Champaign County

Nothing in the New World was more interesting to the European than the broad prairies between the Mississippi and the Ohio. In 1817 Governor Edward Coles, then a young man returning from a diplomatic mission to Russia, stopped in France and England. He was a Virginian, but had traveled through the West and had himself been greatly charmed by the rich grandeur of the prairie lands. The French and the English never tired of his graphic descriptions of them, and among his charmed auditors was Morris Birkbeck, a prosperous tenant farmer of England, who was thereby induced to come to … Read more

By the 6th of December, 1679, the expedition was afloat on the Kankakee. For many miles the country was so marshy that scarcely a camping place could be found, but soon its members emerged into an open region of the country with tall grass and then they knew they were in the Illinois country. They suffered from lack of food, having killed only two deer, one buffalo, two geese, and a few swans. As they journeyed on they passed the mouths of the Iroquois, the Des Plaines, and the Fox. They passed the present site of Ottawa and a few … Read more

On September 18th, the Griffin, in charge of a trusted pilot, a super-cargo and five sailors, started on the return voyage. La Salle on the 19th of September, 1679, with a company of fourteen persons in four birch bark canoes, loaded with a blacksmith’s forge, carpenter’s tools, merchandise, arms, provisions, etc., started on his journey for the Illinois country. He coasted along the western shore of Lake Michigan. Their provisions were exhausted before they reached the present site of Milwaukee. They had been forced ashore three times to save their boats and their lives. They now went in search of … Read more

In 1870 the most complete account of the development of the horticultural interests of the county was written by H. J. Dunlap, now of Kankakee, Illinois, but for many years secretary of the County Agricultural, Horticultural and Mechanical Association. It is as follows: “The first orchard planting of which I have been able to obtain any information was done about the year 1838 by William Sadorus, in the timber near the southwest corner of the county, now called Sadorus’ Grove. It was made of fifty Milam sprouts obtained near Terre Haute, Indiana, eighty miles distant, and afterwards extended by planting … Read more

Champaign County is representative of all that is best in American life. To the state and the country at large it is chiefly known for its extraordinary agricultural capacity and for the great University which has been planted in its midst, and which has drawn to its territory thousands of able and inspiring men and women. Many have remained to become a part of its higher life, both in intellectual and moral endeavors. Those who know Champaign County more intimately, natives or old-time residents, also appreciate the solidity of its material wealth and the sturdy fiber of its sons and … Read more

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 … Read more

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, … Read more

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 … Read more

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, … Read more

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 … Read more