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From:
Subject: Re: [ILROOTS] Ford - Iroquois Counties
Date: Thu, 23 Mar 2006 01:46:00 EST

writes:

> One reason could be that at one time, Ford County was bigger and occupied
> some of the land that Iroquois County sits on... Over time, Ford County
> has
> .


Actually, Ford County wasn't formed until 1859. Up until then it was
officially part of Vermillion County. The odd shape of the county with its long
panhandle is due to the fact that neither Iroquois nor Livingston wanted the land
because it was so swampy. There's a great collection of maps showing the
formation of all Illinois counties on the Cumberland County Genweb site. Here's
the direct link to the map page:
http://www.rootsweb.com/~ilcumber/ilctybnd/

As for that swampy panhandle, in order to drain it they had to dig really big
ditches. We still refer to any exceptionally deep drainage ditch as a "Ford
County ditch"!!

Gloria (grew up in Iroquois County, now live in Champaign County)

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