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Township 10, R 4, or more familiarly known as Biggsville voting precinct, is the center one of the east tier of townships in the county bounded on the east by Warren county, on the south by T. 9, R. 4, or Walnut Grove precinct, on the west by T. 10, R. 5, or South Henderson precinct, and on the north by T. 11, R. 4, or Greenville precinct.

The physical features of Biggsville precinct are what might be called "rolling land," showing as it does in most places (except along the southern border) a rough and uneven surface, inclining to a bluffy and broken appearance bordering the South Henderson creek This flows through the township from southeast to northwest, and enters the town in Sec. 36 and passes ont through Sec. 18. Another branch of this stream (though of little importance except for drainage) enters the town from Warren county at a point on or near the line between Secs. 24 and 25, and unites with the main stream in the N.W. of See. 26. High bluffs and deep ravines on either side of this now quite inferior water course indicate that in the ages antedating the existence of the prehistoric race the rushing mighty waters or other works of nature intended leaving their footprints unobliterable.

The groves and belts of timber (oak, ash, walnut, hickory, lime and other varieties) bordering this stream and its tributaries offered sufficient inducement to call to a halt the early pioneer who supposed that a home could be made only in the timber like unto that of his fathers, back in old Ohio, Indiana or Kentucky, and some even predict that the amount of timber then here would not last to exceed five years. The same party now (1882) asserts that the supply has rather increased than diminished, and experience has taught that the most beautiful homes and greatest wealth could be made on the prairie. Those who settled in and about the timber have only to look upon the prairie homes to see that they not only equal but surpass those they left far behind in the old eastern States.

In fact, it is asserted by the oldest settlers (now living), that they believed the prairie would remain unoccupied and unsettled and as a range for stock for many generations. But forty years closed up every foot of the available prairie land in the county.

History of Mercer and Henderson Counties.

Illinois Ancestors