Category Archives: Agriculture

Illinois State Fair settles in Springfield (1894)

Posted on December 26, 2019 by editor

An unelected board designated Springfield as the permanent site of the Illinois State Fair in 1894, after lawmakers spent 15 years proving they couldn’t do the job. From 1853, when the first state fair was held in Springfield, the show … Continue reading →

Posted in Agriculture, Amusements, Farming, Illinois State Fair, Spectacles | Leave a comment

Osage orange (hedge apple)

Posted on November 11, 2019 by editor

The heyday of living fences on farms lasted less than 30 years. But Osage orange trees, descendants of fencerows planted as early as the 1840s, still line country roads and fill hedge lines throughout central Illinois. As the name suggests, … Continue reading →

Posted in Agriculture, Farming | 1 Comment

Pioneer women’s memories

Posted on July 28, 2019 by editor

For the 1879 meeting of the Old Settlers of Sangamon County, president Roland Diller read letters he had solicited from some of the county’s pioneer women. They were reprinted in the History of Sangamon  County, Illinois, published in 1881 by … Continue reading →

Posted in Agriculture, Children, Early residents, Family life, Women | 2 Comments

Hemp in Sangamon County

Posted on July 7, 2019 by editor

Note: This entry has been edited. See below. Long before it was mistakenly confused with marijuana, hemp was, briefly, a big business in Sangamon County. In a lengthy pitch published in the March 23, 1848, Illinois Weekly State Journal, entrepreneur … Continue reading →

Posted in Agriculture, Business, Farming, Industry | 2 Comments

‘Alfalfa train,’ 1913

Posted on May 13, 2019 by editor

The alfalfa train was an automobile caravan that traveled to the ends of Sangamon County for five days in June 1913, carrying experts who preached the gospel of alfalfa hay. Over the five days, the half-dozen alfalfa advocates and dozens … Continue reading →

Posted in Agriculture, Farming, Science, Soil | Leave a comment

The Cottage Garden

Posted on February 26, 2019 by editor

Springfield banker Nicholas Ridgely (1800-88) turned his love of plants and gardens into a business in 1849 when he started the Cottage Garden and Nursery in the area roughly bounded by 13th, 15th, Washington and Reynolds streets. Ridgely, who owned … Continue reading →

Posted in Agriculture, Buildings, Business, Early residents, Farming, Lincoln, Abraham, Prominent figures | Leave a comment

The Sangamon River

Posted on September 26, 2018 by editor

In 1831, a new Illinois county was formed from parts of Madison and Bond counties. The new county was named for the river that bisected it: the Sangamon. The headwater of the Sangamon River is a small stream emerging from … Continue reading →

Posted in Agriculture, Farming, Mills, Prehistory, Sangamon River, Sports and recreation, Transportation | Leave a comment

Cotton fields of Sangamon County

Posted on June 27, 2018 by editor

Sangamon County was “as good a cotton country as Georgia,” one early resident told John Carroll Power for Power’s 1876 History of the Early Settlers of Sangamon County, Illinois. That changed, however, after the winter of the Deep Snow in … Continue reading →

Posted in Agriculture, Business, Early residents | 2 Comments

Rainfall records, 1926

Posted on September 23, 2017 by editor

Two massive rainstorms made Springfield a virtual island on Sept. 8, 1926, flooding streets and basements, stranding autos, trains and streetcars, and leading to the electrocution of an Illinois Watch Co. worker. Even people using the Knights of Columbus swimming … Continue reading →

Posted in Agriculture, Disasters, Sangamon River | Leave a comment

Farm machinery, 1870s-1950s

Posted on September 11, 2017 by editor

Sangamon County farms switched from man- and horsepower to fully mechanized operations in fits and starts over more than 80 years. But the key impetus may have been six disastrous weeks of rain in the fall of 1926. Traction engines … Continue reading →

Posted in Agriculture, Business, Farming, Industry | 4 Comments