Dallas herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1849-1873, 1872-02-03
why southern Illinois Is Called
Egypt.
lrrOm the shnNnsci ,~n qll.) G,le,,s.l

Ekypt'
GFrom the shnvnsei, ,wn Qll) Gszeils.l
Doubtless there are yet many o
the early settlers Of this state wh'
remember tho remarkable winter o
lS30-'3l, familiarity known t.
| them as tho winter of the "deeI
I ,now," when the snow iell through
he northern border counties of the
State to tho depth Of three feet
The winter WAS tho longest and
everest ever known in Illinois
thus causing an unusually heavy
draft upon tho supply Of corn pro
duced by the farmers upon the cen.
. trnl frontier counties, most of whom
were newcomers of only one, two,
'r three wears residence in the
State. This severe and long win,
ter was followed by \ remarkable
late and back ward spring, severe
frosts being frequent until :hc mid,
die Of May, so that there was little
or ho corn planted in the State in
the year 1881, north of Jefferson
county, until in June. This late
spring was followed by heavy and
killing frost on the night of the 10th
of September, 1881, which did con-
siderable damage to tho lato crops
throughout tho State, but so com,
pletely ruined all the corn north of
the thirty. eighth parallel that it
was wholly worthless except for
wintering cattle. Hence the year
1892 was tho great "corn famine"
in tho early history of Illinois; all
the prairie counties, in fact the en-.
tire State north Of thirty-eighth lat
itude had not produced sound corn
enough the year before to plant
their farms in 1882, therefore, all
their corn for overy purpose had to
be brought from some other region.
Corn was shipped by tho Mississip-
pi and Illinois rivers and supplied
to the adjoining counties ut two
dollars per bushel, where 1t had
sold in 1881 at ten cents per bushel.
The counties in tho extreme South
crn part Of the State, commencing
with Jefferson, and the coRAtics east
and west of it on the same latitude,
and including all the counties lying
south of them, owing to the pecu
liar arabic and sandy character of
the soil, their southern latitude,
and the absence of large prairics
were comparatively free from, the
effect of the late spring and early
frosts of 1881. their co. n crops being
unusually good. So that while
corn in the central northern from
tier counties. which were then Shel.
by, Macon, Montgomery, etc, could
only be had in limited quantities at
S3 and 81 per barrel, it could be
bought in the lower counties at
twenty-five ccnts per bushei; the
result was that froin the 18th of
April to the last of June, 1889, there
was not lcas than thousand WACO.
on.loads Of corn taken from the
of Jefferson, Hamilton,
(thcn including William.
SOM, GalIatin thcn including ST.
|inc), Johnson AID other southern
counties into tho countios Of Clin-
Iol, Fayette, Montgomery, Macon,
Shelby and other counties in that
region. This corn was bought up
by such farmers of those co%ntios
rs had teams sufficient to haul it
and transported in wagons. Those
corn buyers generally travelled in
of from three to six or
sight wagons together, and as they
bought out the corn in one county
70 as 70. caaso the price to advance
% forty or fifty cents per bushcl,
he next caravan or company would
ravcl still further south to where f
hc corn was still cheap, until many
If them penetrated johnson and
,ther counties bordering OH the
ohio river.
These good people, after travel
ng such distance, found corn so
,lcnty and to be had for their mon
y, and being familiar, rs the event
hows, with the Bible story Of She
en- sons of Jacob going down to
Igypt for corn, they originated the
acrliOus answer TO those who in
orrogatcd them rs 30 their destina-
ion I've arc going to Egypt for
orn." or 1--WE have heard there
vas corn in Egypt and VIC have
ONO to buy for ourselves and littlo
nes," (for at that date corn bread
vas the staff of life in IllinoisA. This
vas the true origin of the term,
nd the cause of Southern Illinois
eing called Egypt.