Champaign County

The following biographies were taken from A Standard History of Champaign County, Illinois and represent many of the residents of Champaign County in 1918. The biographies on this page include the surnames of: Talbott, Taylor, Thomas, Thompson, Tomlinson, Tornquist, Trees, Trotter, Tucker, Umbanhowar, Van Vleck, Van Wegen, Varney, Wade, Wagner, Wallace, Walls, Warner, Watson, Watts, Webber, Wegeng, Welles, Wendling, White, Wiggins, Williams, Wills, Wilson, Windsor, Wingard, Wisegarver, Witt, Woodin, Wrean, Wright, Wyne, Yancey, Yeats, Yeazel, Youngblood, Zilly, Zombro, and Zorger. Alexander – Custer | Dale – Hyde | Inman – Myers | Nash – Swigart | Talbot – Zorger Talbott, … Read more

The topography of the county has been thoroughly delineated by the State Geological and the United States Geological surveys, as well as by experts connected with the University of Illinois, especially by Prof. C. W. Rolfe of the Illinois State Laboratory of Natural History. Based upon such authorities, it is found that the altitudes of the incorporated cities and villages in the county are as follows: Ludlow, 770; Champaign, 741; Rantoul, 756; Urbana, 718; Philo, 737; Tolono, 733; Thomasboro, 731; Fisher, 721; Pesotum, 715; Mahomet, 709; Sadorus, 691; Ivesdale, 679; Longview, 678; St. Joseph, 676; Sidney, 673; Homer, 661. Action … Read more

Chevalier de La Salle came to America in the year 1667. Shortly after arriving in this country he established himself as a fur trader at a trading post called La Chine, on the Island of Montreal. Here he came in contact with the Indians from the far west. Within two years he had departed on an exploration. For the next two or three years he had probably visited the Ohio River and had become quite familiar with the country to the south and west of the Great Lakes. Count Frontenac built a fort on the shore of Lake Ontario where … Read more

The splendid water supply of Champaign County is accounted for by the presence of the glacial drift, which forms the striking feature of the surface geology of Champaign County. Miss DeEtte Rolfe, who has written much and well on this subject, explains the matter thus: “Irregularly interspersed in this drift are long strips and beds of gravel which have their outcrops on the flanks of the moraines. These, being surrounded by the dense clay, form pockets which become reservoirs for the storage of water. It is on these reservoirs that the county must rely for its water supply. The water … Read more

Until about forty years ago a class of Champaign County lands was as carefully avoided as the prairies of an earlier period; like the prairie lands, they also proved of unusual value. For years the swamps and lowlands were considered as tracts which were worse than valueless; as so many pestilential breeders of malaria and other diseases. But in the early ’50s much Federal and State legislation was directed toward the policy of donating such overflowed lands to the various counties. The result was to direct the attention of the county authorities more particularly to the subject, and cause them … Read more

The death of La Salle in 1688 and of Tonti in 1704, concluded the most romantic chapter of the early French explorations which pre-pared the way for permanent settlement and the solid satisfaction of home-building. Without going into the rather intricate claims as to the priority of the pioneer settlements of Illinois which assumed permanence, it will be conceded that Kaskaskia was for several generations the most notable. The mission of the Immaculate Conception founded there by Father Marquette, with the fertile lands in that region, eventuated in drawing thither not only the soldiers of the cross, but French traders … Read more

In an early day in Illinois, the description of these monsters was quite current in the western part of the state. So also was a tradition that these monsters actually inhabited a great cave near. It described, however, but a single monster and but a single picture. The tradition said that this monster was a hideous creature with wings, and great claws, and great teeth. It was accustomed to devour every living thing which came within its reach; men, women, and children, and animals of all kinds. The Indians had suffered great loss of their people from its ravages and … Read more

They justified their return in the following manner: First, they were satisfied that the Mississippi emptied into the Gulf of Mexico, and not into the Gulf of California, nor into the Atlantic Ocean in Virginia. Second, they feared a conflict with the Spaniards, who occupied and claimed the Gulf coast. Third, they feared the Indians of the lower Mississippi, for they used firearms and might oppose their further progress south. Fourth, they had acquired all the information they started out to obtain. And so, on the 17th of July, 1674, they turned their faces homeward. They had been just two … Read more

The surface of Champaign County, as a general thing, is composed of black prairie soil, from one to five feet in thickness. This prairie soil is under-laid by a yellow clay subsoil. Below this clay subsoil occur alternate beds of clay, gravel and quicksand of the drift formation to the depth of from 120 to 250 feet, below which there are other alternations of shale, slate, soapstone and limestone, with one or more beds of coal. Much of the loose materials found above the rocky beds of Champaign County are composed of what is called “drift,” which consists of clay, … Read more

There are no bold features of the landscape to be recorded, its contour being usually rolling and pleasing, and particularly conducive to the cultivation of the grains. Champaign is the banner corn county of the United States, and there is no farming community in the country which is more contented or prosperous. The county is situated entirely within what the early French explorers denominated the Grand Prairie of the West, which they described as extending from the headwaters of the Mississippi to the Wabash River. Originally the timber lands extended pretty generally along the courses of the streams, and embraced … Read more