USA > Illinois > Peoria County > The History of Peoria County, Illinois. Containing a history of the Northwest-history of Illinois-history of the county, its early settlement, growth, development, resources, etc., etc. > Part 42
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Section two provided " That all that tract of country north of town twenty, and west of the third principal meridian, formerly part of Sangamon county. be, and is here- by attached to said county of Peoria, for county purposes : Provided, however, The citi- zens of the attached part of said county are not to be taxed for the erection of public buildings, or for the purchase of the quarter section hereinafter mentioned.
Section three " further enacted That the county seat of said county of Peoria should be established on the northeast quarter of section nine, town eight north, range eight east, and that the County Commissioners of said county are hereby authorized to purchase said quarter section of land of the United States as provided for by the law of Con- gress.
SECTION 4. Best further enacted. That on the first day of March next, (1925.) an election shall be held at the house of William Eads, at which lime there shall be elected one sheriff, one coroner and three county commission-
287
HISTORY OF PEORIA COUNTY.
ers, for said county ; which election shall, in all respects, be conducted agreeably to the provisions of the law now in force regulating elections : Provided, That the qualified voters present may select from among their number three competent electors to act as judges of said election, who shall appoint two qualified voters to act as clerks.
SECTION 5. Be it further enacted, That it shall be the duty of the clerk of Sangamon county to give public notice in said Peoria county, and the attached part, at least ten days previous to the election to be held on the first Monday in March next ; and in case there should be no clerk, then the sheriff of said county shall give notice, as aforesaid, of the time and place of holding the election.
Section six provided That the county of Peoria should receive " two hundred dol- lars out of the public treasury, as full compensation for their proportion of non-resident land tax, in the same way as the county of Pike might or could do under the act entitled ' An act amending an act entitled an act providing for the valuation of lands and other property, and laying a tax thereon,' approved February 15, 1821."
Section seven provided " That the said county of Peoria and the attached part of said county mentioned in section two should vote with the county of Sangamon for Represent- ative and Senator to the General Assembly."
Section eight declared " That all that tract of country north of said Peoria county, and of the Illinois and Kankakee rivers, be, and the same is hereby attached to said county, for all county purposes."
In all that scope of country, now so densely populated and full of cities, towns, etc., there was then a population of only 1,236 souls.
ORIGIN OF THE NAME.
The name Peoria is derived from a tribe of Indians who once inhabited this part of Illinois. Mr. Ballance, who settled here in November, 1831, and from whose history of the city of Peoria we have frequently quoted, and who ought to be good authority by reason of his early and long residence, as well as by reason of his profession - the law - says : " Travelers and historians have not agreed in the spelling of the name. I have seen it spelt Piorias, Proraria and Proneroa. Hennepin wrote it Pimitouii; but this, I suppose, is another name given to it, as Peoria was, after a tribe of Indians, who were destroyed or driven away by the Peorias. This word is also variously spelt. I have seen it terminate with one i, with two i's and with three. There were Indians here when I came, who called the place Cock-meek, but what they meant by it I never knew. The French sometimes called it O'Pa, their mode of pronouncing Au Pied, the foot, meaning the foot of the lake. However, in old times they called their town, which was about a mile and a half above the outlet, Peoria. When they began to build at the outlet, they called that place La ville de Maillet, after John B. Maillet, who first built there, or the new village of Peoria. But in process of time, when the old village had become entirely abandoned, the name Peoria was transferred to the new village, and so it came to be generally called, until the building of Fort Clark."
From the time of General Howard's campaign against the Indians in the Summer and Fall of 1813, and the building of Fort Clark by his army, this region was known as the " Fort Clark country," and the law creating the county was styled " An act to form a new county out of the country in the vicinity of Fort Clark." The act named the county Peoria, however, and established the county seat on a particular quarter section, and the name of Fort Clark, as applied to this particular locality, gradually passed out of use and into history.
288
HISTORY OF PEORIA COUNTY
CHAPTER V.
PERFECTING THE ORGANIZATION - FIRST ELECTION.
Extent of Territory - Population - The First Election - Election Officers -- The Old Poll Book - Mixed Orthog- raphy - Personal - Pioneer Taverns and Tavern Rates.
Although the law under which Peoria county was organized, as printed in the session laws of 1825, provided that the first election for county officers should be held on the 1st day of March, it was not held, as shown by the poll-book of that election, until the 7th day of March, 1825. At that time there was no county organization north of Fort Clark. All the country west of the Mississippi river and north to the State line, was attached for judicial purposes. In 'all that district of country, according to a census taken that year by John L. Bogardus, there was a population of only 1,236. Estimating five persons to each voter, the usual basis, there were only two hundred and forty-seven voters. There is a probability, however, that the number of voters was something more than that, because of the fact that more than the usual proportion of voters were without families; or, if they were heads of families. their families were not living in the State, as many husbands and fathers came to Illinois in advance of their families and started homes. Some of them were here for more than a year before their families joined them.
At that first election there was only one voting place or precinct, and that precinct was at Fort Clark. or Peoria, as the place will hereafter be called.
Under the provisions of section four, of the act already quoted, the qualified electors chose Jacob Wilson, Isaac Perkins, and William Smith. ns judges ; and Aaron Hawley and Peter DuMont, as clerks of the election. After the choice of these officials, the polls were declared open and voting commenced. Jacob Wilson certified on the back of the list of voters " that William Smith and Jacob Perkins were duly sworn according to law ;" Isaac Perkins certified that " Jacob Wilson was duly sworn according to law," and William Smith certified that " Peter DuMont and Aaron Hawley," clerks of the election, " were duly sworn according to law."
Only that part of the old poll-book which bears the names of the voters, is in preser- vation. It is musty and brown with age. The paper, a half -sheet of common record size, is coarse, and was ruled by the clerks. The ink with which the names are written, although still plain, has faded with time. There is no judge's certificate to show the number of candidates, or the number of votes cast for each candidate, but from the pro- ceedings of the first meeting of the Board of County Commissioners, it appears that William Holland, Joseph Smith and Nathan Dillon were elected commissioners, and Samuel Fulton, sheriff.
Out of an aggregate population of 1,236 in Peoria county and the territory at- tached, only sixty-six votes were cast - at least that is all of which any record exists. The following is a transcript of the poll-book as it is preserved :
" An election held at the house of William Eads, in the county of Peoria, in the State of Illinois, on the 7th day of March, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and Twenty-five.
289
HISTORY OF PEORIA COUNTY.
Voters' Names.
No. of Voters.
Voters' Names.
No. of Voters.
Hiram M. Cary.
I
Abner Cooper
34
Reuben Brayton
2
William Clark
35
George Harlin.
3
Stephen French
36
Morton Porter.
4
William E. Phillips
37
Abner Eads.
5
*Josiah Fulton
38
Jesse Walker.
6
John Phillips
39
Robert Barnsford
7
Elijah Hyde.
40
Henry Allen
8
Norman Hyde
41
Antoine Bulborne
Stephen Sweet.
42
Henry Colter.
IO
William Holland.
43
Jesse Wood
II
Elzy Bethird
James Reed
Elias P. Avery
Morris Lauzan
13
Joseph Ogee
14
John Sharp
48
Pierce Hawley
16
Austin Crocker
49
John Griffin
IS
Daniel Lile
51
John Ridgway
I9
Peter DuMont.
52
Stephen Carl.
20
Aaron Hawley.
53
Isaac Wisehart 21
Joshua Walker
54
George Sharp
22
Jacob Wilson
55
Absalom Dillon
23
Isaac Perkins
56 57
*Seth Fulton
25
George Fish
58
Joseph Smith
26
Samuel Fulton
59
Nathan Dillon
27
John Dixon
60
Seth Wilson
28
John Barker
61
Hugh Montgomery
29
*Alva Moffatt
62
David Mathews
30
Touissant Marsecau
63
Thomas Camphell
31
Lewis B. Bowe
64
William Eads
32
Andevine Dullioriee
65
Elisha Fish
33
William Smith
66
The orthography in these names, as here quoted, may be widely at fault. The writing is not very plain, besides it is to be inferred that some of the voters were entirely ignorant of letters, as those with French sounding names. and did not know how their names should be written. If they could not spell their own names, the clerks of the election were not to blame if they made some errors in tracing them with a pen.
Of these sixty-six voters, but very few are known to be alive. The names marked with a * still survive, and have passed the age allotted to man. None of them are under seventy-five years of age. Mr. Fulton is in his eightieth year; Alva Moffatt about the same ; Aquila Moffatt, seventy-seven, and Mr. Blanchard is in his eighty-third year.
Josiah Fulton and the two Moffatt brothers live near the city of Peoria. Fulton and Aquila Moffatt accumulated property and are well situated in their old days. The generous heart of Alva Moffatt has given to others, younger than himself by many years, the bulk of his accumulations, so that his surroundings are not so generous. But no man is more highly esteemed for honesty, integrity and nobleness of soul than Alva Moffatt, whose home for fifty-seven years has been on the bluff that overlooks the valley wheron has grown the second city in the State of Illinois.
William Blanchard, as elsewhere stated, lives in Woodford county, within a few miles of Peoria.
Many others of these first voters accumulated property, but from many of them it took wings and flew away, and they drifted away from Peoria, out of sight and out of memory. Some became conspicuous in public affairs, and filled various offices of trust and honor. Besides his conspicuity as Clerk of the County Commissioner's Court, and in other capacities, John Dixon became noted as the founder of the city of Dixon, in Lee county. He was born at Rye, Westchester county, New York, October 9, 1784. and died at Dixon, July 6, 1876, in the ninety-second year of his age.
George Love
15
Walter Dillon
*William Blanchard
17
Nathan Chandler
50
*Aquila Moffatt
2.4
Isaac Funk
45 46 47
I2
Euhelle LaBooncan
9
290
HISTORY OF PEORIA COUNTY.
Joseph Ogee, another one of the voters, whose name will appear in other connec- tions, was rather a noted character in his time. He was a regular frontiersman, more Indian by association and habit than white man, and always kept a little in advance of the tide of immigration. In the Spring of 1828, when the settlement began to get too thick for him at Peoria, he pulled up stakes and established himself at the site of Dixon. in Lee county. At that time and until John Dixon got control of the ferry property, it was known as " Ogee's Ferry," which was licensed by the Commissioners of Jo Daviess county on the 7th of December, 1829. Ogee was also licensed to keep a "tavern" at that place, and besides fixing the ferry rates, the Commissioners established his tavern prices, as follows :
Each meal
- 37/2 cents.
.25
Horse feed. Horse per night, at corn and hay 6212 1234 ..
Man per night.
Each half-pint of French brandy or wine .25
whisky or other domestic liquors .1214
..
Holland gin 25
quart of porter, cider or ale. 25
Ogee was a Frenchman and an Indian interpreter. His wife was a Pottawatomie Indian woman, and hence his cabin and ferry were safe from Indian molestation. But all was not happiness in his family. There was a skeleton in the closet, and some months before Dixon bought the ferry in April, 1830, a separation was agreed upon between Ogee and his wife. The Indian wife went her way, leaving the husband to act as landlord, landlady and ferryman as best he might. Mrs. Ogee belonged to one of the wealthiest Indian families of the country and was an heiress, owning nearly one-half of Paw Paw Grove, an Indian reservation. After the separation between herself and Joe, she was regarded as a captivating widow, and was not long in finding admirers. After angling around a while, she selected on Job Aleott, another white man, as " best suited to her mind," to whom she was married. When the Pottawatomies were removed to Kansas, she and her husband accompanied them to their new home.
After April, 1830, the name of Ogee's Ferry was changed to Dixon's Ferry ; and when a town was laid out there, it was called Dixon, and from a rope-ferry and half- French and half-Indian tavern, the place came to be a city of no mean importance. When Dixon purchased the ferry, Ogee pushed on after the Indians, and was gathered to his fathers in the happy hunting grounds long ago.
291
HISTORY OF PEORIA COUNTY.
CHAPTER VI.
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY.
The Cretaceous and Tertiary Periods - The Ice Period - The Quartenary Divisions - Coal Measures - Alluvial Deposits - Archaeology - Origin of the Prairies - Building Stone - Iron Ore - Clays - Sand - Gravel - Timber - Soil and Agriculture.
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY.
The physical geography of Peoria county is very simple. It is situated about seventy five miles north of the center of the State and is bounded on the north by Stark and Marshall counties ; on the east, by the Illinois river ; on the south by the Illinois river and Fulton county, and on the west by Fulton and Knox counties. It embraces an area of fourteen full townships and seven fractional townships bordering on the Illinois river, or about six hundred and thirty square miles. The Illinois river extends about fifty miles along its eastern and south-eastern borders. Kickapoo creek and its several affluents tra- verse the central part of the county, and drain the northern and southern portions. Spoon river intersects the north-western townships for a distance of ten or twelve miles.
The surface of the county was originally nearly equally divided into timber and prairie. The prairies are usually small, the most extensive ones being those in the west- ern and northern portions of the county, and extending over the highest lands between the water courses. There is also a narrow strip of prairie extending along the river from the north-east corner of the county to the outlet of the Kickapoo, having a width varying from one to three miles. This belt of prairie covers a sandy terrace below the river bluffs, and is elevated from thirty to fifty feet above low water level.
ECONOMICAL GEOLOGY.
[Worthen's Geological Survey of Illinois, Vol. V., pp. 249, 250, 251.]
BUILDING STONE.
Sandstone of good quality may be obtained from the bed overlaying coal No. 4, which at some points in 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 withstanding well the ordinary influences of the atmosphere. The ferru- ginous 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 Aikens' and Griswold's land, on the south side of the Kickapoo, on section twenty-four [in Limestone township-Ed.] this sandstone has been somewhat extensive- ly 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.
292
HISTORY OF PEORIA COUNTY.
At Lonsdale's quarries, on section fourteen, town eight north, range seven 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 buildings in this neigh- borhood 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 north-east of Princeville, the limestone is nearly twenty feet in thickness, and though for the most part thin-bedded, yet the greater por- tion 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 ai the bottom of the bed here, as well as at Lonsdale's, but the middle and upper portion is more evenly bed- ded at this point, and may be quarried in thin, even slabs of large size.
The limestone over coal No. 6 may answer for rough foundation walls where it can be protected from the atmosphere, but is generally too argillaceous to make good build- ing stone.
IRON ORE.
Concretionary bands of iron ore occur in the shales overlaying coals No. 4 and 7, but in sufficient quantity to be of any economical importance. In the south part of the county, large 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 concre- tions are two feet or more in diameter.
CLAYS.
No beds of fire or potter's clays were found in this county in connection with the coal scams that appeared to be sufficiently free from foreign matters to be of much value, but excellent brick clays are abundant, the subsoil clays over a large portion of the up- lands throughout the county being used for this purpose, and furnishing an abundant supply of brick of good quality at a moderate cost. The best beds of fire and potters' clay known at the present time in this State, are associated with coal No. 1, of our gen- eral 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.
SAND.
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 moulders' sand, in quantities sufficient for the supply of all the adjacent region.
GRAVEL.
An inexhaustible supply of clean gravel may be obtained from the gravel beds form- ing 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.
TIMBER.
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, elin, linden, wild cherry, honey locust, wild
293
HISTORY OF PEORIA COUNTY.
plum and crab apple ; 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, coffee-nut, hackberry, mockernut, hickory, post, Spanish and swamp white oak, red bud, dogwood, persimmon, mulberry, serviceberry, buckthorn and three or four varieties of willow and box alder.
SOIL AND AGRICULTURE.
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 judi- cious cultivation, this kind of soil will retain its fertility for an indefinite period of years, withont 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 drift-clays, the timber is mostly white oak and hickory ; the soil is thin, and would be greatly improved by an 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.
CHAPTER VII.
NATURAL HISTORY.
Geographical Position -The Flora - Fauna-Vertebrates - Reptiles-Fishes - The Varieties -Invertebrates, etc.
Peoria city is situated in about 40° 43' N. L., on the right bank of the Illinois river, . on the lower end of a sheet of water formed by that river, which is commonly called Peoria lake. This lake was twenty-five years ago much wider at the lower end, but since that time the little Farm creek has formed about a hundred acres of alluvium just oppo- site the middle part of the city. The course of this creek is now turned off to a little slough farther below, so that the further increase of that allnvium will probably be stopped. Before the building of the Copperas creek dam the difference of low water and high water, which annnally inundates the left bank, was about twenty feet; now the difference is never so large.
The city is built on two terraces, the lower one, consisting of yellow sand, is inclined toward the second terrace, the bluff; that indicates, that it was an old sand bank and the inclined space between it and the bluff, an old slongh, which was shut up at the lower end by an accumulation of sand resulting from a counteraction of the Kickapoo creek, which coming from the northwest, enters the Illinois river in a right angle. On the up- per terrace, somewhat over a hundred feet above the river, the drift overlies the coal formation, of which the seams No. 4 and 6, each from three to five feet in thickness, are worked in the vicinity. The large boulders of granite, diorite, porphyr, and other rocks, · formerly found in a greater number along the banks of the river, were left, when the river, washing out the valley, swept away the lighter material of the drift.
All the land along the Illinois river, the Spoon river in the northwest corner of the county, and the Kickapoo creek, as well as in the ravines, washed out by the numerous torrents, was originally wooded ; in the northern and western part of the county pre-
294
HISTORY OF PEORIA COUNTY
vailed large prairies ; a small prairie was on the above mentioned old sand bank and slough, on which the greater part of Peoria city is built ; a small part is left yet at the southwestern end of the city ; it was separated from the river bank by a narrow border of woods. Wherever this prairie was intersected by little periodical water courses, for instance, where Oak street erosses Adams street, these hollows were wooded ; now nearly all is leveled. This little prairie was quite isolated, but farther up the river, between Chillicothe and Mossville, the large prairies of the northern part of the county extended to the river banks. It is important in a historical sketch of a district to record such faets, as the commendable cultivation of our prairies and the reckless devastation of our forests will, in not a far future, extinguish every trace of the original features of our country.
FLORA.
Vegetable and animal life is based upon the condition not alone of the soil, but of the atmosphere also.
An abstract of meteorological observations, made during 24 years in the city of Peoria 40 feet above low water, gave the following results: The mean barometer, re- duced to the temperature of 32° above zero, was 29.621 for the year; it was lowest in May, 29.545, and highest in January, 29,699. The highest stand ever observed, in Janu- ary, 1874, was 30.671, the lowest, in May, 1861. was 28.670. This shows a range of 2 inches ; the greatest range in 24 hours occurred in December, 1865, = 1.017.
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