CHAPTER VIII, 

 LEE COUNTY. 



Lee county is bounded on the north by Ogle, on the east by DeKalb, 

 on the south by LaSalle and Bureau, and on the west by Whiteside. It 

 is a large county. Its longest extent from west to east is thirty -six miles, 

 and from south to north is twenty-two miles. It contains eighteen full 

 townships of land, and a little over four half townships, embracing in all 

 about seven hundred and twenty-eight sections or square miles. 



The face of the country is diversified, and is made up of rough, hilly 

 land, broad and level prairies, and extensive swamps and marshes. 

 TheWinnebago swamps, in the south-west corner, and the Inlet swamps 

 east of the center of the county, are peculiar features in its topography, 

 and will receive a farther notice in a subsequent part of this report. 

 The north-western part of the county, where Eock river cuts across the 

 corner, is rough, hilly, and in places picturesque, especially in the 

 vicinity of that stream. The hills and ravines in this locality are parti- 

 ally covered with dense underbrush and scattering timber. The rest of 

 the county, with the exception of an occasional grove, is a broad, level, 

 fertile prairie, inclining in some places to be rather low and wet. Such 

 is the character of the prairie land in places in the eastern part of the 

 county, and also along its western and south-western borders. The agri- 

 cultural resources and grain-producing capabilities are very great, owing 

 to the large amount of excellent farm land in the county, while the wet 

 lands afford good grazing, pasture and meadow farms, and make stock 

 raising a very successful and remunerative business. 



Timber is scarce. Sugar Grove, Lee Center Grove, Melugin's Grove, 

 Pawpaw Grove, and a few smaller groves, and the scattering bodies of 

 timber along Eock river, afford about the only supply. The oaks, walnuts, 

 sugar-maple, linden or basswood, and hickory are the prevailing kinds 

 of timber, although almost every kind in the catalogues for northern 

 Illinois may be found in the groves. Eock river and the railroads make 

 the pine lumber of the north of easy access to the people of this county, 

 and they do not feel this want of timber as do some of the neighboring 



