CHAPTER TWO

P. 10 RESOURCES OF SOUTHERN ILLINOIS

SOILS OF SOUTHERN ILLINOIS—SOUTHERN ILLINOIS TIMBER—OUR COAL

FIELDS—STONE, OIL AND GAS—SALT, LEAD AND CLAY—

PRAIRIE AND TIMBER AREAS

         Southern Illinois has three general kinds of soil, or rather there are three recognized sources of the soils of Southern Illinois. First, there are the various kinds of soils which were formed out of the stratified rocks by mechanical and chemical processes. Second, soils formed by the drift which overlies all the areas known as glacial areas, and third, the soils formed by the bess which was widely distributed over Illinois following the recession of the ice sheets.

         The first is known as residual soil, because it is what is left after the decomposition of the sedimentary rocks in the unglaciated regions. The second is called the glacial soil because it is formed directly from the matter furnished by the glacial sheets. The third are called silt soils because the bess is of the nature of silt which settles from water or which might be sifted over a country by constant winds blowing from a dry and timberless region.

         It is easy to understand the formation of the residual soils. At the end of the Upper Carboniferous Period the whole state was covered with the rocks of that period. If now we think of these rocks as being exposed to the sun ‘s heat, the winter’s cold, the action of water, freezing and thawing, and the chemical changes, we can understand that in the course of time a coating of soil would be formed. If the running water did not carry this new formed soil away it would lie where it was formed. It will also be easy to understand that as the coating of soil grew thicker the process of decay was less rapid, since the soil acts as a sort of blanket to prevent the agents of decomposition from reaching the undecayed rocks. Now this is exactly the soil making process that has been going on for hundreds of years in those portions of the state not covered by the ice invasions.

         It will be readily seen that the character of the soil formed in this way will be determined by the nature of the rock deposits in different localities. In the three previously named areas, as driftless areas, namely, the extreme south end of the state, the regions about Galena, and the peninsula between the Illinois river and the Mississippi, the soil will be known as residual soil, except as it has been modified by the deposit of bess in larger or smaller quantities.

         In these driftless areas the soils show variations which correspond in a rough way with variations in the structure of the rocks from which P. 11 they are derived. In regions underlaid by shale or limestones a more compact and adhesive soil is found than in sandstone regions, while each class of limestone has its own peculiar soil. With proper rotation of crops these soils constitute a fertile portion of the state, otherwise they become exhausted sooner than soils formed from glacial drift.”

         The character of the soils formed by the glacial drift varies also according to the nature of the transported material. Three general classes have been recognized. First, Stony or Glacial Clay soil. This soil is made from the weathered surface of the drift-sheet unaffected by water in its formation and not subsequently covered over with bess or silt. This class of soil is found in the ‘‘corn belt” north of the Shelbyville moraine. Second, we have the gravelly soils. This kind is found near streams, lakes, and in regions where lakes once existed. It is not of value except as a subsoil for loamy deposits. Third, sandy soils are found in the old beaches and along certain rivers. Mason county presents a very excellent illustration of this class of drift soils.

         The loess soils are very widely distributed and are of three classes according to the degree of their perviousness to water. They are those readily pervious; slowly pervious, and nearly impervious. The first is a characteristic soil in Southern Illinois. As it recedes from the Mississippi, the Ohio, and the Wabash it becomes of the nature of a white clay. Its chief ingredient is silica, and this soil is adapted to the raising of grains and fruits. This white soil is one of the first things that attracts people’s attention who have been accustomed to the black soil of Champaign, Dewitt, and other corn counties, and they say, “Why your soil is so poor, if is as white as chalk.” It is not necessarily the poor quality of the soil but the peculiar mechanical structure which allows the water of the rainy season to escape together with an extended drouth period from June to September that prevents Egypt from presenting an attractive appearance in midsummer. Good illustrations of the slowly pervious silt soils are found in the regions of the lower Illinois river. The third class, almost wholly impervious silts are found in the uplands of “Egypt.” This is the soil which has made Egypt famous as an apple producing region. Clay, and Marion, and Wayne and other nearby counties find a mine of wealth in their orchards. A failure in the apple crop in these counties is not to be attributed to the soil but to the various forms of insect life which is baffling the orchardists of this region.

         The loess soils of Southern Illinois are among our richest areas. Not because of the great amount of bess but probably because of the mix­ture of bess with either the residual soils or with the silt soils. The soil of the unglaciated region of Union, Johnson, Pope, Saline and Hardin is of a remarkable type. Bald Knob, near Alto Pass, a young mountain of some eight hundred or a thousand acres and something like 800 feet in height has a very rich soil. Even upon the very top, the soil is deep and of a rich brown color. Apples, peaches, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, grains and small fruits abound. This young mountain is a part of the Ozark range and was never glaciated. Mr. Rendleman who lives on the very summit of the Knob says the winds are continually bringing a rich silt up its long slopes and leaves it upon the top of the hill. And there are evidences that large quantities of bess have been deposited there. Throughout the Ozarks, especially on the south side of the range, the soil is very productive and all kinds of fruits and vegetables are produced in abundance. P. 12

       Alluvial soils abound in Southern Illinois. Alluvium, as we know, has been deposited by water. It is not different from the Residual, Drift, and Loess soils but a mixture of all. As the soil was forming the running water was gradually transporting it to lower levels. This process the average school boy is familiar with. This alluvial matter has been left in the river valleys, in inland lakes and in ponds and on fiat and imdrained prairies. The Great American Bottom which reaches from Alton to Chester, a distance of nearly a hundred miles by the windings of the river, and from five to nine miles wide, is the most remarkable alluvial deposit, outside of delta formations, in the United States. There are large areas of alluvial deposits along the Ohio river in the counties of Gallatin, Massac, Pulaski, and Alexander, The Wabash valley on the Illinois side has considerable alluvial areas. The small streams all have alluvial bottoms. The lands between the Embarras and the Wabash is alluvial. Such streams as the Little Wabash, the Saline, the Cache, the Big Muddy, the Kaskaskia, all have alluvial bottoms. In many localities this alluvial bottom land is worthless as water stands on it “the year round.” The laws of Illinois provide for the organization of drainage districts and much of the land will be redeemed.

         The soils of Southern Illinois have never been scientifically studied until within recent years. The State University has begun a regular soil survey and when this is complete there will be a revolution in methods of farming in “Egypt.” The state has also established experimental farms in several counties of Southern Illinois where the farmers may see just how the soils in that region should be cultivated.

SOUTHERN ILLINOIS TIMBER

       Although Illinois is called the Prairie State, in its early history at least twenty-five per cent of its area was covered with forests. These forests lay mostly in Southern Illinois. There was no county entirely without timber, but the real forests were confined to the southern portion of the state. Many counties throughout this section presented an unbroken forest, chiefly deciduous trees, rich in variety, and of a quality unsurpassed on this continent. The growth on the margins of the smaller streams, areas between forks of creeks, or wherever protected from forest fires, including the “oak openings” peculiar to the broad rolling prairies, consisted largely of burr, black and red oaks.

         The origin of the Prairies is accounted for on the theory that the forest fires kept down the young trees. In 1880 when a careful estimate was made of the timbered areas there was found only about 15 per cent of the entire area covered with timber. This loss is almost entirely due to marketing the merchantable timber in the southern part of the state where the production of lumber and cooperage stock has been an important industry for many years. Owing to the exhaustion of the best grades of mature hard woods, the business has been rapidly diminishing, and as the present supply is chiefly on lands not available for cultivation, the remaining area is not liable to further encroachments.

         The state is about four hundred miles from north to south. This corresponds with the distance from Norfolk, Va., to Boston, Mass. Within this distance of four hundred miles there grows as great a P. 13 variety of trees as is found in twice the distance from north to south in Europe.

         An exhibit of the forest wealth of the state was made at the World’s Columbian Exposition at Chicago, and the great variety of native growths was a wonder to our own citizens. There were twenty-four genera comprehending seventy-five species of indigenous woods represented. Three kinds of Gum, fourteen kinds of Oak, four kinds of Hickory, two of Locust, four of Ash, five of Maple, and four of Elm were exhibited. In addition to these native woods there were shown nineteen genera of cultivated timber, including seventy-two species— making in all one hundred and fifty  

A SYCAMORE, TWENTY-EIGHT FEET IN CIRCUMFERENCE,
NEAR MT.  CARMEL, WABASH COUNTY

species of woods in the state at that time. A farm wagon was shown made of twenty-five different kinds of cultivated woods all grown on one farm in Lee county. It was reported that more cultivated woods were growing in the state than were exhibited. It is further stated that while the total area of timber has decreased probably the leaf surface has held its own and the beneficial influence of vegetation on climate, water supply, etc., has suffered no loss.

       The oldest citizens tell of some of the methods of waste in the timber supply. Often in alluvial bottoms where the timber had reached P. 14 considerable size it was customary to clear up the underbrush and then with axes cut deep rings around the trunks of the large trees left standing. Often a belt of bark a couple of feet wide would be removed. This was done in the late fall or at latest in the winter. In the spring when the surrounding forests put forth a wealth of verdure the girdled trees stood leafless. This allowed the sun to reach the ground and thus crops of corn or tobacco were raised. In the following winter the thrifty farmer cut down his dead trees, cut the trunks into saw logs and had them sawn into material for a barn or a house. The brush and rougher trunks were burned and the second year he had only the stumps to contend with.

         The shiftless farmer allowed his trees to stand for several years often building fires about the bases of the dead trees which were eventually consumed entire. Others would cut the trees down and cut the trunks into certain lengths. When this work was done a “Log-rolling” was announced. Scores of men would come to the log-rolling. Often the women would also come and assist the good housewife in preparing the noon meal or engage in quilting, or tacking carpet rags. The men divided themselves into squads of ten to twelve. Each squad elected a captain and chose up. Hand spikes were provided and when all was ready the logs were lifted and carried to the pile. These piles often contained eight to twelve logs, ten to sixteen feet long. They were set on fire on the very top of the pile, the fire burning downward. In this way the farmer got rid of his trees but he burned up hundreds of dollars worth of good lumber. It is no uncommon thing in this day to see in Southern Illinois large alluvial fields in which the trees have been girdled, the trunks still standing, having been partially consumed by fire.

         Saw mills were plentiful forty and fifty years ago, but now they are few. The best timber in Southern Illinois was used up to supply the first railroads with bridge and framing material. Tens of thousands of beautiful young trees were taken for piling. In recent years the walnut, oak, hard maple, and a few other growths have been cut for furniture. Hard wood finish in residences has been popular and the price of good oak flooring for such use is now from five to eight dollars per hundred feet.

         Nothing so well represents the rapid disappearance of our best Southern Illinois timber as does the establishing of “tie preserving plants’’ in several of our cities. Fifty years ago when railroads began to thread our state the builders would have nothing but the best white oak ties. Now there is no longer a supply of timber for this grade and the railroads are under the necessity of providing substitutes. This is done by introducing a scientific process by which ties of the common woods are rendered longlived.

         Arbor Day, which the law recognizes, has, through the public schools, done much and will do more toward creating public sentiment favorable to the conservation of our forests. And it is building up an aesthetic taste in the planting and cultivating of flowers, shrubs, and cultivated trees. Since the advent of concrete and steel in construction there is no longer the great need of timber that there was in the early days. P. 15  

OUR COAL FIELDS

       Nothing has brought Southern Illinois more material prosperity than has the coal deposits within her limits. Coal was known to exist about Belleville, and on the Big Muddy, probably as early as 1826, or possibly earlier. Governor John Reynolds built a railroad from the bluffs near Belleville across the American Bottom to the Mississippi in 1837. He says: “I had a large tract of land located on the Mississippi Bluffs, six miles from St. Louis, which contained inexhaustible quantities of bituminous coal. This coal mine was the nearest to St. Louis of any on this side of the river.” In 1835 the legislature of Illinois granted a charter to the “Mount Carbon Coal Company.” “Hall Neilson and his associates, successors, and assigns” constituted the company. In 1836 Mr. Neilson, who lived in New York city, advertised the “Mount Carbon” property for sale. The property was fully described. The mines were located near Brownsville, the capital of Jackson county, thirty miles from the Mississippi river in a bluff adjacent to the Big Muddy river. The seam of coal is described as six to seven feet thick, “mines easily, in large blocks, and does not crumble or form much slack or dust.” Each hand could mine and deliver on the wharf one hundred bushels a day. Wages were $10 to $15 per month. It was figured that the coal could be put on the barge at two cents per bushel. “For several years past coal has sold in New Orleans, during the winter season, at 37½ cents to 62½ cents per bushel. The supply at New Orleans is derived from Pittsburg and Wheeling. Mount Carbon is only half as far away and the quality of the coal decidedly better.” Mr. A. B. Waller of Washington, D. C., visited this mine in the interests of a prospective purchaser and reported that the coal had been mined back from the face of the bluff about fifty feet and that “the quality of the coal is superior to any bituminous coal I have ever seen, except perhaps the Cumberland.”  

       Although the presence of coal in Southern Illinois was known from the early ‘30s, little was done or could be done toward developing this resource until railroads became an established fact. The only way of transportation prior to 1854, when the Illinois Central was completed, was by river. A few mines were opened in the vicinity of the rivers, but the only use for coal in the interior was for blacksmithing, and even in this instance charcoal was very generally used. The first engines used on the railroads burned wood. The railroads have been the most direct factor in opening up the coal mining business in Southern Illinois. The Illinois Central reaches the coal fields in Jackson, Perry, Washington, and Marion, The Mobile and Ohio reaches the mines of Jackson, Randolph and St. Clair. The Chicago and Eastern Illinois serves the mines in Johnson, Williamson, Franklin, Jefferson, and Marion, The Big Four passes through the counties of Johnson, Saline, White, and Wabash. The Baltimore and Ohio Southwestern reaches the mines in Gallatin, White, Marion, Clinton, and St. Clair. In addition to these five more extensive railroad systems, there are several short independent lines which act as feeders to these five larger roads.

         The whole state is divided into ten mining districts of which four are located in Southern Illinois. In the Seventh District are the counties of Bond, Clinton, Madison, and Marion, The Eighth District P. 16 contains the two counties of Randolph and St. Clair. The Ninth District includes Franklin, Gallatin, Jefferson, Perry, Saline, and White. The Tenth District comprises the counties of Jackson and Williamson. The total output from these four districts in 1911 was 25,000,000 tons.

  The supply of coal is of course not inexhaustible as was formerly thought. The area of the coal field in Southern Illinois is in round numbers about 6,000 square miles or 3,800,000 acres. It is estimated that one square mile will produce 1,000,000 tons of coal for every foot in thickness of the seam. Dr. David Dale Owen estimated the entire thickness of the twelve coal seams of Southern Illinois at thirty-five feet. Each square mile then would produce 35,000,000 tons, estimating that all the coal could be mined. But it is liberal to say we mine only about eight feet of this thirty-five. There are then only eight million tons available per square mile. Not over three-fourths of this estimate is removed, making only about six million tons per square mile. Our annual production runs about twenty-four million tons for Southern Illinois. This gives the result of an annual consumption of four square miles, and our coal will last 1,500 years.

STONE, OIL, AND GAS

      No other portion of the state is so rich in stone, oil, and gas. The geological formation has already been given, but it will be necessary to repeat some facts in dealing with these resources.  

       The two general classes of rock which are economically valuable are the sandstones and the limestones. The chief use made of these stones is for building purposes. Limestone is burned into lime in many localities in Southern Illinois. And probably in some a fair grade of cement is manufactured, but there are no noted instances. Crushed limestone has been extensively used as ballast for railroad beds, and as the foundation for the macadamizing of the public highway. In many places along the railroads, stone crushers have been erected and quite an industry built up. In the larger towns and cities of Southern Illinois there has grown up the spirit of permanent improvement and many cities are paving the streets. This is usually done by establishing a grade setting curbing of sandstone or of concrete and then placing on the grade crushed limestone to the depth of four or five inches upon which is placed a coating of sand and paving brick, or finer crushed stone and some “bonding” material of a bituminous nature. Another economic use made of the limestone is that of constructing building blocks of crushed stone and cement. This same material is used as above indicated for curbing. Then there is a rather recent use of crushed limestone in the construction processes, namely: The use of concrete in railroad culverts, archways, retaining walls, and in the construction of walls of great buildings, the floors, stairways, and foundations. Fence posts, gate posts, and watering troughs are some recent innovations on the farm, of the concrete material. It has also been used as flooring in dairy barns, livery stables and for the bottom and sides of grain bins.

         But perhaps the most far reaching and important use made of limestone is the use the farmers are making of it as a fertilizer. The soils of Southern Illinois are what the agricultural chemist calls sour. That is, there is a large quantity of humic acid in the soil which renders the P. 17 soil unfit for the production of most agricultural products. This humic acid is found wherever there have previously been large accumulations of vegetable matter, resulting in what the chemist calls humus or vegetable mold. Under the leadership of the College of Agriculture of the State University, the farmers are now applying crushed limestone to their soils in quantities ranging from 800 to 1,000 lbs. per acre. This crushed limestone is attacked by the humic acid in the soil and new chemical combinations formed which provide the needed foods for the growing crops. One may see carloads of crushed limestone upon the siding of the railroad tracks in the villages and towns of Southern Illinois. If one will watch for a day or so he will see the farmers coming with their wagons prepared to haul, and distribute this material over their farms.

         The state has done much to assist in the investigation of the value of this crushed lime when applied to the sour farm lands of this end of the state. An experiment station has been established at the Southern Illinois State Normal University and experiment farms are located at several points within our territory. To lessen the cost of procuring this crushed limestone the state furnishes it from the penitentiary at Chester almost free of charge, the farmer paying the freight.

         Lime is burned in many portions of Southern Illinois where limestone deposits are found. Large quantities of lime have, in previous years, been made in the vicinity of Alton. In fact, from Alton to Cairo, along the bluffs, there are outcroppings of limestone and in many localities lime has been burned. It is said the best quality of lime is produced near Prairie du Rocher. The limerocks about Chester and in Union county are used for the manufacture of lime. St. Clair county has an abundance of limestone and quantities of lime are burned and some cement made. Near Falling Spring, in the southwest part of St. Clair, a high grade white lime has been manufactured. It is said lime was burned near Alton as early as 1815, by collecting large logs into a heap, piling thereon the limerock. When the logs had been burned the limestone had been converted into lime. Shipments in barrels began in 1847.

        Fine qualities of limestone for building purposes and for lime are found in Pope and Hardin. In Johnson county building stone, both limestone and sandstone for ordinary building purposes, is found in abundance. Sandstone of a very excellent quality is found in Jackson county on the Illinois Central Railroad, four miles south of Carbondale, at a small place known as Boskydell. Here quarries were opened as early as 1855. In the construction of the Southern Illinois Normal University, large quantities of this brown sandstone were used. About the same time or perhaps shortly previous, the present capitol at Springfield was in process of building. The reputation of the Boskydell brown sandstone had become so general that the building commission authorized the use of the Boskydell sandstone in the great columns on the north, east, and south of the great capitol, while the trimmings on the fronts are of the same stone. The capitals and cornices are from the white sandstone quarries of Grand Tower in Jackson county. In 1883, a Mr. Rawles, a stone merchant in Chicago, purchased these Boskydell quarries and installed about forty thousand dollars worth of modern machinery, including steam drills, saws, hoisting machines, dressing machines, a gravity railroad from the quarries to the Illinois Central P. 18 Railroad, and other modern machinery. Cut stone was sent into all the great cities and for a time was used extensively, but the presence of numerous deposits of iron and the lack of uniformity in color, worked against the general use of this stone and the quarry was abandoned and the machinery rotted and rusted away.    

       The discovery of gas in Southern Illinois occurred at Sparta in 1888. Some progressive citizens organized a company for the purpose of prospecting for natural gas. The first well put down, struck gas at a depth of 848 feet in a bed of light grey porous sand. The pressure was strong and steady. A new company was organized and began boring in earnest. In 1894 there were twelve wells producing gas and supplying four hundred domestic fires besides a number of manufacturing establishments. The total production per year when the wells were at their best was eight million cubic feet. It is estimated that the equivalent of the fuel capacity of one ton of coal is twenty-three thousand cubic feet of gas. This would give a saving in coal per year of three thousand five hundred tons in the Sparta gas field.

         In addition to the wells sunk by the company mentioned above, there were many wells sunk by private parties. The gas was known as the “sweet” or “petroleum” gas which to many was a sure sign of the presence of oil in this region. Since 1894 the wells have weakened and in many there is little or no pressure, and no recent borings have been made. The total number of wells bored was twenty-two. The territory covered by the borings was less than two square miles.

SALT, LEAD, CLAY, ETC.  

       The earliest travelers and explorers discovered traces of salt in various places in Southern Illinois. There can be little doubt that the Indians were accustomed to either evaporate or boil the salt water which was found in the form of springs. The most noted place in Southern Illinois where salt was manufactured in an early day was on the Saline river in Gallatin county near the present town of Equality. On the Big Muddy in Jackson county near the old forgotten town and county seat of Brownsville. In several places in Madison, Monroe, and probably in Bond and in some of the Wabash river counties salt was made, not on any great scale but for local market. The making of salt at Equality was such an extensive industry that its description has been given in a separate chapter.

         In 1856 a town was laid out by the county surveyor a mile or so north of the present city of DuQuoin. It has never grown to any size. In 1857 an iron and coal mining company was organized and engaged in coal mining until 1867 when W. P. Halliday of Cairo purchased the stock of the company. In 1870 in boring into the lower strata to determine the value of the coal layers there, at the depth of 940 feet salt water was discovered. At this time the great salt works at Equality were not being well managed, and Mr. Halliday saw his opportunity. In 1873 he put in a complete plant costing several thousand dollars for the manufacture of salt. Additional wells were sunk and the work was extensively carried on. At the time of their greatest prosperity the works turned out 150 barrels per day. The product was shipped south mainly. By 1890 the production had begun to decline, though they continued to operate for ten years, but for the past few years the works P. 19 have been abandoned and ere long the spot that knew a thriving industry will be marked by old foundations and rusting machinery.

         Lead is found in such apparently inexhaustible quantities in the territory west of the Mississippi river, that the few traces of lead found in Southern Illinois seem very insignificant. However, we ought never despise small beginnings. Lead was known to exist in the northwest corner of the state in a very early day. Mining began about 1827. These mines in their palmy days produced about one-fifth to one-fourth of the output of the world. In 1845 the mines were at their best and from that date to the present the production has greatly diminished.

         In 1839 lead was discovered in the digging of a well on the farm of Mr. James Anderson one mile below Rosiclare on the Ohio river in Hardin county. In 1842 Mr. William Pell discovered spar and lead about three-quarters of a mile back of the river at Rosiclare. Companies were organized and a number of “diggings” opened. As many as nine shafts were opened for the mining of lead. In going down, the shafts pass through beds of fluor spar to a distance of ninety feet. The lead mines were operated with small or no profit, and in 1851 the “diggings” were abandoned. In several other places in Hardin county lead has been discovered, but not in quantities which would justify an attempt to produce it for the market. Traces of lead have been found in other counties, but no diggings have been opened.

         The clays of Southern Illinois will yet prove of great value, but up to the present time no industries on a large scale have been established to develop the clay resources, except for the manufacture of brick. The various uses of the different kinds of clays found in Southern Illinois are the manufacture of common red brick, fire clay brick, paving brick, terra cotta, drain tile, sewer pipe, crocks, jugs, jars and finer queensware.

         Common red brick are manufactured in great quantities in all sections of the state, In the early days the homemade bricks were used for outside as well as for inside work. In many towns in this territory the older brick buildings show the old fashioned hand made brick, but in the better class of business houses as well as in modern brick residences they use “pressed brick.” These have been manufactured in large quantities in the penitentiary at Chester, the hand made products being used for inside walls and for “filling.”

         Fire brick clay is often found closely associated with the seams of bituminous coal in this section. Throughout Randolph county there are two deposits of fire clay, one at a depth of 70 or 80 feet and another at the depth of 120 feet. The same layers of fire clay are also found in St. Clair county. In four oil borings in the Sparta oil field, fire clay was found at a depth of 125 feet. The layer was found to be from two to eight feet thick. Some fire clays are found in Johnson, Pulaski, and Pope counties.

         Paving brick are manufactured in Murphysboro and in Albion. The demands for paving brick are beyond the supply furnished by these two paving brick plants. At Albion a second company has been organized, and is working its way into the favor of municipalities where paving improvements are going on.

         Drain tile clay is not of a very high grade in Southern Illinois and no large factories have attempted its manufacture into drain tile. Local factories have sprung up here and there, but usually of short life. No sewer pipe is manufactured in this territory. P. 20

       Potter’s clay has been found and small factories have engaged in the making of jugs, crocks, and jars in Anna and in Metropolis, and in McLeansboro, and probably in other localities. But all these industries are gone and only dilapidated sheds and rusting machinery are left.

         It may not be generally known that Southern Illinois has rich beds of a very high grade of clay suitable for the manufacture of porcelain wares. These fine clays are found in the region of the Ozark hills, in the World’s Fair exhibit, in the Illinois building, were “some very pretty dishes of white and decorated faie’nce, made of clay and silica, from Union county—the only articles of white table-ware ever made out of purely Illinois materials. The following is the chemical analysis furnished by the Rostrand Porcelain Works at Stockholm, Sweden. The first sample was taken from the clay pit, Mountain Glen, Union county. This clay is called Ball Clay:
 
Silicic acid 57.71%
Titanic acid trace
Alumina 32.75
Oxide of iron 1.93
Lime 53
Magnesia 19
Potash 96
Soda 24
Water and organic matter 11.69
Total 100.00
 

        Another analysis made by Harold Almstrom of earthly silica from the mine of the Chicago Floated Silica Company in Union county, is as follows:

Silicic acid 97.82%
Alumina and oxide of iron 1.08
Lime 50
Water and organic matter 42
Alkalies and loss 18
Total 100.00

       Samples of clay from Pope county are very similar to the two above samples. Some very fine samples of queensware have been made from the Pope county clays.  

       It has been stated that the deposits of fluor spar found in Hardin and Pope counties are the only ones found in the United States. But there are said to be traces in Kentucky. At Rosiclare, a little village on the Ohio river in Hardin county, just where this county joins Pope, there are apparently inexhaustible quantities of this mineral. It is found in connection with lead ores and with silver. It is sometimes free and presents the most beautiful tints of blue, yellow, red, and green. Two or more companies are now operating in this locality. The spar is used for various purposes, but chiefly as a reducing agent or flux in the reduction of ores. It is shipped from the mines by way of the Ohio river. P. 21

PRAIRIE AND TIMBER AREAS

       Nothing in the New World was more interesting to the Europeans than the broad prairies. In 1817 Governor Edward Coles, then a young man, when returning from a diplomatic mission to Russia stopped in France and in England. He was a Virginian but he had traveled through the west, and had himself been greatly charmed by the broad, rich prairies. The French and the English never tired of his beautiful descriptions of the prairies. Among those who were charmed by his story of the western prairies was Morris Birkbeck who was a very prosperous tenant on a large estate in England. Mr. Birkbeck came to America and settled the City of Albion in Edwards county. In later years when England’s prince of letters, Charles Dickens visited America he was anxious to see a prairie. His wish was gratified as the reader will understand by reference to his Notes on America.  

       The French who of course were the first Europeans to reach the Mississippi valley, were amazed at the great sweeps of timberless areas and they immediately applied the French term prairie, without change in the spelling, to designate these meadowlike regions. The word was first applied by Hennepin and later by other French writers. The term was first used to describe the “bottoms” or valleys adjacent to the rivers and bounded on opposite sides by the “bluffs.” As a proof of this we need only to study the early French names, as: Prairie du Chein, Prairie la Forche, Prairie la Crosse, Prairie du Pont, and Prairie du Rocher. Nor is this application of the term scientifically inappropriate for it is shown by Professor Leo Lesquereux that the formation of the prairies of central Illinois was identical in character with the formation of the bottom lands along the Mississippi and other similar streams. It is said the English had no name for that peculiar formation which we call prairies, because they had no such formation.
 

       “These are the gardens of the Desert, these The unshorn fields, boundless and beautiful, For which the speech of England has no name.”

—Bryant. 

       It is said that it was a very difficult thing to convey to the mind of the unimaginative Englishman any adequate conception of the great prairies of America.  

       When our forefathers came originally to the Illinois country, they found about one-fourth of it timbered and about three-fourths timberless or prairies. The early settlers designated the largest treeless area the “Grand Prairie.” Its location corresponds almost exactly with a great divide or watershed which separates the drainage of the Mississippi from the drainage into the Ohio. It reaches from the northwestern side of Jackson county through Perry, part of Williamson, Washington, Jefferson, Marion, Fayette, Effingham, Coles, Champaign, and Iroquois, crosses the Kankakee river and extends to the southern end of Lake Michigan. Another extensive prairie region extends from Kankakee county west and northwest, crosses the Illinois river and occupies a very large part of the territory between the Illinois and the Mississippi rivers.  

       The origin of the prairies has been a debatable question for many P. 22 decades. Three general theories have been advanced to account for their existence at the time of the coming of the earliest settlers into the limits of this state. One explanation, and that one is not an attempt to account for the soil formation, but merely to account for the absence of the trees, is that the great prairie fires which annually swept over the “grand prairie” effectually kept the trees from making enough headway to withstand the destructive flames. And there can be no doubt that these annual fires were a sufficient explanation of the treeless condition of the prairies to the unscientific settlers. But there are two other explanations both approaching the subject from a scientific standpoint.

         Professor Whitney holds to the theory that the treeless prairies have had their origin in the character of the original deposit or soil formation. He does not deny, in fact admits, the submersion of all prairie lands formerly as lakes and swamps; but he holds that while the lands were so submerged there was deposited a very fine soil which he attributes in. part to the underlying rocks and in part to the accumulation in the bottom of immense lakes, of a sediment of almost impalpable fineness. This soil in its physical and probably in its chemical composition prevents the trees from naturally getting a foothold in the prairies.

         Professor Lesquereux holds to the theory simply stated that all areas properly called prairies were formed by the redemption of what was once lake regions and later swamp territory. He points out that trees grow abundantly in moving water but that when water is dammed up it always kills trees. The theory held by Professor Lesquereux is that standing water kills trees by preventing the oxygen of the air from reaching the roots of the trees. He further shows that the nature of the soil, in redeemed lake regions, is such that without the help of man trees will not grow in it. But he further shows that by proper planting the entire prairie area may he covered with forest trees.

         As rich as was the soil of our prairies, the first immigrants seldom settled far out on these treeless tracts. Most of the early comers were from the timbered regions of the older states and felt they could not make a living very far from the woods. Coal had not come into use and wood was the universal fuel. There was a wealth of mast in the timber upon which hogs could live a large part of the year. Again our forefathers had been used to the springs of the hill country in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia, and they did not think they could live where they could not have access to springs. An early comer back in the thirties rode over the prairies of central Illinois and then entered a hundred and sixty in the timber and here he cleared the land and opened his farm.

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