springs in the river bottom, furnish perfect conditions for certain species of northern origin, which find their southern limit here.
Two beautiful dwarf willows ( Salir candida and myrtilloides) grow in these bogs and upon Dr. Brendel, our first and foremost botanist, sending specimens to Dr. Bebb a famous authority on willows, he commented thus on the find : "Widely distributed in sub-arctic regions, extending southward along the Pacific coast to Oregon, and on the Atlantic side to New Jersey. Its occurrence so far south in the Mississippi valley as found by Dr. Brendel, taken in connection with the equally unexpected finding of S. candida, indicate an exceptionally cold spot for the latitude." Most of the woodland flora of the east is at home here.
Many of the characteristic plants of the great plains west of the Mississippi, have pushed their way eastward to Peoria. Many of our strictly prairied plants do not pass our state borders into Indiana and Ohio.
From the sunny southland, numerous species have crept up the Mississippi and Illinois rivers to this favored locality of ours. Here the pecan tree finds its northern limit in the alluvial river bottom, growing in vigor and producing its delicious nuts.
The same may be said of the persimmon whose astringent fruit becomes so palatable after the advent of frost. Peoria and vicinity must have been a heavily wooded country on the advent of the whites, as after nearly a hundred years of cutting and clearing it still presents a varied and interesting tree growth.
The river bottom is still well covered with forest and every knoll and bluff are clothed more or less.
In its tree growth Peoria is specially favored.
Of course from its location we would not look for cone bearing evergreen trees and have only one representative, the common Juniper occurring in starved looking specimens on the brow of rocky bluffs. But the deciduous tree growth is rich in species. In the alluvial river bottom lands, the timber is mainly Syca- more, Soft Maple, White Elm, Slippery Elm, Black Walnut, Butternut, Swamp Hickory, five species of Ash, Cottonwood, Hackberry and scattering specimens of Swamp White Oak, Pecan, Coffee Bean, Honey Locust, Mulberry, Box Elder, Ohio Buckeye, PawPaw and Persimmon.
The first three sometimes attain a very large size, specimens five feet in diameter not being uncommon.
On the bluffs and uplands the forest growth is materially different being rep- resented by the Basswood, Wild Cherry, Sugar Maple, Shell Bark Hickory, Pignut, Aspen White, Chestnut, Scarlet, Red, Bur and Laurel Oaks.
Not desiring to go into extreme detail, we will mention some of the most obvious and characteristic features of our flora. Our first harbinger of spring is the beautiful little Trillium nivale, that in favorable seasons puts forth its white waxy flower the last week in March, often in the proximity of some lingering snow bank.
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It is soon followed by the Liverwort, so common on wooded slopes, Dutch- mans Breeches and Blood Root.
A little later the woods are gay with the exquisite Blue Bells and a Phlox with lavender bloom called Sweet William.
Among the leafless woods the Service Berry and Wild Plum are conspicuous in their snowy dress, while the Red Bud gives the brooks the appearance of purple ribbons in the landscape. Turning to the prairie we meet with the Caro- lina Anemone with its pretty star like blue and white flowers. In company with it are the yellow flowered Puccoons, Pink Sorral and the almost extinct Tro.rimon crespidatum with its showy dandelion like head.
The open bogs are golden with the Marsh Marigold, and the ill smelling Skunk Cabbage pushes its flowers through the oozy mud. With the advent of May, nature dons her brightest garb. The trees are putting forth their foliage and the landscape, so bare but a few weeks before, is gay with a varied flora. The Haws, Crab Apple, Sassafras, Viburnum and Bladder Nut are bursting into bloom. Of interesting plants we would mention the rare Phlox bifida. It clothes the precipitous sides of Rocky Glen and, with its pretty star like flowers varying through every shade of pink, white and lavender presents a beautiful sight when in full bloom. Growing with it is l'iola pedata with two of the petals as velvety as a pansy and known locally as "Rocky Glen Pansy."
On the prairie grows a Baptisia, with its ample raceme of showy pea shaped cream colored flowers.
As June approaches our Sedges and Grasses are a marked feature of our flora. While inconspicuous individually, their abundance and variety challenge notice.
We have seventy-eight species of Sedges and eighty-one Grasses native to our flora. One of our representative prairie plants comes into bloom as the Purple Cone Flower.
The large head with its pendulous purple rays makes it a showy plant. On sandy barrens, we meet with Chrysopsis villosa, bearing a profusion of golden yellow heads up till frost. In rich shady woods can be found the dainty Yellow Lady Slipper while a little later its sister the rare and beautiful Royal Lady Slipper appears in the cold springy bogs of the river bottom.
The woodsnare adorned with clinging vines-several species of grapes, Bit- ter Sweet, Yellow Honeysuckle, Moonseed and Woodbine. July with its intense heat forces a luxuriant vegetation. About the first weeks of the month our Climbing Rose ( Rose setigera ) puts forth its flowers. It grows in large clumps, its long flexible branches clambering rather than climbing over other shrubs and when loaded down with bloom is a glorious sight lighting up the dense shades of the river bottom where it delights to grow. In the cold rills and bogs of the river bottom, one of our most beautiful plants, Queen-of-the-Prairie (Spiraca lobata) finds a congenial home.
Its masses of peach colored blossoms are so delicately beautiful and appar- ently so out of place in its uninviting surroundings, that no matter how often one meets with it in a ramble, each succeeding plant brings out a fresh exclama- tion of delight. On sand hills Callirhoe triangulata occurs and all through July produces its brilliant blossoms of purple. In following up the rocky defiles of the bluffs our attention is directed to Hydrangea arborescens with its showing radiant flowers.
Occasionally specimens are seen with the flowers all radiant like the garden species. High up the rocky sides, the Goats Beard (Spiraca arincies) is con- spicuous by its ample feathery panicles of staminate flowers.
The shallows on the east side of the river nourish a rich aquatic flora. Acres upon acres are covered with the pads of our Water Lily ( Castalia tuberosa).
The lovely flowers are very large, with a manifest perfume, though usually described as odorless, and find a ready sale on the streets of our city.
In company with it but not so common, is Nelumbrium luteum, with its immense leaves and cream colored flowers borne on stalks a foot or two above the water,
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differing thus from the preceding which spreads its flowers on the surface of the water. Intermingled with these plants are the Sweet Flag, Iris, Arrow Head, Pickerel Weed, Common Reed, Wild Celery and Wild Rice. The last two are special dainties with the water fowl. In August. the great order Composite becomes predominant.
The intense heat forces the Silphiuns, Sunflowers, Tickseeds, Cone-flowers, Hawkweeds, etc., in a continual procession ending with the Asters and Golden- rod in more variety than I know of in any other local flora. By the latter part of the summer the rich soil of the alluvial bottom has produced a rank and luxuriant vegetation that taxes one's efforts to push a way through. Near to the river bank Hibiscus militaris grows in abundance. Its peculiar halberd shaped leaves and its showy flowers of flesh pink with purple throat render it a striking plant.
The Cardinal flower with its spike of intensely red flowers makes a very vivid bit of coloring in the somber shade of the bottom. With it grows its near relative the Blue Lobelia. In the upland woods grows Gerardia grandiyora, bearing a profusion of showy lemon yellow flowers.
In this summary of our flora we have touched upon, only, the most char- acteristic features of our vegetation but one who undertakes the careful study of our flora will find that this vicinity will afford him unbounded material and a constant source of delight.
Many of our native trees, shrubs and flowers have been brought under cultiva- tion for ornament.
As to trees might be mentioned the White Elm, as the leader of them all as a shade tree. It is towering in height, with a graceful spread of branch, vigorous, long lived and in our climate becomes the equal of the "lordly elms of New Eng- land." On account of its height and spread, it should stand in the open for best results.
The Sugar Maple while slow growing is most desirable on account of its compact crown and the luxuriance of its beautiful foliage. Magnificent examples of this tree can be seen across the river on the Spring Bay road. Its near ally. the Silver Maple, is frequently planted. Though of quicker growth than the preceding it is not as desirable on account of its softer wood and brittle branches which suffer severely in heavy windstorms.
One of our commonest shadetrees to-day is the so-called Carolina Poplar. It will surprise most people to know that this euphonious name is simply a dis- guise of the well known Cottonwood so frequent along watercourses.
The male tree only is planted, as the cotton from the female tree creates such a litter as to make it undesirable.
The chief thing in its favor is its very rapid growth.
The Bur Oak ( Quercus macrocarpa) is a desirable shade tree. Its low and wide spreading branches are covered with a foliage, fully as beautiful and almost as dense as the Sugar Maple. Beautiful examples can be seen near the work- house and at the turn of High street.
The Catalpa native from southern Illinois, southward is often planted. Its quick growth, ample heart shaped leaves and showy flowers make it a favorite. It has only one drawback-it is the last tree to unfold its leaves in the spring and the first to shed them in autumn. All the evergreens do well in this vicinity though not planted near as much as formerly.
From a cultural standpoint all the grains and fruits of the Temperate Zone find congenial conditions here.
Some complain the apple does not seem to flourish as in the past, but this is due more to the ravages of insect pests, that go hand in hand with civilization, rather than changes in climatic conditions. Give our orchards the same attention they would receive in Oregon, and there would not be as much talk about the decadence of Illinois as an apple country. Viewing our vegetation in its every phase, only emphasizes the conclusion, that few localities are so generously favored as ours.
CHAPTER XIII
CREATION AND ORGANIZATION OF PEORIA COUNTY-DIFFICULTIES IN OBTAINING TITLE TO COUNTY SEAT-PRESIDENT JOHN QUINCY ADAMS LENDS IHIS ASSIST- ANCE -- WILLIAM S. HAMILTON, SON OF ALEXANDER HAMILTON, ATTORNEY FOR THE COUNTY-CLAIMS TO LAND OF JOHN HAMLIN AND OTHERS ADJUSTED.
The territory of Indiana was divided February 3, 1809, and the new territory of Illinois organized. The counties of St. Clair and Randolph, which had been formed at the time of the division of the Northwestern Territory in 1800, were continued, their boundaries being designated and described as follows: "The county of Randolph shall include all that part of Illinois territory lying south of the line dividing the counties of Randolph and St. Clair as it existed under the government of the territory of Indiana on the last day of February, 1809, and the county of St. Clair shall include all that part of the territory which lies north of said line."
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