Sidell, Illinois

The township of Sidell occupies the southwestern corner of the county, having Edgar and Champaign counties respectively for its southern and western boundaries, and Vance on its northern and Carroll on its eastern sides. Until 1867 it formed a portion of Carroll township for political purposes. When it was erected into a separate township the name was given to it in honor of Hon. John Sidell, who owned an extensive farm here. The valley of the Little Vermilion, here an inconsiderable stream, runs nearly through its center, having the ridges or strips of high land which bound this valley on the northern and southern boundaries of the township. This beautiful valley, more of a basin in appearance here, because so nearly destitute of trees, encloses within its pale some of the richest farming lands of Vermilion county. It was all originally prairie, except six small groves, aggregating less than two square miles of timber land. For this reason alone it failed to attract attention for the first twenty years of the county's history. The little groves had been taken, but the broad expanse of prairie, which forms the real wealth of this prairie township, was inhabited only by those pestiferous things which are disastrous alike to the peace of man and beast. Perhaps there never was, in the same range of country, so many inhuman flies as only a few years ago lived and made day noxious in the limits of this prairie basin of the Little Vermilion, now known as Sidell. "Flies till yon couldn't rest" is a mild way of putting it. During the month of August people found it necessary to travel by night to save their horses from being almost eaten up.

Passage source: History of Vermilion County, Together with Historic Notes on the Northwest, Gleaned from Early Authors, Old Maps and Manuscripts, Private and Official Correspondence, and Other Authentic, Though, for the Most Part, Out-of-the-way Sources, published 1879.

There were a few scattering residents in the township before 1850, but it was not until 1855 to 1860 that anything like general cultivation can be said to have taken place. In 1853 Michael Sullivant, whose recent sudden death, followed so close upon the loss of his large property, was so startling, began making his large entries of land in this and the adjoining counties. He entered forty-seven thousand acres lying in a body in Sidell township and in Champaign county. About the same time he entered over fifty thousand acres in Ford and Livingston counties. The portion which was in Sidell came into possession of his son Joseph, and he has from that time been managing it as a 6tock farm until last year. The Sullivant land in Champaign county, after having been brought into cultivation, was sold to Mr. Alexander, when Mr. Sullivant concluded to bring his large farm, lying in Ford and Livingston counties, into cultivation. His ambition was to have a large farm and work it by hired help. No portion of his land was leased, and he depended entirely on the grain that he raised and the sale of it.

Passage source: History of Vermilion County, Together with Historic Notes on the Northwest, Gleaned from Early Authors, Old Maps and Manuscripts, Private and Official Correspondence, and Other Authentic, Though, for the Most Part, Out-of-the-way Sources, published 1879.

The farming operations of Joseph, in Sidell, were of a different nature. He went largely into cattle feeding with ver}r fair results and flattering prospects. About 1867 the attention of farmers here was first called to the cheap cattle in Texas and the Indian Nation, where upon the large prairies they were raised cheaply until three or four years old, and then collected and driven across the country to be grassfed, and then grain-fed. The increasing demand for cattle, the reduced range in Illinois, and the other circumstances consequent upon Illinois emerging from a " state of nature," had so restricted the supply of " stackers " that cattle-men began looking elsewhere for them. The

Passage source: History of Vermilion County, Together with Historic Notes on the Northwest, Gleaned from Early Authors, Old Maps and Manuscripts, Private and Official Correspondence, and Other Authentic, Though, for the Most Part, Out-of-the-way Sources, published 1879.

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 Sidell Township - it names this place 11 more 11 times.