Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Illinois

Copyright, 1880, by Charles Scribner's Sons.

LLINOIS, the twenty-first in the order of admission and the fourth in rank of population of the States of the American Union, is one of the group of States formed out of the &ldquo;North-West Territory.&rdquo; Its boundaries, beginning at the point where the Wabash river joins the Ohio, pass thence north by that river, by the west line of Indiana, and by Lake Michigan to 42° 30' N. lat., thence west to the Mississippi river, thence south by that river to its confluence with the Ohio river, and thence, by that, north-easterly to the mouth of the Wabash. It has an area of 55,414 square miles, extending with varying width from 42° 30' to 36° 59' N. lat.

Surface and Soil.&mdash;Illinois is a great plain, with its highest section in the north, on Lake Michigan; thence it imperceptibly declines to the south-west, in which direction its principal rivers flow to the Mississippi. A small tract in the north-west, which includes the lead mines, is hilly and broken, and there are bluffs along the Mississippi, some of which rise 300 to 400 feet. A ridge extends across the south end of the State, constituting the fruit district of the region, called &ldquo;Egypt&rdquo; on account of its never-failing fertility. On this ridge or swell of clay land are grown all the varieties of berries, grapes, plums, peaches, apples, and all kinds of vegetables in great profusion, which find prompt sale in Chicago and the northern counties by reason of reaching market at early dates in the season. Excepting along the rivers, and where there has been extensive tree planting, the greater part of the State consists of a vast level or slightly undulating treeless prairies. Much of this has been reclaimed from swamp land by systematic drainage, and is found to be the strongest and most productive soil of the State. To the eye the surface of the State is as level as that of an ocean in calm. The general slope from the watershed rarely exceeds 1 foot to the mile, and the fall of the Illinois river in a course of 300 miles to the south-west, is, for most of the distance, but 1 inch to the mile. The origin of the prairies is still a matter of speculation, but there is an opinion that in a former geological age the whole State was the bed of a vast shallow freshwater lake. The prairie soil is a black fine humus mould, formed of the decayed vegetation, and underlain at varying depths by clay. The soil is of great fertility, and much of it seemingly inexhaustible. Over these prairies for hundreds of miles the plough never touches stone, pebble, or even sand. A luxuriant native grass formerly sustained herds of buffalo, and from the still unbroken prairie surface are annually

mown thousands of tons of the wild grass for hay, which is as nutritious and brings as high a price in market as &ldquo;tame hay.&rdquo; All the cereals, roots, fruits, grasses, and vegetables of the temperate zone are grown in Illinois, and some of the semi-tropical productions, as cotton and amber cane. Because of the richness of the soil, cultivators still plough very shallow, and neglect manuring, or even rotation of crops, in the larger portion of the State. It is usual to plant maize for ten or twenty years in succession, only changing the crop to wheat, oats, barley, buckwheat, or rye when the market prices of these cereals promise larger profits than maize. Upon any sign of exhaustion, the productiveness may be restored by deeper ploughing, grassing, fallowing, and applying barnyard manure. In half a century there has never been a bad failure of crops; twice or thrice there has been insufficient rain, and as often too much, and once a frost in summer; but the injury in no one year was so great or so widespread as to produce general distress among farmers.

Minerals.&mdash;Coal is found in nearly all parts of the State; it is bituminous, a small proportion being cannel. The beds vary from 3½ to 8 feet in thickness. The Coal-measures are part of the general formation extending from beyond the Mississippi river in Missouri, across Illinois and parts of Indiana and Ohio, and into Kentucky. It is estimated that three-fourths of the surface area of the State are underlain by beds of coal. There are twelve separate and well-defined beds of from 4 to 8 feet in thickness. The State is supplied with coal for consumption, not only from the mines of Illinois, but also from those of Indiana and Ohio by rail, and with anthracite from Pennsylvania by lake. The coal mined in the State is between 3,500,000 and 4,000,000 tons annually. Near Galena, in the north-west part of the State, are lead mines which have been worked for half a century, and which at one time made Galena the most prosperous city in the State. Salt springs are found in the south-east counties. Stone suitable for building is found in various parts of the State. An inexhaustible field of limestone, called &ldquo;Lemont marble,&rdquo; is found near Chicago, and has been largely used in rebuilding that city.

State Lands.&mdash;The lands in the State were thus classified in the years 1878 and 1880:—in the former year there were 25,639,304 acres of improved and 8,635,953 of unimproved lands (total, 34,275,257), while in the latter year the numbers were 26,174,566 and 8,204,505 (total, 34,379,071 acres). The city and town lots numbered 365,344 improved and 486,731 unimproved in 1878, and 374,664 improved and 484,932 unimproved in 1880. The railroads hold 13,253 acres of land and 3028 city and town lots.

The improved lands were under cultivation in 1878 and 1880, as follows:&mdash;

Agricultural Products.&mdash;The great crops of Illinois are maize or Indian corn, wheat, and hay; and much attention is also given to the raising of live stock. The State produces more wheat than any other State in the Union. The farms number about 247,000. We give full agricul tural returns for 1879, and those for 1880 so far as completed to December of that year:&mdash;

The following table gives returns for 1879:&mdash;

Railways.&mdash;In 1850 Congress granted to the State, to aid in the construction of a railway from Cairo to Galena and Chicago, alternate sections of land along the route; the State transferred the grant of land to the Illinois Central Railroad Company, a corporation composed mainly of English capitalists, conspicuous among whom was Richard Cobden. These capitalists furnished the money and constructed the road, and they and their successors still own the property. The railway lies wholly within the State, though it works other lines extending south to New Orleans and west to the Missouri river. Its completion gave that impetus to the construction of railways to Chicago and across the State which has contributed so largely to the rapid development of the resources of Illinois. The State is now admirably supplied with railways, their extent reaching 6849 miles. They cross every county in the State; indeed, they are so numerous and so interlaced that there are few if any localities more than 10 miles from a railway, while a large proportion of the shipping points have the benefit of more than one route by which to ship and receive merchandise. The great trunk lines leading west from the Atlantic and from Canada have their termini at Chicago, or at some other point in Illinois, while those leading from the States west of the Mississippi also terminate in Illinois, or crossing the State run further east. The system of railway government somewhat resembles that of England. A railway commission, appointed by the State, exercises a general supervision, and enforces the penalties for violations of law. The receipts of the forty-six railways doing business in Illinois amounted in 1879-80 to $138,659,155: the working expenses to $73,089,185; and the net income to $61,093,612.

Inland Navigation.&mdash;In addition to the railway traffic, there is much business done by steamboats at Cairo, East St Louis, Alton, Quincy, Rock Island, and other points on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, though transportation by river has declined much of late years. The Illinois and Michigan canal is 93 miles long, and connects Lake Michigan at Chicago with the Illinois river, at the head of the navigation of that river. This canal has cost $17,000,000, but is now too small for the service needed. The Illinois river is formed by the union of the Kankakee and Des Plaines rivers, which junction occurs 45 miles south-west of Chicago. It receives, besides the rivers named,

the waters of the Fox, Sangamon, and Vermilion rivers, and of some smaller streams. Its general direction is south-west to the Mississippi, into which it falls. The State has expanded much money improving the navigation by locks and dams, and this improvement when completed, with the enlargement of the canal to the capacity of steamboat navigation, will be one of the most extensive works of interior water communication in the world, being over 400 miles long, and connecting the waters of the Atlantic, through ths St Lawrence river and the lakes, and through the Mississippi river, with the Gulf of Mexico. Rock river rises in Wisconsin, flows rapidly to the south-west through Illinois, and joins the Mississippi near Rock Island. On this river manufacturing establishments are rapidly increasing, the water power being regarded as equal to any in the country. The other rivers are the Kaskaskia, Embarras, Little Wabash, Big Muddy, and Chicago river, the last-named an inlet from Lake Michigan, furnishing a commodious harbour, 8 miles long, in which an average of 400 vessels find shelter during the winter season. The extent of the commerce on the lake is shown by the customhouse returns. During 1880 the steam vessels arriving at Chicago had a total burthen of 2,141,879 tons, the sailing vessels 2,456,337 tons; the clearances showed about the same figures.

Manufactures.&mdash;The statistics of manufactures for 1870 give as results 13,597 establishments, employing 82,979 operatives. Since that date the increase in manufactures throughout the State has been general, embracing all branches of manufacturing industry. The following are the statistics for Cook county (including Chicago) in 1880:—number of establishments, 3752; capital, $80,693,102; average number of hands, 113,507; wages paid, $37,615,381; value of material used, $180,807,706; value of products, $253,405,695. These figures for Cook county alone in 1880 exceed in several particulars those for the whole State in 1870; and the increase in the State during the ten years may be regarded as proportionate to that in Cook county. The abundance of coal, the proximity to the Lake Superior iron and copper mines, the unlimited means of transportation, the supply of lumber, the cheapness of food, the superior water power in various parts of the State, have all tended to make Illinois a large and convenient seat of manufactures. The iron and steel establishments of the State rank with the largest in the country. On Rock Island, in the Mississippi river, the U. S. Government has an arsenal for the manufacture of ordnance. The establishment is the most extensive in the United States, and the buildings and workshops cover nearly the entire island.

Administration.&mdash;The territory embraced in the present State of Illinois was ceded in 1765 by France to Great Britain; then it became a possession of the colony of Virginia; in 1787 it was made a county in the North-West Territory; from 1800 to 1809 it was a county in the territory of Indiana; in 1809 it was erected into a territory; and in December 1818 was admitted into the Union as a State. On its admission to the Union a constitution providing a form of government was adopted; in 1848 this was superseded by another, and this again was set aside in 1870 by tho third and present constitution, which provides the ordinary State government of three departments, executive, legislative, and judicial. The executive, consisting of a governor and other officers, are elected every four years; the legislature, or general assembly, consists of a senate of 51 members, elected by as many districts; the term of senators is four years, one half, or as near as may be, retiring every two years. The house of representatives consists of 153 members, 3 elected in each senatorial district every two years. In electing

the voter may give his three votes for one, two, or three candidates. This cumulative voting is peculiar to the constitution of Illinois; it has become popular. The judiciary consists of one supreme court of seven judges, several district appellate courts of limited jurisdiction, circuit courts in such number as may be needed, and one county court, including probate jurisdiction, in each county. Each county and each township has its own local government. Every male citizen resident one year in the State may vote. This constitution when adopted was regarded as a great improvement and advance in State government, and many of its provisions have since been adopted by other States. The sessions of the legislature are held at Springfield, which since 1836 has been the capital of the State.

Education and Charities.&mdash;The public school system is liberally supported in Illinois. The permanent school fund yields about $60,000, to which the State adds $1,000,000 annually, and this is distributed among the counties. Many counties and districts have invested school funds. The aggregate of these local funds is $5,500,000, the interest of which is applied to support school. In addition each school district levies such taxes as may be needed for its schools, and may borrow money to build schoolhouses. In

1878 the receipts of revenue for schools amounted to $9,634,727, the expenditure to $7,526,109. The number of children in the State (1878) of the school age, six to twenty-one years, was 1,102,021; of these 706,733 were enrolled as attending the public schools, and 41,406 as attending private and parochial schools; total attending schools, 748,139. The whole number of school districts in the State was 11,714; male teachers 9475, female teachers 12,817, teachers in private schools 1017—total teachers 23,309. Salaries of male teachers range from $15 to $225 per month, of female teachers from $10 to $115 per month. Five months in each year is the minimum term of the public schools, ten months the general term. Except the income from invested funds, school revenues are obtained from direct taxation. The State has established two normal universities, providing the buildings and grounds,—one at Normal, M$c$Lean county, the other at Carbondale, Jackson county. There is an industrial university at Champaign, maintained and liberally endowed by the State. There are also several other universities and colleges, including medical and theological, in various parts of the State. All schools supported in whole or in part by public money must be non-sectarian in their instruction and government.

Under the general supervision of a board of charities, the State maintains four hospitals for the insane, at Jacksonville, Elgin, Anna, and Kankakee; an institution for educating the blind, and one for educating the deaf and dumb, both at Jacksonville; an asylum for imbecile children; an eye and ear infirmary; a home for soldiers orphans; and a correctional or reformatory school for boys. All these institutions are provided with spacious grounds and extensive buildings. The annual expenditure for the maintenance of these charities is about $1,000,000. This does not include the cost of buildings and grounds, on which over $5,000,000 have been expended. Several other asylums for the insane are maintained by local authorities.

The population of Illinois, which now comprises 102 counties, was as follows at the dates given:&mdash;

The following cities had a population in 1880 exceeding 5000:&mdash;

The density of the population in 1880 was 55.6 persons per square mile. (J. W. S.&mdash;J. ME.)