 Monroe
County, named in honor of James Monroe, the fifth President of the United
States, was organized in 1818. It contains 420 square miles, and is bounded
north by Owen and Morgan, east by Brown and Jackson, south by Lawrence, and
west by Greene and Owen. The civil townships are Bloomington, Perry, Clear
Creek, Indian Creek, Van Buren, Richland, Beanblossom, Washington, Marion,
Benton and Salt Creek. The population in 1830 was 6,578, in 1840, 10,143,
and at this time [1849] about 13,000. The face of the country is mostly hilly,
though about Bloomington and many other places, it is gently rolling. There
was originally no prairie or barrens in the county, and but a small portion
of river or creek bottoms. The timber is generally of a good quality, and
such as denotes a fine soil, viz: walnut, sugar, ash, oak, poplar, cherry,
hickory, beech, etc., and most of the county, except where it is too hilly,
is as well adapted to the usual farming products, and to raising cattle,
hogs and horses, as any part of the State. There are in the county eleven
gristmills, twelve sawmills, four oil mills, nine carding machines, one foundry,
one spinning, weaving and fulling machine, three printing offices, about
twenty stores and groceries, nine lawyers, ten physicians, and preacher too
tedious to mention. In fact, most of the Christian denominations are represented
here. Salt springs have been found and worked to some advantage in the eastern
part of the country, and iron ore of good quality in the southwest, where
Mr. R. Ross built the Virginia furnace. Here too is located the State University.
Truitt's grotto is an extensive cavern in which there are beautiful rooms
of various sizes. It has never been fully explored.
The Taxable land in Monroe amounts to 161,933 acres, and about 80.000 acres
still belong to the United States. |
