Federal Writers Project - The Wpa Guide to Illinois: The Prairie State

Illinois a descriptive and historical guide

Title: Illinois a descriptive and historical guide

Author:

This is an exact replica of a book published in 1939. The book reprint was manually improved by a team of professionals, as opposed to automatic/OCR processes used by some companies. However, the book may still have imperfections such as missing pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were a part of the original text. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections which can not be improved, and hope you will enjoy reading this book.

ILLINOIS

A DESCRIPTIVE AND

HISTORICAL GUIDE

FEDERAL WORKS AGENCY

WORK PROJECTS ADMINISTRATION

F. C. HARRINGTON, Commissioner

FLORENCE KERR, Assistant Commissioner

HENRY G. ALSBERC, Director of the Federal Writers Project

Published in 2014 by Trinity University Press

San Antonio, Texas 78212

www.tupress.org

This book was first published as part of the Works Progress Administrations Federal Writers Project, a United States federal government project to fund written work and support writers during the Great Depression. It has been published in various editions, but this edition replicates the original. Trinity University Press is proud to make these books available through the WPA Guides to America Digital Library.

978-1-59534-211-9 ebook

EACH OF THE MAJOR VOLUMES in the American Guide Series is a portrait of a State, in which history and tradition are blended with present-day effort and achievement. Collectively these books afford a clearer and more complete picture of American life than has ever before been attempted. Each individual State guide makes a rich contribution to a more profound appreciation of the State by its own citizens, as well as to the knowledge and understanding of the State by others.

A portrait of Illinois, at once historical and contemporary, on the scale called for in the American Guide Series, would have been a wholly impossible task without the generous co-operation of the people of the State. Literally thousands of persons have helped in the making of this book. Business men, teachers and clergymen, newspaper editors, local historians, farmersmen and women representing every phase of Illinois lifehave given freely of their time and effort, in personal interviews and special investigation, to make the Illinois Guide as complete as limitations of space would permit, and as accurate as possible. I have no doubt that in spite of the help of these many friends and of our own earnest endeavor, some mistakes occur among the many thousands of statements of fact in this volume. I shall welcome corrections, which will be embodied in subsequent editions.

As official sponsor, author of the essay on Abraham Lincoln, and generous friend of the whole enterprise, Governor Henry Horner has made a contribution of paramount importance to this book of Illinois. I wish to express my sincere gratitude to him, and also to Lieutenant Governor John Stelle, for courtesies extended during his services as Acting Governor of the State. To Paul M. Angle, Secretary, Illinois State Historical Society, and A. L. Sloan of the staff of the Chicago Evening American, who have read the entire manuscript, I am deeply grateful.

Though it is impossible to mention here all of those who have shared in building the Illinois Guide, I wish to express on behalf of the editorial staff of the Federal Writers Project our very real sense of obligation to each of these persons. We are especially appreciative, also of the gracious and effective aid given by librarians and their staffs throughout the State, and of the valuable help of the following special consultants and technical advisers: Josephine Boylan, local historian, East St. Louis, Illinois; Fay-Cooper Cole, Professor of Anthropology, University of Chicago; John Drury, Chicago Daily News; Ernest E. East, Peoria Journal-Transcript; Dr. Philip Fox, Director, Museum of Science and Industry; A. T. Griffith, Harbormaster of the Port of Peoria; H. B. Harte, Public Relations Counsel, Field Museum of Natural History; Jacob L. Hasbrouck, Bloomington Daily Pantagraph; Very Reverend Monseigneur Reynold Hillenbrand, S.T.D., Rector of St. Mary of the Lake Seminary; Effie M. Lansden, Librarian, Cairo, Illinois; William Morgenstern, Director of Press Relations, University of Chicago; Bessie Louise Pierce, Professor of History, University of Chicago; Earl Reed, Chicago architect; Daniel Catton Rich, Director of Fine Arts, Art Institute of Chicago; Carl Sandburg, poet and historian; Thomas Tallmadge, architect and author of Story of Architecture in America; Barney Thompson, Rockford Register-Republic; L. O. Trigg, Eldorado Journal; George B. Utley, Librarian, Newberry Library; Ray Williams, Secretary, Chamber of Commerce, Cairo, Illinois. To Edgar Lee Masters we extend particular thanks for his generosity in granting permission to quote freely from his works and for helpful suggestions.

Charles E. Miner, WPA Administrator for Illinois, and Mrs. Mary Gillette Moon, State Director of Professional and Service Division, have given unusual and invaluable assistance in this work. Their interest and co-operation have been unfailing. Toward each of them I feel a strong sense of personal appreciation.

Finally, it is the deepest pleasure to record here my grateful recognition of the loyal interest of the whole staff of the Federal Writers Project for Illinois, nearly all of whomtypists, mapmakers, and research workers as well as writers and editorshave shared in some way in the making of this book; and of the especially devoted effort of the six editorsJames Phelan, Parker Van de Mark, Jacob Scher, James Baxter, Nathan Morris, and James Gilmanwho have given the text its final form.

JOHN T. FREDERICK,

State Director,

Federal Writers Project for Illinois.

CONTENTS

, By Henry Horner, Governor of Illinois

ILLUSTRATIONS

ILLINOIS HISTORY

U. S. Army Signal Corps

State of Illinois

State of Illinois

State of Illinois

State of Illinois

State of Illinois

State of Illinois

Chicago Historical Society

Chicago Historical Society

State of Illinois

U. S. Army Signal Corps

State of Illinois

ILLINOIS AGRICULTURE

The Daily Pantograph, Bloomington

Clyde Brown, Chicago Daily News

Caterpillar Tractor Company

John Deere Company

Percheron Horse Assoc. of America

Farm Security Administration

Farm Security Administration

Farm Security Administration

State of Illinois

Farm Security Administration

ILLINOIS METROPOLIS I

Clyde Brown, Chicago Daily News

Holabird and Root

Federal Art Project

Art Institute of Chicago

Field Museum of Natural History

Merchandise Mart

Holabird and Root

Holabird and Root

Michigan Avenue in the Nineties

Chicago Historical Society

View of Modern Michigan Avenue

WPA Staff Photographer

ILLINOIS METROPOLIS II

Holabird and Root

Federal Art Project

Union Stock Yards

USHA photo by Sekaer

Chicago & North Western Ry.

Federal Art Project

USHA photo by Sekaer

Federal Art Project

Federal Art Project

Federal Art Project

USHA photo by Sekaer

ILLINOIS CITIES AND TOWNS

U. S. Army Air Corps