Rivers, Rails, and Rich Soil: Agricultural Innovations in Illinois

IN OCTOBER 1819, ONE YEAR AFTER ILLINOIS was admitted to the Union, a “farmer of Madison County” published a call in the Edwardsville Spectator to establish an agricultural society. The organization would collect scientific books, demonstrate agricultural implements, and maintain specimens of plants and livestock. Above all, the society would help new emigrants from the forested eastern states adapt to prairie farming, where “there is no need for the grubbing hoe, the ax, or the coulter, to prepare the soil—the bar share plough alone does the work.” The farmer's vision for advancing agriculture through knowledge, technology, and adaptation reflects Illinois’ larger agricultural history, as a state where innovative people shaped the development of American food systems, educational institutions, and technologies.1For thousands of years, the region's rich biodiversity has supported diverse peoples. Corn is the crop most synonymous with Illinois agriculture past and present, but Native American farmers have long pursued diversified farming systems grounded in centuries of experimentation and ecological knowledge. They domesticated crops, including beans, squash, chenopod, erect knotweed, sunflower, and bottle gourd. They also employed land-management practices to encourage the growth of so-called wild foods, such as persimmons, hickory nuts, and amaranth. Agricultural abundance supported America's largest pre-Columbian city, Cahokia, located near modern-day St. Louis and characterized by its earthen mounds. At its height between 1050 and 1250 CE, farmers supported a dense urban population, smaller communities throughout the region, and trade networks that reached across the continent.2By the late seventeenth century, French colonists were drawn to the area by the fur trade, but they soon turned to farming. Settlements at Kaskaskia and Cahokia (distinct from the Indigenous city) produced wheat, corn, and vegetables for export to New Orleans, relying heavily on enslaved Native American and African labor. During the American Revolution, the region sat at the crossroads of shifting empires, and by the time British and then American authorities asserted control, the region was already engaged in commercial agriculture.3After the American Revolution, the Northwest Ordinances imposed a grid system, still visible from the air today, that divided land into neat townships and ranges. While maps with clean lines tell a story of orderly expansion, the process was far more complicated. The US government forcibly removed Native nations from their homelands, and settlers plowed under the prairie for intensive farming and livestock operations. To those accustomed to forests and rocky soils in eastern states, the rich soil of the Prairie State offered opportunities for unencumbered development. Three major rivers, the Illinois, Mississippi, and Ohio, provided vital routes for moving crops, livestock, and people. Infrastructure projects like the Illinois & Michigan Canal, and later, the railroads, linked rural farms to distant markets.4Illinois quickly became a center for commercial and scientific innovation. In 1837, blacksmith John Deere developed the steel plow in Grand Detour. Unlike cast-iron plows, Deere's version sliced prairie sod without clogging. During the 1840s and 1850s, manufacturers across the state built reapers designed by competing inventors Cyrus Hall McCormick and Obed Hussey. The mechanization of agriculture not only allowed farm families to increase grain production but also encouraged the development of manufacturing and infrastructure. In 1848, a group of investors established the Chicago Board of Trade to manage growing volumes of agricultural output from Illinois and beyond. Similarly, in 1865, the Union Stock Yards opened in Chicago as a hub for meat processing.5Equally important was the rise of agricultural education. During the mid-nineteenth century, Jonathan Baldwin Turner, an Illinois College professor, advocated for publicly funded universities focused on agriculture and the mechanical arts. Turner believed that farmers and working-class Americans deserved access to higher education. The University of Illinois, founded in 1867 as the Illinois Industrial University, was made possible by the Morrill Land-Grant Act of 1862, which established the land-grant university system. Today, the university remains a national leader in agricultural research, training generations of scientists, business leaders, and policymakers.6By the twentieth century, Illinois-based companies like John Deere, International Harvester, and Caterpillar led global developments in heavy equipment. After the Second World War, farmers adopted hybrid seeds, chemical fertilizers, and pesticides, and they replaced horsepower with gasoline engines. They increased yields while raising important questions about environmental sustainability, labor, and rural depopulation. The cost of doing business rose dramatically while fewer people were needed to work the land. In 1959, Illinois had 164,000 farm operators. Today, only 75,087 Illinois residents make their living directly from the land. Throughout the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, rural Illinois underwent significant transformation, as population decline and economic instability reshaped the social and economic foundations of farming communities.7Nevertheless, agriculture remains central to the state's economy. Illinois even plays a key role in helping Americans across the nation celebrate the coming of autumn by leading the nation in pumpkin production. In 2022, Illinois farmers harvested more than 634 million pounds of pumpkin, with the majority of canned pumpkin sold in the US processed by Nestle Libby in Morton and Seneca Foods in Princeville. Agribusinesses headquartered in Illinois, like Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), process and ship corn, soybeans, and other crops around the world. Illinois soils remain among the most productive in the world, but the long-term viability of such intensive production is now a matter of national concern. Women farmers, who now own most of the farm land in the United States, are at the heart of this debate. In 2003, Illinois Extension educator Ruth Hambleton launched Annie's Project, an organization dedicated to supporting women in agriculture and highlighting their voices.8Illinois has not only driven innovation in agriculture but also led the way in preserving Midwestern agricultural history. Museums, steam shows, and historic sites throughout the state continue to teach the stories of Illinois agriculture. Institutions like the Museum of the Grand Prairie in Mahomet document rural life, while the Illinois State Museum's Audio-Video Barn, part of its Oral History of Illinois Agriculture project, makes hundreds of interviews with farmers accessible online. Similarly, the Farm, Field, and Fireside Collection at the University of Illinois digitizes historical farm newspapers and magazines, such as Prairie Farmer. These resources safeguard the voices and stories of the past and help us understand the enduring significance of agriculture in shaping the region's identity and the nation's development.