McHenry County, Illinois - Chapter 1: Introductory and Descriptive, 1885

Chapter 1: Introductory and Descriptive

The Importance of Local History. - Scope of the Following Pages. - Geography of MoHenry County. - Original Area of the County. - Present Extent. - Climatic Features. - Topography. - Theories Concerning Prairies. - Water Courses of the County. - Geological Features. - Abundance of Drift Formation. - Limited Exposure of Silurian Rocks. - Clay and Peat.

All history is essentially local. No record of events, however important, can make a vivid or lasting impression upon a reader's mind if the locality of the occurrences is not given due prominence. By association the scenes of great events become sanctified and endeared in the hearts of a people. Who, for instance, can gaze unmoved upon the house which was the home or the birthplace of an illustrious man ? Who can give expression to his emotions as he stands upon the ground where some decisive struggle for liberty took place ?

Even the most prosiac places, even the simplest of every-day occurrences, are sometimes elevated beyond their natural condition, becoming illustrious and important on account of the memories which surround them. And even within the narrow limits of a county, events, perhaps of little moment in themselves, are constantly transpiring, which growing venerable through age become invested with peculiar interest and are rightfully worthy of perpetual remembrance. A small community has its place in history as well as a large one. Every intelligent and public-spirited citizen feels a degree of pride in the achievements, the industrial growth, the religious, social, and intellectual progress of his county.

worthy of popular attention. Centuries hence, when a history of the American people shall be written, the historian will gather his data largely from the facts which are now being collected and put in preservable form. But the greatest importance of local history lies in the interest which we may expect posterity to entertain for it. The work of the pioneers - humble in its details yet magnificent in its results; the first rudely built church or school-house; the founding of a village; the inception of an industry - each mark an epoch in the history of any locality. The nationality and characteristics of the early settlers; their lives, adventures and hardships; the part performed by them in civil, judicial or military affairsall these are topics in which their descendants can never cease to have an interest.

In the following pages it has been the writer's aim to treat npon the subjects above mentioned; also to embody an account of such events in the county's history as seemed worthy of record; to trace the growth of industries, wealth and population; in short, to present, in a fair and impartial manner, a history of McHenry County and its inhabitants. In order to preserve the names and the memory of the heroic pioneers, and with a view toward giving honor to whom honor is due, considerable space has been given to biographical matter, in which will be found much that is interesting and valuable.

McHenry County is situated in the northeastern part of the State of Illinois. Its boundaries are: The State of Wisconsin on the north; Lake County on the east, between McHenry County and Lake Michigan ; Kane and DeKalb counties on the south, and Boone County on the west. McHenry County was formed in 1836 from a portion of Cook County and then included the territory which now constitutes the two counties, McHenry and Lake. The superficial area of McHenry County is 612 square miles; of Lake County, 394.

The climate is characterized by severe cold in winter and frequent sudden changes. The heat of summer is rendered agreeable by refreshing breezes which blow almost constantly. The air is pure and bracing; the scenery, varied by lakes, streams, groves and prairies, is attractive and picturesque; there is abundance of pure water to be obtained from wells, streams and natural springs. Altogether, McHenry County offers to the summer tourist, or

The surface elevation very nearly approaches the highest in the State, a fact which further accounts for the wholesomeness and salubrity of the climate. The county is somewhat unequally divided into prairies and woodlands, the former being in the excess. Good timber is abundant, and the people are supplied at home with all that is required for fuel and fences as well as much that is suitable for building purposes. Timber is fully as abundant now as when the country was first settled, improvement having caused the prairie fires, with their attendant destruction of forests, to cease, while the use of wood has scarcely kept pace with its growth. The prairies, stretching their broad and grassy surface between tine groves, present an interesting natural phenomenon, and inasmuch as more than half of McHenry County is composed of them, the question of their origin cannot fail to interest the local reader. Much speculation has been made upon this subject, the results of which may be summed up in two distinct theories.

The first theory presupposes that the soil of the prairies was formed by the decomposition of vegetable matter under water, with attendant conditions unfavorable to the growth of timber. Those who hold this theory maintain that prairies are even now forming along the rivers and the shores of lakes. River channels are constantly changing, by reason of freshets. The heaviest particles transported by the water fall nearest the channel, and here repeated deposits first cause banks to be elevated above the floods. Trees spring up on these natural levies, serving to strengthen them and render them permanent. When an overflow takes place these barriers keep the subsiding water from returning to the river bed ; and by frequent inundations the bottom-lands become sloughs or swamps. The water is usually shallow and stagnant, and is soon invaded by mosses and aquatic plants, which grow beneath the surface and contain in their fibers silica, alumina and lime, the constituents of clay. To these plants mollusks and other small aquatic animals attach themselves and find in them their subsistence. Hence a constant decomposition, both of animal and vegetable matter, ensues, and finally forms a stratum of clay, like that underlying prairies.

The marshy bottoms are thus gradually built up to the surface of the water; vegetable growth becomes more- abundant,* rushes, reeds and coarse grasses being added to the other forms of plant life. These plants, rising above the water, absorb the carbonic acid gas of the air and convert it into woody fiber, which by decomposition first forms the clayey mold and afterward the black mold of the prairie. Such agencies, now operating in the ponds which skirt river-banks, originally formed all the prairies of the Mississippi Valley. According to geologists, the surface of the land was submerged toward the close of the drift period, and as it slowly emerged afterward, it was covered by extensive ponds of shallow water which finally became swamps, and then prairies. One remarkable feature about the prairies, namely, the absence of trees, is accounted for, first, by the formation of ulmic acid, which is favorable to the growth of plants, but retards that of trees; second, the roots of trees require air, which they cannot obtain when the surface is under water or covered by a compact sod; third, marshy flats offer no solid points to which the trees may attach themselves. But when the land becomes dry, and the sod-is broken by cultivation, almost all varieties of native woods grow and thrive upon the prairie. The uneven surface of some prairies is due to the erosive action of subsiding waters. The drainage, following the creeks and rivers, finally resulted in the formation of rolling prairies.

The foregoing theory is based upon a large and constant water supply; another theory, which is accepted by many, assumes a very different aqueous condition in accounting for the prairies. It is a well-known fact in physical geography that the chief continents of the globe are generally surrounded by belts of timber, while further inland are areas of treeless tracts, and centrally, extensive deserts. On the eastern coast of North America, from the Gulf of Mexico to the Hudson Bay, as well as on the Pacific slope of the continent, timber grows thickly and spontaneously. These two zones of timber approach each other at the north and south, and within them lie the great prairies of the Mississippi Valley. Farther west are those arid regions which have caused them to be designated as "The Great American Desert." Other portions of the earth have likewise their areas of forests, treeless lands and barrens. In Africa, the Sahara; in Europe, the Steppes; in Asia, the rainless wastes; in South America, the Atacama, all serve to illustrate that the operation of physical laws such as have caused the diversification of the United States has been general in all countries.

amount of rain-tall. The ocean is the great source of moisture, and the clouds are the vehicles which transport it over the land. Actual investigation has proved that most of the water taken from the ocean in the form of vapor or clouds is discharged upon the rim of the continent; that the amount of rain is less farther toward the interior, until, finally, almost total aridity is found. Upon applying this theory to the American continent it will be found that in going from New York to San Francisco the amount of rain-fall very nearly coincides with the alternations of woodland, prairie and desert. At New York the average annual rain-fall is forty-two inches; the region extending thence to Ann Arbor, Mich., where the annual rain-fall is twenty-nine inches, is well timbered; thence to Galesburg, 111., where the rain-fall is twenty-four inches, the country is prairie interspersed with occasional clumps of woodland; thence to Fort Laramie, having twenty inches rain-fall, the country rapidly changes to continuous prairie; thence to Fort Youina, having three inches, it becomes a desert; and thence to San Francisco, where the rain-fall is twenty-two inches, it changes to thick forests. Illinois lies within the region of alternate wood and prairie.

Still further, some scientists maintain that the treeless tracts are due to the nature of the soil. It is highly probable that each of the forces named in these theories may have had something to do with the formation of the prairies.

The surface of McHenry County is varied, consisting of prairies, both level and undulating, wooded ridges, and hills of considerable elevation. The configuration is such that artificial drainage is rendered comparatively easy, while nature has provided ample water-courses. The Fox Kiver, rising in Wisconsin, flows south, in Lake and McHenry counties, keeping near the county line. This is a noble stream, the largest in this section. It ultimately joins the Illinois River. The Fox Eiver enters McHenry County about eight miles from the Wisconsin State line, flowing out of Pistaqua Lake* in township 46, range 9 east; thence its course is in McHenry County until it reaches the line dividing townships 43 and 44, where it crosses into Lake County. A little over two miles further south the river bends westward into McHenry County in which it continues until the southern line of the county is reached at Algonquin. The Nippersink, a tributary of the Fox, rises in McHenry County and traverses the northeastern part of the county. This county is also the source of the Kishwaukee *This lake lies in both counties, and is but an expansion of the river.

River, its chief tributaries arising in the central and western part of the county. The stream flows westward into Rock Eiver. Other small streams are tributaries to those above named.

Small lakes, or ponds, are quite abundant in this county. They vary in character, some being surrounded by a firm shore, others bordered by marshes and low, wet laud, thickly covered by grasses and weeds. Some of them have an extraordinary depth compared with their size. There are also numerous sloughs of varied extent. These wet prairies usually have a peaty soil of variable depth.

Geological Features

The geological formations found in this county consist principally of the drift. The bed-rock, which is rarely exposed, belongs chiefly to the Niagara group (Upper Silurian). Along the western border of the county, in a narrow strip running north and south, the underlying formation belongs to the Cincinnati group. The drift deposits, consisting of clay and hard-pan, with occasional beds of sand and gravel, and boulders frequently scattered throughout the mass, cover the whole surface of the county an average depth of at least seventy feet. The mighty agencies of nature at work during the glacial period ground away and transformed all of the original formations above the Silurian rocks, and buried these rocks themselves deep beneath a mass of debris of heterogeneous character.

There are no good opportunities afforded for observing sections of the drift in the count}'. There being no natural exposures, excavations for wells afford about the only data accessible, and- this is meager. "Wells are seldom sunk to a depth of over forty feet, and in that distance little is found except blue clay, or hard-pan, with an occasional pocket or irregular seam of quicksand or gravel. Boulders are found both upon the surface and in excavations. They are of varying size and of all sorts of material, such as granite, syenite, trap, greenstone, limestone and sandstone. Near the Fox River the ridges contain large quantities of rolled limestone boulders, evidently derived from the Niagara rocks of Wisconsin. The mass of the drift, however, appears to be clay and hard-pan, with occasional boulders. Logs of wood and other vegetable remains have frequently been found beneath the surface at distances of from fifteen to fifty feet.

the county, already referred to as belonging to the Cincinnati group, the underlying formation probably belongs wholly to the Niagara group. The outcrops, however, are so few as to render absolute knowledge of the formation impossible. In the northeastern corner of section 17, township 44, range 9, nearly on the county line between Lake and McHenry, the limestone is exposed in an excavation by the roadside. It is unstratified and contains no well-preserved fossils. At the Sand Hills on the Kishwaukee, in the southwest part of section 21, township 44, range 6, a bed of limestone was found in an excavation, fourteen feet below the surface. This, it is probable, belongs also to the Niagara group.

The exposures of the Cincinnati formation are limited to one locality, about two miles east of Garden Prairie station, on the Galena division of the Chicago & Northwestern Railway, about a quarter of a mile south of the main wagon-road between that station and Marengo. This rock has been quite extensively quarried here. It is a buff limestone, thinly bedded, and containing considerable chert in some parts of the quarry. Frequently it has a slight bluish tinge. Fossils are scarce and imperfect.

The only extensive stone quarry in the county is that just mentioned. The rock, being thin-bedded, and containing chert, is not calculated to serve all the purposes of a building stone, yet it becomes very useful in foundations and for the rougher kinds of masonry. Along the Fox River the boulders found in the ridges have been quarried to some extent, and rough building material obtained therefrom. Lime has been burned from the limestone boulders in some places, but no extensive manufacture of it has been attempted.

Good clay for brick-making is abundant. Its prevailing color, when burned, is red, or reddish-brown. At Woodstock and Mc- Henry, however, a white or straw-colored brick is made . The clay for the white brick is obtained at "Woodstock, under a peat bed, "and may," says Mr. Bannister, in the report of the State Geologist, "possibly be a sedimentary formation more recent than the drift." That at McHenry he thinks belougs to the drift proper. At Woodstock the same clay used for making brick has been employed with good results in the manufacture of drain tile.

Peat is abundant throughout the county, but the most extensive deposits are in the northern half. It is found in the sloughs or bogs, in varying depths and of various qualities. Where it has been tested it has been found to serve well the purpose of fuel. It is estimated that there are 4,000 or 5,000 acres of sloughs containing peat in the two counties of McHenry and Lake. We have not the estimate for McHenry alone. One of the largest of the sloughs is situated near Hebron station, in sections 7 and 8 of township 46, range 7. Thence, with some interruptions, the bed extends several miles in a southwest direction, to the JSTippersink, probably covering an area equal to two or three square miles. The average depths, so far as examination has been made, appears to be from six to ten feet. Other sloughs vary in extent, few of them exceeding 200 or 300 acres, very generally so situated as to be capable of drainage, and thus made useful for pasturage. In these peat beds the county has an almost inexhaustible fuel supply, stored for future ages. Years hence its value and usefulness will doubtless be appreciated as it cannot, be at present while the more convenient wood-supply remains abundant. Peat has been used as fuel in Durfee's brick and drain tile works at Woodstock, and has proved very satisfactory. Nowhere else has it been used except experimentally.

The foregoing facts relating to the geological features of the county are mainly condensed from State Geologist Worthen's "Economical Geology of Illinois," volume 2, chapter XVIIL, which chapter was written by H. M. Bannister.