PART II.

HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY.

THE County of Champaign is bounded on the east by the county of Vermillion; on the north, by Ford county; on the west, by the counties of McLean and Piatt; and on the south, by Douglas; and may be further described as follows: Beginning at the south-east corner of Section 33, Town 17 north, of Range 14 west of 2nd P. M.; thence north to the north-east corner of Section 4, Town 22 north, of Range 14 west of 2nd P. M.; thence west to line between Ranges 6 and 7, east of 3rd P. M.; thence south to line between Towns 16 and 17 north, of Range 7 east of 3rd P. M.; thence west to the place of begin. ing; being a tract of land thirty-six miles long by twenty-eight miles wide, containing 1,008 square miles, or 645,120 acres. Its location is most favorable, being about midway the State from north to south, and but twenty-one miles from the State line east; in the very midst of the richest spot of all this rich State. We hazard nothing in saying, that the world known to Americans does not produce a spot of an equal number of square miles, possessing the advantages, the attractions, and the natural wealth of Champaign county. We do not say this to the disparagement of any other locality, for, giving to every other county that to which it may be justly entitled (and in Illinois. there are no poor places), yet, with an intimate acquaintance with nearly every part of the State, as well as many other States, we still believe that we but utter an unvarnished truth when we say, that in point of excellence, considering every advantage of location, of climate, of soil, of productions, of mineral and agricultural wealth, and markets, Champaign

Ladies' Watches.

(103)

PRACTICAL

CONTRACTOR,

CARPENTER AND BUILDER.

All Business in my Line PROMPTLY Attended to,

And Executed with Dispatch.

SCHOOL BUILDINGS,

BRIDGES,

AND ALL

PUBLIC WORKS,

A SPECIALTY.

SHOPS: ON HICKORY STREET,

North of Barrett's Block,

county excels all others. The elevation is most admirably calculated to produce health, and give the lands the advantages of a superior drainage, with not the most distant danger of washing or exhausting the soil. We find the surface gently undulating, with a dip to the south the entire length of the county, of one and one-half feet to the mile, making the line at Ludlow 54 feet higher than the line at Pesotum, thus exposing the soil to all the advantages of the health-giving rays of the sun. The Sangamon river, with its numerous tributaries from the prairie, bears off the surplus water to the west. The Kaskaskia, rising almost in the very heart of the county, flows away to the south, as does also the Embarrass. The tributaries of the Vermillion, the Salt and Middle Forks, drain the county to the east, while scarcely north of the county line, Spring Creek stretches away north to the Iroquois river, whose waters flow into the Kankakee, and thence to the Illinois and Mississippi rivers.

Here we deem it the most appropriate place to introduce an article from the able pen of Hon. M. L. DUNLAP, written expressly for this work:

Among all the counties that have been carved out of the "Grand Prairie," no one is richer in natural advantages-the crude elements of wealth-or better located in regard to markets, than the county of Champaign.

Topographically it is a water-shed, containing the affluents of no less than four rivers. The Sangamon and Kaskaskia to the west, and the Vermillion of the Wabash and the Embarrass to the east. The drainage is thus provided for, while the general contour of the surface is gently undulating. This may be seen in tracing the line of the Illinois Central Railroad, as it passes through the county from north to south, a distance of nearly thirty-seven miles. At Ludlow the elevation above the level of the sea, is 788 feet, being 188 feet above Lake Michigan; at Rantoul and Champaign, which are upon the same level, 753, and at Pesotum 734 feet,-a dif

Gold Watches.

INSURANCE AGENCY.

Established in 1854.

Losses Paid, over $100,000.

Average, Twenty Days from date of Loss. -- Never Resisted a Claim.

All who have had Losses in the Companies we Represent.

SWEET & PLANK, Agents,

No. 2 Barrett's Block,

DINING HALL.

MEALS AT ALL HOURS.

Day and Week Boarding at Reasonable Rates. E. ELLIS, 47 Main Street,

(Wright's Old Stand,)

CHAMPAIGN, ILL.

ONE PRICE CLOTHING STORE!

N. STERN & BRO.,

DEALERS IN FIRST CLASS

MEN'S and BOYS' CLOTHING

AND CENTS' FURNISHING COODS,

ference of only 54 feet, in the elevations of these extreme points. It will be seen that the elevation and natural drainage must make it exceedingly healthy, while its gently undulating surface gives it advantages for rural pursuits.

THE SOIL.

The soil is a drift clay of the boulder period, of which the more heavy clays were deposited further to the north. With the exception of "pockets" of impervious blue clay, the drift is quite uniform in character, and is what we may call a clay loam, of an open, friable texture. This drift is from twenty to a hundred feet deep, overlying the Tertiary formation of some one hundred and fifty feet, and that in turn rests on the coal

strata.

About one foot in depth of the surface is charged with humus, that gives it, on the higher uplands, a mulatto color, and in other places it is nearly or quite black. Added to this is a large store of potash in a fixed state, resulting from the annual burning of the prairie grass for centuries, the ashes of which. have been lixiviated by the autumn rains, and thus carried dow into the soil, and been retained for future use. This gives the soil an increased value for the grasses, the cereals, for fruits, the garden, and the growing of forest trees.

OF WATER.

All of the boulder drifts are more or less mixed with those of the Trenton and carboniferous limestones, hence the water is more or less hard or charged with lime; but in this soil there is less of lime, hence the most of our wells are nearly soft water.

CURIOSITIES OF THE FORMATION.

In the sinking of wells we occasionally strike a pocket of blue clay, and as these seldom contain veins of water, they must be pierced through, either by sinking the well shaft or by boring.

Seth Thomas Clocks.