Indiana as far N. as a line from the N. boundary of Grundy county
to Rock Island, W. from Rock Island to Henderson county, then
S.W. to the southern part of Jackson county, when it runs S. into
Kentucky, thus including more than three-fourths (42,900 sq. m.)
of the land surface of the state. In 1679 Hennepin reported deposits
of coal near what is now Ottawa on the Illinois; there was some
mining in 1810 on the Big Muddy river in Jackson county; and in
1833, 6000 tons were mined. In 1907 (according to state authorities)
coal was produced in 52 counties, Williamson, Sangamon, St Clair,
Macoupin and Madison giving the largest yield. In that year the
tonnage was 51,317,146, and the value of the total product
$54,687,882; in 1908 the value of the state’s product of coal was
exceeded only by that of Pennsylvania (nearly six times as great).
Nearly 30% of all coal mined in the state was mined by machinery
in 1907. The output of petroleum in Illinois was long unimportant.
The first serious attempts to find oil and gas in the state were in the
’fifties of the 19th century. In 1889 the yield of petroleum was
1460 barrels. In 1902 it was only 200 barrels, nearly all of which
came from Litchfield, Montgomery county (where oil had been found
in commercial quantities in 1886), and Washington, Tazewell county,
in the west central part of the state; at this time it was used locally
for lubricating purposes. There had been some drilling in Clark
county in 1865, and in 1904 this field was again worked at Westfield.
In 1905 the total output of the state was 181,084 barrels; in 1906
the amount increased to 4,397,050 barrels, valued at $3,274,818;
and in 1907, according to state reports, the output was 24,281,973
barrels, being nearly as great as that of the Appalachian field.
The petroleum-producing area of commercial importance is a strip
of land about 80 m. long and 2 or 3 to 10 or 12 m. wide in the S.E.
part of the state, centring about Crawford county. In April 1906
the first pipe lines for petroleum in Illinois were laid; before that
time all shipments had been in tank cars. In connexion with
petroleum, natural gas has been found, especially in Clark and
Crawford counties; in 1906 the state’s product of natural gas was
valued at $87,211. Limestone is found in about 30 counties,
principally Cook, Will and Kankakee; the value of the product
in 1906 was $2,942,331. Clay and clay products of the state were
valued in 1906 at $12,765,453. Deposits of lead and zinc have been
discovered and worked in Jo Daviess county, near Galena and
Elizabeth, in the N.W. part of the state. A southern district,
including parts of Hardin, Pope and Saline counties, has produced,
incidentally to fluorspar, some lead, the maximum amount being
176,387 ℔ from the Fairview mine in 1866–1867. In 1905 the
zinc from the entire state was valued at $5,499,508; the lead product
in 1906 was valued at $65,208. Sandstone, quarried in 10
counties, was valued in 1905 at $29,115 and in 1906 at $19,125.
Pope and Hardin counties were the only sources of fluorspar in the
United States from 1842 until 1898, when fluorspar began to be
mined in Kentucky; in 1906 the output was 28,268 tons, valued at
$160,623, and in 1905 33,275 tons, valued at $220,206. The centre
of the fluorspar district was Rosiclare in Hardin county. The cement
deposits are also of value, natural cement being valued at $118,221
and Portland cement at $2,461,494 in 1906. Iron ore has been
discovered. Glass sand is obtained from the Illinois river valley
in La Salle county; in 1906 it was valued at $156,684, making the
state in this product second only to Pennsylvania and West Virginia
(in 1905 it was second only to Pennsylvania). The value of the
total mineral product of the state in 1906 was estimated at
$121,188,306.[1]
Communications.—Transportation facilities have been an important factor in the economic development of Illinois. The first European settlers, who were French, came by way of the Great Lakes, and established intimate relations with New Orleans by the Mississippi river. The American settlers came by way of the Ohio river, and the immigrants from the New England and Eastern states found their way to Illinois over the Erie Canal and the Great Lakes. The first transportation problem was to connect Lake Michigan and the Mississippi river; this was accomplished by building the Illinois & Michigan canal to La Salle, at the head of the navigation on the Illinois river, a work which was begun in 1836 and completed in 1848 under the auspices of the state. In 1890 the Sanitary District of Chicago undertook the construction of a canal from Chicago to Joliet, where the new canal joins the Illinois & Michigan canal; this canal is 24 ft. deep and 160 ft. wide. The Federal government completed in October 1907 the construction of a new canal, the Illinois & Mississippi, popularly known as the Hennepin, from Hennepin to Rock river (just above the mouth of Green river), 7 ft. deep, 52 ft. wide (at bottom), and 80 ft. wide at the water-line. This canal provides, with the Illinois & Michigan canal and the Illinois river, an improved waterway from Chicago to the Mississippi river, and greatly increases the commercial and industrial importance of the “twin cities” of Sterling and Rock Falls, where the Rock river is dammed by a dam nearly 1500 ft. long, making the main feeder for the canal. This feeder, formally opened in 1907, runs nearly due S. to a point on the canal N.W. of Sheffield and N.E. of Mineral; there are important locks on either side of this junction. At the general election in November 1908 the people of Illinois authorized the issue of bonds to the amount of $20,000,000 to provide for the canalizing of the Desplaines and Illinois rivers as far as the city of Utica, on the latter river, and connecting with the channel of the Chicago Sanitary District at Joliet. The situation of Illinois between the Great Lakes and the Appalachian Mountains has made it a natural gateway for railroads connecting the North Atlantic and the far Western states. The first railway constructed in the West was the Northern-Cross railroad from Meredosia on the Illinois river to Springfield, completed in 1842; during the last thirty years of the 19th century Illinois had a larger railway mileage than any of the American states, her mileage in January 1909 amounting to 12,215.63 m., second only to that of Texas. A Railway and Warehouse Commission has authority to fix freight and passenger rates for each road. It is the oldest commission with such power in the United States, and the litigation with railways which followed its establishment in 1871 fully demonstrated the public character of the railway business and was the precedent for the policy of state control elsewhere.[2]
Population.—In 1870 and 1880 Illinois was fourth among the states of the United States in population; but in 1890, in 1900, and in 1910, its rank was third, the figures for the last three years named being respectively 3,826,351, 4,821,550, and 5,638,591.[3] The increase from 1880 to 1890 was 24.3%; from 1890 to 1900, 26%. Of the population in 1900, 98.2% was white, 79.9% was native-born, and 51.2% was of foreign parentage (either one or both parents foreign-born). The principal foreign element was German, the Teutonic immigration being especially large in the decade ending in 1860; the immigrants from the United Kingdom were second in importance, those from the Scandinavian countries third, and those from southern Europe fourth. The urban population, on the basis of places having 4000 inhabitants or more, was 51% of the total; indeed the population of Cook county, in which the city of Chicago is situated, was two-fifths of the total population of the state; during the decade of the Civil War (1860–1870) the population of the state increased only 48.4%, and that of Cook county about 140%, while from 1870 to 1900 the increase of all counties, excluding Cook, was about 36%, the increase in Chicago was about 468%. Of the 930 incorporated cities, towns and villages, 614 had less than 1000 inhabitants, 27 more than 5000 and less than 10,000, 14 more than 10,000 and less than 20,000, 4 more than 20,000 and less than 25,000, and 7 more than 25,000. These seven were Chicago (1,698,575), the second city in population in the United States, Peoria (56,100), Quincy (36,252), Springfield (34,159), Rockford (31,051), East St Louis (29,655), and Joliet (29,353). In 1906 it was estimated that the total number of communicants of all denominations was 2,077,197, and that of this total 932,084 were Roman Catholics, 263,344 were Methodist (235,092 of the Northern Church, 7198 of the Southern Church, 9833 of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, 5512 of the Methodist Protestant Church, and 3597 of the Free Methodist Church of North America), 202,566 were Lutherans (113,527 of the Evangelical Lutheran Synodical
- ↑ According to the report of the State Geological Survey, the value of the total mineral product in the state for 1907 was $152,122,648, the values of the different minerals being as follows: coal, $54,687,382; pig iron, about $52,228,000; petroleum, $16,432,947; clay and clay products, $13,351,362; zinc, $6,614,608; limestone, $4,333,651; Portland cement, $2,632,576; sand and gravel, $1,367,653; natural slag, $174,282; fluorspar, $141,971; mineral waters, $91,700; lead ore, $45,760; sandstone, $14,996; and pyrite, $5700.
- ↑ See the so-called McLean County Case (67 Ill. 11), the Neal Ruggles Case (91 Ill. 256), The People v. The Illinois Central Railroad Co. (95 Ill. 313), and Munn v. Ill. (94 U.S. 113).
- ↑ The populations in other census years were: (1810), 12,282; (1820), 55,211; (1830), 157,445; (1840), 476,183; (1850), 851,470; (1860), 1,711,951; (1870), 2,539,891; (1880), 3,077,871.
