25 



unanimously favorable responses to the letters following, a con- 

 ference was held at the office of the state geologist in Spring- 

 field, December 12, 1878, and the secretary of this conference 

 was instructed to call a convention at Chicago for the organi- 

 zation of a state natural history society. 



Some forty persons responded to the call, and organized at 

 the Palmer House, January 16, 1879, ^^^ letters were read 

 from fourteen others who wished to join the proposed society. 

 The first officers were A. H. Worthen, of Springfield, Presi- 

 dent; T. J. Burrill, of Urbana, and H. M. Bannister, of Chi- 

 cago, Vice-Presidents ; Homer N. Hibbard, of Chicago, Treas- 

 urer ; S. A. Forbes, Secretary ; and Selim H. Peabody, of Cham- 

 paign, and Cyrus Thomas, of Carbondale, additional members 

 of the executive committee. By the close of the year sixty-six 

 members had paid their initiation fee of three dollars each. 



This was the period of the return to nature in the study of 

 science, and annual field meetings were provided for. The first 

 of these was held at Ottawa, July 10, 1879. Dividing into 

 three sections — geological, botanical and zoological — under the 

 leadership of Worthen, Burrill and Forbes, respectively, the 

 society took to the woods in the beautiful, prolific and his- 

 torically interesting valley extending along the Illinois River 

 eighteen miles from Ottawa to Peru, and with Starved Rock, 

 Deer Park, Buffalo Rock and the site of the famous Indian 

 village at Utica within or near its boundaries. 



Annual program meetings followed at Bloomington, Spring- 

 field, Urbana, Spring-field, Peoria and 'Jacsonville; and field 

 meetings at Lake George, Indiana, near Chicago, where a Chi- 

 cago sportsmen's club placed their club house, premises and 

 equipment at our disposal ; at Fountain Bluff and Grand Tower, 

 on the Mississippi, in southern Illinois ; ; at Warsaw, in Han- 

 cock county, the home of Mr. Worthen; and at Peoria, where 



