Total population of the county, 12,939-81 colored. Of the children of the county, 3,073 have attended school; 418 can not read; and 827 can not write among the adults. If "ignorance is bliss," they have 1245 happy people in the county. William Skidmore, of Helt township, is the oldest person living who was born in Vermillion county. GENERAL REMARKS. Stolid and In gathering the historical facts of a county, it is remarkable how little many know of their own home history; and it is no less strange to observe that many seem to care nothing about the facts of the past, or the life struggles of the old pioneers, or even of the sacrifices and toils of their own ancestors. stupid as the silent quietude of the toad by the wayside, they sit in selfish contentedness, as if life itself was but an ignorant negation, and it is as hard to get a historical fact out of such folks as it is to drain the nectar of life from the body of a turnip, or the light of nature from the eyelids of the night owl. In this county, however, we have the pleasure of saying that we have had every facility offered and all information given politely and satisfactorily, and the result is, as will be seen, the historical, agricultural, statistical and personal items of the "Guide Book" of Vermillion County excel all the other counties which have had a Guide Book published. To our good friends-Hon. John Collett, Isaac Porter, Esq., Hon. John Groenendyke, and others, we are largely indebted for many of the facts of this brief, and yet doubtless very imperfect history of Vermillion county. |