Lanark is known far and wide as one of the prettiest little cities in northwestern Illinois. It is located a little northeast of the center of Carroll county, on the main line of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway, 120 miles due west of Chicago, 20 miles southwest of Freeport, and 18 miles east of Savanna and the Mississippi River. The census of 1900 gives us a population of 1306, which strictly speaking, is doubtless about correct, but we have several streets extending beyond the corporate limits of the city, that are quite thickly populated, and if these inhabitants could be counted, would raise the above number a couple or three hundred at least. But it is the class and character of our inhabitants -- not the number -- that we pride ourselves upon. All are native born Americans, mostly of German and Scotch-Irish extraction, originally; reliant, and uniformly contented and prosperous. Reckoned upon the lines of personal integrity, morality, sobriety, and hospitality we do not believe there exists anywhere on earth a better or more congenial lot of people. We have no very rich men, as wealth is measured now-a-days, and no paupers. No ostentatious displays of the power of money, and none of the miseries of grinding poverty. The two extremes do not meet here and men and women are esteemed for their characters and mental attainments rather than for any accident of birth or wealth. We have no foreigners, and, as far as we are able to learn, no negro has ever resided here.
Our principal industries are farming, stock raising and merchandising. The country surrounding Lanark is a veritable agricultural paradise. The land is high, gently rolling, with a deep black soil that produces immense crops of corn, oats, hay, year after year, without the aid of commercial fertilizers. It is held by the owners at from $70 to $100 per acre, and more has been sold at, or near, the latter figure than the former, during the past few years. Fifteen or twenty years ago, and prior, our farms mostly raised grain for market, and the shipments from this station were immense, but since that time cereal shipments have been gradually growing less, and stock shipments increasing, for the sufficient and most excellent reason that as our farmers become more prosperous they have given more of their time and attention to the breeding, raising and fattening of live stock for market, feeding their surplus grain and hay on the farm, and thereby making two profits where but one was possible before. The stock shipments from Lanark for years past have been considerably more than from any other city in Carroll county, although it is third in point of size, and as much as from any five stations between Lanark and Chicago. The following figures show the number of cars of live stock, grain, hay, &c, shipped from Lanark, between January 1 and December 31, 1900: Horses 28, Cattle 125, Hogs 283, Sheep 10, Poultry 2, Corn 55, Oats 142, Hay 61, Rye 2, Barley 3, Walnut and Oak lumber 2, Wool 1: a total of 714 cars for these commodities alone, to which must be added 34 cars of vegetables and miscellaneous articles, &c, which makes a grand total of 748 cars, or the equal of twenty-five freight trains of thirty cars each. The figures for 1901 will overrun these to some extent, but are not yet obtainable from the railroad company.
We have no factories, but are ready and anxious to extend the glad hand and a most cordial welcome to any reputable establishment seeking a location where rents are low and labor reasonable in its demands. Plenty of intelligent "help," both male and female, can be secured here for any enterprise that does not require skilled operatives.
We have a first class system of waterworks, owned and operated by the city, a volunteer fire department, cement sidewalks on the main business streets, with tar and plank walks throughout the residence portion. We have a city jail or calaboose, too, but it is so very seldom necessary to incarcerate anybody therein, that half our population don’t know such an institution exists.
Last but not least, is our cemetery. This is truly a beautiful place, located on the highest ground in the city, its walks and drives bordered with arbor vitae, and withal so tastefully and carefully kept in order. It is an ideal spot in which to lay away for their last long sleep the remains of loved ones. Every loyal Lanark-ite is proud of our cemetery. The photo for the illustration on another page, was taken in the winter, and conveys but a poor idea of its beauty.
In our two banks, the First National and Exchange, there is constantly between $340,000 and $400,000 in individual deposits, the property of our farmers and business men.
We have a fine electric light plant under the ownership of Mr. J. T. Valentine, the service from which is first-class; also two telephone lines, the Zinnel Independent and the long distance Central Union, both of which have exchanges here, and are very liberally patronized.
Our merchants are alive, enterprising, and up-to-date, carrying heavier and choicer stocks than are usually found in towns of this size. Strangers who come here from other parts of the country tell us this, and our own observation has repeatedly proven its correctness.
In the "Business Directory," which appears elsewhere in this work we have aimed to designate every avocation pursued in this little city, and it is our hope and belief that nothing, however small, has been omitted.