The entire population of Clinton County in 1825, when the first census was taken was 1,106.

Time is fast sweeping away the pioneers of our country. Their early trials and tribulations will soon be forgotten, unless the pen of history records in permanent form the traditions of those yet living. Such history has a beginning but no definite end. It begins with arrival of the first white man, but ends nowhere. A little more than a century has elapsed since Clinton County’s bounteous soil belonged to nature’s wild domain.

The progress of that county, prior to the completion of the Ohio and Mississippi was slow. This road was completed in 1855 and marked the beginning of a new and better era in the history of Clinton County. The locomotive with its splendid train now goes thundering along, where formerly the slow stage coach bore its load of weary travelers. The telegraph and telephone, electric paths of thought,

now stretch from city to hamlet, palpitating with the daily news from every quarter of the globe.

Palatial residences have taken the place of pioneer cabins; spacious school buildings, with all the convenient equipments, and elegant church edifices with their spires pointing heavenward, have superseded the rude structures of the early days; the threshing machine has destroyed the demand for the old fashioned flail, ingenious machinery of every kind has driven from the filed the rude implements of our forefathers.

In the erstwhile quiet village we hear the hum of industry, factories and mills belch forth their smoke, electric lights make radiant the darkest night; the brick paved streets reverberate to the sound of the speeding automobile; the buzz of the aeroplane even is hard in the skies.

In short the old has gone; the new has come.

Population of Clinton County.

Population of cities and towns in Clinton county, alphabetically arranged:

Town Railroad Population
Albers Southern Ry 250
Aviston B. & O. 500
Breese B. & O. 1,800
Beckemeyer B. & O. 700
Bartelso Southern 600
Boulder C. B. & Q. 150
Carlyle B. & O. 2,300
Damiansville Inland Town 300
Ferrin B. & O. 100
Frogtown Inland Town 100
Germantown Southern Ry 200
Hoffman Southern Ry 350
Huey B. & O. 300
Jamestown Inland Town 300
Keyesport C. B. & Q. 600
New Baden Southern Ry 1,300
New Memphis Inland Town 250
Posey Southern Ry 100
St. Rose Inland Town 272
Shattuc C. B. & Q. & B. & O. 300
Trenton B. & O.       2,300
Total 15,702
Farmers & others not living in cities 2,300
Total population of county 22,832
Number of registered voters in county 5,423

Railroads in County.

Baltimore and Ohio Railroad 30 miles for East to West.

Southern Railroad 31 miles for East to West.

Chicago, Burlington and Quincy 15 miles from North to South.

The Baltimore and Ohio runs through the center of the county from East to West, the Southern through the southern part of the county from East to West, while the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy runs from the North to South through the extreme eastern part of the county, passing through Shattuc, Boulder and Keyesport.

Rivers.

Kaskaskia. There are several small creeks in the county.

Clinton County Geology.

This county is well watered, first by the Kaskaskia river, which passes from north to south through the whole width of the county, east of the center and then forms its southern border, then in the eastern part by tributaries of the Kaskaskia running parallel to the upper course of the main stream from north to south; then by Sugar Creek and Shoal Creek and its tributary, Beaver Creek. In the eastern part of the county the branches on the contrary, tend more toward the west, or southwest, and are the East Fork in the north, and Crooked Creek in the south, with its tributaries, Lost Creek and some others of minor importance.

Along the principal water-courses we find timbered bottom lands, and more or less wide belts of timbered uplands, while the intermediate uplands are prairies. In the western part of the county long prairies, extending from north to south, alternate with belts of timber. The eastern part of the county is, however, much flatter and timber is scare, except along the main streams, the East Fork and Crooked Creek, and diminishes rapidly on the smaller branches. Although some of these are many miles in length and drain large areas, they have the appearance of mere prairie drains. East of the Kaskaskia the county is mainly prairie and rather uniform, and comparatively low and wet.

The prairies are about the same as those usually found in this part of the State (except the low bottom prairies) like the Santa Fe prairie in the principal bend of the Kaskaskia river. There is no definite landmark between that prairie and the river bottom, no elevated hank whatever, and the bottom timber gradually yields to the grasses, so that there is an intermediate district occupied by oak openings where patches of prairie alternate with clumps of trees, mainly consisting of the water oak Most of this prairie is so wet that it is covered with the coarsest grasses and absolutely needs artificial drainage before it can produce ordinary crops. Along all the ravines of any size there are timber belts which intersect the prairies. Creeks many miles in length which at certain seasons discharge vast volume of water appear only as slightly depressed prairie drains. This is due partly to the flatness of the land, but the changed quality of the soil is not without its influence in this respect.

The timber is all of the same type as that in Southern Illinois generally. The only existing differences are