History of Springfield, Illinois, its attractions as a home and advantages for business, manufacturing, etc. Pub. under the auspices of the Springfield board of trade, by J. C. Power.

10 SPRINGFIELD) ILLINOIS) AND
islative Council and House of Represen- admitted into the Union on the third of
tatives." That body assembled in De- December following.
cember, annually, until the organization Shadrach Bond, who had been a deleof the State government. gate in Congress from 1811 to 1815, and
STATE GOVERNMENT ORGANIZED. receiver in the land office from that time
By an act of Congress, approved April until the State was admitted into the
18, 1818, the people of Illinois were au- Union, was elected the first Governor
thorized to advance from a territorial to under the State organization. Ex-Govera State government. In August an elec- nor Edwards and Jesse B. Thomas were
tion was held for State officers and a Re- chosen by the legislature to be the first
presentative in Congress. The State was United States Senators.
SPRINGFIELD AND SANGAMON COUNTY.
When Illinois was admitted into the for repose. The deer in passing up and
Union, it was composed of thirty-three down these ravines, gave Mr. Kelly an
counties, but Springfield and Sangamon opportunity for the full gratification of
county were unknown. his ambition for game. It seemed to him
Towns and cities are born, live and die, so much like a hunter's paradise, that he
subject to the contingencies of birth, life returned to his old home, and induced
and death, analagous to that of human two of his brothers, with their families
beings. About the year 1818 an old and one or more other families among his
bachelor by the name of Kelly, emigrated acquaintances, to emigrate with him.
from North Carolina to this State. Mr. lMore families continued to move into the
Kelly was exceedingly fond of the chase, country, and generally settled at long
and in prospecting for good hunting distances from each other, butthe princigrounds, wandered in between two ra- pal settlement clustered around the Kelvines, a couple of miles apart, running in ly's.
a northwesterly direction and emptying By an act of the legislature, approved
into Spring creek, a tributary of Sanga- Jan. 30, 1821, the county of Sangamon
mon river. was formed by taking part from each of
The deer with which this country the counties of Bond and Madison. It
abounded, before the advent of civiliza- embraced what are now the counties of
tion, made their homes in the timber Sangamon, Logan, Mason, Menard, Tazealong the large water courses. In the well, Cassand partsof Morgan, Christian,
morning they would leave the heavy tim- McLean, Marshall, Woodford and Putber, follow up the ravines, along which nam.
the trees became smaller, and finally run By an act of Dec. 23, 1824, the boundout on the open prairie. They would aries of the county were reduced, but it
pass the day amid the tall and luxuriant still extended to the Illinois river, and
grass, roaming about and grazing at pleas- included the present counties of Sangaure, and as nightfall approached, return mon and Menard, with parts of Chrisdown the ravines, to the places they had tian, Logan and Mason.
left in the morning, each to seek its lair By an act of the General Assembly,