History of Peoria, (Peoria County) Illinois United States of America

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Local History Notes:

PEORIA, a handsome and flourishing city, capital of Peoria county, Illinois, on the right or W. bank of Illinois river, at the outlet of Peoria lake, 70 miles N. from Springfield, and 151 S.W. from Chicago. It is the most populous town on the river, and one of the most important and commercial in the state. The river is navigable by steamboats in all stages of water, and is the channel of an immense trade in grain, lumber, pork, &c. A number of steamboats make regular passages between St. Louis and Peoria, which also communicates with Chicago, by means of the Illinois and Michigan canal. The Peoria and Oquawk railroad connects this place with Burlington, Iowa, and will be extended eastwardly to Middleport. The town is regularly laid out, and well built. It has, besides the county buildings, about 10 churches, several seminaries, a telegraph office, a bank, and 5 newspaper offices. We quote the following description from the letter of a recent traveller:?"Peoria is the most beautiful town on the river. Situated on rising ground, a broad plateau extending back from the bluff, it has escaped the almost universal inundation. Indeed the river here expands into a broad, deep lake, that embosoms the rising flood. This lake is a most beautiful feature in the natural scenery of the town, and as useful as beautiful, supplying the inhabitants with ample stores of fish, and in winter with abundance of the purest ice. It is often frozen to such a thickness that heavy teams can pass securely over it. A substantial drawbridge connects the town with the opposite shore of the river. The city is laid out in rectangular blocks, the streets being wide and well graded. The schools and churches are prosperous, and the society good. A public square has been reserved near the centre. Back of the town extends one of the finest rolling prairies in the state, which already furnishes to Peoria its supplies and much of its business." The number of steamboat arrivals in 1850 was 1286. La Salle, the Frenchman, established a post at this place in 1680. The rise of the present town dates from April, 1819. It was incorporated as a city in 1844. Population on January l, 1851, 6212, in 1853 about 8000.

Biographies:

John Grier Hibben, educator, was born in Peoria, I11., April 19, 1861; son of the Rev. Samuel and Elizabeth (Grier) Hibben; grandson of Samuel Eutrekin and Margaret (Galloway) Hibben and of John Cooper and Elizabeth (Perkins) Grier; and a descendant on his father's side of Walter Buchanan, who came from county Tyrone, Ireland, settling on Marsh Creek, Pa.; and on his mother's side, of the Rev. Robert Cooper, D.D., chaplain in the war of the Revolution. He was graduated from the College of New Jersey in 1882, and was a student at the University of Berlin, Germany, 1882-83, and at Princeton Theological seminary, 1883-80, He was licensed by the Presbytery of Peoria in 1885, and srdained by the Presbytery of Carlisle, May 19, 1887. He was a stated supply at the Second Presbyterian church, St. Louis, Mo., in 1886; and pastor at Falling Spring church, Chambersburg, Pa., 1887-91. He was instructor in logic and psychology at the College of New Jersey (Princeton), 1891-93; assistant professor of logic, 1893-97, and was elected Stuart professor of logic at Princeton university in 1897. He received the degree of Ph.D. from the College of New Jersey (Princeton) in 1893. He is the author of Inductive Logic (1896) and The Problems of Philosophy (1898).

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor