History of Sangamon County, Illinois; Together with Sketches of Its Cities, Villages and Townships Portraits of Prominent Persons, and Biographies of Representative Citizens. History of Illinois (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1881 Excerpt: ... was unbroken prairie, the home of the wolf, the deer, and the prairie fowl; unmarked by civilization or cultivation, except the scattering farms and houses along the timber. The dwellers in those houses, if then asked, would have informed you that these prairie lands would never be purchased of the General Government, that they were not worth the taxes and would ever remain pasture grounds for those owning the lands near the timber. "Traveling thence north, nothing yet met the eye, except the wild prairie, and its boundary of timber, and on that boundary on the east, the farms of Washington lies and of Mason and Plank, and on the west, of Little and Lindsay. At the distance of one mile the high ground was reached, the rim' of the valley in which Springfield was situated, where now runs the South Avenue. Thence descending into the valley, the only additional improvements to be seen were the farms of Lanterman and Lanswell on the west, and of Charles R. Matheny on the east, where Mrs. Robert Irwin now lives, and of Masters, in front of the traveler. "Passing the Masters farm on the left (now Moran's addition), and the house of the Masters, near the residence of Mrs. Humphrey, and crossing the open prairie, the road running nearly where are now the residences of Mrs. Chestnut and X. W. Edwards, to the grove afterwards known as Mather's grove, where the new State House is being built, and following the road west of Mather's grove, with the grove on the right, and on the left the corn-field of Major lies (now Edwards -fc Mather's addition), to the eminence, where now stands the residence of the late Mr. Tyndale, the little village until then hid by the timber and brushwood along the town branch, first burst npon the view. "Reining in the hor...