Full Text of History of Vermillion County Illinois -- Chapter XII Scanning and OCR by Joy Fisher, jfisher@us-genealogy.net ------------------------------------------------------------------ USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organizations or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. ----------------------------------------------------------------- CHAPTER XII. THE ORIGIN AND EVOLUTION OF VERMILION COUNTY. COUNTY ORGANIZATION IN ILLINOIS DATES BACK TO 1779--THE COUNTY OF ILLINOIS--ST. CLAIR AND RANDOLPH AS COUNTIES OF THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY --KNOX COUNTY--KNOX AND ST. CLAIR COUNTIES--MADISON COUNTY--EDWARDS COUNTY--CRAWFORD COUNTY--CLARK COUNTY--EDGAR COUNTY--VERMILION COUNTY-- REDUCED TO PRESENT LIMITS--BELONGS TO SECOND CLASS-- GOVERNMENT OF THE COUNTY-TOWNSHIP ORGANIZATION; WHEN EFFECTED-- ORIGIN OF NAME OF VERMILION COUNTY. After the conquest of the country northwest of the Ohio river by George Rogers Clark in 1778, the Commonwealth of Virginia held it as its own and called it the county of Illinois. This territory was duly governed as such with the county seat at Kaskaskia, the former Capital of both French and British Government in the Illinois country. Capt. John Todd was appointed "County Lieutenant Commandant," but the machinery of this government was never effectually set up, and it soon ceased to run. After concessions asked and granted by all the new states of the young Republic, Virginia surrendered all claims to the general government in 1784, and congress, sitting under the articles of confederation, passed "An Act for the government of the territory of the United States northwest of the Ohio river." Under this ordinance Gen. Arthur St. Clair was appointed governor of the territory and in 1790 organized, by proclamation, the county of St. Clair, named in honor of himself. This proclamation was issued April 27, 1890. The boundaries of this first county can be seen by drawing a line from the mouth of the Little Mackinaw in Tazewell County to the mouth of Massac creek in Massac County. All the territory included within this line on one side and the Mississippi and Illinois rivers on the other, constituted St. Clair County. But this county was small compared with another which was created by proclamation, June 20 of the same year. This was Knox County and included about half the state of Illinois, the whole of Indiana, that part of Ohio west of the great Miami river, and the greater part of Michigan, and a considerable part of Wisconsin, as these states exist at present. It will be remembered that the settlements in the Illinois country were along that part of the Mississippi river in what was later known as the American Bottoms, and about Vincennes. St. Clair County was organized to meet the wants of the former and Knox County was organized to meet those of the latter. October 5, 1795, St. Clair County was divided by the creation of Randolph County in the southern part, doubtless to accommodate the sparce settlements along the Ohio river which were made after the Revolutionary war was over. February 6, 1801, William Henry Harrison, then Governor of the Indiana. Territory, of which the territory now known as Vermilion County, Illinois, is a part, issued his proclamation continuing the counties of St. Clair and Randolph as counties of Indiana Territory but changed their boundaries and enlarged their areas. Up to this time the entire territory north and west of the Ohio river belonged to the Northwest Territory, but it now had been divided by the taking of what is now the state of Ohio and making therefrom the territory of Ohio. All the remaining territory was called the Indiana Territory and William Henry Harrison was made Governor of it. In the change of boundary lines of the then existing counties in the western part of the Indiana Territory, Randolph County was bounded on the north by a line drawn from a point on the Mississippi river about nine miles south and one mile west of the present town of Waterloo, east to a line drawn north from the "Great Cave" on the Ohio which can now be located as near the village of Cave-in-Rock, in Hardin County. This line was also the southern boundary of St. Clair County, whose eastern boundary angled to the northeast from this point to the mouth of the "Kenomic river" or as sometimes called the "Kalamik" or "Calumet," a small stream flowing into the southern bend of Lake Michigan in Lake County, Indiana. All east of this line was in Knox County. Drawing this line on a map, it is readily seen the territory now Vermilion County, Illinois, by that division lies partly in St. Clair and partly in Knox Counties. The line passes directly through what is now Danville. A later proclamation of Gov. Harrison readjusted the division line between Randolph and St. Clair Counties, but made no change between St. Clair and Knox Counties. This division line remained unchanged until after the organization of the Territory of Illinois in 1809. After the division and organization of the Territory of Illinois in 1809, Nathaniel Pope became secretary and acting governor of the new territory. He at once issued a proclamation continuing St. Clair and Randolph Counties without change of boundaries except that the eastern boundary of each was continued to the eastern boundary of the territory, now the eastern boundary of the state of Illinois. This gave to Randolph additional territory on the east and to St. Clair, a triangular strip along the southern part and took from it a triangular strip from the northern part of its eastern side, and eliminated Knox County from Illinois Territory. By this change of boundaries the territory now Vermilion County was altogether in St. Clair County, with its county seat at Cahokia on the west side of the state opposite, and a little lower than St. Louis. To go to the county seat would require a journey of nearly two hundred miles. Since the settlements in Illinois Territory were altogether in the southern part of what is now the state, the division into counties at this time was of necessity to help the people of that part of the territory. So it was that, when Ninian Edwards became governor, he created three new counties in the region bounded ort the south and west by the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. A line drawn east from the Mississippi river to the Wabash river along the southern boundary of what is now Madison County was about the northern boundary of settlements, and such a line was made the southern boundary of the new county of Madison. Thus it was that the territory now Vermilion County became a part of Madison County, with county seat at Palestine, on the Wabash river. This proclamation of Gov. Edwards was the last in which counties were created in that way. In this year Illinois was raised to the second grade of territorial government, and the creation of new counties and the alterations of county lines devolved, thereafter, upon the territorial legislature. On November 20, 1814, the territorial legislature passed a bill dividing Madison County, and creating Edwards County on the east side thereof. This act made the territory now Vermilion County within, and subject to, the government of Edwards County, with the county seat yet at Palestine. However, there were none within this territory other than the Kickapoo and Pottowatomie Indians to be affected by the change. The year 1816 saw Edwards County very much restricted, and the territory lying north of the line dividing towns 3 and 4 north and east of the third principal meridian, became Crawford County, and the now Vermilion County, inhabited as it was yet with the red man, was in the new County of Crawford, with county seat some miles further up the Wabash at Aurora. There was no change for three years or until the treaty of Edwardsville, in 1819, when Crawford County in its turn was restricted and the new County of Clark was made from its northern part. Clark County was created March 22, and extended from the third principal meridian to the Indiana state line and from its present southern county boundary to the Wisconsin state line on the north. The county seat! remained at Aurora. Although in 1821, Clark County was restricted to make room for Fayette, the division did not effect the section which was being settled about the Vermilion Salines. This division of Clark County was made because Vandalia had been chosen for the future seat of government of Illinois, and it was considered necessary to surround it with a suitable county, dark County at that time comprised the present Counties of Clark, Cumberland, Coles, Douglas, Edgar, Champaign, Vermilion, Iroquois, Ford, a part of Livingston, Grundy, Kendall, Kane and McHenry, with all of Kankakee, Will, DuPage, Cook and Lake. In 1823, Clark County was much reduced in area. It included its present territory and that of Cumberland County, together with about one-half of Coles County. Of its remaining territory the present County of Edgar was created with the same boundaries as it now has. The unorganized territory to the north and west of it was temporarily attached to it for judicial purposes. The early years of settlement on the Vermilion and its tributaries included this period, when this territory was temporarily attached to Edgar County with Paris as county seat. Three years later the population of these settlements had so increased that a new county was created from a part of this "attached" territory and Vermilion County came into being. By Section I, of the Act of January 18, 1826 (Laws of 1826-7, page 50), it was declared that all that tract of country within the following bounds, to-wit: "Beginning on the state line between Indiana and Illinois, at the northeast comer of Edgar County (the act organizing Edgar County fixes the northern boundary by a line running east and west between townships 16 and 17; thence west with the line dividing townships i6and 17 to the southwest corner of the township 17 N. of R. 10 east; thence north to the northwest comer of township 22 north; thence east to the Indiana state line; thence south with that state line to the place of beginning," should constitute a separate county called Vermilion. This description would hold good for Vermilion County as it is now with the exception that it extends the line on the west ten, miles into Champaign County and falls short of its northern boundary by six miles. By the seventh section of the act referred to "all that tract of country lying east of R. 6, east of the 3rd principal meridian and north of Vermilion County, as far north as the Illinois and Kankakee rivers" is attached to Vermilion County for judicial purposes. This denotes the restriction of the attached territory of Edgar County to that which was located directly on the west that is now all of Douglas County and that portion of Coles County which was not included in Clark County. The territory which adjoined Vermilion County on the west at that time but later became Champaign County, and all the country north of its boundary, was temporarily attached to Vermilion county for judicial purposes. The date of the organization of Vermilion County was January, 1826. This attached territory remained the same until January 15, 1831, when Cook County was formed and took a large part of it off. The much discussed question of whether Chicago was ever under the government of Vermilion County can very easily be settled. It has always been a favorite tradition among the older settlers that at one time Chicago was a part of Vermilion County and many are the tales told in evidence of this belief. [This too although one at least of the writers of the history of the county flatly contradicts any such thing.] This idea of Chicago being at any time a part of Vermilion County, comes either from the fact that when Vermilion County was a part of Clark County, all of the territory north of the present southern boundary of that county was a part of it, and Chicago was included in the aforementioned "territory north", or that it is not understood how the northern boundary was changed even before it became attached territory to Edgar County, dark County, before its limits were restricted, covered all the country from its southern boundary to the Wisconsin state line, but when Edgar County was created the territory north and west of it was attached thereto, but it was bounded on the north by the Illinois and Kankakee rivers. To be yet more exact, the northern limits of this attached territory was a line drawn from about where the city of Kankakee is now located, straight north to a point due east of the southern boundary line of Kane County, and there turned and continued further east to the state line. This line, together with the Illinois river, furnishes the eastern and southern boundary of the territory attached to the new county of Fulton, and restricted, materially, the attached territory of Edgar and later Vermilion Counties. Examining the territory below this line it is evident that Chicago was never within the limits of Vermilion County, and yet, this area does include a part of the present Cook County, and a portion of the southern part of Chicago, and of course was at one time under the government of said county. The taxes Sheriff Reed paid out of his own pocket rather than collect, were doubtless levied on that portion of what is now Cook County, lying south of the line drawn north of Fort Dearborn. In 1833, Champaign County was created from unorganized territory west of Vermilion County and also, a portion of the same. This reduced Vermilion County on the west ten miles its entire length. The same year Iroquois County was created and the act extended the northern boundary of Vermilion County six miles, making it what it is now. It was while Vermilion County was a part of Clark and the county seat was at Aurora that the first permanent settlement was made at the Salt Springs, on the Vermilion river. Vermilion County was created January, 1826, and its seat of justice was located at the mouth of the North Fork of the Big Vermilion, in January, 1827. For the purpose of the regulation of official fees and salaries, the counties of Illinois are divided into three classes: Those of not more than 25,000 population are of the first class, those of more than 25,000 population belong to the second class, and those of more than 100,000 population belong to the third class. Cook County is the only one in this class in the state. Vermilion County had a population, in 1900, of 65,635, and the last census (1910) gives it. The powers of a county as a body politic and corporate are exercised by the county board which in counties under township organization consists of the supervisors from the several townships of the county. Vermilion County voted township organization in 1851. Vermilion County was so named from the river of that name which in its principal branches flows through the county and takes its peculiar spelling.