^+c :5k n o^^jL rr MJJtfc' Class. Book. GoipglitN"_ COFYRICIIT DEPOSrr r I .4 1 lJ. I THE GEOOKAPIIV (>F ILLINOIS Tin: C^EOGRAPin C)I" II.l.lNOIS By J. Paul Goodb, Assistant Prufessor of Geography, tin- I 'nitrrsity of Chuago. ILLIXOJS AS \ WHOLE Location. The sUitc ci llliiuiis lies almost in the licart of tlie North American conti- nent. It is in tlie very miiklle of the Greiit Central Plain, hence it has no barrier on any side. It is renic )te from the sea, hence it has a characteristic conti- nental climate. Its borders are washed by the navigable waters of the two largest riv- ers on the continent, hence commerce is in- vited. How it came 1 'Y its land surface, its fertile soil, its rich mineral wealth, and how all these have shaped the course of human histor>' within its borders, is the story which the geogra]:)h\- of Illinois has to tell. Size. The most southern jxnnt of the " Prairie Stiitc" lies in the Mississippi River I rclii-j niiip oj Illinois. at 36 degrees 59 min- utes north latitude; its northern bountl- ar\', 385 miles farther north, is on the par- allel of 42 degrees 30 minutcs,a line ad< )ptcd imrpfjsely to bring the |Mirt of Chicago well within the stiite. Its most eastern margin is on the meridian of 87 degrees 35 minutes west, from which line the stiite extends west- ward 218 miles, to the outer edge of Adams County on the .Missis- sippi River in 91 de- grees 40 minutes west longitude. This gives Illinois an area of 56,- 650 square miles, of which 650 square miles are water. Surface. The sur- face of Illinois is very flat. From a mean river level of 267 feet above the sea at Cairo, the land rises gradually to its highest points in Jo Daviess and Stephenson counties, where THE GEOGRAPHY OF ILLINOIS ■; *. 8 5 5 5 < .-. „ : I I ■ I Mi 7"' K (3 ? t. t. -. •: X ■? -? ■? ? THE GEOGRAPHY OF H.LINOIS present continent of North America was mostly cov- ered by shallow seas. The old land nf this so-called pre-Cambrian time extended from northern Minne- sota to Norway and Scotland. South of this land lay large islands in what is now northern Wisconsin, and in the Adirondack region ; a long ridge of land extended down the eastern edge of the present Appalachian Mountains ; there was also a small island in southeastern ]\Iissouri, and perhajjs one in the southern part of Illinois. (Fig. 5.) Illinois at that time lay at the bottom of the shal- low sea extending between Isle Wisconsin and the Missouri isle, and was continually receiving detritus whicli later formed limestones. Near the land broad zones of sand were being worked over by waves and undertow, forming beds of future samlstoiies which dipped off toward the deeper sea. These sandstones are now great reservoirs, bringing the rain water from Wisconsin and Missouri down the dip to Illinois, and making possible our artesian wells. Although this sea was being filled all the time, yet it was many millions of years before there was dry land within the limits of the state. After many ages the sea liad boon filli-d up and physical map of Illinois. it is only a little more than a thousand feet above sea level. (Fig. 4.) This flatness is one of the state's largest resources, for being mantled with the richest of soils, agriculture is carried on in the largest measure and the building of railways and common roads is greatly facilitated. Because of these condi- tions Illinois ranks first in the value of farm land, and stands second, and only slightly behind Iowa, in the total value of farm prod- ucts. Illinois ranks first in the production of com and oats, and lies at the very center of the agricultural activity of the whole coun- try. (Dodge Figs. 259, 260, 262, and 263.) The Geological Story. The present sur- face and soil of Illinois have a long, long history, extending backward over perhaps a hundred million vears to a time when the •'iG. 5. Isle irji< .ii;.v;j;, t'r.c ^dd IdUi! .•; M:ssoiiri, d>:J the adjacent seas. THE GEUGRAFIIV oF ILLINOIS nearly the whole state was a groat swamp where the marsh plants were fallinj^ down and iK'ing converted into beds of /Vii/ many feet in thick- ness, only to have tlie land sink and the sea cover them again. So through long ages, with the land level slightly above or slightly below the level of the sea, the rock and peat layers which constitute the present coal measures were l>eing formed. At the end of this period only the southern tip of the state was beneath the sea, and that was reclaimed soon afterward. The changes wrought in the Great Ice Age arc of next importance. Tlie ice sheet at its farthest advance coveretl almost all of the state except Jo Daviess County and tliat portion which lies south of a line drawn through Shawnee- town and Carbondale. (Fig. 6.) It bmuglit with it from the north lands, rocks and earth, which it left quite evenly distributed over all the area when it melted back. It advanced and retreats 1 repeatedly, Cf>ming Fig .iTrmgk ■ tt 1. J fnrhes m the last advance like ,1 great tongue of ice out 'f tlie trough of Lake Midiigan, leaving its mar- ;,'inal moraines in long rows of low hills with un- ilrained flat lands be- tween. (Fig. 6.) At various times clur- ing the iK'rio:, Itrwan, and Wisconsin epochs of the Great Ice Af^e. 6. i. Fic. 7. The annual rainfall at Dubuque, la., from 1S80 to tgoj. A vr ra <^( J _ / ic /„■ * -- •- --, Fir.. ,'' The iinnuol . .; .. . ., .. 5. J s -, 1/ Cairo, lit , from iSSo ;.' /i.'i THE GEOGRAPHY OF ILLINOIS sometimes recorded in the northern cotinties of the state. (Fig. 9.) The growing season, or the period between the latest and the earliest killing frosts, varies from six months in the north to seven months in the south. The weather of the state is almost wholly deter- mined by the passage of cyclonic stonns. An end- less procession of low pressures is passing eastward across the continent, and many of them cross Illi- nois. Even when the center of a storm is far to the north or south, Illinois is swept by winds produced by the cyclone. (Dodge Figs. 90, 92, and 96.) Some- times these storms are accompanied by destructive tornadoes. Peoria is near the center of tornado fre- quency in America. Because of the constantly shifting winds the rain- fall of Illinois is well distributed througli the year, and the rain3f and cloudy days are well in- terspersed with days of sunshine. The ample supply of moisture, 0. Mean tcmp^ifTft^^^ sitliiwis in January and July. warm days, and abundant sunshine favor the growth of com. There is usually an abundance of rain for all farm crops and for all forest trees. (Fig. 10.) Yet there are occasional drouths which do immense damage to the crops. (Figs. 7 and 8.) Doubtless these occasional severe drouths have helped to keep large areas of the state treeless. Vegetation. The ice invasion and the lack of bar- riers have provided a wide variety of plant forms in Illinois; northern species have mixed with invaders from the humid gulf region and from the arid south- west. The great forest area of the eastern United States originally covered the southern counties of Illinois and followed up the river valleys. (Fig. 12.) Most of the state, however, was prairie when the white man came. Lack of drainage over large areas, occasional drouths, and annual prairie fires have kept the prairie free from trees. Since the land has THE GEOORAFHV ol- ILLI.\(1IS Fig. II. StanrJ K^hk-, .vi the Illinois I\i:rr iu\ir i'lica, on which, in lOSi, La Salle built l-'ort >/. Louis. been drained and the prairie fires suppressed, trees will grow anywhere. Animal Life. When La Salle made his first visit to the region, game was plentiful. ButTalo, deer, and elk roamed the prairies. Bears, wolves, panthers, raccoons, and opossums abounded in the woods The wild swan, the goose, the duck, and the ]X'lican were common on all tiie waters. Now all the large forms of wild life have disiippeared, and even the smaller game birds are kept from extermination only by the favor of the law. Nearly half a million dollars' worth of fish were taken from the Illinois River alone in 1900, and while the waters of the stiitc have an enormous capacity for raising fish, they have been much neglected. Now, how ever, there is a State Fish Commission and some attention is being given to hatching and ]irotect- ing fish. Native Peoples. Twm liundred years ago llli nois was sparsely pei l)led by a few thous;ini 1 Indians. The Algonquin t HI les occupied the slate, tlie Pottawa ttomies about Chicago, the Sacs and the Foxes in the Rockford region, the Illinois along llie river bearing their name, and various smaller tribes elsewhere, while the tcr- X,. The La >alle moituiiieiil III l.nuoln Park Chicago. I'll... 1-' ihc distribution oj vegetation. ritory of the great Siouan family touched the west- ern boundary of the state along the Mississippi River. To-day they are all gone. History. The French voyagcurs and the Jesuit [•"athers were the first white jx'ople to visit the jiresent stiite of Illinois. They had established themselves on the lower Si. Lawrence, and had pushed westward along the rivers in their quest lor furs and in their zeal for converting the sav- ages. This is how in 1673 tlie Jesuit jiriest. Fere .Maniuette, and the fur trader, Louis Joliet, came to ex]ilore the .Mississijipi, coming from Lake Michi- gan by way of the Fox and the Wisconsin rivers, and lloatmg down the 8 THE GEOGRAPHY OF ILLINOIS "Father of Waters" in their birch -bark canoes. Some- where near the mouth of the Des Moines River they were hospitably entertained by the lUinois, tiie tribe whose name was later applied to the state. They explored the country as far south as the Arkansas River, and returning north, their course took them up the lUinois River. (Fig. 15.) The winter of 1674-5 Pere Mar- quette spent, sick, in a cabin on the Chicago River, near where the city of Chicago now stands. This was the first white man's habitation in the state. In the winter of 1679- 80 La Salle, with a party including Tonty and Father Hennepin, came up the St. Joseph River, portaged to the Kankakee in Indiana, and drifted down the Illinois River. In January of 1680 they built a fort which they called " Crevecoeur, " on the left bank of the Illinois a short distance below Lake Peoria. In February, 1680, Father Hennepin set out from this fort on his famous journey of exploration of the upper Mississippi River. In 1682 La Salle and Tonty built Fort St. Louis, on Starved Rock, near Utica, and within the next seven years French trading posts were estab- Fio. 14. George Rogers Clark. the hero of Kaskaskia and Vtiicennes. From the original pointing by Jarvis. nou' (jyo.) '" ""■ possession oj the Xirgvna His- torical Society, RKlimond, V a. Fig. The earliest -,'oyages oj the h'rcnch. and settlements lished at Kaskaskia in Ran- dolph County, and Cahokia in St. Clair County. Fifty years later there were six growing settlements within the area of the present state. In 1778 there were three im- portant British posts in cen- tral North America. These were Detroit, Vincennes, and Kaskaskia. They were a menace to the Kentucky set- tlements until George Rogers Clark and a handful of men from Kentucky, by almost in- credible daring, captured Kas- kaskia and Vincennes, and added the area northwest of the Ohio River to the territory which became the United States. Out of this area northwest of the Ohio were carved Ohio, IMichigan, and In- diana; the rest was or- ganized as the Territory of Illinois in 1809. In I 81 8 Illinois was ad- mitted as a state. Settlement. The French occupation of the region of Illinois contributed a very slender clement to the white population. Their influence remains mostly in a sprinkling of names applied to rivers and towns, such as Joliet and La Salic. The river routes of the central west brought large num- bers of hardy pioneers from Kentucky and Vir- ginia in the early decades of the nineteen til century. THE GEOGRAPHY OF ILLINOIS The hostility of the Indians rctardt'd settlement from the north. After the Black Hawk War there was a large influx from the eastern states, by way of the Great Lakes and the Erie Canal. In the 40's and 50's a great German immigration came along the same route. Chi- cago to-day has one of the largest German populations of any city in the world. A few years later a large influx of Scandinavians settled in the northwestern counties. Since the coming of the mil- way in 1850 development has been rapid in even.- part of the state. Since the 80's the increase in population Fio. 16. Black H.\wk (.A/.i-K'.i-'f.ii- Mi--SIif-Kia-K'iiili), chili ^'j the Sacs utiJ Foxes «»« 18 J2, born at Kaskaskia, III., tjOj. From a tilhogruph porlratl in McKfnney's 'Histarv of Ihe InJuin Tribis of Sorlh AnuTka," jnd npro Jucrd by pi-rmission of Ihc Chieaao HisloTtcal Society . l-'io 17. .1 tyfical early s. (fur's , ,i ■ .: ,..• Illinois. .\otice the logs chinhcJ with plaster, and the old stone chimney. The oiithuiljings are modern. has been almost wholly in the cities. Chicago is one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the world. Industrial Development. Water transpor- tation has liad an cxUvmely piwerful influ- ence in the development of Illinois. Tlie rivers and the lakes were the earliest lines of travel ; most of the settlers came by lioat. and the first towns were along tlie rivers. The introduction of steamboats upf)n the Ohio and the Mississippi rivers in 1811, and later upm the Great Lakes, gave a great impetus to western develoi)ment. The middle third of the last cen- tury' siiw stcamlwat traflic rise to supremacy in the West. At tliat time the Ohio and the Mississippi riv- ers were the greatest arteries of trade upon tlie continent, and even the Embarras, Kaskaskia, Illinois, and Rock rivers had their steam- boat service. The cfjming of the railway in 1850 fur- nished a better means of traflic, and turned the tide of commerce and travel from the rivers, so that many of the river towns declined in importance. Traflic on the Great Lakes, however, has steadily increased, until to-day they form one of the most important waterways of the world. Lake transportation, by means of which coal and iron are brought to Chicago and wheat is sliippeil east, has been one of the largest factors in the building of the city and the development of the industries of the state. (Fig. 23.) !• 'urlv davs the common n>;iiis wm- vi-ry FlO. I R. A Mississippi KiTcr steamboat. rir\ type ,7 stern wheeler built up the river commerce to southern ports and opened up tin industries ol tin prairies. lO THE GEOGRAPHY OF ILLINOIS poor, as road-making material was difficult to pro- cure in many places. Thus tlic pioneer was seriously handicapped in being unable through a large part of the year to get his produce to market or to pro- cure the necessaries from the outside world. Later the very success of the railway building tended to dis- courage the making of good wagon roads. Recently, however, the making of good country roads has become a matter of pride, and many hundreds of miles of excellent roads have been built witliin the state. These roads almost invariably follow the section lines. Years ago the state was surveyed into townships six miles square, reckoning from so-called principal meridians and base lines as shown on the map. (Fig. 3.) These township lines have furnished the basis for county boundaries. The compass does not point to the true north anywhere in the state, Ixit a little to the east of north. (Fig. 19.) Corrections must be made a c- cordingly. Fig. 20. The yield of corn per square mile. Fig. ig. East magnetic declination, igo2. The compass needle points east oj the trite north. Moreo\'er, the correction for a given place varies sHghtly from year to year, so that a line once surveyed needs to be dated. Agriculture. By far the greatest and most endur- ing source of wealth in the state are the level and extremely fertile farming lands. The gentle slopes and fine soil have invited the introduction of labor- saving machinery, thus making large farms possible and enormously increasing the production per capita and decreasing the cost of the product. In large areas the extreme flatness has been a serious handi- cap to development, because of a lack of drain- age. Extensive ditching and tiling, however, have removed this difficulty to a large extent, and as a result a larger percentage of land is under the plow than in any other state except Iowa. (Dodge Fig. ^53.) Farm lands cover 91.5 per cent of the total area of the state, and 84.5 per cent of tliis area is improved THE GEOGRAPllV HI- ILLINOIS II land. The average size of the farrns is 124 acres, and 61 per cent of the farms arc worked by their owners. The chmatc and the soil invite the cultiva- tion of nearly ever>' crop known in the Tem- perate Belt, but by far the most valuable prtxluct of the soil is com; over 10.000.000 acres were planteil u, tins "niiii in i()oo This was more than twice the area given to any other crop; tlie yield was nearly 400,000,000 busli- els. Illinois ranks first in com and in the total production of cereals, with Iowa a close second. (Dodge Fig. 260.) The best yield of com is found in the glacial soils of the central and northern parts of the state. Here a yield of over 125 bushels per acre is often known. Illinois is first among the states in the produc- tion of oats. (Dodge Fig. 263.) In 1900 4,570,o.u acres or 7 , 1 40 s< |uare miles were devoted to this cr< )p. About 180,000,000 bush- els, or an average of ,iiore than 2,500 bushels per square inile, were raised. (Fig. 22.) Only the st.'ite of Washington exceeded Fig. 2v The tmim'iisc griiiii vlrrators along lite Chuago liiicr. Grant jrom the field is sloreil here an'. There are in the state over a million dair)' cows, yielding annually over 450,000,000 gallons of milk. Much of this goes to Chicago and other city markets to be used as fresh milk, but the larger part is made into butter at numerous creameries or into cheese at facto- ries, f)r is condensed and canned for domestic and export trade. The largest factor)' in the worM for condensing milk is kxratcd at Dixon, 111. It uses 300,000 ]K)unds of milk a day. The city of Elgin has a W(jrld-wide fame for its butter, and for a Fic. !iiiry ccu'S aii the Cli'cr /•'•inn. Uckalb, III. generation it has Ix'en the leading butler market of the country'. Nearly S6, 000, 000 worth of butter was st)ld from this city and vicinity in 1 ooo. The total annual value of the ilairy])r(Mluclsof the stiite i:; 830,000,000. (Dodge Figs. 224 and 225.) One of the most pn)fit- able ways in which com goes to market is in the form of jiork. Illinois ranks second in raising of hogs, with about 6,000.- 000, valued at about 824,000,000. (Dodge Figs. 268 and 269.) There are about a mil- lion sheep in the stiite, valued at nearly 84,000,- 000. This is compara- tively a very small num- 1 )er, however. Tlie nvusc >n for this may Ix- found in tlie large proportion of flat and relatively undniine!IV oi? ILLINOIS '5 gives Illinois second rank among the OKil-pnHluciiij^ states, with about lo percent of the country's output. (Df o>;il is larj,'Lly n.'sjH)nsil)le for the extensixe niainif;nturing wiiieli is carried on in and around Chicago and other cities. Chicago produces 70 per cent of the toUd manufac- tures of the stiite. Limestones convenient for building and road- making are found in most nf the counties. Over Sj, 000, 000 worth is quarried each year, and in addi- tion over half a million tlnliiirs' worth of cement i-^ put on the market annuall\ Clays for brick-making are found everywhere, in glacial drift, in river bottoms, and in the co;il measures. Very extensive brick manufactories art- located at Chicago, and streets arc largely paved with brick all over the state. Tile and terra cotla arc also ex- tensively manufac- tured wliei - I'Ver coal is al>undant Lead anl zinc a r I produced ill tlie region of (lali'ii;!. ^B^.t.*",;"- f-ttt 311^ rT€T iliulum 0/ Citai by counties. s : 1 \ ;. .1 fA.iM 5/000 .'/.OkM - $tO.OiM ■ :iio.iioo - $t»t.ooo l-iG. ,^3. i he viiliic •■/ miinujiuturcii pr<. i o, 1 65 in 1880, and to-day amounts to 11,398 miles, an average of twenty miles of railway for ever>' 100 square miles of area, or twenty-five miles for every 10,000 people. This gives Illi- lois first rank among the states in rail- lihi: IS I \nlriil R,ulr.hi,t hrtjgc iiir.>ij the L>liio kivcr at C'liir' of any city in the land. Many cities con- tribute to the production of malt liquors, the annual value of which, for the entire state, is $20,000,000. This industry also depends upon the great crops of corn and barley. About 20 per cent of the com crop is used ior manufacture within t h c state. The largest single product is glu- ' "" •'"■ '^ K«'"«TUi new l>i the lUinoti >Ud Wi'rksiU cose, a kind of sugar; the annual output is worth Si 8,000,000. From com more than thirty-five distinct pnnlucts are made, vary- ing from starch, glucose, and liquors to the finest of paper. A very large industry has grown up in the making of electrical apparatus and supplies, the value of the product passing the twelve- million -dollar mark. .\ few of the lesser industries of special prominence are barbed wire at Dekalb, watches at Elgin, glass at Ottawa, and stoves and corsets at .Aurora. These are only a few f>f the more impor- utii t Vi icago. way mileage. There are !iow 116 rail- way corpora- tions in the state. In iqoo they carried over 42,000,000 passengers, the average journey being 24.12 miles. In the same year nearly eight and a half million tons of freight were carried. Chicago ranks as the greatest railway center 30. Thf Eads bridfe acri^ss the Htfer tjf £01/ >'r l^'uts. THE GEOGRAPHY OF ILLINOIS CcfyntU, 1904. h K'id. McAilly &• C^'»f'"iy Fir,. 40 THE GEOGRAPHY OF ILLINOIS »9 Fto. 42. csiuUlifoii. 1 i... 41. /'i. />1<" iUiirt f/ till iM.M>.<.-j .;..-i»., 1 ; •. >iicilf;i in the worlil. Curiously (.'imuyli it is the posi- tion of Lake Michigan which is most responsible for the concentration of land transportation routes at Chicago, because it thrusts its 300 miles of length directly athwart the normal westward pathway of travel and commerce from the Mohawk \'alley. The ports of western Europe have Wvn the centers of the world's com merce througl all the histor\' of tile New Wo'rld This fact has led to the develop- Ih. 1;. a ^r^up .•; Ilu- I'mUings at llu- rnn-trsily oi I'liuag.' ment of Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, our jMirts nearest Eurf)p<.-. Of these three cities Boston has been largely shut f)lT from the trade of the west by the Hoosac Moun- tain barrier; Thiladelphia likewise has long been handicapi)ed by the .\])palachian bar- rier. New \'ork alone has had free and un- hamj)ered access by way of the Mohawk Valley and the Great Lakes to the Hat plains of the West. The most direct route from Buffalo to El Paso. Tex., lies through Chicago. All the country west of Lake Michigan and north of this line finds its shortest route to the East through Chicago. This accounts for the twenty-four railways radiating like spther without their going to the center of the city, thus avoiding eongrstion of freight. The Growth of Cities. The most striking feature in the movement of po])ulation in Illinois in the past twenty years lies in the gn >wth of cities. The agricultural ]x>pulation is very evenly distril)Uled over all the counties of the state. (Fig. 45.) But cities have sprung up all over the state, particularly wherever water jxjwer or coal is convenient for manufacturing, or where special facilities for transjior- tation exist. Chicago, with 1,698,575 jxxjple, or about one-third of the pojjula- tion of the state, IS fringed with rajjidly growing suburban indus- trial or residenc"e towns of consid- erable size. I'ifty other cities outside of this area, having from 5,000 to 50,000 jK-ople, are growing at quite Flo. 44. Along the Uikt jri'itl, in iwu-n-tiru-n ( nuag^' 20 THE GEOGRAPHY OF ILLINOIS as rapid a rate. There are 316 cities and towns in the state having a population of 1,000 and over. In fact one-half the population of Illinois is urban, and the density for the state is eighty-.six people per square mile, whicli is more than three times the density for the whole country. The State Government. The present constitution of Illinois, the third it has had, was adopted in 1870. To amend it requires a two-thirds vote of each house of the legislature and a majority of the votes cast at a popular election. Voters must have resided in the state one year, in the county ninety days, and in the election precinct thirty days next preceding an election. The legislature consists of a Senate of fifty-one members, elected for four years, and a House of Representatives of 153 members elected for two years. Three Rep- resentatives are elected from each of the fifty- one sena- torial dis- tricts. Leg- islators re- Tliv rclutivr lizc of incorporated cilict mil vllUsci u •liown by ih« ■lie of the circles. Fig. 45. The density of urban population in Illinois, census of igoo. Fig. 46 ccive Si, 000 and mileage, and S50 for incidental expenses. The session begins at the Capitol in Springfield the first Wednesday after the first Monday in Janu- ary of odd-numbered years. The Governor, Lieuten- ant-Governor, Secretary, Auditor, Su])erintendent of Public Instruction, and Attorney-General are elected for four years. The Treas- urer is elected for two years and is not eligible for elec- , ^.s tion the next sue- ; .= ?. ceeding term. Congressional districts of Illinois, IQ04. Sir 68.J Fig. 47. The density of popula- tion p^-r square mile in Illinois. THE (h:(k;raimiy of Illinois 21 1r iu. For judicial administration liic slalt- is dividt'd into seven dis- , — -^ tricts, in each of which a Judge of the Supreme Court is elected, serving for a term of nine years. Other courts, inferior and appellate, have been estab- Hslied . Tlie judges of the Circuit Court are elected for six years. Each county is entitled to two or more terms of this court each year. In each county a county judge, clerk of court, and a county attorney are elected for terms of four years, as are al.so the cor- oner and the sherilT. County business is done by a l)f)ard of super- visors, one from each township, though a few counties have commissioners instead. The state has twenty-five Representati\ > ill the National Congress. In 1 90 1 there were in the stale 1,001.47:! men of militia age, and the National (luard had an enrollment of 8,490 men. Penal Institutions. Tlierc aR- lw(» jjcni- leiiliarics, one at Joliet and one at Chester; a 1 ,,, I iiiiiniinuiit in UrnH Gaujfiis, in Litu ref' at Pontiac, and a St;ite Home t'T Jtncnilf < XTenders at lleneva. State Charities. There is a Soldiers' and S;iil./« Pi, I.rscui.s-. Aunustus Saint trk, c7iiVagi'. .Ur..s.> tJu i.;ii;/ii- ,J.' .\ . r;-; Illy. l;:\]niU'n. 22 THE GEOGRAPHY OF ILLINOIS the State University. The University consists of six colleges and seven schools: literature and arts, engineering, science, agriculture, medicine, law, library science, music, pharmacy, dentistn,', com- merce, domestic science, and a graduate school. There arc 305 members in the facult}-, and in 1903 there were enrolled 3,288 students, about one-fourth of w h o m were women. This at- tendance puts the University among the seven great universities of the United States. The Agricultural College is partly under the super- vision of the general government and holds a very high rank in scientific research bearing on agricul- tural ])roV)lems. The work that this school is now doing promises to double or treble the value of Fig. 51. Tlic I.ihrary Buildini;. I'-.u'cr- iity I'j Illinois. Ill rrlhiiui. Fig. 5:!. The leading educational institutions of Illinois. THE LEADING EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS OF ILLINOIS COLLEGES A.ND UNIVERSITIES 1 Hedding College. M. E.. Abingdon. 2 Illinois Wesleyan University. M.E., Blooni- ington. 3 St. Viatcur's College. R.C Bourbonnais. 4 Blackburn College Presb., Carlinville. 5 CarthaKe College. Luth., Carthage. 6 St. Ignatius College. R. C . Chicago. 7 St Stanislaus College, R. C. Chicago. 8 University of Chicago, Non-Sect., Chicago. James Millikin University. Presb., Decatur. 10 Austin College. Xon-Sect., Effingham. 1 1 Evangelical Proscminary, Ger. Evang. , Elmhurst 12 Eureka College, Christian, Eureka. 13 Northwestern University. M.E . Evanston. 14 Ewing College, Bapt.. Ewing. 15 Northemlllinois College. Non-Sect. .Fulton. 16 Knox College, Non-Sect., Galesburg. 17 Lombard College, Univ., Galesburg. I.S Greenville College, Free Mcth., Grecn\'ille. iq Illinois College, Non-Sect.. Jackson\'ille. 20 Lake Forest College, Presb., Lake Forest, 21 McKendree College, M. E., Lebanon. 22 Lincoln College, Cl'.mb. Presb., Lincoln. 23 Monmouth College. United Presb.. Mon- mouth. 24 Northwestern College, Ev. Ass'n. Naper- ville, 25 St. Bede College, R. C, Peru. 26 St. Francis Solanus College. R. C, Quincy. 27 Augustana College, Luth.. Rock Island, 2S St. Joseph's College, R. C, Teutopolis. 29 ShurtlefT College. Bapt., Upper .Mton. 30 University of Illinois. State, Urbana, 31 Westfield College, U. B., VVestfield, 32 Wheaton College, Cong., Wheaton, SCHOOLS OF TECHNOLOGY 3,3 Armour Institute of Technology, Chicago. 34 Lewis Institute, Chicago, 35 Bradley Polytechnic Institute, Peoria. PUBLIC NORMAL SCHOOLS 36 Southern Illinois State Normal University, Carbondale, 37 Eastern Illinois State Normal School. Charleston. 38 Chicago Normal School, Chicago. 30 Northern Illinois State Normal School, Dekalb. 40 Illinois State Normal University, Normal. 41 Western Illinois State Normal School, Macomb. the com crop within the present generation. Recognizing the value of thorough educa- tion, Illinois has established five normal schools for the instruction ami training of teachers. The oldest is at Normal, and was one of the first schools of its kind in the L»»C.. THE GEOGRAPHY OF ILLINOIS -'3 country. Others have lK.t.'n huilt at CarlMin jlale, (."harlcston. De- kalb, and Maconili These schools jjive in- struction in every gnide from the kinder Rarten up. They alsc < admit hijjh-school jjraduates and give them two years >■• pnifessional tniininy, part of which consists in the actual prac- tice of teaching under skillful direclmn and 26,30 .Htirism. The state contains 321 pul)lic 737,5 Fir.. ^ !. illi: rii llliiii'is Siiilc It ( \lrb,'iidalc. adojited, and the school year has K-en lengthenerinal Sihi'^'l at L'harlcil^iii. Fto. ^t,. Till- X.rthirii Illinois Slate V.Tiii.i/ .S/i.'.'/ at DeKalh. high sch(K)ls and 65 private secondary schools. The free school system d.ites from 1855. There are ncnv more than 12.700 public schtxils in the st;ite. but more than 10,000 of these are ungraded countr\' sch(X)ls. The schixil syster «)f the stiite is orga' ized umlcr the Stai Superintendent an county superinteni' cnts who inspect eai schiK)l. A state course if studv has been I'ic. 55. The llVs/crii Illinois State .V.ti»ier cent in njoo. In addition to the ]mh- lic school enrollment there were 142.41)0 children in private sch(X)ls. Prima r\ ed- ucation is compulsory betwi-en the ages of six and fourteen The .innual i-ost of the ]niblie schools and educational institu- tions to the state in recent ye;irs has been .ibout $20.000. 000, 24 THE GEOGRAPHY OF ILLINOIS Fig. 57. Main buildins, the Illinois State Xormal University at .Xormal. partly canceled by the incume from a perma- nent school fund that now amounts to nearly $18,000,000. In addition to the state schools there are tlnrty-one schools classed as colleges and uni- versities in Illinois, which are well distributed over the whole area of the state. i\Iany of these institutions of higher learning were es- tablished by the early pioneers of the last cen ^^/^ tury, and have .been continual ^^^^ factors in uplifting e d u c a t i o n. M^^m ^' 'i^it- of the largest of these uni ||HNW versities have world-wide Hft ' fame, as the Uni- versity of Chicago at Chicago and Northwest- em University at Evanston. (Figs. 43 and 50.) Technological schools known for special excellence are the Armour Institute of Tech- nology and Lewis Institute, situated at Chicago, and the Bradley Polytechnic Insti- tute at Peoria. As a result of all this educational activity the state has an illiteracy record of only 4.2 per cent of the population of ten years of age or over. This places Illinois near the head of the list of states having Httle illiteracy, the average for the whole countr}' being 10.7 per cent. :^aAi — f ^ Mi m ^ ^■y'^-^'i i Mi^ I- 1 ■ » . 1 MiKij - — -. .■•.-. ■IF K Fir,. 50. Loi>king up the beautijid Lake Shore Drive, Chicago. Table showing the rank of the leading manufacturing cities of Illinois. Twelfth census oj the United States, Vol. VII J. "k-.. 5S. (jiiiiral Grant Monumenl, by Lotus T. y\'i";> ill Lincoln Park. " ' V.ILUE OF PERCENT- AGE OP \< A N K CITY ANNUAL MANUFAC- TURES LARGEST ISni'STRV TOTAL MANU- FACTURES OP CITY I Chicago $888,945,311 SlauKhtering and meat 2 Peoria 48.871,596 Distilled liquors 54 3 East St. Louis ,13..S.'i0.6ll Foundry and machine shop products 4 4 loliet 27,786.104 Iron and steel 40 Rockford Penin Moline Quincy 12.580.1 16 12,268.021 10,000 282 9,334.988 6 7 S Foundry and machine shop products 17 Aurora 7.370.029 Foundry and machine shop products 24 10 Elgin 7,161.637 Cheese, butter, con- densed milk 13 II Springfield . . . Decatur (i 61 2 2,S6 3,896,492 Flouring and grist mill products 34 A cA/i.T'ii: i:k OF riii-: ( i rii;s oi ii i.ixois More than ono-half of the peeople the best advantages for marketing their jjroducts; (3) the widesi)read and valuable dejKJsits of coal, clay, sand, anunjpe, and are the pick of energetic populations. In the gazetteer which here follows the population of each city. town, and village is given in parentheses following the name of the place, all of the population figures being taken from the Twelfth Census of the L'nited States. Alton (14.210), a handsome city in Madison founty, on a limestone MulT 200 feet above the Mississippi River, eight miles above the mouth of the Missouri, and twenty-five miles nortli of St. Louis, Mo., is tlie market for several counties and has excellent advantages for industry and trade. \'alual)le limestone is iiuarried in the vicinity, and coal is conveniently near. Tlie town has flour mills, glass factories, the largest glass-bottle factory in the country, brickyards, limekilns, machine s]io])s. siioe factories, and powder mills, and manufactures farm machinery, wagons, and carriages. Large (juantities of fruit are shi]>peti. Four railways center here. In Upper Alton, a suburb, is Shurtlefl College. .1 coeducational institution founded in iS^6. Aurora (24.147). situated in the southeastern part of Kane County, thirty-seven miles south- west of Chicago on the Ff)X River, is in the most ]jroductive agricultural district in the state. (Fig. 2.) Kendall. Kane. Dekalb. Will, and Dupage counties are largely tributary, commcr- tially. It is connected with Chicago l>v tlircf steam railroads and an electric railroad The city is on a belt line railway, reaching from \'ali«iraiso. Ind..to Waukegan. III., and crossing ever>* line entering Chicago, thus making it con- venient to transslii]) from one roalley. Coal from the extensive fields near by is delivered to the factories at less than a dollar a ton. This results in extensive maiuifact urine It lias more 26 A GAZETTEER OF THE CITIES OF ILLINOIS than loo factories manufacturing wrought iron, steel nails, tacks, stoves, and farm machinery. There are also extensive flour mills, breweries, distilleries, brickyards, and glass works. Belvidere (6,937), the county seat of Boone County, on the Kishwaukee River, seventy-five miles northwest of Chicago, manufactures sew- ing machines, corsets, heaters, canned goods, and condensed milk. The dairy product is large. Bloomington (23,286), the county seat of McLean County, 1 26 miles southwest of Chicago, is an important railway center. Coal is mined in the vicinity. Here are construction and repair shops of the Chicago & Alton Railway. Stoves, foundry products, trunks and valises, flour, fur- niture, sash, doors, and blinds are among the im- portant manufactures. The city is in the heart of a rich agricultural region ; in its vicinity is the largest nursery in the West. The breeding of fine cattle and horses is carried on in this region. Illinois Wesleyan University (M. E.) was estab- lished here in 1850. The Illinois State Normal University and the Soldiers' Orphans' Home are .at Normal, two miles north. (Fig. 57.) Blue Island (6,114), Cook County, sotith of Chicago, on the Calumet River, has three great railroads passing through it. There are quarries of limestone for building, large brickyards, some brewing and some smelting of copper ore. Cairo (12,566), the county seat of Alexander Count V, is in the southern extremity of the state, at the junction of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers, 151 miles below St. Louis, 365 miles south of Chicago, and 547 miles from New Orleans. While it owed its early growth to the river traffic, which is still important, it has become a leading railroad center. The Ohio River is here crossed by a steel bridge built in 1888 at a cost of 83,000,000. (Fig. 37.) The town is protected by a levee, built at great expense. It is an important market for lumber, grain, and fruit; has flour mills, a sewing-machine factory, foun- dries, machine shops, and extensive wood- working and bottling establishments. Canton (6,564), Fulton County, thirty miles southwest of Peoria, has large coal mines in the vicinity. Wood is abundant. Its manufactures include agricultural implements, foundry prod- ucts, tile, paving brick, cigars, and cigar boxes. Carbondale (3,318), Jackson County, ninety- five miles southeast of St. Louis, Mo., is the cen- ter of an important coal-mining district. The Southern Illinois State Normal University is located here. (Fig. 53.) Centralia (6,721), Marion County, sixty miles east of St. Louis, Mo., is directly over extensive coal mines supplying cheap fuel to local factories. It manufactures envelopes, mining tools, and fruit boxes, and much fruit, raised in the vicinity, is shipped, especially large quantities of peaches, strawberries, and apples. Its railway facilities are excellent. The Illinois Central Railway has machine shops here. Champaign (g.ogS), Champaign County. 128 miles southwest of Chicago, is situated in an extremely fertile farming region. It has manu- factures of wagons, brick and tile, twine, and iron and steel goods. Charleston (5,488), the county seat of Coles County, IS in the midst of a rich farming region. It is the leading broom-corn market of the United States. Brooms, carriages, woolens, stoves, and tile are the chief manufactures. The Eastern Illinois State Normal School is here. (Fig. 54 ) Chicago (1,698,575), located near the head of Lake Michigan, was first visited by fur traders in 1654. In 1795 the Indians ceded a tract six miles square to the Government, and in 1803 Fort Dearborn was built. The first white set- tler was John Kinzie. a French Canadian, who made his home here in 1804. In 181 2 the fort' was burned by the Indians, and all the inhabi- tants, numbering about fifty, were massacred. In 18 16 the fort was rebuilt, and a town sprang up which was incorporated as a city in 1837 with a po])ulation of about 4.000. Since that time Chicago has had a phenomenal growth, now ranking as the second largest city in the United States and the fifth city in size in the world. Chicago is a natural outgrowtli of the advan- tages of its position and of the resources which focus here. In the early history of the West the Great Lakes were the best highway to and from the East, and Chicago was the port where water transportation reached farthest into the heart of the rich agricultural plains. These advantages are still powerful factors in giving Chicago its supremacy. But even more important to-day is A C.AZETTHHR OP Till-: CITIKS OF ILLINOIS the fact that Lake Michigan lies directly across llie east and west hues of travel, forcinj; all east and west land trathc in the northern part of the United States to concentrate at the head of the lake. As that part of the country is most densely populated and since most of our tratVic is along cast and west lines, nearly one-half the area of the United States is tnhutary to Chicago. When railways came, the level plains of the Middle West offered the easiest possible condi- tions for building; few grades and curves were necessary, and no expensive construction was rc(iuired. Consetjuently the fertile prairies were rapidly covered with a network of steel road- ways leading to Chicago, which has become the largest railway center in the world. The two factors, rapid transportation by land and cheap transportation by water, have given Chicago enormous advantages as a distributing center. These advantages, position and transporta- tion, have brought the coal fields of the state to the manufactories in the city, and the cheap water transportation of the lakes has brought the fields of Pennsylvania and Ohio almost as near. The timber and iron of the North have met the coal of the South and the East at the factory doors of Chicago, and a great variety and a vast (juantity of manufactured products result. The unusually fertile agricultural regions lying immediately tributary to Chicago have millions of fann animals, which find a ready market each year at this great industrial center. The city lies on an almost perfectly level plain, which was formerly the bed of the larger Lake Michigan. The streets arc laitl out in regular -•luares, running with the compass. There are .'.4i6 miles of streets. 86S miles of which are paved. The city water supply is taken from the Lake, intake tunnels extending from two to four miles out to the cribs where the pumping engines are placed. At the shore end of the intake tun- nels are great pumping stations which furnish the jiressure necessary to the city service. There are 480.000,000 gallons of water ])umj)e(l into the city mains every day. Formerly the sewage of the city was discharged into the Lake, but as this endangered the city's water supjily. a great drainage canal was planned which was completed in iqoo, at a cost of Sj.? ,000.000. This canal reverses the flow of the Chicago River. and takes joo.ooo cubic feet of water per minute from Lake Michigan, thus carrying the sewage of Chicago into the Des Plaines River, and so down the Illinois into the Mississippi. This, the largest sanitary engineering feat ever attempted, was completely successful. The canal is avail- able for navigation to Lockport, a distance of twenty-eight miles. There is a wide variety of manufactures in the city, but slaughtering and packing are far in the lead with products valued at over $250,000,000 a year, which is nearly one-third the value of the city's manufactures. (Fig. 26.) Next in impor- tance come foundry and machine-shop products and iron and steel. (Fig. 38.) The steel indus- tries are largely centered at South Chicago. In ready-made clothing the city ranks next to New York ; although its output is now worth a million dollars a week, the industry is increasing rapidly Chicago leads the world in the manufacture of farm machinery, particularly harvesting ma- chines, and more than one-half of the world's binder twine is made here. It ranks first in America in slaughtering and meat-packing, in foundry and machine-shop products, and cars; second in men's clothing, malt li(iuors. news- paper and book printing, lumber products, in- cluding sash, doors, and blinds, and furniture. Chicago covers an area of about 190 square miles and has a water front on Lake Michigan of about twenty-five miles. The Chicago River, since the completion of the drainage canal an out - let of the Lake, has a frontage of sixty miles in the city, more than one-third of which is avail- able for wharfage. (Figs. 23 and 34.) The river is crossed by many briiiges, the most interesting of which are the rolling lift or bascule bridges, which open like a jackknife to leave the channel dear (Fig. 35); the cable cars pass under the river through tunnels. The harbor, formed by an artificial breakwater, has an area of about 450 acres and a depth of sixteen feet. Chicago is .second only to New York in the large number, the size, and the extreme height of ortice buildings, the so-called sky scrajiers. which originated here. The frame work of the buildings is planted upon steel encased in concrete. The tallest of these is the M .^.."i. 28 A GAZETTEER OF THE CITIES OF ILLINOIS Temple, twenty-one stories in height ; the largest is tlie Auditorium, which contains a great hotel and one of the largest theaters in the world. The city is justly famous for its parks, which have an area of more than 2,200 acres and are connected by boulevards. The parks and boule- vards form a nearly complete chain around the heart of the city, providing about sixty-six miles of driveway within the city limits. (Fig. 59.) Some of the finest sculpture in the world adorns these parks, notably the statue of Lincoln by St. Gaudens and the Grant monument by Rebisso. (Figs. 49 and 58.) Chicago Heights (5,100), Cook County, is a manufacturing suburb of Chicago, twenty-five miles south of the city, on a slightly rolling gla- cial moraine. It is on a belt railway, which crosses all railroads entering Chicago and gives Chicago Heights excellent advantages in han- dling freight. The manufactures include iron and steel goods, railway cars, locomotives, railway supplies, machinery, wagons, building materials, pianos and organs, chemicals, school supplies, and glassware. Clinton (4,452), the county seat of Dewitt County, is twenty-two miles south of Blooming- ton, on the Illinois Central Railroad. It has railway repair shops and varied industries. Collinsville (4,021), Madison County, is twelve miles northeast of St. Louis, Mo., with which it is connected by trolley. There are coal mines, brickkilns, zinc smelters, and lead works nearby. Danville (16,354), the county seat of Vermilion County, is on the Vermilion River, 124 miles south of Chicago. Coal is mined extensively near by. The Kellyville field near the city puts out more than a million and a half tons a year. The river furnishes water power The machine shops of the Chicago & Eastern Illinois Railroad are here. The city has extensive manufactures of iron, galvanized iron, wagons, brick, woolens, flour, hominy, and beer. It lies in the richest part of the corn belt, three adjacent counties produc- ing more than 50,000,000 bushels of corn per year. (Fig. 20.) Here is a National Soldiers' Home. Decatur (20,754), the county seat of Macon County, on the north bank of the Sangamon River, thirty-nine miles east of S])ringfield, is an important railway center. It is in the midst of a rich farming area. There are two coal mines in the city. It manufactures engines, farm im- plements, iron bridges, tile, brick, artificial stone, coffins, carriages, furniture, plumbing goods, gas and electric fixtures, mantles, soda fountains, clothing, bagging, beer, flour, and com products. It is the site of James Milliken University. Dekalb (5,904), Dekalb County, fifty-eight miles west of Chicago, is in a rich farming and dairying region (Figs. 28 and 29) with good trans- portation facilities. Its wire fence industry is one of the largest in America. Other manufactures include farm implements, nails, shoes, gloves, pianos, flour, cheese, and butter. It is the seat of the Northern Illinois State Normal School. (Fig. 56.) Dixon (7,917), the county seat of Lee County, is on the Rock River, ninety-eight miles west of Chicago, in a region famous for dairy products. Its condensed milk factory is the largest in the world. The river yields 5,000 horse power, the dam giving slack water for twelve miles back. The manufactures include foundry and wire products, plows, wooden ware, wagons, boots and shoes, boxes, and condensed milk. A private normal and training school located here is well and favorably known. Duquoin (4,353), Perry County, seventy-one miles southeast of St. Louis, Mo., has twelve companies that mine coal near by, and an exten- sive salt-making plant. It also has iron and pump works, veneer factories, and an ice plant;. East St. Louis (29,655), St. Clair County, on the Mississippi River opposite St. Louis, Mo., is the focus of twelve railways which cross the river here on great steel bridges. (Fig. 39.) The manufactures include malleable iron, rolling mill and foundry products, bolts and nuts, nails, cars, glass, chemicals, white lead, castor oil, syrup, paint, barrels, flour, and beer. Here is one rf the largest stock yards in America, with exten- sive slaughtering and meat-packing interests. Edwardsville (4,157), the county seat of Madi- son County, twenty miles northeast of St. Louis, Mo., is largely engaged in coal mining. The manufactures include brick, carriages, plumbers' goods, plows, and flour. Elgin (22,433), Kane County, on Fox River thirty-live miles northwest of Chicago, is in the A GAZETTEKR OF THE CITIES t)F ILLINOIS 29 richest dain'inR region in America. It is the lead- ing butter-producing city of the United States, and has large condensed milk factories. Exten- sive water power is furnished by the river. The city is world-renowned for its watches. Other manufactures are foundry and machine-shop products, windmills, silver plate, soap, boots and shoes, butter tubs, liquors, pipe organs, flour, books, and periodicals. (Fig. 36.) The N'orth- ern Hospital for the Insane is here. Evanston (19,259), Cook County, on Lake Michigan, joins Chicago on the north and is one of the most attractive residence centers adjacent to that city. It is widely known for its excellent schools and especially as the scat of N'orthwest- em University, founded in 1S54, the most famous Methodist Episcopal College in the country. (Fig. 50.) The sale of liquors is prohibited within four miles of the University. It is one of tlie most orderly cities in the United States. Freeport (13,258), the county seat of Stephen- son County, is located on the Pecatonica River, 125 miles northwest of Chicago. It manufac- tures wagons, hardware, windmills, pumps,boots, shoes, musical instruments, and canned goods. Galena (5.005), the county seat of Jo Daviess County, seventeen miles southeast of Dubuque, Iowa, has a picturesque location on the Galena River, six miles from the Mississippi. The town is built upon the blufT which drops down in terraces to the Galena River. The Mississippi River steamboats ascend the Galena to this point. The i)lace was settled early, and its histon.' is closely connected with the production of lead, its name, in fact, being that of the ore mined in the limestone bluffs in the vicinity. There are manufactures of lead and zinc, wooden ware, furniture, and boots and shoes. Galesburg (18,607), the county seat of Knox County, is in the midst of fertile prairies. The abundant coal in the vicinity invites manufac- turing. The leading j)roarks and jilavgrounds. Electric cars run to Chicago. Kankakee (13,595), the county seat of Kan- kakee County, on the Kankakee River, is tifty-six miles south of Chicago. It lies in a wide plain or lowland, formerly the bed of one of the great glacial lakes. The soil of this fertile lowland is now largely Chicago, the best railway service in the state, and also has steamboat lines to St. Louis. The tributary country is underlaid with coal and is the richest corn-i>ro^ ^^• U^"\.