CHAPTER I. 

 CALHOUN COUNTY. 



This county comprises a long, narrow belt of territory, lying in the forks of 

 the Illinois and Mississippi rivers, extending about thirty miles from north to 

 south, with an average width of about eight miles. Topographically, it may be 

 described as a narrow limestone ridge, elevated from two to three hundred feet 

 above the river level, and flanked on either side by the alluvial bottoms of the 

 great rivers, which form its eastern, southern and western boundaries. Over 

 this limestone ridge there has been subsequently deposited beds of Quaternary 

 age, consisting of drift clays,' gravel and loess, covering the whole surface to 

 the depth of fifty- to one hundred feet. These deposits also fill some of the 

 lateral vallies which intersect the river bluffs, showing that these valleys existed 

 anterior to the drift epoch. 



This county is bounded on the north by Pike, county, on the east by the 

 Illinois river, and on the south and west by the Mississippi. It embraces an 

 area of a little less than seven townships, or two hundred and fifty-one square 

 miles. It was originally a heavily timbered region, the whole of the uplands 

 and a portion of the bottoms being covered with a heavy growth of timber, 

 embracing the usual varieties of oak and hickory, linden, elm, hackberry, sugar 

 maple, black and white walnut and honey locust; all of which are found on 

 the uplands, while on the bottoms we find cottonwood, sycamore, ash, soft 

 maple, coffenut, hornbeam, pecan, willow, &c. The only stream of any impor- 

 tance in the county, besides the large rivers which form its principal boundaries, 

 is Bay creek, which enters the county near the northwest corner, and after a 

 southeasterly course of about ten miles, empties into the Mississippi about three 

 miles above Hamburg. 



The upland region in this county is quite hilly, and some of it is too broken 

 for cultivation, though the soil is productive, and yields abundant crops of all 

 the cereals and fruits usually cultivated in this climate. The heavy deposits 

 of drift-clay and loess that overlie the stratified rocks, determine the general 

 character of the soil, which is but slightly affected by the older formations, 

 except on the steep slopes of the hills, where the limestones and sandstones 

 come to the surface, and by their decomposition, have modified to some extent 

 the soil above them. The marly clays of the loess, form the soil and subsoil 

 over a large portion of the uplands, while the bottoms are covered with a sandy 

 loam, similar in character to that of the principal alluvial valleys of the west. 



The geological structure of this county is exceedingly interesting, both from 

 the wide range of formations exposed within its limits, and also from the dis- 

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