Champaign County

The grand march of French exploration and discovery up the valley of the St Lawrence, through Cartier and Champlain; around the fringes of the upper Great Lakes and gradually into the outlying country by the same far-seeing, brave and patriotic Champlain; the wonderful combination of Church and State, which penetrated the wilderness, subdued its savages both by the mysteries of Catholicism, gentle and brotherly offices and the pageantry of a gorgeous government all these successive steps leading to the voyages of Marquette and Joliet which drove the wedge into the very center of the American continent and commenced to let […]

While in France La Salle met Henri de Tonti, an Italian who had just won distinction in the French army. His father had been engaged in an insurrection in Italy and had taken refuge in France where he became a great financier, having originated the Tontine system of life insurance. Henri de Tonti had lost a hand in one of the campaigns, but he was nevertheless a man of great energy, and destined to win for himself an honored name in the New World. La Salle returned to New France in 1678, bringing with him about thirty craftsmen and mariners,

The present Champaign County Farmers’ Institute was organized in January, 1891, more than four years before the creation of the Illinois Farmers’ Institute. The State body came into being through a legislative Act approved June 24, 1895. The original Act, with its several amendments, provides that the body shall consist of three dele-gates from each county of the State, elected annually, and that its affairs shall be managed by a board of directors, consisting of the state superintendent of public instruction, the professor of agriculture of the State of Illinois, president of the State Board of Agriculture, president of the

La Salle, fearing the influence of the stories among the Indians, upon his men, decided to separate from them and go further down the river where he could construct his fort and built his boat. On the evening of the 15th of January, 1680, La Salle moved to a point on the east side of the river three miles below the present site of Peoria. There on a projection from the bluffs he built with considerable labor a fort which received the name of Crevecoeur. This was the fourth of the great chain of forts which La Salle had constructed,

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Champaign county has a total area of 2,584 km² (998 mi²). 2,582 km² (997 mi²) of it is land and 2 km² (1 mi²) of it (0.07%) is water. Because Champaign County landscape is situated on a large and very flat plateau, it had virtually no natural drainage, so that much of the County consisted of wetlands until drainage ditches were built and swamp lands were reclaimed, beginning in the 1870s. This was an example of an upland marsh, which resulted in a high incidence of malaria before the late nineteenth century. The topography

The Farmers’ Club was also an early organization which did a good work, and the first farmers’ institute was organized about 1873, but was a short-lived affair. The so-called Fair Association had charge of the agricultural and live stock exhibits, originally held in and near the courthouse square. The first regular fair grounds were four blocks south of the courthouse. H. J. Dunlap, now of Kankakee, who was prominently connected with these organizations in the early days, says that the Fair Association went out of existence about 1900, and adds: “The first fair was held in courthouse square in 1852,

Before starting for Frontenac, La Salle commissioned Tonti to have charge of the Crevecoeur fort, and also to build a fort at Starved Rock. On March 1st, the day following the departure of Ako and Hennepin for the upper Mississippi, La Salle departed, with three companions, for Fort Frontenac. This was a long, dangerous, and discouraging journey. Every venture which he had engaged in seems to have failed. After finally getting together supplies such as were needed, he started on his return journey. He was continually hearing stories from the travelers of the desertion of Crevecoeur. When he came within

The Farm Bureau, which is doing work somewhat similar to that of the institute, is an outgrowth of the Farmers’ League, and was incorporated in September, 1913. Its annual expenses of over $5,000 are met by the subscriptions of its 435 members, amounting to about $3,000; a $1,000 appropriation from the board of county commissioners; $900 contributed by the University of Illinois and $300 by the National Department of Agriculture. The subscriptions are graduated according to the size of the farms, and the active lecturer and adviser, known as the “farm expert,” is C. H. Oathout. The president of the

Father Marquette remained in the mission of St. Francois Xavier through the summer of 1674, and late in the fall started on his journey back to Kaskaskia. The escort consisted of two Frenchmen and some Indians. They reached the Chicago portage in the midst of discouraging circumstances. The weather was severe and Father Marquette, sick unto death, was unable to proceed further. On the banks of the Chicago River they built some huts and here the party remained till spring. During the winter Father Marquette did not suffer for want of attention, for he was visited by a number of

“The tradition is that many years since and before the settlement of the prairies, a band of regulators from an Indiana settlement, having found the trail of a horse thief, who had successfully carried his stolen animal as far as the Tow-Head, overtook the thief there, finding him fast asleep under the shade of this little grove. Without the form of a trial the offender was promptly executed by being hung by the neck to one of the trees until he was dead, where his body was found by the next passerby. This grove of timber was near the road

The farmer has no greater enemy to his crops and to his consequent well-being than the obnoxious insect, and there is seldom one which does not retard some form of vegetable life if allowed to flourish unchecked. Consequently certain varieties of the feathered tribe are the farmers’ most useful friends; which they are, and what kind of obnoxious insects are their specially favored diets are thus told by 0. M. Schantz, president of the Illinois Audubon Society: “It is with very mixed feelings that I come to this meeting of the State Farmers’ Institute to talk to the people of

Its dairy products comprise milk, cream and butter in the following quantities (1916): 70,884 gallons of milk and 69,866 gallons of cream, valued respectively at $19,139 and $69,886, and 98,876 pounds of butter, at $36,584. In the central division of counties, to which the State Board of Agriculture assigns Champaign, the county ranks fifth in the annual sale of butter, which brought, on an average, 37 cents in 1916. For the raising of live stock Champaign County possesses unusual advantages, on account of its abundant and pure water supply, its equable temperature and the adaptability of its soils to the

The soils of Champaign County seem to be especially formed to raise corn and oats. The elements were what they should be, as furnished by Nature, and the husbandman has not allowed the necessary ingredients to be exhausted. The result is that year after year corn and oats are bumper crops, and grain dealers throughout the country have long considered the Champaign County cereals as standard. In the production of corn the county not only leads the State but the United States. The figures vary considerably, as in other sections of the State, one of the most productive years being

The oldest of these organizations in this section was the Champaign County Agricultural, Horticultural and Mechanical Association, which was organized in 1870. Its constitution, as adopted October 8 of that year, reads thus: Article I. The name of this association shall be “The Champaign County Agricultural, Horticultural and Mechanical Association.” Art. II. The capital stock of this association shall not be less than fifteen thousand ($15,000) dollars, and shall be divided into shares of fifty ($50) dollars each. Art. III. The owner of one or more shares shall be a member of the association, but no member owning two or