Aledo, Illinois

Mercer township includes all the congressional township known as 14 N., R. 3 west of the 4th P. M. The soil is generally black and rich, with some clay along the brakes and water courses. It is well watered, Edwards river traversing the north tier of sections, from east to west, and Pope creek crossing the southeast corner and following west near the south line, in Ohio Grove township. These, with their numerous runs, as feeders, furnish an ample supply of water for stock and irrigation. Along the creeks the land is broken, but there is very little so steep that it cannot be cultivated. On the "divide," as it is called, between Pope and Edwards, the land is level, and until brought under cultivation, much of it was of a swamp}- nature. Over this prairie in early times there was scarcely a track that rose to the dignity of a road, as travel was not frequent enough to keep down the luxui-iant growth of grass, which often grew so high that a man on horseback could see but a short distance. Woe then to the luckless traveler who undertook to cross the prairie in a wet time with wagon and team. Suddenly his oxen would sink in the mud, knee deep, the wagon go down to the hub, and there was nothing to do but to unload, and then perhaps "-double teams," if perchance tliei-e was some one to double with, or if not, go two or three miles to secure assistance. But cultivation and judicious draining have so changed the nature of the soil in this respect that it is difficult to convince our farmer boys of to-day that the most productive parts of their farms were at one time little better than impassable swampr-i.

Passage source: History of Mercer County : Together with Biographical Matter, Statistics, Etc., Gathered from Mattter Furnished by the Mercer County Historical Society, Interviews with Old Settlers, County, Township and Other Records, and Extracts from Files of Papers, Pamphlets, and Such Other Sources As Have Been Available : Containing Also a Short History of Henderson County, published 1882.

Much of the township is underlaid with coal of a good quality, but there have, as yet, been but few banks opened, as it generally lies too deep to work with profit. Banks in the northeast part of the township have been run for many years, but seldom at a great profit. Within a few years mines have been opened near Aledo and are still run on a small scale.

Passage source: History of Mercer County : Together with Biographical Matter, Statistics, Etc., Gathered from Mattter Furnished by the Mercer County Historical Society, Interviews with Old Settlers, County, Township and Other Records, and Extracts from Files of Papers, Pamphlets, and Such Other Sources As Have Been Available : Containing Also a Short History of Henderson County, published 1882.

Prairie fires were of yearly occurrence. The luxuriant growth of grass, scorched by the summer's heat, by early fall was as dry as tinder, and a spark from a careless hunter's pipe, or sometimes the wad from his gun would start a conflagration which soon became at once grand and terrible. IS^one who have once seen it can ever forget the majestic sweep of the wall of fire as it sped before the ever increasing wind, stretching out its arms farthei" and farther on either side, rivaling in speed the horse or deer, and gathering up and devouring all within its reach. Such was the prairie fire of early days, and fortunate was it for him who, caught in the track of the fast-coming Hames, understood the pioneer's way of fighting fire with fire. Without this knowledge a severe scorching, if nothing worse, most surely awaited him.

Passage source: History of Mercer County : Together with Biographical Matter, Statistics, Etc., Gathered from Mattter Furnished by the Mercer County Historical Society, Interviews with Old Settlers, County, Township and Other Records, and Extracts from Files of Papers, Pamphlets, and Such Other Sources As Have Been Available : Containing Also a Short History of Henderson County, published 1882.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Mercer Township - it names this place 166 more 166 times.