Lynchburg Township

Lynchburg Township

Among the first settlers in Lynchburg township was Nelson Abbey, in the year 1S37. He built a log cabin near where the village of Sny Carte now stands, which is supposed to have been the first house in Lynchburg township. During the next year William Rodgers settled near, and was soon followed by John

Rodgers, his brother. There also came, in 1S3S, Amos Smith, Sr., with his sons, Amos, Jr., and B. F., who settled in the same vicinity. Then came John Camp and Richard J. Phelps. Then William Davis, James D. Reeves and George W. Phelps, all making a settlement in a radius of about four miles. Amos Smith, Sr., died in the fall of 1S41. Amos Smith, Jr., was elected Magistrate for Linchburg precinct, on the first organization of Mason county, the same year, which office he continued to hold until his death, in 1 85 1. He was also a county commissioner on the first organization. B. F. Smith, before named, engaged in farming and carpentering, accumulated a fine property, and died. March, 1867. His only surviving descendant, Benjamin B. Smith, resides on the old farm. The Smith family emigrated from Rochester, Windsor county, Vermont.

Most of the early settlers of Linchburg came west poor, and the trials and hardships of improving new farms on these frontiers were very great without the accustomed conveniences of the east. It was common to walk several miles and back, in the wet grass, before breakfast, to get up the oxen for the plow.

Their milling was done at Sugar creek, in Schuyler county; on Spoon river, in Fulton; Painter creek, in Cass county; and, in later years, at Quiver, in Mason county.

To describe the early elections of Lynchburg would be to repeat what we said on the preceding pages on the early elections of Salt creek, that their arguments were more forcible than elegant, but always conducted with energy. (See biography of M. A. Smith.)

Forest City

Forest City is situated on the Peoria, Pekin and Jacksonville Railroad, and laid out at the time of its first construction, and is seventeen miles from Pekin and thirteen from Havana. It was in what was originally Mason Plains precinct, but by an act of the Board of Supervisors, in 1S73, it was changed to Forest City township. The original town plat was purchased by Walker, Kemp, Waggenseller and Wright, in Havana, and surveyed in 1859. D. S. Broderic purchased forty acres of W. R. Nikirk, and in 1S66 had the same surveyed as Broderic's addition to Forest City. The town is favorably situated, geographically, for a fine commcr-

The growth of Mason City deducted from its trade on the east, and points on the I., B. and W. R. R. did the same on the south, but this was more than compensated for by the very rapid improvement of its immediate vicinity. The present population is about two hundred.

The first business house was built by A. Cross & Co.; the second by E. T. Nikirk. There is, in addition to the above, G. W. Pemberton, family groceries, T. A. Gibson, hardware and grain dealer, J. Miller, dealer in grain, V. H. Maxwell, family groceries, John Gavin, family groceries, Limbach & Maxwell, dry goods and groceries, Patrick Kane, family groceries, Eli T. Nikirk & Son, agents for the P., P. and J. Railroad, and F. M. Ellsworth, blacksmith, (and the first in the place,) and others, whose names we did not reach. The physicians of Forest City are Drs. James S. Walker and G. S. Mosteller, both very competent and educated members of their profession. (See biography of Walker family.)

Among the first settlers of this locality were Mr. Nikirk and John Bowser, both of Seneca county, Ohio, who located here twenty-three or four years ago. Mr. Nikirk purchased the entire landed estate of W. G. Green, now of Menard county, Illinois. The purchase was made in 1S52, and in 1S55 Mr. Nikirk died, leaving nearly two thousand acres of land to his family. Twenty years afterwards Elizabeth, his widow, died, leaving her children pleasant and comfortable homes, nearly all in sight of the old homestead.

The Nikirk sons are among the most substantial farmers and business men of that vicinity, and it is with great personal gratification that we here record them all pleasant, genial gentlemen, whose acquaintance we have ever valued, and whose sociability and hospitality we ever appreciate.

Mr. Bowser is residing on the farm first purchased, in affluent circumstances, a most substantial citizen, possessed of many broad acres of rich land within sight of his pleasant home, surrounded by all that makes life desirable, and that contributes to human happiness. We have had a personal acquaintance with Mr. Bowser for nearly thirty-five years. On that acquaintance, we must say, we have only known him as a neighbor, a gentleman and friend.

Reed and B. Heicks, Constables. We also note among her prominent mechanics: J. A. Beard, builder and contractor; J.Jackson, carpenter; T. G. Onstot, dealer in lumber, lime, cement, etc. The substantial character of the business men of Forest City, and it being the centre of a rich agricultural region, enjoying a fine local trade, it bids fair to hold its present prominent position in the business interests of Mason county.

County

$I>365>°33 2° The following statement of the amounts of corn and wheat raised in this county in 1853, is the aggregate from the Assessor's lists :

"Twenty years previous, the region of country then - in 1853 - known as Mason county was one unbroken wilderness. Here and there, near the point of some timber, near the bank of some creek or stream, the log cabin of the pioneer, with a few acres of land beginning to be cultivated, was the only indication of civilization. The government owned the land, and $1 25 per acre was no inducement to settlers so long as any quantity of what was considered vastly better soil could be purchased at the same price. Emigrants avoided these plains and sandridges as unworthy their notice. The productive qualities of the soil had not been tested, and very few were willing to run the risk and make the experiment. It was not until land was growing scarce, in what were considered more favored localities, that purchases began to be made here. The settler very soon found, however, that his prejudices were unfounded - that the forbidding apjDearance of the surface was a false indication - that an exuberance of productive power was here disguised under an exterior show of poverty. The facts becoming known, the settlers flocked in, and have continued to come, until now - 1S53 - there is scarcely any unentered lands to be found anywhere in the county. Thousands of acres have been taken up by speculators, in the confident expectation of realizing a fortune by selling again. Men who were conversant with this state of things, sixteen, or even ten years ago, are astonished to behold the changes even ten years have wrought; any amount of land that then could have been purchased at government price, is now held at from 10 to 25 dollars joer acre, and no anxiety to sell at that price. There has been a steady, uniform and onward progress. Many a farmer who came here a few years ago, with barely sufficient means to enter a small tract, forty or eighty acres, or perhaps a quarter section, is now in comfortable circumstances; some of them rich - became so by agriculture. Mason county may safely challenge the State, and if the State, the world, to raise better crops, with the same amount of cultivation. Indeed, the very fertility of the soil induces a system of farming, that in a soil of less strength would be less than useless. Scientific agriculture has as yet received very little attention from our farmers, and though we are happy to be able to record the fact that a movement has recently been made by a few, which, if carried out, will tend greatly to improve the modes of operation in this, the most beneficial of all the branches of human industry. Under the best system of management that science has yet discovered, the farmers of the older States are not able to compete with ours who have taken very little trouble in reference to the matter. How vastly more productive our virgin soil might be made by a practical application of all the knowledge that is attainable on this subject."

June 30, 1S57

Clerk. The progress of agriculture in this county and in the State has more than exceeded the expectations of the most sanguine. In the year 1867, we compiled from statistical reports the following, as to

The Crops In Illinois

Our people have but little conception of the amount of produce raised in our State. They know the soil is prolific, and that in their immediate vicinity there is a great yield. Further than this, thev have no idea of the aggregate of the crops of the State. It would astonish most of them to be told that last year there were in Illinois 4,931,783 acres of corn planted, and that the product from these acres amounts to 155,844,350 bushels; 2,195,263 acres were cropped with wheat, yielding 28,551,421 bushels; rye spread over

43,721, giving1 666,455 bushels, enough to make whisky sufficient to demoralize the whole State. In oats there were 883,952 acres, producing 30,054,370 bushels.

Barley occupied 41,510 acres, giving 1,037,753 bushels. Buckwheat, 16,250 acres, raising 273,010 bushels. Potatoes took up 58,982 acres, and yielded 4,102,035 bushels. The hay crop covered 1,591,880 acres, and turned off 2,340,063 tons, and 25,578 acres were in tobacco, yielding 17,546,981 pounds. The crops above enumerated occupied 9,788,920 acres, valued at $160,148,704. In this statement there is no account taken of the various fruit crops for which our State is so famous. With these counted in, the value of our products would be considerably swollen, and we should show a wealth of agricultural products which cannot be rivaled by any State in the Union.

It must be remembered that not more than one-sixth of our land is under cultivation, if there is more than one acre in seven. Truly, our State is a giant, rich in soil, and teeming with muscle and intellect. Running through five degrees of latitude, we present a climate and variety of soils which are truly the admiration of our sister States. From Galena to Cairo we present the various fruits and products raised in the temperate climates. Our grazing fields are not to be surpassed by any in the world. Our cotton grows luxuriantly, and our hemp, flax and tobacco are fast becoming staple articles.

In this showing no mention has been made of our sorghum crop. The number of acres in this article has not been ascertained; yet, from all we can gather, a large surface must have been put in, and the yield highly flattering and remunerative. The root crops, too, have not been considered, and yet there can be no doubt but thousands of acres were devoted to them last year, and that the value of their products reached millions of dollars.

Who can say that the dwellers in our State should not be proud of her? Her broad and beautiful prairies, and her groves of luxuriant timber, are objects over which we can feel a just pride. In all that goes to make up a great State, we can be excelled in but few, if any particulars. Our soil, our railroads, and other facilities, besides bordering on a great inland sea, peculiarly fit Illinois for the title of the Empire State of the great Northwest.

From the books of the State Auditor we eet the following as to the number of domestic animals on the first of May, 1S76, and the number of acres in grain last year.

[The Geology of Mason county being reported by the above author in connection with Tazewell, McLean and Logan, we are compelled to give data from those counties; also from Menard and Cass, from the fact that the geological formations of these six counties are so uniformly the same that a description of one is nearly a description of all. It is also true that the geological surveys of these six counties have been very superficial and neglected. Our State Geologist, Prof. A. H. Worthen, being only remarkable for giving little attention to the important work which the State employs him to do. We shall extract from the work of Mr. Bannister, done for the Geological office of this State, and add such personal investigations as we have been able to make.]

" The surface of the country over a great portion of the district composed of the counties of McLean, Logan, the greater part of Tazewell, and the eastern part of Mason, is a high, undulating prairie, with here and there groves and belts of timber.

The soil is generally a rich brown mould, varying somewhat in different localities in the proportions of clay, etc., which it contains, some portions being more argillaceous than others. In the timber, however, which occupies scarcely more than one-fifth or one-sixth of the entire surface, and the broken country along some of the principal streams, the soil is somewhat of a different character, the lighter colored and more argillaceous subsoil appearing at or near the surface.

In the greater part of Mason county, and over considerable tracts in the southwestern part of Tazewell county, the surface configuration varies from that which we have described. The prairies are low and comparatively flat, and in many places were originally overflowed, or marshy, at some seasons of the year. The soil of these prairies is a rich alluvium, generally more or less arenaceous, which forms, when sufficiently elevated or drained, one of the best producing soils in the State.

Along the Illinois and Sangamon rivers, in this region, we find rather extensive sandy tracts of river formation, and on the Sangamon river in Mason county, and on the Illinois in Mason and Tazewell, the bold bluffs of the Loess are, in some localities, conspicious features of the general landscape.

The principal streams occurring in this district, besides the Illinois and Sangamon rivers, which form a portion of its borders, are the Mackinaw, in Tazewell, Mason and McLean counties; Salt Creek, in Mason and Logan counties; Kickapoo and Sugar creeks, in Logan and McLean counties. These, with many minor streams and nameless tributaries, drain nearly the whole surface of this entire district. With the exception of the Illinois and Sangamon rivers, none of the streams have extensive tracts of bottoms adjoining them, and even along these rivers the bottoms are either of inconsiderable extent or wanting altogether.

The geological formations appearing in this district are almost entirely of the drift or later formations, the older rocks outcropping only at a comparatively few localities in Tazewell and Logan counties. The underlying rock, as far as can be ascertained from these outcroppings, as well as from artificial exposures, by shafts, etc., in various parts of the district, consists entirely of the diffei-ent beds of the coal measure series.

The Loess, the uppermost of the more recent geological formations, appears only in the vicinity of the Illinois and Sangamon rivers, and consists here, as elsewhere, of buff or ash colored marly sand, containing fresh water shells of existing species. It is not everywhere equally well developed, and in various localities along the Illinois river, in Mason and Tazewell counties, it either does not appear at all, or is inconspicuous. It may be well seen, however, in Mason county, where it appears in the bald, rounded bluffs, with occasional mural-appearing escarpments covering their summits, which forms so characteristic a feature of the landscape along the river below. In the northern part of Tazewell county, although this bluff marl sand appears to some extent in the bluffs along the Illinois river, it is not by any means as well exposed or prominent as farther south, in other counties.

The drift formation which covers the older rocks in almost every part of this district, is here composed of heds of blue and brown clay, sand and gravel, and varies in thickness in different portions from fifty feet in the western part of Tazewell county, to two hundred and fifty in the Bloomington shafts. It has been penetrated however at but comparatively few points, and over the greater part of this region, its depth can only be approximately estimated. It seems probable indeed that it may be of this thickness over a considerable portion of McLean county, as boring at Chatsworth in the adjoining portion of Livingston county, was reported to have penetrated to a depth of two hundred and fifty feet before striking rock. The material of the drift in this region appears to be roughly stratified; alternating beds of sand, gravel and clay are frequently met with in wells and borings. The sand and gravel beds make generally but a small part of the total thickness, though sometimes single beds attain a very considerable thickness, as, for instance, at Chenoa, in the northern part of McLean county, where a boring for coal passes through abed of sand and gravel thirty feet in thickness, overlaid by forty-five feet of the usual clays of this formation. Occasionally also a bed of black earth or vegetable mould, still containing pieces of wood, trunks of trees, leaves, &c, only partially decayed, is met with, and a bed of quicksand containing the usual fossil land or fresh-water shells of existing species.

The following section of the drift afforded by a shaft sunk in the city of Bloomington, is of special interest, as showing both of these conditions at unusual depths. The shaft was sunk by the Bloomington Coal Mining Company near the track of the Chicago and St. Louis Railroad, half a mile north of the depot:

Another shaft a little over a mile distant from this one passed through materially the same succession of strata, with only local variations in the thickness of the different beds. The quicksand, No. 8 of the above section, resembling the sands of the Loess in general appearance, and the only species of the contained shells which could be identified, was Helicina Occulta, which is also not uncommon in the Loess of the river valleys of this State. Beds of black vegetable mould are met with at less depths than in this section in various places in this district, as, for instance, in the vicinity of Pekin, Tazewell county, where it is said in few instances to have tainted the wells which have penetrated it to such an extent as to almost render them unfit for use. Sections of the drift are also afforded by the borings for coal which have been made in various parts of this district. In all cases they show variations of the material from blue to yellow clay, sand and gravel, but do not generally afford sections of such especial interest as the shafts at Bloomington, nor is the depth of the formation as great. At Chenoa the thickness is found to be ninety feet from the surface to the rock; at Lexington one hundred and eighty feet; at Atlanta one hundred and twentysix feet; at Lincoln seventy feet; at Cheney's Grove one hundred and twenty-two feet; and at several points in Tazewell county from sixty to one hundred feet and more. Its thickness is quite irregular, -but seems to be greatest in the central and eastern portions of the district.

In Mason county we have no reliable data on which to base our estimates, but its average thickness in that portion I think may be set down at not less than fifty feet, and is probably much more. In the western portion of Tazewell county in the ravines and broken country along the Illinois river, I observed in a number of places at the base of the drift a bed of cemented gravel or conglomerate showing sometimes an irregular stratification similar to that of beach deposits.

A ledge of this material may be seen, nine or ten feet in thickness, in the northwestern quarter of section 7, township 25, range 4, west of the third principal meridian, up one of the side ravines which comes down through the Illinois river bluffs a little south of Wesley city, in Tazewell county, Illinois, and other similar ledges appear in various places in the vicinity of Fon du Lac, and also on the Mackinaw, in the eastern portion of this county. Another similar bed of cemented gravel, of, however, a comparatively in- significant thickness, may be seen about half way up the bluff, at the steamboat landing in the city of Pekin, where it does not appear to be more than a few inches thick.

I have not observed any similar deposits in the eastern portions of this district, cither in Logan or McLean counties, nor have I heard of its having been met with in sinking the various shafts or borings.

Coal Measures

All the stratified rocks that outcrop within the limits of this district belong, as has been already stated, to the coal measures, and the actual surface exposures are confined for the most part to a thickness of sixty or eighty feet in the middle portion of the formation. In the whole district there is but one boring which affords an artificial section of the beds down to the base of this formation. This is one made by Voris & Co., on the bottom lands on the Tazewell county side of the Illinois river, and directly opposite the city of Peoria.

The first bed of the coal measure which is met with in the boring is about forty feet below the lower coal scam, which is worked in this section, number four of the Illinois river section, as given by Prof. Worthen.

The following is a section of the first four hundred and fiftynine feet of the boring. Below that depth the records kept by Mr. Voris & Co. are not complete, as to the thickness and material of all the different beds -

459 " As nearly as the limits of the formations can be made out from this section, I think that at least that portion between the base of the alluvium and drift, and the bituminous shale and limestone of this section, number seventeen, may be referred to the coal measures. The remainder is Devonian, with perhaps some of the upper beds of the lower carboniferous. The exact equivalent of the two beds of the coal passed through, may, perhaps, not be stated with certainty. The lower one, however, is probably No. 1, of the Illinois river section. The greatest depth reached in the boring was seven hundred and seventy-four feet, and the lowest rock was a gray porous limestone, the fragments of which, brought up by the instruments, were exactly similar in appearance to some of the upper limestones of the Niagai-a group, exposed in the northern part of the State, with which this formation may doubtless be properly identified.

The coal seam which is worked in this immediate neighborhood is No. 4, as has already been stated. A good exposure of this coal may be seen near the track of the Toledo, Peoria and Warsaw Railroad, at a point of the bluff where the road enters the valley of Farm creek. It is here immediately overlaid by loess and drift, and is about four feet in thickness, the same as its average in other localities thereabouts. It is worked in various places, both in the river bluffs and for a mile or more up the valley of Farm creek, by horizontal drifts into the hill sides, some of which, in their various branches, are of considerable linear extent. The beds overlying the coal are not exposed to the surface at any point north of Farm creek, but the seam is generally found to have a roof of sandstone or sandy shale in the interior portions of the drift. - 8

Along the Illinois river bluffs, between Fon du Lac and Wesley City, there are several points where coal is now, or has been, worked, and there are a few exposures of the overlying sandstones in the bluffs near the main wagon road. South of Wesley City there are scarcely any exposures on the river face of the bluffs, but up the side ravines they are more numerous. In one of these ravines, some distance from the road, on the land of Mr. Davis, I observed the following succession of beds in a vertical exposure for about sixty rods along the sides of the bluffs:

It seems to me that the vein of coal observed here is still above both the seams which are worked in this region. The distance between this and the next vein below it, I should judge to be not more than forty or fifty feet. The limestone which always overlies the coal No. 6, is entirely wanting here, although, as may be seen bv the section, a bed of limestone occurs below its under clay, and farther down the creek. Below the exposures from which the above sections were made up, numerous thin beds of limestone may be seen intercalated in the sandstone outcrops. These limestone bands seem to be somewhat fossiliferous, but no good specimens were obtained. In the northeastern part of section twentvfour, township twenty-five, range five, on a northern fork of Lick creek, I noticed a quarry in a ledge of soft, light gray and brown micaceous sandstone, generally thin bedded and shaly, but in some places with beds thick enough to answer for building purposes. The total vertical thickness of the exposure was less than twelve feet. Passing farther down the branch, in a general westerly and southerly direction, we find the hillsides along the banks strown thickly with fragments of similar sandstone, indicating the probable existence of the same beds but a short distance under the soil. At a point on the immediate bank of the creek, near the centre of the section, I observed an exposure of about twenty feet of sandy and argillaceous shales, containing a thin seam of coaly matter, not over one or two inches in thickness at its best development, and from that down to nothing. About half a mile farther east, near the centre of the eastern line of the section, alongside of the road which crosses the creek at this place, and well up the bluffs, I observed the outcrop of a coal seam which had been worked to some slight extent, and which I take to be the upper workable vein of this region: No. 6 of the Illinois river section. The whole exposure of this point presented the following section:

Farther to the eastward from this point, and higher in the bluffs, I observed limited exposures of reddish, shaly sandstones, or arenaceous shale, which seems from its position to overlie the uppermost beds of the above section. In the vicinity of Pekin there are but few natural exposures of the underlying rocks, but the lower coal is mined at several points in the neighborhood of the city. The coal is generally overlaid by black slate. Above the slate there is generally from twenty to forty or fifty feet of sandstone, or sandy shales, according to the locality of the shafts, on the edge of the bluffs, or farther up towards the rolling uplands.

This sandstone may be seen in the bottom of the ditches at one or two points on the Fremont road, about a mile east of the city of Pekin, and in the vicinity of the principal coal mines. At Mr. Hawley's place, about five miles southeast of Pekin, a shaft was sunk, which passed through both the upper and lower coals, affording a section of the intermediate beds, which, as reported to me, were as follows :

About two mile- cast of Mr. Haw-lev's place, in the southwest quarter of section twenty, township twenty-four, range four, on a branch called Lost creek, there is said to be another exposure of brownish sandstone, of very limited extent. I failed to find the locality myself, but if sandstone occurs here, it may be that overlying the lower coal, or possibly the higher bed not represented in the above section.

In the central and eastern part of Tazewell county there are fewr localities where borings, etc., have been made, but satisfactory records of the variation of the strata could not in all cases be obtained. At Rapp's Mills, near the centre of the north line of section twenty, township twenty-four, range four, a shaft wras sunk to the depth of eighty-five feet, but, as it was reported to me, it struck limestone at that depth. If this be the case, it is very possibly the limestone overlying the upper coal, but without more reliable data it is impossible to speak with certainty. The shaft was abandoned before completion, on account of the difficulty in keeping it free from water. At Delevan, in the southeastern portion of the county, a boring wras made, which was reported to have passed through sixtv feet of sandstone, and below that seventy -five feet more of arenaceous and argillaceous clay shales. No coal was reported in this boring.

In Mason county there are no natural exposures of the older rocks, and as far as I can ascertain, no good artificial sections afforded in shafts, wells or borings. Passing eastward, however, into Logan county, we find along Salt creek, some distance above Middletown, a few tumbling masses of bluish limestones, which have evidently come out of the blufFs, but no good exposures. In southeast quarter of section thirteen, township nineteen, range four, a boring was made in the side of the bluffs by Messrs. Bovd, Paisley & Co., of Lincoln, which passed one hundred and thirty feet of alternating beds of limestone and arenaceous and argillaceous shales, passing through the drift and surface deposits at the depth of only fifteen feet.

A seam of coal was stated also to have been met with near the bottom of the boring, but its thickness could not be satisfactorily ascertained. I also heard it stated that a seam of coal about twro feet thick had been worked by the early settlers of the county in this vicinity, and afterwards abandoned on account of its poor quality. No traces of the outcrop or the old workings are now visible, and I am not able to state with any degree of exactness the place in the series of this seam of coal, though it is undoubtedly among the measures of the upper beds.

At Rankin's mill, about two miles farther up the stream, in the northwest quarter of section 7, township 19, range 3, the creek flows over a bed of limestone, which is also quarried at one or two places on the southern bank. The rock is a light gray or bluish gray, irregular bedded limestone, and contains a few of the common coal measure fossils, of which Sfiiriffer, Cameratus, S. LineatuSy Athyris Subtiliia, and a few others only were collected. Its thickness here as ascertained by means of a well dug in one of the quarries, was eleven feet, and underneath it was found four feet of black slate, underlaid by seventeen feet of fire-clay, and then six feet of limestone. The hole is continued by a boring to a depth of eighty feet from the surface, at which depth a seam of coal was struck, the thickness of which I was unable to ascertain. This, or a similar bed of limestone outcrops on Lake Fork of Salt Creek, in section 23, township 19, range 8, in a ledge about three feet high, which has been quarried to a slight extent at one point near the center of the section.

The above comprises all the natural exposures within the limits of this district. There remain, however, various shafts, borings, &c, which, over the larger portion of the territory, afford us the only means whatever of ascertaining the character and the thickness of the underlying beds. Of these, with one or two exceptions only, the shafts alone furnish sufficiently reliable sections of the strata, and as yet but two or three have been sunk. At Lincoln the shaft afforded the following section after passing through about seventy feet of soil and drift:

The black slate which had been taken from the shafts was too much decomposed at the time of my visit for me to obtain from it any very well preserved fossils, although among the rubbish I observed various indistinguishable fragments of what had apparently been fossil shells. The coal in this section is probably not below No. 6 of the Illinois river section, and may possibly be still higher. About four miles south of Lincoln, on the land of Mr. J. Brancher, near the center of the south line of section 14, township 19, range 4, a hole was sunk by boring to the depth of two hundred and fifty feet, and three seperate seams of coal are reported to have been met with. Unfortunately, however, the thickness of the variation and the thickness of the beds could not be obtained, and we are therefore unable to form an opinion as to the equivalents of these seams. In a boring at Atlanta in the northern part of this county a seam three feet and six inches thick was reported at a depth of two hundred and forty feet; the overlying bed as reported consisting of alternate strata of slate, soapstone, limestone, &c. This is probably coal No. 6, although without a more positive evidence than is afforded by a single isolated boring, nothing can be stated with absolute certainty.

The two shafts at Bloomington, which have been mentioned in the remarks concerning the drift in the previous portion of this chapter, affords us the most satisfactory section of any excavation in the district, enabling us to identify the two seams of coal which they penetrate, with Nos. 4 and 6 of the general Illinois river section.

The following section, made up from records furnished by both shafts, illustrates well the variation of the strata of the middle coal measures of this region. This section commences at the base of the drift, and its upper portion, from 1 to 4 inclusive, was afforded by the Bloomington Coal Company's shaft, and the remainder by that of the McLean County Coal Alining Company, a mile further south, along the railroad track :

No. 2 of this section is light colored laminated sandstone, containing a few remains of fossil plants. In the more southern shaft it seems to be replaced by a conglomerate. No fossils were obtained from any of the other beds excepting the black slate No. 12, over the lower coal, which contained in great abundance Lingula umbonata, Aveculofecten rectalaterarea, Cardina frag ills, and other fossils characteristic of the shales of this coal. A rather peculiar feature, however, is the comparative rarity of the Discina Nitida, usually the most abundant fossil in this State, only one or two specimens being found in rather a protracted search.

In the northern and eastern portions of McLean county we have only the records of several borings, which afford but few particulars as to the character of the underlying beds. Just over the county line in Livingston county, about two miles from Chenoa, in a northeast direction, a ledge of blueish-gray, irregularly bedded limestone outcrops in the side of a ravine. In general appearance this rock is similar to that noticed in the preceding pages as occurring on Salt Creek, in Logan county, and like it, is probably in the upper part of the coal measures.

Economical Geology

From the preceding remarks it will be seen that although four of five different seams of coal underlie different portions of this district, but two of them have been worked to any extent. The upper of these two, No. 6 of the general section, is worked to a slight extent along the Illinois river, in the region of Peoria and Pekin, and is also the upper seam in the Bloomington shafts. Its thickness in these localities ranges from three to four feet. The coal in this bed is generally softer and more impure than that of the next seam below, and its workings have frequently been forsaken for those of the lower bed. The sixteen-inch vein of coal which has been mentioned on a preceding page as occurring on a ravine a short distance back of Wesley City, and which I have there considered as still higher vein of coal, may possibly be this seam, in spite of its lesser thickness, as is a characteristic of this bed, in other parts of the State, where it has been identified, to vary considerable

The more reliable indications of the accompanying limestone beds, with their characteristic fossils, cannot under all the circumstances, be well observed, nor, indeed, do they appear to be invariably present.

The lower coal, No. 4, is the seam which is now mined in nearly all the principal workings within the limits of this district, and will, generally, average here near four feet in thickness.

It, however, contains in some parts its share of impurities, but often so disposed in the vein as to render them easily separable. In some of the shafts near the citv of Pekin, the seam of coal which I have referred to in the preceding pages, contains in its lower portion, about sixteen or eighteen inches above the base, a thin seam of fire clay, separating it into two unequal portions, and sometimes a vein of slate or slatey coal is reported to otcur only five or six inches above the bottom. In the upper portion, also, there is often what is called "hickory," or mixed coal and shale or sand rock. The thickness of good coal, however, is sufficient to render its working profitable.

At Bloomington, the shafts were first sunk only to the upper coal, which was worked for a short time, and then the shaft having been deepened, the upper bed was abandoned, and only the lower seam was worked. The difference in quality was very marked at this place, the lower coal was very much superior to that of the upper seam.

Beneath this coal, No. 4, we find by the boring, opposite Peoria, by Voris & Co., two seams of coal, at the depths of one hundred and twenty and two hundred and thirty feet, and, respective] v, four and three feet in thickness, which are most probably Nos. 1 and 3 in the general sections referred to. Although we have no positive data as to the existence of these or other beds under the coal No. 4, in other .portions of the district, yet, from their existence at this point, and from our general knowledge of the development of the lower coal measures of this State, it seems quite probable that these seams of coal might be found at the proper depths in other parts of this and the adjoining counties.

A boring of from two to two hundred and fifty feet below the known horizon of No. 4, or to five, seven or eight hundred feet from the surface, in different parts of the district, would probably penetrate all the coal ' measures, and settle all the questions in regard to the existence and development of the underljdng coal seams.

The upper coal seams are perhaps represented in this district, by the bed reached in the Lincoln shaft, and it may be, also, by the small vein near Wesley city, in Tazewell county, which I have in the preceding pages referred, with doubt, to a higher level than No. 6, though still admitting its possible identity with that bed itself. In neither of these localities is the seam of sufficient thickness to be worked with much profit, excepting where it might perhaps be profitably worked in a small way by stripping along the line of its out-crop.

Building Materials

This district is, as a whole, scantily supplied within itself, with building stone, the greater portion of its surface being occupied by drift deposits.

Along the Illinois river, in Tazewell county, the sandstones of the coal measures have been quarried, to some extent, to supply local demand, and in some localities appear to afford a stone suitable for foundations, cellars, walls, etc.

The limestone beds which also occur in the coal measure strata in this region, though generally of inconsiderable thickness, may also furnish a limited supply for the same purpose, as well as for the manufacture of lime.

The limestone ledges, noticed as occurring on Salt creek and Lake Fork, in Logan county, also furnish fair material for the rougher kinds of masonry, and have been considerably quarried for this purpose.

Clay and loam, suitable for the manufacture of a fair quality of red brick, are found in nearly all parts of the district, and have been made use of in most of the principal towns within its limits. Sand, for building purposes, is also sufficiently abundant.

Mineral Springs

We may, perhaps, properly mention under this head, the artesian well sunk by Messrs. Voris & Co., on the edge of the bottom land along the Illinois river, opposite Peoria, in which a current of water, holding in solution sulpherated hydrogen, was struck at the depth of seven hundred and thirty-four feet. When struck, it was stated to have had a head of sixty or seventy feet, and the flow is said to be nearly as strong at the present time. This water appears to be derived from the upper portion of the Niagara group, but before the boring had reached its present depth, a vein of saline was met with at a distance from the surface of three hundred and seventeen feet.

Copperas and saline springs occur in various places in this district, and occasionally give names to some of the minor streams. Such names as Salt creek and Lick creek occur here as in other parts of the State. These springs, however, are few in number, and can hardly be considered of any economic value.

It is, perhaps, superfluous to mention at length the agricultural capabilities of this district, since the capacities of its soils, etc., are so well known, and its territory so generally taken up and occupied by actual settlers, and now under high cultivation.

I may safely say, however, that, with the exceptions of some sandv portions along the rivers, there are no extensive tracts of what may be called poor land. There are, indeed, some tracts of comparatively low bottoms, or marshy land, which are not at present available for all kinds of agriculture, but these are generallv of limited extent, and are rapidly diminishing under an improved system of drainage, which places them at once among the more valuable lands of the district. The numerous railroads now traversing the country, those projected and in process of construction, by making all portions readily accessable to the centers of trade, will add greatly to its present wealth and guarantee its future prosperitv.

Treelessness Of Prairies

[ To Prof. Winchell, L. L. D., Professor of Geology and of Botany, in University of Michigan, we are indebted for the following interesting contribution : ]

The prairies of the Mississippi valley, especially those lying within the limits of the great State of Illinois, constitute one of the most remarkable features of North American topography. Hundreds of thousands of acres, stretching through all the central and western portions of the State, present a scene of almost unbroken level and treelessness. The great prairies are neither a perfect plain, nor in all cases completely undiversified with arboreal vegetation. The surface is generally undulating, and here and there rise gravelly knolls and ridges on which the timber has obtained a foothold. But these wooded spots are often many miles apart, and scarcely serve to rest the eye, wearied with the monotony of an interminable view of fenceless meadows and unsheltered farm houses.

The traveler, leaving Chicago by one of the great southern routes, passes out through the muddy and straggling outskirts of the western metropolis, and, ere he had thought of the great prairies through which he had expected to pass, he finds himself at sea. Looking from his car window, the country landscape seems at first to be entirely wanting. He feels as if passing over a trellis bridge, three hundred feet above the surrounding region. The customary objects - forests, shade trees, fences, houses, distant hills - which elsewhere lift themselves to the horizontal plane of the eye, are not here. The traveler must make a second effort, and look down upon the level of the country upon whose bosom he has now launched.

The sensation is that which one experiences when going to sea. The rattling of the train is easily transformed into the puffing and creaking steamship, while the interminable prairie, mingling its distant and softened green with the subdued azure .of the summer sky, can be likened to nothing but the ocean's boundless expanse. The ever recurring undulation of the prairie is the grand ocean swell, which utters perpetually a reminiscence of the last storm, while the evening sun, with dim'd lustre, settles down into the prairie's green sod, as to the mariner he sinks into the emerald bosom of the sea.

The prairies - I behold them for the first - And my heart swells, while the dilated sight Takes in the encircling vastness. Lo! they stretch

Illinois has been styled the garden State of the West. The deep rich pulverulent soil of the upland prairie, and especially its readiness for the plow, without the intervention of a year's hard labor in opening "a clearing," have always constituted powerful attractions for the settler from the stony hills of New England, and the wooded regions of other States.

From our earliest knowledge of the prairie, speculation has been rife as to their treelessness and origin. The old and popular belief was that which attributed their treelessness to the annual burning of the grass by the Indians. But the prairies present other phenomena, which the annual burning fails to explain besides; the treelessness remains in regions where the burnings have ceased. And, further, the treeless prairies were not the only regions burnt by the Indians. And if they were, it seems more likely that the Indian burned the rank grass because the region was treeless than that the

It has been suggested that the region was originally forest-covered, and that the southern cane flourished in such luxuriance among the trees as to rob them of their moisture and nourishment, and thus caused their extinction, and the cane having deprived itself of the forest shade and protection, was itself scorched out by the rays of the summer sun. This theory is in every way unsatisfactory.

With others, the absence of trees is to be attributed to the absence of moisture in the atmosphere, and also of the soil at certain seasons of the year. It cannot be doubted that the treeless plains of the far west, and also other regions, have failed to produce arboreal growths through an insufficient supply of moisture. Still other treeless regions are such from an excess of saline constituents in the soil. But all such regions have nothing in common with the prairies of Illinois, except their treelessness. The topography and soil constitution of Illinois prairies points to a different and peculiar history. Moreover, trees occupy the dryer knolls of the prairies in the midst of common atmospheric conditions.

Exactly the reverse of this theory is that which attributes the absence of trees to an excess of moisture in the soil at certain seasons. But we well know that there is no soil so wet and stagnant but certain trees will flourish upon it - the willow, the cottonwood, the beach, the black ash, the alder, the water oak, the American larch, the arbor-vitas, or some other tree - some of them standing joyously half the year, if need be, in water most stale and stagnant. Many swamps and sloughs are, indeed, treeless, but is this in consequence of the inability of the willow to take root and maintain itself, or rather in consequence of the formation of the swamp so recently that the germ of the tree has not yet been scattered over it ? Moreover, wetness cannot be attributable to large portions of Illinois prairies which are entirely treeless. Is there a different cause for treelessness here? It has been suggested within a few years by high geological authority, that the lack of trees is caused by excessive fineness of the prairie soil. It can scarcely be denied however that other soils, as pulverent as that of the prairies, are densely covered with forest vegetation, and that in the same latitudes, and under the same meteorological conditions. On the other hand certain soils of a coarse texture, are equally treeless. But the final objection to this theory, and to all other theories which look to the physical or chemical condition of the soil, or even to climatic peculiarities, for an explanation of the treeless character of the upland prairies of the Mississippi valley, is discovered in the fact that trees will grow on them when once introduced - not water-loving trees exclusively, but evergreens, decideous forest trees and fruit trees, such as flourish in all arable soils, and habitable portions of our country. Every one will now admit that trees will flourish upon prairies. In proof of this fact the prairie farmers for many years have been actively and successfully engaged in their introduction. "The prairies," says a noted author, "may easily be converted into wooded land by destroying with the plow the tough sward which has formed itself on them. There are large tracts of country where, a number of years ago, the farmers mowed their hay, that are now covered with a forest of young, rapidly growing timber. In like manner, the uplands of St. Louis county, Missouri, which were, in 1823, principally prairie lands, are now covered with a growth of fine, thrifty timber, so that it would be difficult to find an acre of prairie in the county." This testimony is confirmed by numbers of persons from various parts of the State with whom I have conversed on this subject. The introduction of timber as a branch of rural industry, is now systematically pursued. A drawback to the cultivation of forest and fruit trees, is the violence of the prairie winds, and the occasional severity of the winter weather.

There are pretty satisfactory evidences that the soil of the prairies is of lacustrine origin. It has the fineness, color and vegetable constituents of soil accumulated upon a lake bottom. We find in it, moreover, abundant fossil remains of a lacustrine character. Fresh water-shells of a species still existing in lake Michigan, are found in localities many miles from the existing shore. Finally we have found all around the chain of great lakes, abundant proofs that their waters once occupied a much higher level than at present. We have discovered the object that dammed the waters to this extraordinary height. In short, we have ascertained that the prairie region of Illinois must have been a long time inundated - whether such inundation contributed to the characteristics of the prairies or not. I think it did. If I ascertain that the cause for an inundation exists; if I see the traces of an inundation all the way from the Niagara river to Illinois; if the barrier which shuts out Illinois from the lake is not one-third the night of the ancient lake flood; if I find throughout the region exposed to inundation, the peculiar soil deposited by fresh waters, together with traces of lacustrine animals, which never wander over land, do I not discover a chain of facts which necessitates my conclusions? During the floodtide of the lakes, Lake Michigan must have found an outlet towards the south.

We find a corroboration of this. The broad, and deep, and blufflined valley of the Illinois river was never excavated by that inconsiderable sti-eam. The deserted river valley discovered at intervals farther north, indicates the former southward flow of large bodies of water. At Lemont this valley is distinct, with its bounding bluffs and its "pot-holes," worn in the solid rock of the ancient river bed. This was the work of the lake in its declining stages. At the earlier period, when the waters of Lake Michigan stood one or two hundred feet higher than their present level, how much of the region south and west of Chicago must have been submerged? The ancient lake must have reached its arms into Iowa, Northern Indiana and Southwestern Michigan. While the expanse of lacustrine waters was brooding over the region destined to become a prairie, they busied themselves in strewing over the tombs of pre-glacial germs a bed of mud which should forever prevent a resurrection. Lake sediments themselves inclose no living germs. You will see the seeds of grasses and of fruit trees washed in by the recent storm, floating upon the surface and eventually drifting to the leeshore. If they ever sink to the bottom and wrap themselves in the accumulating mud, it is after they have lost their vitality. Sunken and buried, they go to decay. Let a lake be drained and the bottom remains a naked, barren, parching, shrinking waste. No herbs, or grasses, or trees burst up through the pottery-like surface. But everywhere, from beds of ancient glacial materials, vegetation is bursting forth and announcing itself. "Lo! here lam!" speaks the nodding young pine, that has been slumbering just beneath the surface through the long and undisputed possession of the deciduous forest, which the axe had just mown down. Not so in a lake bottom. Here are the cerements of the dead, not the wrappings of the slumbering. When, therefore, the ancient lake relinquished dominion over Central Illinois, it left a devastated and desolate country. Around the ancient shores of the abandoned area the emerald forest had stood noddingand blossoming and fruiting, while the inundating lake had washed

Ever since the time when the Atlantic and Pacific held carnival in the Mississippi Valley, these vigorous trees had stood smiling upon the face of the freshening residuum left in Illinois on the final retreat of the ocean.

A resurrected forest had risen from the tombs of the preceding epoch. And not alone around the borders of the widening lake, but upon every island knoll which raised its head above the denuding waters, this encircling forest, and these isolated island clumps still stood and flourished when at length the lake receded.

No turf carpeted the abandoned lake bottom. No oak, or beech, or pine raised its head through the covering of lake-slime that seperated the slumbering place of vegetable germs from the animating influence of the sun and air. By degrees, however, the floods washed down the seeds of grasses and herbs upon the desert area, and humbler forms of vegetation crept from the borders towards the centre. At length the entire area smiled with vernal flowers, and browned in the frosty blasts of winter.

The bulky acorn, and walnut, and hickory nut, traveled with less facility, and the forest more sluggishly encroached upon the lake's abandoned domain. In this stage of history the Indian was here. For aught we know, he was here while yet the prairies were a lake bottom. His canoe may have paddled over the future spires of Bloomington, or the towering dome of the new State House, at Springfield. The muscalonge and pike may have been pursued through the future streets of Chicago or Peoria, but at least the Indian was present in the interval of time by which the herb distanced the tree in their race for the possession of the new soil. In this interval he plied the firebrand t?6 the brown sedges of autumn, and made for himself an Indian summer sky, while he cleared his favorite hunting ground of the rank growths which impeded both eye and foot. While the Indian was engaged in these pursuits, and while yet the forest had not time to extend itself over the prairie, the white man came up the lake from Mackinac, crossed over the prairies to the Mississippi, saw the Indian engaged in his burnings, and hastily concluded that this was the means by which the trees had been swept off, ignorant of the history that had passed, and which was even then, as now, in very progress, and which was even then, as now, actually crowding the forest upon the prairies, bringing about the day when, perhaps, a thousand years hence, the prairies, like the forests of Lancashire, will live only in history.

Early Efforts At Fruit Growing In Mason

The following articles and correspondence was prepared many years ago, by the author of this work, for the Warsaw Horticultural So'ciety, and are here copied from the Journals of that efficient and commendable organization. Little thought had the writer at that time that the communications then prepared would be used at this date, for the Centennial History of Mason county. We extract from the proceedings of that Society:

Dear Sir - Your esteemed favor of the 17th inst., was duly received. Please to accept my thanks for the accompanying article from your pen; also, for papers received a short time since. I will comply with your request in regard to the history of the Gardner Orchard, at an early date. I herewith send you a condensed statement, furnished me, of the Fisk orchard, one of the oldest, if not the oldest, in this county.

"In the fall of 1837, we planted a lot of apple seeds, plum and peach pits in a small space of ground dug up for that purpose. In the spring following, many of them came up, and, with diligent culture, grew finely. In two years they were ready for transplanting.

with large timber. The flat is of our richest black sandy loam, at the depth of three or four feet underlaid with a stiff clay subsoil. The ridge has but little soil upon it, towards the south part of the orchard. Soil, light sand, subsoil yellow sand, yet blue-grass will grow upon it. A few years later we purchased about a dozen of trees from near Decatur, of the large Romanite variety.

"Now, as to the results. Some winters the water would rise in the flats, but to obviate this, we hilled up the place for the trees, and by after cultivation the mounds were increased. The first trees were set out in the spring of 1S40, and in 1846 a number of them bore fruit, but the hard winter of '45 and '46 killed the Decatur trees to the ground and some of them never sprouted. The seedlings remained, some of them I have grafted, and some bear apples I am loth to part with, and do not care to graft. Two of them bear a small striped red and green apple that will keep until August. Two of them bear early apples; one is a striped apple, sheep-nose in shape, medium - sub-acid - juicy. The other, striped red and yellow - medium - sub-acid - juicy - flesh firm.

"Another bears a white apple, skin tender, flesh white, brittle and firm, sub-acid, September, medium. Another produces a yellow fruit, very juicy, intensely sour, and very rich, as are all the preceding. Still another grows a large green apple with red streaks. In size and color somewhat resembles the Rambo, ripens about the 15th of August, sub-acid, tender and delicate. Others bear good, common fruit, and from these trees I have a succession of fruit the year round, and every year.

"The peach trees bore in three years. They bore well for several years, and at the winter aforenamed, they went the way of all the earth. There are a few now on the place, but their fruiting is like angel's visits. The plum trees were suffered to remain without transplanting. I have quite a thicket of them; they bear every year; are not equal to some other varieties, yet some persons consider them worth stealing."

I am now getting another orchard of grafted fruit. Some of the trees, gotten five years ago of Prof. Turner, of Jacksonville, fruited this and last year. Also, quite a lot of Chickasaw, Blue and Lombard plums; all except the latter have been bearing. I am not troubled with curculio so as to suffer any inconvenience. Mv remedy is to do nothing, hence not expensive.

Our county Horticultural Society is in its tottering infancy; we hope to see it able, at least, to be standing alone during the present summer.

I am urging the matter of our folks taking horticultural journals, and will do "what in me lies" for the State Society. Anything you can put in our way, in the future, as in the past, will be duly appreciated.

The Secretary remarked that the history of the Fisk orchard should encourage all to experiment in raising seedlings, and thus increase the varieties of fruits, and at the same time secure hardiness and productiveness.

The Secretary said he would read to the Society a history of the " Gardner Orchard," furnished by Joseph Cochrane, Esq., Secretary of the Mason county, Illinois, Horticultural Society, as follows :

Dear Sir - According to promise, I proceed to give you a brief history of the " Gardner Orchard," in Fulton county, near this city. The "improvement" was begun by the father of the present owner of the Gardner estate, many years ago, before the time had come (in this vicinity) that

The furrows were deep that the plowman had made, And the engines of war were the harrow and spade; That the Soldiers of Labor had homes on their lands, With their great stalwart chests, and their big bony hands; Where the Farmer sat down in the stillness of even, And their children sang songs to " The Father " in Heaven.

A lot of apple seed was obtained from Griffith's orchard above the mouth of the Missouri River, near St. Charles, Mo., in the fall of 1824, and planted in a nursery the succeeding spring, where the young trees remained till three years old, when four hundred were selected and planted out in orchard. The ground selected for the orchard site was high prairie soil, rich sandy loam, with a clay subsoil, sheltered on the East and North by timber and bluffs.

and for long periods; the fruit from many of the trees keeping well till June, and even later. It was not generally of the largest size, hut good in quality and variety. Among the trees of this orchard, which hear early fruit, is the Fulton strawberry, an apple which has become too well known to be described here, and as favorably as widely known. The old, original tree is still standing, full of blossoms, to-day, and bids fair to produce an abundant crop, as for thirty yearspast it has rarely failed to do. The fruit of this orchard generally was 'of so good a quality that a nurseryman sought and obtained the privilege of cutting grafts of about forty varieties therefrom, for the purpose of propagation. What the longevity of these trees would have been under favorable circumstances cannot be stated, as the very disastrous hailstorm of May 2S, 1S40, destroyed nearly the entire orchard, or so injured the trees that they were cut down as cumberers of the ground, excepting a few, among which is the afore-mentioned Fulton Strawberry.

None of the trees of this orchard were ever affected by blight or other disease, but they were magnificent specimens of thriftiness and healthfulness.

Early settlers in Mason and McDonough counties came and selected trees from those remaining in the original Gardner apple tree nursery, thus raised from seed brought from St. Charles, Mo., and did themselves and their posterity good service thereby, for the fullness of time had not yet come when philanthropic individuals should disinterestedly perambulate the country, recommending, with exaggerated pictures and studied eloquence, the "wonderful strawberries and marvelous grapes1' they have to sell, at the low price of $3 per plant, to the " hard-fisted yeomanry " of the land.

If I were called upon to name the obstacle to the general planting and cultivation of fruit in this country, I should unhesitatingly say it is the Tree Peddler, who, being itinerant, does not hesitate to tell the most stupendous lies, in praise and recommendation of what he has to sell. Thus purchasers are imposed upon, and after

On motion, the thanks of the Society were tendered to Mr. Cochrane for his very interesting and instructive contribution to Apple History, in giving us this valuable account of the " Gardner Orchard."

Since the above account of the Gardner orchard was written, the old Gardner homestead has descended to Mr. James Gardner, the grandson of the original proprietor, who, with his accomplished wife, now occupies the old home.

In addition to the above, we find, in the early history of the county, there were apple trees planted by Mr. O. E. Foster, three miles northeast of Havana, about the year 1835 or 1S36, and by another party, whose name we have been unable to learn, in the vicinity of Crane creek.

Agriculture In I 776

In the course of a century, within their narrow fringe of country, the colonists had transformed the wilderness into a fertile and productive territory. Agriculture was their favorite pursuit. Travelers from Europe were struck with the skill with which they cultivated the rich and abundant soil, the fine farm houses that filled the landscape, the barns overflowing with harvests, the cattle, the sheep. The northern and middle colonies for wheat and corn were famous. Pennsylvania was the granary of the nation. In New Jersey the farms that spread from Trenton to Elizabethtown excited the admiration of the scientific Kalm. Long Island was the garden of America, and all along the valleys opening upon the Hudson, the Dutch and Huguenot colonists had acquired ease and opulence by a careful agriculture. The farm-houses, usually built of stone, with tall roofs and narrow windows, were scenes of intelligent industry. While the young men labored in the fields, the mothers and daughters spun wool and flax, and prepared a large part of the clothing of the family. The farm-house was a manufactory for all the articles of daily use. Even nails were hammered out in winter, and the farmer was his own mechanic. A school aud a church were provided for almost every village. Few children were left untaught by the Dutch dominie, who was sometimes paid in wampum; or the New England student, who lived among his patrons, and was not always fed upon the daintiest fare. On Sunday, labor Ceased, the church-bell tolled in the distance, a happy calm settled upon the rural region, and the farmer and his family, in their neatest dress, rode or walked to the village church. The farming class, usually intelligent and rational, formed in the northern colonies the sure reliance of freedom, and when the invasion came, the Hessians were driven out of New Jersey by the general rising of its laboring farmers, and Burgoyne was captured by the resolution of the people rather than by the timid generalship of Gates.

The progress of agriculture at the South was even more rapid and remarkable than at the North. The wilderness was swiftly converted into a productive region. The coast from St. Mary's to the Delaware, with its inland country, became within a centurv the most valuable portion of the earth. Its products were eagerlv sought for in alla^the capitals of Europe, and one noxious plant of Virginia had supplied mankind with a new vice and a new pleasure. It would be useless to relate again the story of the growth of the tobacco trade. Its cultivation in Virginia was an epoch in the history of man. Tobacco was to Virginia the life of trade and intercourse; prices were estimated in it; salaries of the clergy were fixed at so many pounds of tobacco. All other products of the soil were neglected in order to raise the savage plant. Ships from England came over annually to gather in the great crops of the large planters, and Washington, one of the most successful landowners and agriculturists, was accustomed to watch keenly over the vessels and their captains who sailed up the Potomac to his very dock. The English traders seem to have been often anxious to depreciate his cargoes and lower his prices. Virginia grew enormously rich from the sudden rise of an artificial taste. From 1S24, when the production of tobacco was first made a royal monopoly, until the close of the colonial period, the production and consumption rose with equal rapidity, and in 1775, 85,000 hogsheads were exported annually, and the sale of tobacco brought in nearlv $4,000,000 to the southern colonies. This was equal to about onethird of the whole export of the colonies. Happily since that period the proportion has rapidly decreased, and more useful arti-

One of these was rice. A Governor of South Carolina, it is related, had been in Madagascar, and seen the plant cultivated in its hot swamps. He lived in Charleston, on the bay, and it struck him that a marshy spot in his garden might well serve for a plantation of rice. Just then - 1694 - a vessel put in from Madagascar, in distress, whose commander the Governor had formerly known. Her wants were liberally relieved. In gratitude for the kindness he received, the master gave the Governor a bag of rice. It was sown and produced abundantly. The soil proved singularly favorable for its culture. The marshes of Georgia and South Carolina were soon covered with rice plantations. A large part of the crop was exported to England. In 1724, 100,000 barrels were sent out from South Carolina alone. In 1761, the value of its rice crop was more than $1,500,000. Its white population could not have been more than 45,000, and it is easy to conceive the tide of wealth that was distributed annually among its small band of planters. They built costly mansions on the coasts and bays, lived in fatal luxury, were noted for their wild excesses, and often fell speedy victims to the fevers of the malarious soil. Indigo, sugar, molasses, tar, pitch, and a great variety of valuable productions added to the wealth of the south. But cotton, which has grown through many vicissitudes to be the chief staple of British and American trade, was, at this period, only cultivated in small quantities for the use of the farmers. It was spun into coarse cloths. But it was not until Whitney's invention, in 1793, that it could be readily prepared for commerce, and to the inventive genius of Connecticut, the Southern States owe the larger part of their wealth and political importance.