Jefferson County, Illinois - Chapter 4: Jefferson County, 1909

Chapter 4: Jefferson County

"Our father's God, from out whose hand The centuries fall like grains of sand. And into common good ordain This rivalship of hand and brain."

Jefferson county, so called in honor of Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States, and the reputed writer and signer of the Declaration of Independence. As designated by Legislative act, it is situated southeast of the intersection of the old Ohio & Mississippi (now Baltimore & Ohio Southwestern) Railroad, and is bounded on the north by Marion county, on the east, by Wayne and Hamilton counties, on the south, by Franklin county, on the west by Washington and Perry counties, and has an area of five hundred seventy-six square miles. When it was "first attacked" by the settlers, about four-fifths of the, territory was timber land, and one-fifth prairie, the latter being the elevated levels between the watercourses, having considerable depth of quarternary deposits, sometimes underlaid with shale, but it is seldom that rock is found ; however, some timber hills are found in the prairies, as in Knob Prairie, underlaid with rock. The timbered land is partly flat, but most of it is undulating or broken in consequence of the many watercourses which traverse the county in different directions. It has some post-oak and some barrens with black oak, white oak, and also hickory. The timber in the creek bottoms was quite heavy, swamp-oak, water oak, sugar maples, sycamore, black and white walnut, etc. The county is well supplied with branch water, (when it rains) is traversed by branches of the Big Muddy and their tributaries. The main branch of the Big Muddy heads near the northwest corner of the county and handles all the water on the west side of the county. In the northeast part of the county is Horse creek, a tributary to the Skillet Fork, and Little Wabash, and it has been said that the rain falling east of Marlow Hills runs into the Wabash and the Ohio rivers, while that falling west runs into the Big Muddy and the Mississippi rivers. Usually we have all the water we need in the county, but last year everything went dry, including the streams, cisterns, ponds and saloons.

Coal

The geological formation of Jefferson county, like those around us, are members of the coal formation. Nearly all over the county is found the same strata traced over in Marion county, a coal seam which varies from six to twenty-four inches in thickness. At a greater depth may be found the coal bed and the sand stone overlaying it, have been traced over a large area of the outcrop of coal, and attains considerable but variable thicknesses. But little limestone crops out in the county and that generally between two bodies of sandstone, of which there is more or less in all parts of the county. Almost anywhere single layers of sandstone of sufficient hardness can be found for building purposes. The coal near the surface in this county is the same as the vein at Central City. Much of this surface coal has been mined and they pronounce it excellent.

The only drawback is thickness, or rather, the shallowness of the veins. It could not be mined at all but for its closeness to the surface. The question as to whether a lower coal bed of workable thickness has been settled by the sinking and successful working of the Mount Vernon coal shaft for the past fifteen years, although the vein being worked is eight hundred and fifty feet below the surface. The vein is about six feet thick and the coal of a good average quality. The shaft was put down by some enterprising citizens of the town, who as is usually the case received no reimbursement for their expenditures, but they were public benefactors just the same, and will be given due credit in another part of this book. Jefferson county is underlaid with a good workable vein of coal, the only drawback being its great depth, but even that is being overcome by our improved machinery. Coal on top and coal on the bottom, so our people are not likely to run short of fuel for many years, notwithstanding the county is largely bared of its forests. There is some iron ore in this county, but not in quantities to make it valuable for the production of iron.

Water

The underneath water for the most part may be called good well water, but in localities it is somewhat salt, originating, no doubt, from the decomposition of the sulphate of iron contained in the coal or shales. As the coal seams are near the surface in many places, wells frequently contain these salts in quantities sufficient to ruin the water for household purposes. This occurs partly in Mount Vernon and Rome townships, and in the south part of the county. The strongest mineral water perhaps to be found in the county is in the the Green Lawn Springs in Mount Vernon, which were a few years ago a popular resort, but of late years have been abandoned. These springs, three in number, issue from the side of a shallow ravine at the same level, a few feet from each other. The springs all contain a considerable quantity of iron, combined with salts. A remarkable fact is that the waters of each are different, but the difference may be in the relative quality of salts. They evidently emanate from the same stratum, but passing through different portions of rock, the water may come in contact with different mineral substances. But one spring, which Doctor Green called the "Tepid Spring," differs from the others in that the water is warmer, not freezing in winter, but perhaps the fact may be attributed to its saline character.

Building Materials

Building materials were plentiful up to within a few years ago. Plenty of hard sandstone for foundations, clay from which to manufacture brick, and timber from which anything from a cradle to a home big enough to hold a big family and all your wife's relations including your mother-in-law, could be safely housed. For many years there was plenty of workable timber. Ash, white and black oak, post oak, black walnut, hickory and cherry, etc., but alas! where are they now? The growth of timber was immense and the only problem that seemed to confront the settler was "How shall we get rid of it?" The surplus timber seemed to be the bane of their lives, and "cut and slash" wherever one pleased, was the order of the day. The woods and fields used to be illuminated by the burning of logs, simply to get rid of them. These same logs today would be worth many dollars each. It seemed that the timber never would be cleared away, notwithstanding everybody in those days used only wood for fuel, building, fencing and nearly everything else. "Woodman, spare that tree," was never heard or thought of in those days. The result is today that we find nearly all of our farms entirely denuded of timber, not even enough for firewood. After the coming of the railroads, this vicious timber slaughter became more contagious and the whole population felt at liberty to chop down any and everything that would make a railroad tie or a mine prop. Reckless mankind destroyed in a few years grand groves of trees that nature was centuries in making.

The pioneers understood far better than we do that everything used by mankind in any line whatever - whether as food or raiment, or in the arts and sciences, in the manufactures, in the commerce, in the household, and in all the world, is simply and purely the product of the soil - of Mother Earth; and what a mother she is! The corner stone upon which all life rests is the farm, the miner - the digger in the earth, for everything must be dug out before it is usuable. From the earth comes all life, all beauty, all pleasure, wealth and enjoyment. So, at the coming of the pioneer to Jefferson county, the virgin soil welcomed him, even as a bride welcomes the groom. They found the soil deep and strong, with fertility of the centuries resting upon it, not as deep as the soil in the corn belt further north, but well adapted to the growth of all the grains, vegetables and fruits, which was not so true of the lands further north. They simply "tickled" the earth with the hoe and it gave in return vegetables, grain and fruit showers. The permanent effect of the soil on the people is as pronounced as upon the vegetation that springs from it and in these early pioneers we read the result of how good the soil was then, and it would be as good now as then, had all the farmers treated it with more kindness and consideration - had they fed it while it fed them. Since then, we are sorry to say, some of our Jefferson county farms have literally been "worked and "starved" to death, by being "corned" and "wheated" for half a century at a time, without ever having received a pound of fertilizer or manure in return for what it has yielded the proprietor. Remember this maxim: "While the land feeds the eater, let the eater feed the land." We are glad to know that many of our Jefferson county farmers are acting on this humane plan, and that their lands are increasing in fertility and price. Many farmers in Central and Northern Illionis, who are farmmg on land, the market price of which is from one hundred and fifty to two hundred dollars per acre, are selling and buying land here that will raise anything they want for from forty to sixty-five dollars per acre, leaving them a neat banking fund and plenty of products from their new farms to live on, beside getting a more agreeable climate for themselves and stock. Farm life is becoming more agreeable than it was a little while back. Let the good work continue, do something to keep the "boys'* "down on the farm," which will be better for the "old folks at home " and much better for the "boys."