Excerpt from Transportation as a Factor in the Development of Northern Illinois Previous to 1860: A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Arts and Literature in Candidacy for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy; Department of History This settlement and development, however, took place chiefly along the rivers The rest of the country remained for the most part, unpeopled and unimproved. This condition existed because the rivers furnished power for the mills and factories and were the main channels Of commerce. Because, too, of transportation upon them they provided markets for the surplus products Of the soil. Grain was exchanged at these river markets for clothing and articles Of import. There, _ also, wheat was ground into flour and corn into meal. St. Charles on the Fox River, 'buzzing and roaring and rattling with all kinds Of machinery, was likened, in 1845, to the city Of Lowell, Massachusetts Thus almost every pioneer activity was confined to the river districts, which became well settled and well developed, while the prairie remained unin habited and unorganized. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.