The weather is not conducive to a day out, the residue of tropical storm Ana is still lurking around the neighbourhood. So it seemed like a good day to spend in the library. Winchester Library, that is. Scott County itself doesn't run to a library, but the one at Winchester is celebrating its centenary next year.
I tell the nice lady librarian what I'm after, and she takes me to a quiet corner and shows me what she's got.
There are two histories of Scott County written in the last thirty years or so, and they tell me all I want to know.
There are also some old atlases. Well, actually, they are, thank goodness, photocopies of old atlases, because the originals are too fragile to use. I spot an error. The nice lady librarian thinks that, since it was published in 1875, there's probably not a lot of point in passing it on to the publisher.
[6329]
(it is, in fact, Township 13 in range 12, and not 15, as it says)
Glasgow appears to have been named by James McEver, who was Scottish by birth, born in 1755. Why he called it Glasgow no-one says. Perhaps he had the Gaelic, and "Glas-cu" fitted. The atlas certainly marks out this particular township as the best farming land. It was (is?) just short of the 'bottoms' of the Illinois River, and must have been very green.
Oddly, nobody comments on the fact that Glasgow was laid out in 1835, but McEver died in 1829. So he must have named the place, rather than the town.
Even more oddly, Scott County came into being in 1839, so the records of land transactions are going to be elsewhere. In Jacksonville, as it turns out, because it's the county seat of Morgan County, which Scott County was carved out of.
One of the histories even tells me which Deed Book and page to look for at Morgan County Courthouse.
Sitting in a library looking through old books really is a very pleasant way to spend a day.
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