Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1895-10-01
STATISTICAL REVIEW,
States Attorney Z. j. scarie's Interesting
Address,


Address.
States Attorney G. j. Searie
delivered the statistical address. He
spoke of feeling highly flattered at
the privilege accorded him of taking
part in the important ceremony of
laying the cornerstone for the new
temple of Justice, land WHILE" said
he, .'thc nature of 4 statistical paper
for permanent preservation, requires
me to indulge in a greater use of sta
tistics than is conducive to present
ana temporary interests, 1 have
striven in the very limited time l
have had to bestow upon the task,
to Gull out of the records and tradi-
tions of the county such statistical
information as in my opinion would
most interest those present as well
as future Inhabitants of the county
to whose curious gaze the contents
of this cornerstone will be revealed,
perhaps century from now.
The record of the worlds his
tory disclsses the rise and fall of
many great and prosperous nations.
but history never recorded such
great. rapid and, we hope, enduring
progress of people as has been wit
messed in the United States since its
formation. Pre-eminently a peace
full nation, our area has grown from
S27, S44 square miles in 1889 to s.
603,SSi square miles in 1895, and
that, too, mostly by peaceful con-
quest. Our population has grown
from 3,929,2l in 1890 to 62,622, $50
in 1890. From n few scattered set
Elements skirting along the Atlantic
seaboard, under the benign iniiu-
ences of the free institutions handed
down to us by our illustrious FORE
fathers, we have developed into a
mighty nation; n nation not beyond
the possibility of Improvement, but
in the main filed with a happy, pros
porous people; nation of inestima-
BILE wealth; highly civilized ma
ton, filed with churches, schools
and libraries; nation making un-
precedented strides in industry. art.
science and education; nation
that is. indeed, the land of the
free and the home of the brave n
nation of the utmost possibilities of
resources and development, and des-
tined, hope, to be during all time
the greatest, grandest nation the
world ever saw" Continuing he
said:
Our Own Beloved State.
ssIllinois, our beloved state, taking
its name from the Indian word
Him. signifying superior men,
has in the short space of AZ years,
from its admission in 1918, grown to
be mighty empire of 1926, 351 peo-
pie. The virgin soil of her wonder
full prairies, the wealth of her prim-
eval forests and the hidden treasures
of her mines have made her the gem
of that great galaxy of states known
as the great northwest which has
no equal in fertility, resources and
possibilities of development on the
face of the earth. Great as our
national and state development has
been. Rock Island county has kept
pace with our common country; and
that, too, Notwithstanding the fact
that we came SO comparatively late
in the order of settlement. Mar
Guette and Joliet were likely the
first white persons to set eyes on the
then wild, beautiful and romantic
scenery Of Rock Island county, at
that time the home of the Indian
and buffalo, in the year 1873. The
first white settler was Col. George
Davenport, who located with his
family on the beautiful island in the
Mississippi river between here and
Davenport in 1916, time within the