Identifier: historyoftazewel00chas (find matches)
Title: History of Tazewell county, Illinois ; together with sketches of its cities, villages and townships, educational, religious, civil, military, and political history; portraits of prominent persons and biographies of representative citizens. History of Illinois ... Digest of state laws
Year: 1879 (1870s)
Authors: Chas. C. Chapman & Co., pub
Subjects: Tazewell County (Ill.) -- History Tazewell County (Ill.) -- Biography
Publisher: Chicago : C.C. Chapman & Co.
Contributing Library: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

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nd saucers and blue-edged plates, standing singly on theiredges against the back, to make the display of table furniture moreconspicuous. These simple cabins were inhabited by a kind and true-heartedpeople. They were strangers to mock modesty, and the traveler,seeking lodgings for the night or desirous of spending a few days inthe community, if willing to accept the rude offering, was alwayswelcome, although how they were disposed of at night the readermay not easily imagine; for, as described, a single room was made toserve the purpose of kitchen, dining-room, sitting-room, bed-room,and parlor, and many families consisted of six or eight members. SELECTION OF HOMES. For a great many years but few thought it advisable to attemptfarming in the prairie. To many of them the cultivation of theprairies was an untried experiment and it was the prevailing opinionthat the timber would soon become very scarce, a fear soon provento be without foundation. Another obstacle that was in the way for
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^. C-^^--z- DILLON TP HISTORY OF TAZEWELL COUNTY. 323 a great many years was that no plows suitable for breaking theprairie land could be had. The sod was very much tougher thenthan it was in after years when the stock had pastured the prairiesand killed out the grass to some extent. It would be astonishingto the younger residents to see the immense crops of prairie grassthat grew upon the fields which are to day in such a high state ofcultivation. It grew in places six to twelve feet high. It wasthese immense crops of grass that furnished the fuel for the terriblefires that swept over the prairies during the fall. Then, again, therewas so much of the prairie land that was considered too wet to beever suitable for cultivation. Many of the older settlers now liv-ing well remember when farms that are now in the highest state ofcultivation were a vast swamp. There was another drawback in thesettlement of the prairies, and that was the great labor and cost offencing. But the principal rea

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