and
eight employees. The works in Jackson county produced 3000 to 4000
bushels, selling at $0.75 to $1.00; and had from six to eight employees.
The difference in price is noteworthy as indicating what must have been
the difficulty of transporting salt from Gallatin county to either
Vermilion or Jackson counties. At the Gallatin county works fuel was
becoming scarce and water had to be carried some distance in pipes, thus
increasing the cost of production. At the springs in Indiana salt was
$1.25 per bushel, and in Kentucky it was $0.50 to $1.00. The states of New
York, Virginia, Massachusetts and Ohio, respectively, produced more salt
than did Illinois.(463)

The lead industry at Galena was still in its infancy, notwithstanding the
fact that the richness of the mines was early known.(464) In 1822, a
number of persons went to Galena from Sangamon county.(465) For some years
it was a common practice to go to the mines in the summer and return to
the older settlements for the winter.(466) The population of Galena was 74
in August, 1823;(467) about 100 on July 1, 1825; 151 on December 31, 1825;
194 on March 31, 1826; 406 on June 30, 1826;(468) and 1000 to 1500 in
1829.(469) In 1826 a part of Lord Selkirk's French-Swiss colony on the Red
River moved to Galena and became farmers in that region.(470) The rush to
the lead region began in 1826 and became intense in the next year.(471) In
1827, a rude log hut, sixteen by twenty feet, rented for $35.00 per month.
Galena had then about two hundred log houses,(472) and in the same year
the first framed house was raised.(473) In July, 1828, five hundred lead
miners were wanted at $17.00 to $25.00 and board per month.(474)

A pursuit that was once common and profitable is described by a lawyer who
traveled the first Illinois circuit, consisting of the counties of Greene,
Sangamon, Peoria, Fulton, Schuyler, Adams, Pike and Calhoun, in 1827, as
follows: "On this circuit we found but little business in any of the
counties--parties, jurymen and witnesses were reported in all the counties
after Peoria, as being absent bee and deer hunting--a business that was
then profitable, as well as necessary to the sustenance of families during
the winter."(475)

Not until after 1830 was a common school system with effective provision
for its support established, although subscription schools existed some
years before the close of the eighteenth century. Instruction given in the
earliest schools wa