CHAPTEE IX 



WILLIAMSON AND FRANKLIN COUNTIES.* 



Williamson county embraces a superficial area of twelve full town- 

 ships, or four hundred and thirty-two square miles, and is bounded as 

 follows : on the north by Franklin county, on the east by Saline, on the 

 south by Johnson and Union, and on the west by Jackson. 



The western portion of the county is drained by the Big Muddy and 

 its tributaries, the main stream intersecting the north-western corner 

 of the county, while Crab Orchard creek, its main southern affluent, 

 traverses the central portion from east to west, passing out of the 

 county near the center of its west line. The eastern and south-eastern 

 portions are drained by the main branches of the middle and south 

 forks of Saline, which have their rise in this county, and with a westerly 

 course discharge their waters into the Ohio, the highlands in the east- 

 ern portion of this and Franklin forming the water-shed that separates 

 the waters of the Ohio from those flowing west into the Mississippi. 



In the northern part of the county the surface is quite rolling, a;.d in 

 some portions broken and hilly, while the central part is generally level, 

 and the southern part quite broken, especially near the south line of the 

 county, where the conglomerate and heavy bedded sandstones of the 

 lower Coal Measures are the prevailing formations. There is, however, 

 but little land in the county that is too much broken for cultivation, 

 and as an agricultural region this county ranks among the best in 

 Southern Illinois. Originally the surface was mostly covered with a 

 heavy growth of timber, the prairie lands covering but a small fraction 

 of its area. Some of the broken lands were originally but thinly tim- 

 bered, forming what is known in the Western States as " oak openings," 

 through which one could travel with but little more difficulty than on 

 the open prairie ; but now where these lands have not been brought 

 under cultivation, they are densely covered with a heavy growth of 



* These two counties and the county of Livingston were assigned to Air. H. C. Freeman in the 

 spring of 1866, and he was paid in fall for surveying and reporting on them, but failing to obtain any 

 report from him, though repeatedly promised, and after a delay of eight years waiting for him to 

 fulfil his obligations, I was compelled, when all the rest of the counties had been reported on, and 

 this volume was otherwise ready for the press, to go into these counties myself and make such exami- 

 nations as the limited time and unfavorable season would permit. A. H. WORTHED. 



