1878 Knox County
In 1830 it was thought that a sufficient number of inhabitants were
living in this section to have the county organized, which accordingly was
accomplished without any unnecessary delay. The law required a county to contain
350 legal voters before an organization could be effected, yet there were
scarcely that number even of individuals within the boundaries of Knox county
when organized. On the admission of Illinois into the Union, what is now Knox
county was a part of Madison county. Afterwards by an act of the Legislature,
approved June 30, 1821, it was placed within the boundaries of Pike, which is
the oldest county in the Military Tract. It then embraced the whole country
north an west of the Illinois river. By a subsequent act, approved February 10,
1826, its present boundaries were determined, and it was attached to Fulton
county for judicial and recording purposes. On the 3d day of July, 1830, by an
order of Judge Young, an election was held for the purpose of selecting three
commissioners, and on the 7th they met and completed the organization of Knox
county, for a detailed account of which we refer our readers to the following
chapter.
We will state in this connection that, when the county was organized in 1830,
townships 12 and 13 north, range 5 east, were included within the boundaries of
Knox county. This act of the Legislature was approved January 15, 1831. In 1837,
when Stark county was organized, these two townships were severed from this
county and included in that. The town of LaFayette, Stark county, is located
within this section, and consequently was originally in Knox county.
It was through the instrumentality of Riggs Pennington that the two townships
referred to were attached to this county. There was a beautiful grove within the
territory, which he thought would add materially to the wealth of the county,
and be a counterpart to the delightful forest in Lynn township, subsequently
known as Fraker’s Grove. Pennington was almost a regular attendant upon the
Legislature, although not a member. He wielded no little influence among the
Representatives, and therefore when he wanted the section alluded to attached to
his county his request was granted without delay.
In 1837 an attempt was made to divide Knox county for the formation of Coffee
county. But little interest was taken in the matter by the people residing in
the western portion of the county, as it was a move especially concerning the
residents of the eastern section. On the 10th day of April of that year, an
election was held to vote for or against the division of the county, and the
formation of Coffee county. There were 263 votes cast, 77 of which were for the
measure, and 186 against it.
The “Military Tract” comprises all the land between the Illinois and the
Mississippi rivers, south of the north line of Bureau and Henry counties. It is
so called because much of it was “patented” by the Government, in quarter
sections, to soldiers of the war of 1812. There was scarcely a soldier in that
early day who counted his land of much value, and ever thought to occupy it
himself; but immigrants came in, entered Government lands and “squatted” on
“patent” or military land, improved it, and thus rendered it valuable. It was
seldom that a “patentee” could be found at the time of settlement, and many of
the early settlers presumed that the owner never would be known; but in many
instances, after a patent quarter-section was made valuable by improvement, the
original patent would be brought on by some one, who would oust the occupant and
take possession, sometimes paying him something for his improvements and
sometimes not. Many holders of patents had no pity. This condition of affairs
presented a temptation to merciless “land-sharks,” who would come into this
section and work up cases, ostensibly for the original patentees, but really for
their own pockets.
The most notorious of these was one Toliver Craig, who actually made it a
business to forge patents and deeds. This he carried on extensively from 1847 to
1854, especially in Knox and Fulton counties. He had 40 bogus deeds put on
record in one day at Knoxville. He was arrested in New York State in 1854, by H.
M. Boggess of Monmouth, and taken to the jail in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he
attempted suicide by arsenic; but at the end of a year he was released on bail.
When the Military Tract was laid off into counties, most of them were named in
honor of military heroes of the nation. This county was christened in honor of
the brave statesman-general, Henry Knox. The following is a brief personal
sketch of him whose name this county now wears:
Henry Knox, an American general and statesman, commander of the artillery during
the Revolution, and Secretary of War under Washington, was born in Boston, July
25, 1750, and died in Thomaston, Me., October 25, 1806. He was of Scotch and
Irish Presbyterian stock, and his father came from St. Eustatius, one of the
British West India islands. He received the common school education of his time
in Boston, and was remarked as a youth of fine abilities and generous
disposition, fond of the heroic examples of former ages, and, according to Dr.
Eliot (who was nearly his cotemporary), giving constant prestige of future
eminence.
General Knox played a most important part in the revolutionary struggle for
liberty, and was admired and beloved by Washington, and like him, after a long,
active, and eminently successful public career, retired to private life. Gen.
Knox was large in person, of a robust and athletic frame, enterprising and
resolute in character, of a generous, buoyant and social disposition, cordially
appreciated and beloved by friends, possessing unquestionable integrity,
unsurpassed energy, and a mind liberally cultivated by study.
Knox County is about equally divided between timber and prairie land, the
northern tier of townships being mainly prairie, while the southeastern, along
Spoon river, is chiefly timber. In sketches of townships this feature will be
noticed more at length. It is situated on the very height of the divide between
the Mississippi and the Illinois rivers, with the 41st parallel of north
latitude running very nearly through its center. It is well drained by streams
running east and west from the central divided, and perhaps contains more high,
dry and exceedingly rich and fertile lands, susceptible of producing all the
grains and fruits common to this latitude, than the same number of acres lying
in a body anywhere on the face of the globe. The soil is underlaid with a good
quality of coal and building stone, and for a healthy climate Knox county has no
superior and few equals.
The large prairies of the county presented a most beautiful sight before they
were settled. The following very descriptive lines on “The Prairies of
Illinois,” by Captain Basil Hall, portrays their beauty in their wild and native
state:
“The charm of a prairie consists in its extension, its green, flowery carpet,
its undulating surface, and the skirt of forest whereby it is surrounded; the
latter feature being of all others the most significant an expressive, since it
characterizes he landscape, and defines the form and boundary of the plain. If
the prairie is little, its greatest beauty consists in the vicinity of the
encompassing edge of forests, many deep, inward bends, as so many inlets, and at
intervals projecting very far, not unlike a promontory or protruding arm of
land. These projections sometimes so closely approach each other that the
traveler passing through between them, may be said to walk in the midst of an
alley overshadowed by the forest, before he enters again upon another broad
prairie. Where the plain is extensive, the delineations of the forest in the
distant background appear as would a misty ocean beach afar off. The eye
sometimes surveys the green prairie without discovering on the illimitable plain
a tree or bush, or any other object, save the wilderness of flowers and grass,
while on other occasions he view is enlivened by the groves dispersed like
islands over the plain, or by a solitary tree rising above the wilderness. The
resemblance to the sea which some of these prairies exhibited, was really most
striking. In the spring, when the young grass has just clothed he soil with a
soddy carpet of the most delicate green, but especially when the sun, rising
behind a distant elevation of the ground, its rays are reflected by myriads of
dew drops, a more pleasing and more eye-benefiting view cannot be imagined.
“The delightful aspect of the prairie, its amenities, and the absence of that
somber awe inspired by forests, contributes to forcing away that sentiment of
loneliness, which usually steals upon the mind of the solitary wanderer in the
wilderness; for, although he espies no habitation, and sees no human being, and
knows himself to be far off from every settlement of man, he can scarcely defend
himself from believing that he is traveling through a landscape embellished by
human art. The flowers are so delicate and elegant as apparently to be
distributed for mere ornament over the plain; the groves and groups of trees
seem to be dispersed over the prairie to enliven the landscape, and we can
scarcely get rid of the impression invading our imagination, of the whole scene
being flung out and created for the satisfaction of the sentiment of beauty in
refined men.
“In the summer the prairie is covered with tall grass, which is coarse in
appearance, and soon assumes a yellow color, waving in the wind like a ripe crop
of corn. In the early stages of its growth it resembles young wheat, and in this
state furnishes such rich and succulent food for cattle that the latter choose
it often in preference to wheat, it being no doubt a very congenial fodder to
them, since it is impossible to conceive of better butter than is made while the
grass is in this stage.
“In the early stages of its growth the grass is interspersed with little
flowers, -- the violet, the strawberry-blossom, and others of the most delicate
structure. When the grass grows higher these disappear, and taller flowers,
displaying more lively colors, take their place; and still later a series of
still higher but less delicately formed flowers appears on the surface. While
the grass is green these beautiful plains are adorned with every imaginable
variety of color. It is impossible to conceive of a greater diversity, or
discover a predominating color, save the green, which forms a beautiful dead
color, relieving the splendor of the others. In the summer the plants grow
taller, and the colors more lively; in the autumn another generation of flowers
arises which possesses less clearness and variety of color and less fragrancy.
In the winter the prairie presents a melancholy aspect. Often the fire, which
the hunters annually send over the prairies in order to dislodge the game, will
destroy the entire vegetation, giving to the soil a uniform black appearance,
like that of a vast plain of charcoal; then the wind sweeping over the prairie
will find nothing which it might put in motion, no leaves which it might
disperse, no haulms which it might shake. No sooner does the snow commence to
fall than the animals, unless already before frightened away by the fire, retire
into the forests, when the most dreary, oppressive solitude will reign on the
burnt prairies, which often occupy many square miles of territory.”
Contributed by Pat White and Charlotte Babicki, extracted from the 1878 History of Knox County, Illinois, published by Charles C. Chapman & Co., Chicago, pages 106-110.
