Ogle County, Illinois - The whole text, 1878 (part 5 of 25)

No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the of&ce of President ; neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained the age of thirty-five years, and been fourteen years a resident within the United States.

In case of the removal of the President from office, or of his death, resignation, or inability to discharge the powers and duties of the said office, the same shall devolve on the Vice-Pr.esident, and the Congress may by law provide for the case of removal, death, resignatioti, or inability, both of the President and Vice-President, declaring what officer shall then act as President, and such officer shall act accordingly, until the disability be removed, or a President shall be elected.

The President shall, at stated times, receive for his services a compensation which shall neither be increased nor diminished during the period for which he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive within that period any other emolument from the United States or any of them.

" I do solemnly ^wear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States."

Sec. 2. The President shall be commander in chief of the army and navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several states, when called into the actual service of the United States; he may require the opinion, in writing, of the principal officer in each of the executive departments, upon any subject relating to the duties of their respective offices, and he shall have power to grant reprieves and pardon for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment.

He shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to make treaties, provided two-thirds of the Senators present concur ; and he shall nominate, and by and with the advice of the Senate, shall appoint ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the United States whose appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by law ; but the Congress may by law vest the appointment of such inferior officers as they think proper in the President alone, in the courts of law, or in the heads of departments.

The President shall have power to fill up all vacancies that may happen during the recess of the Senate, by granting commissions which shall expire at the end of their next session.

Sec. 3. He shall from time to time give to the Congress information of the state of the Union, and recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient ; he may on extraordinary occasions convene both houses, or either of them, and in case of disagreement between them, with respect to the time of adjournment, he may adjourn them to such time as he shall think proper ; he shall receive ambassadors and other public ministers ; he shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed, and shall commission all the officers of the United States.

Sec. 4. The President, Vice-President, and all civil officers of the United States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.

Section I. The judicial power of the United States shall be vested in one Supreme Court, and such inferior courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish. The Judges, both of the Supreme and inferior courts, shall hold their offices during good behavior, and shall, at stated times, receive for their services a compensation, which shall not be diminished during their continuance in office.

Sec. 2. The judicial power shall extend to all cases, in law and equity, arising under this Constitution, the laws of the United States, and treaties made, or which shall be made, under their authority ; to all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers, and consuls ; to all cases of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction ; to controversies to which the United States shall be a party ; to controversies between two or more states ; between a state and citizens of another state ; between citizens of different states ; between citizens of the same state claiming lands under grants of different states, and between a state or the citizens thereof, and foreign states, citizens, or subjects.

In all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers, and consuls, and those in which a state shall be a party, the Supreme Court shall have original jurisdiction.

In all the other cases before mentioned, the Supreme Court shall have appellate jurisdiction, both as to law and fact, with such exceptions and under such regulations as the Congress shall make.

The trial of all crimes, except in cases of impeachment, shall be by jury ; and such trial shall be held in the state where the said crimes shal\ have been committed ; but when not committed within any state, the trial shall be at such place or places as the Congress may by law have directed.

Sec. 3. Treason against the United States shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court.

The Congress shall have power to declare the punishment of treason, but no attainder of treason shall work corruption of blood, or forfeiture, except during the life of the person attainted.

Section 1. Full faith and credit shall be given in each state to the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other state. And the Congress may, by general laws, prescribe the manner in which such acts, records, and proceedings shall be proved, and the effect thereof.

A person charged in any state with treason, felony, or other crime, who shall flee from justice and be found in another state, shall, on demand of the executive authority of the state from which he fled, be delivered up, to be removed to the state having jurisdici-on of the crime.

No person held to service or labor in one state, under the laws thereof escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up on the claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due.

Sec. 3. New states may be admitted by the Congress into this Union ; but no new state shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any other state ; nor any state be formed by the junction of two or more states, or parts of states, without the consent of the Legislatures of the states concerned, as well as of the Congress.

The Congress shall have power to dispose of and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory or other property belonging to the United States ; and nothing in this Constitution shall be so construed as to prejudice any claims of the United States or of any particular state.

Sec. 4. The United States shall guarantee to every state in this Union a republican form of government, and shall protect each of them against invasion, and on application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature can not be convened), against domestic violence.

The Congress, whenever two-thirds of both houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution, or, on the application of the Legislatures of two-thirds of the several states, shall call a convention for proposing amendments, which, in either case, shall be valid to all intents and purposes as part of this Constitution, when ratified by the Legislatures of three fourths of the several states, or by conventions in three-fourths thereof, as the one or the other mode of ratification may be proposed by the Congress. Provided that no amendment which may be made prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any manner affect the first and fourth clauses in the ninth section of the first article ; and that no state, without its consent, shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate.

All debts contracted and engagements entered into before the adoption of this Constitution shall be as valid against the United States under this Constitution as under the Confederation.

This Constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof, and all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land ; and the Judges in every state shall be bound thereby, anything in the Constitution or laws of any state to the contrary notwithstanding.

Constitution Of The United States

bers of the several state Legislatures, and all executive and judicial officers, both of the United States and of the several states, shall be bound by oath or affirmation to support this Constitution ; but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.

The ratification of the Conventions of nine states shall be sufficient for the establishment of this Constitution between the states so ratifying the same.

Done in convention by the unanimous consent of the states present, the seventeenth day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty-seven, and of the independence of the United States of America the twelfth. In witness whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names.

And Its Amendments

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

No soldier shall, in time of peace, be quartered in any house without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war but in a manner to be prescribed by law.

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated ; and no warrants shall issue but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched and the persons or things to be seized.

No person shall be held to answer for a capital or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia when in actual service in time of war or public danger ; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb ; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law ; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to » speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation ; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor ; and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.

In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.

The judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to extend to any suit in law or equity commenced or prosecuted against one of the United States by citizens of another state, or by citizens or subjects of any foreign state.

The Electors shall meet in their respective states and vote by ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves ; they shall name in their ballots the person to be voted for as president, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-President, and they shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for as President, and of all persons voted for as Vice- President, and of the number of votes for each, which list they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate. The President of the Senate shall, in presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates, and the votes shall then be counted. The person having the greatest number of votes for President shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed ; and if no person have such majority, then from the persons having the highest number not exceeding three oh the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President. But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by States, the representation from each state having one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from twothirds of the states, and a majority of all the states shall be necessary to a choice. And if the House of Representatives shall not choose a President whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon them, before the fourth day of March next following, then the Vice-President shall act as President, as in the case of the death or other constitutional disability of the President. The person having the greatest number of votes as Vice- President, shall be the Vice-President, if such number be the majority of the whole number of electors appointed," and if no person have a major- ity-; then from the two highest numbers on the list, the Senate shall choose the Vice-President ; a quorum for the purpose shall consist of two-thirds of the whole number of Senators, and a majority of the whole number shall be necessary to a choice. But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States.

Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States, and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law, nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Sec. 2. Representatives shall be appointed among the several states according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each state, excluding Indians not taxed ; but when the right to vote at any election for the choice of Electors for President and Vice- President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the executive and judicial officers of a state, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such state, being twenty-one years of age and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged except for participation in rebellion or other crimes, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such state.

Sec. 3. No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or Elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath as a Member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any state Legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any state to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may, by a vote of two-thirds of each house, remove such disability. I ^ Sec. 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and boun- I ties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be quesi tioned. But neither the United States nor any state shall pay any debt I or obligation incurred in the aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any loss or emancipation of any slave, but such debts, obligations, and claims shall be held illegal and void.

Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States, or by any state, on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

Electors Of President And Vice-President

Note. - It is generally assumed that the gross weight of Hogs diminished by 1-5 or 20 per cent, of itself gives the net weight, and the net weight increased by X or 25 per cent, of itself equals the {^ross weight.

tTo find the net weight or gross price. Multiply the given number by .8 (tenths.) To find the gross weight or net price. Divide the given number by .8 (tenths.) How to find the capacity of a granary, bin, or wagon-bed. Rule. - Multiply (by short method) the number of cubic feet by 6308, and point off one decimal place - the result will be the correct answer in bushels and tenths of a bushel.

Note. - In estimating corn in tlie ear, the quality and tlie time it lias been cribbed must be taken Into consideration, since corn will shrink considerably during the Winter and Spring, This rule generally hold& good for corn measured at the time it is cribbed, provided it is sound and clean.

Rule. - Multiply the square of the mean diameter by the depth (all in feet) and this product by 5681 (short method), and point off one decimal place - the result will be the contents in barrels of 31i gallons.

Rule. - Under the square of the mean diameter, write the length (all in inches) in reversed order, so that its units will fall under the TENS ; multiply by short method, and this product again by 430 ; point off one decimal place, and the rpsult will be the answer in wine gallons.

Rule. - Multiply the length (in feet) by the width (in inches) and divide the product by 12 - the result will be the contents in square feet.

Rule. - Multiply the width, the thickness, and the length together (the width and thickness in inches, and the length in feet), and divide the product by 12 - the result will be square feet.

Rule. - Multiply the length by the width (in rods), and divide the product by 160 (carrying the division to 2 decimal jplaces if there is a remainder) ; the result will be the answer in acres and hundredths.

Bricks are usually made 8 inches long, 4 inches wide, and two inches thick ; hence, it requires 27 bricks to make a cubic foot without mortar, but it is generally assumed that the mortar fills 1-6 of the space.

Miscellaneous Information

To find the length of the rafters, at one-fourth pitch, multiply the width of the building by .b6 (hundredths) ; at one-third pitch, by .6 (tenths) ; at two-fifths pitch, by .64 (hundredths) ; at one-half pitch, by .71 (hundredths). This gives the length of the rafters from the apex to the end of the wall, and whatever they are to project must be taken into consideration.

Note. - By X or }i pitch Is meant that the apex or comb of the roof is to be X or J^ the width of the building higher than the walls or base of the rafters.

Rule. - Level the grain; ascertain the space it occupies in cubic feet ; multiply the number of cubic feet by 8, and point ofP one place to the left.

If the corn in the box is in the ear, divide the answer by 2, to find the number of bushels of shelled corn, because it requires 2 bushels of eai corn to make 1 of shelled corn.

In measuring land, the first thing to ascertain is the contents of any given plot in square yards ; then, given the number of yards, find out the number of rods and acres.

The most ancient and simplest measure of distance is a step. Now, an ordinary -sized man can train himself to cover one yard at a stride, on the average, with sufficient accuracy for ordinary purposes.

To make use of this means of measuring distances, it is essential to walk in a straight line ; to do this, fix the eye on two objects in a line straight ahead, one comparatively near, the other remote ; and, in walking, keep these objects constantly in line.

Farmers and others hy adopting the following simple and ingenious contrivance^ may always carry with them the scale to construct a correct yard measure.

Take a foot rule, and commencing at the base of the little finger of the left hand, mark the quarters of the foot on the outer borders of the left arm, pricking in the marks with indelible ink.

Rule. - Multiply the square of one-fifth of the circumference in inches, by twice the length, in feet, and divide by 144. Deduct 1-10 to 1-15 according to the thickness of the bark.

Rule. - The reciprocal of the rate is the time for which the interest on any sum of money will be shown by simply removing the decimal point two places to the left ; for ten times that time, remove the point one place to the left ; for 1-10 of the same time, remove the point three places to the left.

U. S. Government Land Measure

A quarter section, half a mile square - 160 acres. An eighth section, half a mile long, north and south, and a quarter of a mile wide - 80 acres.

Miscbllakeous Ikformation

The sections are divided into quarters, which are named by the cardinal points. The quarters are divided in the same way. The description of a forty acre lot would read : The south half of the west half of the south-west quarter of section 1 in township 24, north of range 7 west, or as the case might be ; and sometimes will fall short and sometimes overrun the number of acres it is supposed to contain.

Surveyors' Measure

A league is three miles, but its length is variable, for it is strictly speaking a nautical term, and should be three geographical miles, equal to 3.45 statute miles, but when used on land, three statute miles are said to be a league.

How To Keep Accounts

Every farmer and mechanic, whether he does much or little business, should keep a record of his transactions in a clear and systematic manner. For the benefit of those who have not had the opportunity of acquiring a primary knowledge of the principles of book-keeping, we here present a simple form of keeping accounts which is easily comprehended, and well adapted to record the business transactions of farmers, mechanics and laborers.

Interest Table

Length op Time. Multiply the principal (amount of money at interest) by the time reduced to days; then divide this product by the quotient obtained by dividing 360 (the number of days in the interest year) by the per cent, of interest, andt/ie quotient thus obtained will be the required interest.

Miscellaneous Table Miscellaneous Infoemation

Virginia. - The oldest of the States, was so called in honor of Queen Elizabeth, the "Virgin Queen," in whose reign Sir Walter Raleigh made his first attempt to colonize that region.

Florida. - Ponce de Leon landed on the coast of Florida on Easter Sunday, and called the country in commemoration of the day, which was the Pasqua Florida of the Spaniards, or " Feast of Flowers."

Alabama was so named by the Indians, and signifies " Here we Rest." Mississippi is likewise an Indian name, meaning " Long River." Arkansas, from Kansas, the Indian word for " smoky water." Its

Texas is the American word for the Mexican name by which all that section of the country was called before it was ceded to the United States.

Physical Geography Of Ogle Co

This large and excellent county is bounded on the north by parts of Stephenson and Winnebago Counties ; on the east by DeKalb County ; on the south by Lee County, and on the west by Carroll County, and a small portion of Whiteside County, just touching it on the southwest corner. It is thirty-nine miles from east to west, and about twenty-one miles from north to south, making eighteen full townships of land, and about seven half townships, containing, therefore, about seven hundred and seventythree sections, or square miles.

Rock River, a broad-flowing, swift, bubble-dancing stream, flows in a diagonal direction across the countv, entering it about twelve miles from its northeast corner, and making its exit about eight miles east of its southwest corner, dividing the county nearly equally. For most of this distance the stream sweeps along in long, undulating curves except at Grand de Tour, where it doubles upon itself in short, abrupt crooks. The river valley here is unlike itself further north and south. The face of the country along the river is abrupt, rough, broken and timbered. In only a few places do the prairie vistas open down to the water's edge, aftbrding glimpses of the broad, undulating plains, which open so wide beyond, that the blue of the sky. and the green of the rolling sward, seem to mingle in a far-off blending. The little streams on either side have cut down through the hills, leaving bold outcrops of the Trenton limestones and St. Peter's sandstone.

To one familiar with the sublimity and grandeur of mountain scenery as displayed in Alpine regions, or among the canons and wonders of our own Sierra Nevada or Rocky Mountain chains, where the slow-moving glacier creeps among eternal rocks down to the evergreen forests and the smiling valleys ; where the mountain-born torrent leaps in foam along its rocky channel ; where gorge and precipice and adamantine rocks, in wild confusion piled, fill the soul with wonder - to one, we say, familiar with such scenes as these, the scenery along Rock River, in Ogle County, may seem tame ; but to the inhabitant of the prairies, accustomed only to the grassy plains and green slopes of his native state, bedecked though they be in their native wildness with flowers of gayest hue, there is a charm in such scenery as a ride along the river bank froin Byron to Dixon discloses.

The resemblance to the old feudal castles of England, as, half-ruined, moss-covered and ivy draped, they are preserved to us in picture galleries, is constant and recurring. The limestone bluffs, covered half way up their steep side with the accumulated talus of ages, look like mural escarpments and Cyclopean walls among the wild hills. The sandstone cliffs of various hues, now glancing like snow peaks in the sunshine, or glowing like hills of flame or yellow, when stained with the red oxide of iron, are weathered into all sorts of fantastic shapes. The rounded, tower-like, casemated masses, which stand out in bold relief at the Indian Pulpit, three or four miles below Oregon, and at other places along this heavy outcrop of the St. Peter's sandstone, need not the aid of imagination or fancy to shape themselves iDto dome and minaret, spire or cupola, or the graceful flutings, carvings, mouldings and columns of Gothic, Doric or Corinthian architecture. If well painted in oil, some of the more striking scenes would illustrate Illinois landscapes of no mean order of beauty.

. These bold, perpendicular bluffs of rock and deep ravines cut into them by the little streams, aftbrd excellent opportunities for an examination of the geology of this county, and will be again referred to in another part of this report.

At Oregon and Grand de Tour good dams are built across the river, and a part of the magnificent powers thus obtained are made available for milling and manufacturing purposes. Dams might be constructed at many other points on the river within this county, and a supply of water power be put into use unlimited in extent. Indeed, such a stream as Hock Hiver, for water powers, is hard to find ; and some day it will enrich all this part of the state with its mills, manufactories, factories, founderies and machine shops. Other, but smaller streams, run through different parts of the county.

On the west side of Rock Hiver^ and tributary thereto, is Leaf River and Pine Creek. The former rises in Stephenson County, enters Ogle County about ten miles west of Adeline, and flowing in a southeast course, mingles its waters with those of the larger river a few miles below Byron. It is a considerable stream, and affords some fair water powers for light work. Pine Creek runs into Rock River a short distance west of Grand de Tour. It comes down from the north, making a sweeping bend toward the east. It is not a large stream, but, geologically, is one of the most interesting water courses we ever examined.

On the south side of Rock River, the two streams of most note are Stillman's Run and Kyte River. The former is a small stream, rising in the eastern prairie townships and terminating in Rock River, at the bend east of Byron. Those familiar with the history of the Black Hawk War need not be told that this stream took its name from the retreat of a detachment of white soldiers under Major Stillman, after it had been ambushed and defeated by a band of Black Hawk's warriors. Those slain in crossing the stream were buried on a high point of land near the residence of Joshua White, Esq. So long as the little stream flows, its historic name will preserve the memory of that disgraceful scare and wild retreat from an almost imaginary danger. Kyte River is a more considerable body of water, coming in from a southeast direction. Its. mouth is near the little Tillage of Daysville. It is a slow, lazy stream.

The country is rough, and more or less rolling, in close proximity to all these streams, except Stillman's Run. The rough, hilly part of the county, along the streams, is covered with a fair growth of the usual white and black oak timber. None of it could be called heavy timber, and some of it is brushy barrens. Still, all these streams, with a few isolated groves, furnish a fair supply for fuel and other economical uses.

By far the largest portion of the county, however, is rich, undulating prairie land. All the eastern and southeastern part, all the western and northwestern part, together with much of the northern part, is prairie, as rich and beautiful as the state can produce. These prairies are covered with a soil composed of the richest prairie loam. In a part of the state where all the counties are prosperous, Ogle will rank among the foremost in agricultural resources, and in the elements of material wealth. The amount of farm products annually raised and sold is enormous, while the real resources of the soil are not yet half developed. When these resources shall be more fully developed, and the vast untouched water powers of Rock River audits tributaries shall be utilized, this county will attain a degree of prosperity which will place it foremost in that richest portion of the rrairie State lying between Rock River and the Mississippi.

Geological Formation'S

The geology of Ogle County is of a highly interesting character. Besides the usual surface deposits, the Galena, Blue and Buff limestones of the Trenton series, and the Cincinnati group, are all developed and outcrop ; while the St. Peter's sandstone, for about fourteen miles along the river, rises in bold outcrops of from twenty-five to two hundred feet in thickness. The only other outcrops of this interesting formation in the northern part of the state are at Starved Rock and Deer Park on the Illinois River, and a few other points in LaSalle County.

The following section will show the measured outcrops. They are all thicker, perhaps, than these figures indicate, except the St. Peter's sandstone. The bottom of that formation and its full outcrop, we think, was reached. The floor of Rock River, three or four miles below Oregon, where its thickest development is reached, is the top of Calciferous sandstone or Lower Magnesian limestone :

The above figures indicate the maximum thickness of the surface deposits, the St. Peter's sandstone, and, perhaps, the Buff limestone. The other members of the section we think are thicker than the above measurements indicate. No where could we find exposures where the full thickness could be determined. Commencing at the top, we will describe these formations in their descending order.

Surface Geology

The usual "river bottoms" exist along the streams to a limited extent. This, together with the common prairie soil, a vegetable mold, covering most of the county, comprises the extent of the alluvial deposits. The drift formation is much more heavily developed. Over the southern and eastern portion of the county, and along the lower Rock River bluffs, it thins out to a considerable extent ; but over the northern and northwestern parts of the county the true drift, in the form of drift-hills and coarse gravel-beds, is very heavily deposited, reaching a thickness, as we have above indicated, of one hundred and twenty-five feet. Over the parts first mentioned fine-grained clay, some times marly and some times sandy, cover the nether rocks. These clays are almost uniformly of a light yellowish color. Few gravel beds and little coarse gravel can be noticed in passing over them. Boulders are of rarer occurrence than in any other portion of this part of -the state. It is not a driftless region, but the drift forces have acted peacefully here, and nothing but the finer sediments and precipitates of the water were here deposited or accumulated under the action of chemical, atmospheric and aqueous agencies. But in the parts of the county last mentioned, vast accumulations of coarse gravel, commingled with fine white sand, have been deposited, indicating that the drift forces and agencies acted here on a large scale. Around the head waters of Leaf Kiver these gravel hills are a marked feature in the landscape. About three miles and a half north of Foreston, the Illinois Central Railroad passes through a range of these hills. The company have there opened many gravel pits and quarries, and are constantly loading trains for the purpose of ballasting their road. The appearance of that chain of hills is so remarkable that few travelers on the swiftly-flying passenger trains fail to notice and remark upon it. East of the track, a backbone of hills stretch away toward Ade line, broadening and widening in the distance, until they resemble great ocean waves fixed and solid. Our pocket-level showed that the highest hump on this backbone, measuring from the base, was about one hundred and three feet, while to the level of the water in the brooks some distance off, the descent was probably twenty feet. The railroad track is cut through these gravel hills to the depth of about forty feet. For that depth the material is composed of gravel, from the size of pebbles to that of small boulders, mixed with a large quantity of white sand. The sand is almost as white as the St. Peter's sandstone, except where stained yellow by the oxide of iron. The gravel is very much rounded and water- worn. The deposit has marks of partial stratification in a few places. At one place, close to railroad track, a bed of gravel, almost free from sand, is cemented so strongly together by some calcareous substance that it has to be quarried like ordinary stone. It looks like a coarse conglomerate or pudding stone, and will risist, without breaking, a smart blow from a heavy hammer. Such is the internal structure of these gravel hills. On the surface they are covered with a thin soil, full of gravel and whitish boulders of small size, into which a spade could not be sunk. Toward the east the hills preserve their outlines for a distance of some eight miles before they sink down into ordinary gravel beds, extending for a long distance across the northern part of the county. Toward the west they extend three or four miles before losing themselves in the general roll of the prairies. The direction of main chain is exactly east and west ; the western part, as indicated by a very good pocket compass, bears west southwest by east northeast.

A little brook runs toward the east on either side of the gravel hills, being, perhaps, a quarter to half a mile apart. About the middle of the range, the brook on the north side breaks through an abrupt gap and joins its sister on the south, and together they seek Leaf River, skirting along the south side of the gravel beds. To the north and the south of the small valleys through which these little streams flow, the prairie gradually rises until it attains almost the elevation of the gravel hills themselves.

These hills resemble strongly the central morraines of a vast glacier, or where two glaciers meet and mingle in one ; but they also give evidences of the sifting and assorting agencies of water. They are, doubtless " morraine hillocks," such as are found in many parts of Northern Wisconsin.

If the surface of the underlying Trenton rocks could be examined, over a dozen miles in extent in this locality, they would, we think, in many places be found plowed, grooved and scratched, or planed smooth, by the slow, silent force of the irresistible glacier or iceberg.

If the phenomena in this interesting locality indicate glacial action, and we think they most unmistakably do, it was probably coinbined with aqueous forces, and the two causes contributed to the results observed. We have sought for the manifestations of glacial action in many places, while examining the drift through these counties ; but while evidences of the floating iceberg and ice-floe, with their freight of boulders, of peaceful atmospheric or strong aqueous forces are constant and recurring, this is the only locality where we could find phenomena that looked like the work of the glaciers.

I examined with care the materials of which these gravel beds are made up. Much of it is composed of metamorphic rocks, brought from the regions of Lake Superior. But a large portion, from one third to one half perhaps, is derived from the Niagara, Gralenaand such other limestones as are found in the lead basin. They are much rounded and water- worn, but are not transported from the great distances from whence came the granites, syenites, and other boulders and gravels : Tentaculites^ from the JSTiagara ; fragments of Orthocera and Orthis, from the Blue ; Pleurotumarias and pieces of Trilobite shields, from the Galena, were noticed among the piles of gravel - imperfect as fossils, of course, but sure indications of tlie neighboring formations from which they M^ere derived.

A mixed mass of gravel, like the one under consideration, would seem to indicate that forces from a distance and forces near at hand, operating in every conceivable direction, with great force and over long periods of time, all contributed to gather together these heaps of abraided materials, some from the distant regions of the granite and the traps, and some from the neighb'>ring limestones of a by-gone geological age ; but all equally worn smooth by the grinding of the waters and ice.

But, leaving this interesting accumulation, we still find evidence of the drift gravels all over the northern part of the county ; but the beds become comparatively thin, and are underlaid by the usual clays of this part of the state. The blue clays, belonging to the base of the drift, we failed to detect through Ogle County. It doubtless exists, if proper excavations were made, but the common, light-colored, yellowish clay is by far the most common.

Remains of the Mastodon have been found closely connected with this formation. In 1858 the tooth of one of these animals was found in a little tributary of Stillman's Run. The locality is low - somewhat marshy. The stream has cut a channel through the black alluvium of the low prairie. The tooth was washed out and lodged against a clump of willows when found. It is a ponderous grinder, weighs seven and one half pounds, is covered with a black, shining enamel, and is a fine fossil, in a high state of preservation. The fortunate finder carefully preserves it, and can not be induced to part with his treasure.

Some years ago a large bone, supposed to be from the fore-leg of one of these animals, was found two or three miles above Byron. The bank of Rock River had caved down for some distance back from the stream ; som e five feet below the surface of the high land coming up to the river, and perhaps fifteen feet above ordinary water level, the bone was found, sticking in the bank. The bank seems to be a sort of a modified drift, made up of somewhat marly, dark colored alluvial clay, intermixed with river sand and a considerable quantity of gravel. The formation is hardly alluvium, but seems to be a kind of a river drift. The fossil is light, porous, and whitish in color, in a rather poor state of preservation. We obtained it through the courtesy of Mr. Mix, and sent it to the State Geological Cabi^net.

Among the mineral substances found in the drift of this county, bits of lead and pieces of pure Lake Superior copper are occasionally met with.

The Cincinnati Geoup

This formation is but lightly developed in Ogle County. N'o exposed outcrop, that we are aware of, exists at all. The high prairie, however, east and northeast of Polo, lying between Pine .Creek and the Illinois Central Railroad, and extending a few miles north towards Adeline, is underlaid by the shales of the Cincinnati group. At several recently dug wells, piles of these cream colored and blue shales and clays attracted our attention. They are generally struck at a depth of fifteen or twenty feet, and soon crumble to pieces when exposed to the rains and frosts and other atmospheric influences. The exact thickness of this group I am unable to state, but think it exceeds rather than falls below twenty-five feet. The area indicated is covered by the usual light colored, finely comminuted clays, which nearly always rest upon the rocks of this group. It generally forms the subsoil of a good agricultural region, but sometimes it is inclined to be a little too sticky and wet.

Ever living wells of reasonably pure water are found without difiiculty where ever the Cincinnati shales lie near the surface. In some cases masses of sticks and decayed drift wood lie between the shales and superimposed clays, separated from the former by only a few feet of marly, blackish clay. In such cases the water of the wells is neither sweet nor pure.

The Tkenton Geoup

The Galena Limestone. - Next in the descending series comes the upper division of the Trenton grouge, known generally in the books as the Galena limestone. It imderlies a considerable portion of the county, emerging along the face of the ravines from beneath the concealing drift, and even rising like mural walls along some of the streams. The lines of demarcation between this and the nether Blue limestone is not always easily distinguished. Layers, partaking of the characteristics of each of these divisions, are often found intermingled for some distance, although the characteristics of the mass of the two formations are very distinct. This peculiarity is not so marked in this county as in the eastern part of Stephenson.

The rock here usually preserves its usual coarse-graihed nature towards the top of the quarries, changing into a deeper sub-crystalline mass towards the bottom of the formation. It preserves its usual dull, greyish, cream-colored, chrome-yellow tints. No outcrop of it appears along the banks of the Rock River, unless it may be near the Winnebago County line. But as we go back from the river the older formations sink down and run under, and this becomes the prevailing surface rock.

It is an important member of the series of Illinois strata, both on account of its many economical uses, its historic interest, and the lead-bearing character of certain portions of its basin.

The superficial area underlaid by the Galena limestone in this county is quite large. South of Kock River the older formations come to the surface a few miles back from the stream, and outcrop along the ravines cut down into this belt of rough, rolling country. But the Galena runs on almost as soon as the level prairie is struck ; and all the eastern and southeastern townships are underlaid by it, and would show it, could the concealing drift clays be removed. The township of White Rock takes its name from a low outcrop of light-colored Galena about the head waters of Stillman's Run, near the centre of the township. It is quarried to some extent, and hauled over the surrounding prairie. The stone is rather soft and crumbly, but is used extensively by the farmers for cellar walls, foundations and other similar uses. Killbuck Creek running north through the southeastern portion of the county, cuts into the same rock and even touches the Blue limestone, but no good outcrop is shown. About Payne's Point, in the Township of Pine Rock, along a little timber ravine, stone are quarried whose conchoidal fracture and ash color show beds of passage between the Galena and the Blue.

North of Rock River the same phenomenon is observed, only on a more extensive scale. The older formations sink as the distance from the stream increases, until the Galena runs on, forming surface rock where the river enters the county, but before reaching Byron it strikes these older formations. Leaf River and Pine Creek cut deep into the surface deposits, and. show outcrops of the St. Peter's sandstone, the Buff and Blue limestones respectively, for some distance after the Galena becomes the underlying rock of the surrounding country ; but even along the banks of these streams the Galena outcrops long before the sources are reached. All round the head waters of Leaf River the gravel beds rest directly upon the Galena limestone. The road from Polo to Mt. Morris crosses Pine Creek about the middle of its course. At the crossing. Galena escarpments, crowned with the white pine and red cedar, overhang the creek as it washes their base. In going down stream the Blue Trenton is soon struck ; but in going up stream, even to its very sources, massive time-worn outcrops of the real lead-bearing rocks add picturesqueness to the scenery. At the forks of Pine Creek, a few miles northwest of the residence of Hon. D. J. Pinckney, there is an outcrop thirty-six feet thick, the upper half of which is quarried into. A lime kiln is here in successful operation, and stone is quarried for common building purposes.

The western part of the county, between the Illinois Central Railroad track and county line, are principally underlaid by the limestone under consideration. Elkhorn Creek, which just touches the county about Brookville, and Buffalo Creek, a small stream west of Polo, both cut into the Blue limestone, as the exceptions to the above statement. At the quarry one mile west of Polo, on the Mount Carroll road, the Galena composes the top layers ; the middle is beds of passage and the bottom is the Trenton Blue. Following the creek down past the large Blue limestone quarries southwest of Polo, the Galena is again struck before the county line is reached, and at San ford svi lie, a short distance beyond the county line in Whiteside County, displays itself in a massive quarry, worked extensively in former days. The same rock prevails about Woosung.

At White Kock and at the forks of Pine Creek a few characteristic fossils were to be seen ; but the rock is not worked enough in this county to afford many fossils or good specimens. Where a Galena quarry is extensively worked for months at a time, and - carefully examined during all its workings, fossils worth gathering may be found ; but a visit of a few hours to outcrops little worked at the time, can not be very satisfactory so far as the acquisition of fossils is concerned.

The Blue Limestone. - This, the Blue limestone of the western geologists, or the Trenton limes one of the ^ew York survey, is, under present classification, the Blue or Middle division of the Trenton proper. In a descending order it next succeeds the Magnesian beds of the Galena division. It is variable in appearance. The upper parts of its outcrops are thin-bedded, almost shaly, and of a buff or lead-white color, often breaking into fragments when quarried. The lower layers are compact and thick enough to make a good building stone. They break with a glassy fracture; and some of the layers near the bottom are of a deep ultra-marine blue color. This fine color fades a shade or two lighter when the stones have been quarried and exposed to the weather.

In the region of country underlaid by this rock, pit-holes, or sink-holes, are of frequent occurrence. These curious depressions in the face of the country are from one to three rods in diameter, and run to a point in a funnel-shape, at a depth of from six to fifteen or twenty feet. The rock also contains vertical crevices, through which subterranean streams of water often rush after heavy rains or springy thaws.

Along Buffalo Creek, west of Polo, for three or four miles there is an upheaval of the Blue limestone. The top of the first quarry, the one on the Mt. Carroll road, as already stated, is composed of Galena limestone, shading down into beds of passage into the underlying division ; but tlie bottom is the genuine blue " glass rock '' of the Trenton. Two miles below this, on the creek, several other quarries are opened and heavily worked. They, and in fact all worked exposures of this rock examined in this county, show substantially the following section :

These Polo quarries are worked to a depth of about twenty-five feet. The blue layers in the bottom are sometimes a foot thick. When lifted' from their watery bed they look as if dyed in blue ink. A large public school house is now building in Polo from stone obtained at this locality. The blue color is conspicuous, and the effect striking and beautiful.

This limestone also outcrops about Brookville and west of Foreston a short distance, where it is quarried on some of the small feeding streams of Elkhorn Creek.

On tlie map ot Ogle County I have marked, in colors, several long, narrow strip on either side of Rock River. They extend diagonally nearly across the county, preserving the general course of the stream. The broad blue band represents the part of the county along the stream underlaid by the Blue limestone. All the small streams falling into Rock River from both sides, so far as I examined them, present the following succession of the rocks. At their mouths, especially from three miles above Oregon to Grand de Tour, the St. Peter's sandstone comes to the surface ; a short distance up stream the Buff limestone outcrops along the banks and on the sides of the ravines ; farther up, the limestone under consideration is met and continues to outcrop for two, three or four miles; then the Galena rises like a rocky wall along the water's edge, and continues the surface rock until the head waters of the streams are reached. Some of the hill sides show all three of these resting comfortably upon each other, as in the ravines about Oregon, and along the lower part of Pine Creek. Kite Eiver and the next stream below it south of Rock River, Leaf River, Pine Greek, and almost any of the small brooks, present the same succession of the rocks.

On Pine Creek, from a mile below the crossing of tke highway leading directly east of Polo, to about Sharp's Mill, the upper thin-bedded layers of the limestone under consideration outcrop in rocky-faced, abrupt bluffs, reaching a thickness of forty or fifty feet. The heavier blue layers of the" Polo beds were not here observed. They resemble the outcrops of the same rocks above Dixon, except the fossils are rare, and the rocks have a dry, baked appearance. At Sharp's Mill, the St. Peter's sandstone and the BufP limestone begin to outcrop along the base of the hills. Above Byron the river hills are capped with the Blue, changing into the Buff toward their bases.

The Blue limestone at Dixon and many other places is full of fossils. Slabs of thin stone are there found covered so thickly with fragments of small trilobites, corals, stems of encrinites, and mollusca of various genera and species that one can not help wondering at the great abundance of the lower forms of animal life, which swarmed in the ocean of the lower Silurian era. These thin fossiliferous strata are compact and solid, and when dressed and polished look like a beautiful variegated marble. Dr. Everett, of Dixon, has in his cabinet specimens of this polished marble which will compare in beauty with any marble we ever saw. In Ogle County, however, we could nowhere find in the Blue limestone the same abundance of fossils. At Polo, a lar^e chambered shell known there as an Ammonite^ but probably the Lituites undatus of Hall, is occasionally found ; also an Orthoceras^ which sometimes reached the great size of nine inches in diameter and eight or ten feet in length. Thin fossiliferous layers have recently been found in the quarries at Oregon. A heavier working of the outcrops along Pine Creek might also disclose them. A barrenness of good fossils seems to characterize all the formations in Ogle County.

The Buff Limestone. - ThQ lower division of the Trenton, or the Buff limestone of Owen, next succeeds in the descending order. It crops out in many places in close proximity to the St. Peter's sandstone. In some places it is separated from the overlying division by a few feet of shale and blue clay ; in others, the transition from the one to the other is not easily distinguished. In the former, it is thick bedded, compact, and the heavy layers are divided by thin, fossiliferous layers and thin, blue bands of clay "; in the latter it is shaly, shingly, yellowish buff colored, resembling much, certain parts of the Blue division.

Dr. Everett's description of this rock corresponds with our own observations, so far as outcrops in close proximity to the St. Peter's sandstone were examined. In the ravines above and opposite Oregon ; at Sharp's mill, on Pine Creek ; at Moore's quarry, in Lee County ; on Kyte River, and in one or two other places, this is true. At Sharp's mill, and near

Oregon, the lower layers are of a dull, earthy color and fracture, with considerable sand in their composition, and on being struck with the hammer, give a heavy, dead sound or thud, as if striking a mass of frozen earth.

This description would hardly apply, however, to the outcrop at Byron. This corresponds exactly with Whitney's description of the Buif limestone outcrops at Winslow and Beloit ; and these are exactly like many outcrops of the Blue division, except that the fossils do not seem to be identical.

Fossils. - At Moore's farm, in Lee County, many fossils were observed, mostly imperfect casts on the thin layers of shaly matter separating the massive layers, and also on the surface of some of the massive layers. But in the Ogle County outcrops we could hardly detect a fossil except at Bryon. There we found a part of a large Orthoceras^ six inches in diameter, perhaps. The animal to which it belonged must have been six or seven feet long.

This very interesting formation outcrops heavily in this county. It is the prevailing rock along Rock River, from about two and one half miles abovg^ Oregon to three miles below Grand de Tour, a distance of about fifteen and one half miles. Where the bluffs and high land come up to the river this rock nowhere outcrops more than a mile or two back from the stream. Even the river blufiB along the sandstone region, in places, are capped by the limestones of the upper Blue and BuflF. But up the tributary streams, low outcrops may be noticed extending miles back from Rock River. Up Pine Creek it may be traced as high as Sharp's mill, some five miles from the river. Up Kyte River, for perhaps as great a distance, it shows itself along the base of the blufi's and hills, often just above the water's edge. Up the smaller streams it can be traced lesser distances. Many of these hills we found capped with the Blue limestone lying upon the sandstone unconformably ; many others exhibit the Buff nnd Blue lying upon each other conformably ; some are capped by the Buff alone ; some are nothing but hills of sandstone, uncapped by even the overlying drift, weathered into shapes resembling the pictured icebergs of the Arctic seas. The high bluffs, at the base of which the Town of Oregon stands, with the exception of a light limestone cap on the top, are composed of light-colored St. Peter's sandstone. At this locality it is about one hundred feet thick. It rapidly dips for two miles and a half up the river, and finally runs out of sight, the last outcrop observed being half a mile up the little stream, and about twelve feet thick. As we go down the river the thickness increases. About four miles below Oregon, at the fantastic shaped " Indian pulpit," the sandstone peaks rise higher than at Oregon, and before the mouth of Pine Creek is reached, the elevations measure from one hundred and seventy-five to two hundred feet. After reaching the mouth of Pine Creek, the formation dips rapidly and soon runs under the overlying formations.

Two or three miles above Oregon, on the west side of Rock River, the bluffs rise in a long line along the stream to a height of perhaps one hundred feet. The debris and talus of these hills present an abrupt, grasscovered slope to within twenty feet of the top. The rest of the height is a long, low, L'cetling mural escarpment of frowning Buff and Blue limestone. The talus covers the St. Peter's sandstone, which doubtless forms the base of the hills. Opposite Oregon, in a low hill, a sandstone quarry and a Buff limestone quarry exist within a few rods of each other.

In many instances hard metallic-looking layers, or bands, like the red cornelian bands in the trappean rocks of Lake Superior in their modes of occurrence, are found running in somewhat parallel planes through the softer material of which this sand rock is composed. These are from one half an inch to two inches in thickness, and are often within a few inches of each other. As the softer material crumbles away these remain projecting, giving the rocky face of the outcrop a pictured or horizontally-veined appearance. The frost breaks these off and they accumulate in the ravines. They give a hard and ringing sound when struck with the hammer, and almost resemble old pieces of castings in both color and hardness. These layers are ferruginous in texture, and were formed by the oxide of iron cementing together and hardening thin layers of the sandstone, while in course of being deposited. At a little ravine between Oregon and Mt. Morris they lay in piles, as if an old pot foundry had once existed there. At the crossing of a small stream between Dixon and Daysville, where a mill-dam had once been built, and a low outcrop of red St. Peter's sandstone may be noticed at the right of the crossing, they lay over the hillside and in the road in great abundance. On many of them ripple-marks, as _ perfect as when made in the soft sand of the old Silurian beach, still exist. ^They are the eddies and ripples of the Silurian seas turned to fossils, and preserved in the embrace of iron and sand.

Again, these sandstone hills resist atmospheric agencies in a wonderful degree, considering the soft and friable nature of their composition. Oftentimes where they are most abrupt one can pick holes in their perpendicular sides with his knife, or strike his pick into the solid-looking mass. One would expect that such masses would crumble to pieces and sink into low, white sand banks, but such is not the case. They preserve their forms as well as the limestones, and have quite as little debris and talus piled about their bases.

The color of this sandstone is of all shades, from the whiteness of crushed sugar to chrome yellow, and the many tints of brown and red. The color is a stain produced by the oxide of iron held in solution in the waters, which have at various times percolated through the sandstone mass. Where this dye was absent in the percolating water, a sandstone as white as granulated snow was the result; as the dye was present in the water, in that proportion are the sandstones colored and stained.

In consistence this sandstone is saccharoidal, or sugary, and much of it is held together by the slightest cohesive attraction. In many places, especially where the sandstone was very white, I found difficulty in obtaining cabinet f-pecimens. Every blow of the hammer would shiver the block to pieces. But this is not always true. I saw houses built from this material which seemed to be hardening into a fair building stone, and Dr. Everett gives an account of an nrched railroad bridge built over Franklin Creek, in Lee County, from the same sandstone. In a few places it seems to have become hard and crystalline; in a few more it has cohesion enough to make an indifferent building stone; but its general character is soft, friable and uncohesiv^e.

Under a strong microscope the grains of the white variety appear limpid and semi-translucent ; those of the darker varieties appear as if coated over by rust. All the grains are round, similarly formed and simi- lar in size. The grains are quite small, and the mass is remarkably pure and homogeneous in character. These incoherent, chrystalline grains of transparent quartz owe their darker colors, where colored, to a solution of the coloring matter held in chemical combination ; but in most cases the color is caused by a formation over the surface of the siHcious grains of sand.

Distinct stratification exists in most of the outcrops, and even lines of cross stratification are not rare. Whitney failed to notice wave-marks in the Wisconsin outcrops ; but there can be no mistake as to the wave and ripple-marks on the ferruginous layers of the Rock River outcrops. Some of the large masses present abrupt and strong dips ; but these are owing to local causes. Ko trace of organic life, either plant or animal, has yet been observed in these sandstones. The area of their deposition seems to have been a peculiar one. Great changes must have taken place as it was ushered in and as it went out.

A high axis of elevation runs along this heavy deposit. In either direction from the river it dips away rapidly, and the overlying deposits come on in quick succession. Rock River runs along this anticlinal axis, having cut down almost or entirely through the formation.

The heaviest outcrop of the deposit now under coneideration, in the whole area over which it is known, is the one along Rock River in Ogle County. The formation is thin and wide-extended, embracing a superficial extent in the Northwest alone, of more than four hundred miles in length by over one hundred in width. At Starved Rock, on the Illinois River, it is about one hundred and fifty feet thick. In Calhoun County it outcrops, in the Cap au-Gress Bluffs, to a thickness of about eighty feet. In Wisconsin and Minnesota its heaviest outcrops do not much exceed one hundred feet in thickness. In Ogle County, however, we think it reaches fully two hundred feet, and at the artesian well, in Stephenson County, it is, perhaps, considerably thicker. It is the identical same rock known in the Missouri Reports as the Saccharoidal sandstone, so extensively used in the manufacture of glass at Pittsburgh. As observed in Missouri, however, it is oftener of a light buff or brown color, and has less of the white, pure silicious sand in its composition than the same rock has in Illinois and further north.

The Lower Magnesian Limestone

The Lower Magnesian limestone, or Calciferous sandstone of the 'New York geologists, or its western equivalent, comes, we think, to the surface at several places in the bed of Rock River, between Oregon and Grand de Tour. The floor of the river in many places along these high sandstone bluffs, we are quite sure, is a harder, solider and altogether different rock. When doing field work in that part of the ground gone over by us, we had poor facilities for examining the river bed ; but at one locality on the north bank of the stream, five or six miles below Oregon, and just at the edge of rather low water, we found a stratum of stone, apparently m situ, which we believe to have been the top of this formation. We confess, however, that our judgment as to the existence of the Lower Magnesian limestone along the river bed in this county is formed, at least partly, from analogy, appearances and the natural belief that the bottom of the St. Peter's sandstone is here reached. A proper examination of the river bed, or some shallow

Economical And Agkicultural Geology

Most of our remarks upon the economical and agricultural geology of counties north of this one, would apply with equal correctness to Ogle. In physical features, geological formations and agricultural capabilities, they have much in common. There are some points of difference, however.

Stone for EGonomical Uses. - All the limestones form a good building stone. The seminary buildings at Mt. Morris, and the new public school at Polo, are fine examples of the building materials furnished by the Blue limestone quarries. The rock is not only strong, easily worked, convenient to obtain, but when properly laid up of blue, or mingled buff and blue colors, the architectural effect is beautiful. The thin-bedded top layers furnish a good stone for the lighter industrial uses. The heavy-bedded, dull-colored buff is more used for the heavier kinds of masonry. The Galena, in this county is a rough, thick-bedded stone, used in cellar walls, bridge foundations and the common stone work necessary on the farms about its outcrops. In a few places the St. Peter's sandstone has crystalline layers of sufficient tenacity to cut into window and door caps, build into cellar walls and dwelling houses; and in one instance, at least, is used for the culverts in a small railroad bridge. It is easily hewn into shape, and seasons into greater hardness and tenacity.

Certain layers of the Blue limestone also burn an excellent common lime. The kilns above Dixon, in Lee County, turn out an abundance of as good lime for ordinary building purposes as need be desired. The subcrystalline layers of the Galena are well adapted for lime production, and are much used for that purpose. On Pine Creek, timber is abundant; stone from both these divisions is easily obtained, and of good quality; and lime can be made in any desired quantity.

It is generally believed that some layers of the Buff might be burned into a good hydraulic lime, but this is not known by the test of experiment.

Peat. - On the Killbuck Creek, on section 30, in the Township of Monroe, there is a long, narrow, irregularly-shaped peat bed containing about lifty acres. In the deepest parts the deposit is perhaps twelve feet thick. The peat is the result of the decay of the usual grasses, sedges and mosses, but is rather grass peat than moss peat. Compared with the Cattail beds of Whiteside County, it is more porous, fibrous and unripe. It is available already as a fertilizer, and like the rest of our small prairie, unripe beds, will some day be used largely for that purpose. Its value as a fuel depends upon the success of the peat experiments now being tried in many places.

clays and Sands. - Banks of common yellow sand, suitable for mortar making and plastering, may be found almost any where in the banks and sand-bars of Hock River. "^The sub-soil clays under the thin oak soils, and in fact most of the sandy sub-soil, may be molded into a good article of common red brick.

According to all our western geologists, the white rocks of the St. Peter's sandstone furnish the very best material for the manufacture of glassware. The Pittsburgh glass manufactories obtain tons of their sand irom the saccharoidal deposits of Missouri, a rock identical with our St. Peter's sandstone. Our sandstone, however, is white, pure, limpid and free from foreign matter ; theirs consist more of the yellow .and brownstained varieties. The sugary, white sandstone of the Upper Mississippi is a pure silica. If the statements of the learned Dr. Owen are true, only about two tenths of one per cent of extraneous matter, as shown by chemical analysis, enters into the composition of the snow-white sands of this formation.

Thousands of tons of the sand could be cheaply transported down the river to the Rock Island coal fields ; or, when the contemplated railroad up the Rock River Yalley is completed, for the purpose of connecting the lumber regions of the north with the coal fields of Illinois, the coal could be easily run up from Rock Island to the Oregon or Grand de Tour sand cliffs, and glassware for the whole Northwest be cheaply and successfully manufactured. These facilities for moving the coal and sand together will exist at no distant day. It will then remain for capital to invest in this remunerative branch of manufacturing industry.

Soils and their jproduots. - The dark-colored loams are underlaid by a light-colored, clayey or gravelly sub-soil. The loam is largely composed of vegetable elements. If not made up of it, it is at least greatly enriched by the successive growth and decay, for ages, of our common prairie grasses. This is the soil of our prairies. The timber soils are the usual clayey deposits of the oak ridges, underlaid by a close, compact, yellow sub-soil. Hungry, sandy soils are seldom met with. Leachy, loamy, fat soils, well adapted for the best farming lands, cover most of the county. The soils in this portion of the state are composed of silica, or the earth of flints ; alumina, or tine, impalpable clays ; carbonate of lime, or calcareous materials, making marly soils ; and various other materials, such as the oxide of iron, organic matter, and the like. The first two are the basis of all our soils. The last gives them fertility. No soil is composed of a single one of these elements ; but the mixture or chemical combination of all these, and some times many other elements, exist in the same soil, making clay soils, clay loams, loamy soils, sandy soils, vegetable molds, marly clays or sands, and many other kinds of soils, well known to agricultural chemistry.

We think the general proposition is true, that where large tracts of country are underlaid by the same or closely related geological formations, the soils will have some resemblance to those formations. They are undoubtedly, in part, deriv^ed from them ; and in many cases, in this part of the state, as we have already intimated, the soils and sub-soils seem to show their origin from these subjacent rocks. But this remark must be received with considerable allowance. The transporting, sorting and sifting agency of water, the ice action of glaciers and icebergs, and the evidences that other geological forces have been at work all over this region, leads us to greatly modify the statement just made, and to believe that our soils are, in part at least, derived from many sources - some of them remote from their present localities. The same is true, we think, of the sub-soils and finer materials of the drift. These, originally, perhaps, were all alike ; but chemical and atmospheric agencies, and the growth of vegetation, changed the surface clays into rich, fat soils ; the sub-soils received less of these influences but still felt them, and were further changed by the percolating, saturating surface waters ; but the deep lying clay and sand beds received no change from these agencies. Even the acids of the air could not penetrate to them, and they remain unchanged.

Geology, engaged in investigating these phenomena, is thus the handmaiden of agriculture, and ought to be encouraged and studied by the farmer. He should not be slow to learn that all branches of human knowledge are bound together like the links of a chain ; all the arts of life sustain to each other dependent relations, and all cultivators of soil or science ought to be bound together by the bonds of a common interest.

But, however derived or made up, the soils of this county are generous and fertile in a high degree. Indian corn, wheat, oats, hay, potatoes, barley, rye, the products of the kitchen garden, the hardier fruits of garden and orchard, are here raised in bountiful profusion. Yine culture has not yet attracted much attention, not for the want of suitable localities in which to try the experiment, but simply because attention has not yet been directed to this branch of horticultural industry.

In speaking of these noble soils - the Edens of agriculture in these Western States - we may as well make some remarks here, which apply with equal force to the agricultural policy of this and all the neighboring counties, and to the practice of prairie farming generally. We mean the unscientific, slovenly and wasteful modes of cultivating the virgin soils of our broad prairies. The unripe peat and muck remain undisturbed in their beds ; trenching and sub-soil plowing are never resorted to ; annual fires consume the surplus stubble and stalks left from the last year's crop; ashes, bones, lime, the barn-yard and stable manures, if disturbed at all, are raked into some convenient, out of the way place ; and the farmer generally cultivates so much that he can not half cultivate anything at all.

Geology and chemistry, and the experience of older countries, all cry out against this wrong done to our generous soils. In the first place, the farmer ought to study his soil, ascertain what element is wanting, ov what it has in excess, and intelligently supply the one or counteract the other. Instead of scratching over a large amount of soil, if he would go deeper, and throw up a little sub-soil, the kiss of the roving winds, the rain and the sunshine would enrich these, and his soil would grow deeper instead of becoming hungry and exhausted. Composts should yearly be made of every available substance, and scattered with a profuse hand over his meadows and grain-producing fields. Perhaps some water-soaked bog, and some unproductive ridge, lying side by side, and both worthless, have in them the complements of the best producing soils, and^ only need a little mingling to make them the most valuable tracts in the field or on the farm. A Httle mind employed in cultivating the earth is better than much manual labor, aided though it be with all forms of labor-saving machinery.

Against this wasteful system of farming, every industrial interest should cry out. Our soils, when new, used to return average crops of forty bushels to the acre ; now fifteen is a good crop on the older cultivated lands. In the corn field, seventy, eighty and one hundred bushels to the acre was not an unusual yield ; now thirty-five or forty is oftener the exception than the rule. At this rate, our land will rapidly become exhausted. Good husbaudry, good farming, if not able to keep the soil up to its primitive fertility, ought, at least, to prevent its rapid deterioration.

The History of Ogle County is sointimately connected with the history of the northwestern part of the state, that a correct history of the former can not be written without reference to the early settlement of the latter, and indeed it would be a waste of time to attempt *to write a history of either, without going back to the date of the first settlement of the territory now embraced within the limits of the State of Illinois, by Americans, in 1784. In entering upon this task it will be our purpose to draw upon such historical authorities as have received the sanction of accuracy and impartiality. In matters pertaining to the local history, we will refer to such of the pioneers of the county as have survived the storms and vicissitudes of life, and whose participation in the public afiairs of the Rock Kiver Yalley renders their lives a part of its history.

A little more than half a century has passed since white men began to enter upon and occupy the northwestern part of Illinois on Fever (now Galena) Eiver, at the galena mines, and forty-seven years have been buried beneath the debris of time since the first voting precinct was established (under authority of the County Commissioners of Jo Daviess County) within the limits of Ogle County. It is a little more than that since Ogle, Chambers, Dixon, Ankeny and Kellogg came here to found homes, and, as a natural consequence, a great many early incidents of local importance at the time of their happening, are entirely lost' to the memory of the oldest surviving settlers; or, if not entirely lost, have become so confused with the multiplicity of accumulating cares, that, to extricate an accurate account of them from time's rubbish and preserve them in printed pages so they will be seen now as they were seen tJien^ will require the most critical exercise of mind and pen.

When the thirteen American colonies declared their independence of British rule, July 4, 1776, the magnificent valley of the Mississippi and its tributaries was under the jurisdiction of European powers. France had ceded to Great Britain that portion of the Province of Louisiana lying at the east side of the " Father of Waters." The first British governor, Captain Sterling, took fvirmal possession of Illinois and raised the English flag at Fort Chartres, ten years after the treaty of cession in October, 1765, and in 1766 by an act of Parliament known as the Quebec bill, the Illinois country was annexed to Canada, and remained under Canadian jurisdiction until 1778, a period of fourteen years.

In 1778, Col. George Rogers Clarke, a native of Yirginia, who had won military fame in conflicts with the Indians of Kentucky, Ohio and elsewhere, conceived the idea of an expedition to capture the British posts in the Illinois country. Patrick Henry, then Governor of Yirginia, favored the enterprise, and aided by the advice of Thomas Jefferson, George Mason and George "Wythie, directed the expedition. Col. Clarke raised four companies of Virginians, and through his wonderful skill and heroism the expedition was completely successful. The Virginia Legislature voted the thanks of the people to Col. Clarke, his officers and men^for their brilliant achievements, and in October, 1778, by act of the House of Burgesses, established the County of Illinois, embracing all the territory northwest of the Ohio River, and making Col. John Todd, Jr., its civil commandant. "Thus," says Mr. Miller, "Patrick Henry became the first American Governor of Illinois." The proclamation to its inhabitants is dated June 15, 1779.

At the close of the Revolutionary War, Great Britain formally ceded to the United States all her territory east of the Mississippi River, and in 1784 Virginia ceded to the Federal Government all the territory northwest of the Ohio Rivor, her claim to the Illinois countiy being through a grant from James I. of England, and by virtue of conquest in 1778.

Notwithstanding the ordinance providing for the erection of the Northwestern Territory was passed in 1787, its provisions were not acted upon until 1788, when General Arthur St. Clair was made its governor. The capital of the territory was first established at Marietta, afterwards removed to Chillicothe, and in 1795 again removed to Cincinnati, and subsequently to Vincennes. From 1784 until 1790, when Gov. St. Clair organized the first county in Illinois (St. Clair), there was no executive, no legislature and no judicial authority exercised in the country. The people were a law unto themselves, and during these six years it is said that remarkable good feeling, harmony and fidelity to agreements prevailed. Previous to the division of the Northwest Territory, in 18u9, there had been but one term of court having criminal jurisdiction in the three western counties of the territory, namely, Knox County (Indiana), and St. Clair and Randolph Counties (Illinois), the last named being organized by Governor St. Clair in 1795.

The Territory of Illinois w^as established in 1809, and Hon. Ninian Edwards, then Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the State of Kentucky, was appointed governor, and Nathaniel Pope, Esq., of Kaskaskia, secretary of the treasury. Kaskaskia was established as the territorial capitnl. This had been a part of Indiana Territory from 1800, during which time the government was of two grades ; first, the lawmaking power, consisting of the governor and judges; second, the territorial legislature, consisting of a house of representatives elected by the people, and a council appointed by the president and senate. Up to 1812 the Territorial Government of Illinois was of the first grade.

From 1795 to 1812, there were only two counties in the territory - St. Clair and Randolph. In 1812, Madison, Gallatin and Johnson Counties were erected, increasing the number to five.

February 14, 1812, Governor Edwards issued an order directing an election to be held in each county, on the second Monday in April, to enable the people to determine whether they would enter upon the second grade of government. The governor was clothed with full power to advance the territory to the second degree, but he chose to be guided by the popular will. The election was held, and the question was decided in the affirmative by a very large majority.

In September of the same year, Governor Edwards ordered an election to be held on the 8th, 9tli and 10th days of October, to choose members of the council and house of representatives. This was the first election for members of the territorial legislature, and on the 25th of November, 1812, the first legislature assembled at Kaskaskia. The following named gentlemen were retujned as members of the council: Benjamin Talcott, of Gallatin County; William Biggs, of St. Clair County; Samuel Judah, of Madison County, and Pierre Menard, of Randolph County. George Fisher, of Handolph County; Philip Trommel and Alexander Wilson, of Gallatin County; John Grammer, of Johnson County; Joshua Oglesby and Jacob Short, of St. Clair County, and William Jones, of Madison County, were elected as members of the house.

It may not be out of place here - inasmuch as we are briefly tracing the history of Illinois, as a Territory and as a State - to go back one year and note an important event in the history of the country - a series of earthquakes that commenced on the night of the 16th of December, 1816, and which, according to Dr. Hildreth, continued until the following February. During the continuance of these earth-shocks, the towji of New Madrid, on the Missouri side of the Mississipj)i River, was almost entirely destroyed. Lands were sunken for many miles around New Madrid, and down into Northeastern Arkansas. The writer has been told by reliable authority, that in the northeastern corner of Arkansas there is a tract of country known as the '' sunken lands," that is an impassible bog or quagmire - that, in the centre there is a kind of island, that can be seen from the outer edges, but which has never been reached since the earthquake that occasioned it, but that as late as 1871-'2 there were evidences of animal life on the island, in the presence of deer, etc., that were supposed to have come from a parent stock left on the island when the earthquake subsided. This assertion is not vouched for as a fact, but is given from what is believed to be reliable authority - the statement of a resident of Arkansas, whose acquaintance the writer enjoyed while living in that state, after the close of the war. But to return to Dr. liildreth's statement: "The banks of the Mississippi in many places gave way in large masses and fell in the river, while the water changed to a reddish hue, became thick with mud thrown up from the bottom, and the surface, lashed violently by the agitation of the earth beneath, was covered with foam, which gathered into masses and floated along the trembling surface. Its vibrations were felt all over the valley, as far up as Pittsburgh."

Returning again to the territorial legislature, we find that from January 11, 1811, to November 8, 1814, the revenue received from taxes was $4,875.45, of which there had been paid into the treasury, $2,516.89; remaining in the hands of delinquent sherifl", $2,374.47. As a matter of comparison for the curious, the following figures, taken from the last accessible report of the State Auditor, are presented:

As another item of comparison: the journals of the first State Legislature show that a committee appointed for the purpose purchased a sufiicient supply of stationery for the use of that body for $13.50. The amount paid for stationery for the use of the 29th session of the General Assembly was $1,680.

passed an act, entitled "An act to enable the people of the Illinois Territory to form a constitution and state government, and for the admission of such state into the Union, on an equal footing witli the original states." Immediately following the passage, approval and publication of this act, an order was issued for an election to choose members to the constitutional convention. The constitutional convention assembled at Kaskaskia, in July of the same year, and on the 26th day of August following, signed and submitted the constitution under which Illinois become a sovereign and independent state.

The old constitution bears the signatures of the following members: Jesse B. Thomas, President of the Convention and Representative from the County of St. Clair.

William C. Greenup was secretary of the convention. Section two of article two of the constitution provided as follows: " The first election for senators and representatives shall commence on the third Thursday of September next, and continue for that and the two succeeding days; and the next election shall be held on the first Monday in August, one thousand eight hundred and twenty, and forever after elections shall be held once in two years, on the first Monday in August, in each and every county, at such places therein as may be provided by law."

Section eighteen of the same article provided that " the General Assembly of this state shall not allow the following ofiicers of government greater or smaller annual salaries than as follows, until the year one thousand eight hundred and twenty-four: the governor, one thousand dollars; and the secretary of state, six hundred dollars."

Section two of article three: " The first election for governor shall commence on the third Thursday of September next, and continue for that and the two succeeding days; and the next election shall be held on the first Monday of August, in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and twenty-one. And forever after, elections for governor shall be held once in four years, on the first Monday of August."

Section three of the same article: "The first governor shall hold his office until the first Monday of December, in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and twenty-two, and until another governor shall be elected and qualitied to office; and forever after, the governor shall hold his office for the term of four years, and until another governor shall be elected and qualified; but he shall not be eligible for more than four years in any term of eight years," etc.

Pursuant to section two of article two of the constitution, the first election for governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, senators, representatives, etc., commenced on the third Thursday of September, 1818, and continued for two days thereafter.

The poll books of the several voting places in the fifteen organized counties that made up 'the State of Illinois at that time, would be interesting now if it were possible to secure them. But very few, if any, of the voters at that election are spared to the present. Almost sixty years have been engulfed in the vortex of time since the first state officers were elected, and since then the people of the commonwealth have participated in no less than three wars - the Black Hawk War of 1832 ; the Mexican War, and the great American Rebellion - the bloody and prolonged conflict between freedom and slavery, 1861"'5.

In these sixty years this state has given the parent government one of the most successful w^arrior-chieftains, known to history, and two presidents - Lincoln, freedom's martyr, and U. S. Grant, the honored guest of the crowned heads and titled courts of the European world. But we digress.

Mr. Ford in his history of Illinois says, in reference to the constitutional convention and its members: " The principal member of it w^as Elias K. Kane, late a senator in Congress, and now deceased, to whose talents we are mostly indebted for the peculiar features of the constitution. Mr. Kane was born in the State of JS'ew York, and was bred to the profession of the law. He removed in early youth to Tennessee, where he rambled about for some time, and finally settled in the ancient village of Kaskaskia, Illinois, about the year 1815, when he was about twenty years of age. His talents were both solid and brilliant. After being appointed secretary of state under the new government, he was elected to the legislature, from which he was elected, and again re-elected to the United States Senate. He died a member of that body in the Autumn of 1835; and in memory of him the County of Kane, on Fox River, was named." .

Resolved, hy the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That, whereas, in pursuance of an act of Congress, passed on the eighteenth day of April, one thousand eight hundred and eighteen, entitled " An act to enable the people of Illinois Territory to form a constitution and state government, and for the admission of such state into the Union, on an equal footing with the original states," the people of said territoiy did, on the twenty-sixth, day of August, in the present year, by a conveniion called to for that purpose, form for themselves a constitution and state government, which constitution and state government, so formed, is republican, and in conformity to the principles of the articles of compact between the original states and the people and states in the territory northwest of the River Ohio, passed on the thirteenth day of July, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-seven. Resolved, by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the State of Illinois shall be one, and is hereby declared to be one, of the United States of America, and admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the original states, in all respects whatever. [Apiproved, December 3, 1818,]

The act of Congress of the 18th day of April, 1818, referred to in the act just quoted, was based upon the action of the territorial legislature in session January, 1818, when a petition for authority to organize as a state was prepared and forwarded to Nathaniel Pope, then territorial delegate in Congress. Mr. Pope lost no time in presenting the petition to Congress, and that body as promptly referred it to the proper committee, and that committee instructed Mr. Pope to prepare a bill in accordance with the prayer of the petition. Mr. Pope complied with the instructions, but the bill as originally drafted did not embrace the present area of Illinois, and when it was i-eported to Congress certain amendments proposed by Mr. Pope, were reported with it. The ordinance of 1787 provided that not less than three nor more than five states were to be erected out of the territory northwest of the Ohio River. Three states were to include the whole territory, and these states were to be bounded on the north by the British possessions, but Congress reserved the right, if it should be found expedient, to form two more states out of that part of the territory which lies north of au east and west line drawn through the southern extremity of Lake Michigan.