Swamp Lands Reclaimed
Until about forty years ago a class of Champaign County lands was as
carefully avoided as the prairies of an earlier period; like the prairie lands,
they also proved of unusual value. For years the swamps and lowlands were
considered as tracts which were worse than valueless; as so many pestilential
breeders of malaria and other diseases. But in the early '50s much Federal and
State legislation was directed toward the policy of donating such overflowed
lands to the various counties. The result was to direct the attention of the
county authorities more particularly to the subject, and cause them to consider
whether after all they should not attempt to reclaim the swamp lands to
conditions of productiveness. In 1853 Benjamin Thrasher was appointed to examine
all the unsold lands in the county coming within the definition of the Federal
Act as "swamp and overflowed lands," and to submit a report thereof to the
County Court. He reported that 85,000 acres in Champaign County answered to that
description, and nearly 36,000 acres of such land was subsequently confirmed to
the county. These lands were sold and the funds used, in part, for the erection
of a court-house in 1860 and to increase the school fund.
It was upon these lands that the great work of drainage was accomplished nearly
twenty years thereafter. In 1878 the State Constitution was amended by the
addition of the drainage section, which authorized the formation of drainage
companies, the digging and tiling of ditches, and for purposes of regulation and
systematic work it divided the submerged lands into districts, with supervising
officials. Soon after the year 1880 the system and the work were in operation.
Since then the cost of these improvements has been great, having been estimated
at considerable over $1,000,000. This embraces expenditures made by private
individuals, by local districts organized by township authorities, and by the
authority and direction of the County Court. The lands thus reclaimed now
embrace some of the most productive and valuable tracts in the State. Some of
the most important of these drainage districts are known as the East Lake Fork,
Two-Mile Slough, Beaver Lake, Big Slough, Kankakee, Embarrass River, Wild Cat,
Hillsbury Slough, Spoon River and Little Vermilion River.
Source: A Standard History of Champaign County, Illinois, by J. R. Stewart, published by The Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago And New York, 1918.