"A change has taken place; these prairies which were covered with wild grass and flowers during the Summer, and swept over by fire each Fall, are now converted into corn and wheat fields, interspersed with fine dwellings and barns. No longer a wild, uninhabited region, where the howling of wolves and the yelling of savages were heard, but the home of 35,000 people, where wealth, literature and refinement abound. Fine villages have sprung up here and there, with their tall church-spires glittering in the sunbeam, where the clattering of machinery and the musical peals of the church-bells are heard. Immense trains of cars hourly pass over its prairies, carrying the products of our own and foreign countries, making a scene strangely in contrast with that of former days, and showing the unprecedented growth and prosperity of this people." *
* An except from "The Tax Payers and Voters of Bureau County Illinois, 1877