Thy Wondrous Story, Illinois
County: Edgar
Location: US 150 Turnout, just west of the Indiana
line at Paris
Erected: 01/01/1965 Erected by:
Division of Highways and The Illinois State Historical Society
The fertile prairies in Illinois attracted the attention of French
trader Louis Jolliet and Father Jacques Marquette as they explored
the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers in 1673. France claimed this
region until 1763 when she surrendered it to Great Britain by the
Treaty of Paris. During the American Revolution George Rogers Clark
and his small army scored a bloodless victory when they captured
Kaskaskia for the Commonwealth of Virginia, and Illinois became a
county of Virginia. This area was ceded to the United States in 1784,
and became in turn a part of the Old Northwest Territory and the
Indiana and Illinois Territories. On December 3, 1818, Illinois
entered the Union as the twenty-first state. Two extensive livestock
farms were located in Edgar County. At their height around 1875, each
farm consisted of several thousand acres on which up to 1,000
Shorthorn cattle were fattened yearly for market until they weighed
up to 3,000 pounds apiece . These farms were representative of a
phenomena extending across Illinois in the third quarter of the
nineteenth century. The 'Cattle Kings in the Prairies' were men who
early recognized the value of this land, purchased thousands of
acres, and used it to fatten livestock for Midwestern and Eastern
markets. Agricultural changes eventually caused them to de-emphasize
livestock feeding and to rent the land to grain farming tenants.
However, the cattle kings retained ownership and remained wealthy,
powerful and influential. Some were active in state and national
politics. Their descendants still own some of the tracts.
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