Palmyra, Illinois

This township is situated in the extreme northwest of Lee county, being bounded on the west by Whitesides county, on the north by Ogle county, on the east by Dixon township, and on the south by Rock river. It embraces tbe southern | of T. 22 N., and the N. W, |- of T. ,21 ]Sr., R. 8 E. of the 4th P. M. Beginning at the northwest corner of the county the boundary line runs east on the county line between Ogle and Lee counties, to the line between ranges 8 and 9 east ; and thence south on said line to its junction with Rock river ; thence down said river, southwest to the county line between Whitesides and Lee counties; thence north on said line to the place of beginning; making the township six miles wide from west to east, while the irregularity of the southern boundary on the river, from the northeast to the soutliM^est, contracts the eastern boundary to four and a half miles, and extends the western line to near nine miles in length ; embracing an area of about 4,640 acres.

Passage source: History of Lee County, published 1881.

A topographical description of this township is introduced by one of her citizens, who dashes off like a laughing school-boy on a cold December morning, as follows: "Connect not the name with visions of shady groves of waving palms, with bubbling fountains and breezes laden with the scent of the myrtle and orange, the lime and the almond \ none such are to be found in the place whose history 1 am recording^ and such visions would soon fade before the furious blasts of our northern winters, with the air filled with snowflakes, and the leafless trees swaying under fierce assaults of Boreas. No warlike Zenobia leads us on to victory, but in her stead we follow the milder divinities, Ceres^ Pomona, and Flora. Think not, however, because we can boast of none of these things in which lie the beauty of ancient Palmyra, the modern has no charms of her own. These are to be found in her broad, fertile plains, once covered with a profusion of juicy grasses and flowers of every brilliant hue, in her stately groves of maple and walnut, of ash and oak, in the impetuous rush of the crystal Rock river, rolling her tide to join the Father of Waters, her surface broken with the sportive gambols of bass and perch, the leaping sturgeon and rushing pike - and even in the silver thread of Sugar creek, which once could boast of turning a saw-mill."

Passage source: History of Lee County, published 1881.

The physical geography of the township is not of special interest, apart from its attractions to the agriculturist who seeks a home on fertile soil and in a salubrious atmosphere. The face of the country is gently rolling, and in places presents to the eye the appearance of the swelling and receding of the great waves of the ocean. Along the Pock river it becomes bluffy, and in places rugged ; but not so grand and precipitous as on the Ohio river, or the streams of the northwest.

Passage source: History of Lee County, published 1881.

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 Palmyra Township - it names this place 70 more 70 times.