Wmson Co lies in the southern portion of Illinois, on the dividing ridge between the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, and between parallels 37 30' and 38" north latitude. The meridian of the 89 of longitude west from Greenwish passes about thress miles west of Marion. This line corresponds with the 12 of longitude west from Washington. The county is composed of Townships 8, 9 and 10, and Ranges 1,2,3 and 4 east, and is, therefore, in the form of a rectangular parallelogram, 24 miles from east to west, and 18 miles from north to south, thus containing 432 suqare miles or 257, 480 arcres. It is bounded on the north by Franklin Co, on the east by Saline Co, on the south by Johnson Co, and on the west by Jackson Co.
In the north part of the county the surface is quite rolling and broken, hilly in portions. The central part is generally level, and the southern part, like the northern, somewhat hilly. There is, however, but little land in the county too much broken for successful cultivation, and the county ranks among the best in southern Illinois as an agricultural region. Originally the surface was for the most part covered with a heavy growth of timber, but little of it was prairie; but some of the broken lands, on account of their being but thinly timbered, were known as "oak openings". These oak openings have since then been covered with a heavy growth of young timber, the priaire fires no longer annually killing off the young sprouts as they spring up. There is a water-shed which begins near the northeast corner of the county, between the headwaters of Badgley, Bank Lick and pond Creeks, and extends southwestwardly to the village of Crab Orchard; thence in a more westerly direction to the northeast corner of Southern Twp; thence across said Twp to the south line of Sec 33, where it leaves the county. About one-third of the area of the county lies to the right of this water-shed, with a general slope toward the southeast, and is drained by Badgley, Bank Lick, Brushy, Rock and Saline Creeks, the water of which flow into the Ohio River. The other two-thirds of the area of the county lies to the left of the water-shed with a general slope toward the northeast, and is drained by Pond Lake, and Crab Orchard Creeks, and Big Muddy River, the waters of which flow into the Mississippi.
The geological formations in this county belong to the quaternary and the lower coal measures. The former is represented by a series of brown and yellow clays, sometimes contianing gravel and small boulders and varying from 2 to 40 feet in thickness. The hard pan of the drift deposits is not noticeable in this county, but the yellowish sand and gravelly clays rest directly upon the coal measures. At Bainbridge a seam of coal has been opened which is about 3 feet thick, and is believed to be Coal No 1 of the general section. In the bluff north of Bolton there are two seams that are believed to belong to Coals No 2 and No 3. The upper seam is from 15 to 18 feet thick, and the lower about 3 feet. About 2 miles below the bridge, on the road from Marion to Bolton, Coal No 5 is about 2 feet thick, te upper 4 inches of this seam being canel coal. At Davidson's Mine, one and 1/4 miles southeast of Crab Orchard, there is a vein 5 and 1/2 feet thivk, which is overlaid by bituminous shale and a dark bluish gray impure limestone; and Motsinger's Mine, 1 and 1/2 miles west of Crab Orchard, the vein is 5 feet thick,with a roof of Bituminous clay shale. Coal No 8 lies below a layer of brown limestone and outcrops about a mile and a half north of Mr Ensminger's on the northeast quarter of Sec 16. It has been mined by striping in the valley of a small creek, and makes a very good blacksmith coal. Coal No 9 is found south of Corinth and is about 2 feet thick, and Coal No 10, at Dr Smith's old place south of Corinth, of a thickness not yet determined. The Carbondale Coal & Coke Company opened a mine near Carterville Station, and found No 7 to be from 8 to 9 and half feet thick of clean, bright, glistening coal--one of the finest mines in the state. This coal is quite free from Pyrites, and cokes well. All the main coals of the general section are found in this county from No 2 to No 7 inclusive, and al but No 4 recognized and examined, and their value is surpassed by fe localities in the state. Nearly the entire northern part of the county is underlaid by No 7, which is the thickest seam found in the state, and it is nowhere more than 200 feet below the surface, and generally at a depth of only 60 feet. Taken in Connection with No 5 which is about 125 feet lower down, it constitutes a mine of almost inexhaustible wealth. The two viens together will yeild not far from 10,100,000 tons to the square mile, and probably underlie about 1/2 of the entire area of the county. Good sandstone may be found in nearly every Twp. The brown sandstone found northeast of Marion and the vicinity of Crab Orchard, dresses well and hardens on seposure. Of either lime or limoite there is too little for any practical purpose, but there is good brick clay on almost every farm.
The poorest quality of soil is found in the post oak flats, and the next in order of richness is the oak ridges where black oak, white oak, and black jack mainy gorw. These lands produce fair crops of wheat, oats and grass and are excellent lands for fruit. Next in vlaue come the small priaires and their surrounding uplands, where the timber is oak, hickory, black walnut, elm, linden, wild cherry, honey locust and sassafras. The soil here is a dark clay loam with a yellowish clay subsoil,and produces good crops of corn, wheat, tobacco, caster bean, cotton, timothy and clover.