1849
With great swaths of prairie still existing in our vicinty, the prairie fire was a common sight. Sometimes accidentally set, sometimes intentional, the vision of one of these fires may have been best described in 1849, taken from The History of Tazewell County:
Soon the fires began to kindle wider and rise higher from the long grass; the gentle breeze increased to stronger currents, and soon fanned the small, flickering blaze into fierce torrent flames, which curled up and leaped along in resistless splendor ; and like quickly raising the dark curtain from the luminous stage, the scenes before me were suddenly changed, as if by the magician's wand, into one boundless amphitheater, blazing from earth to heaven and sweeping the horizon round,—columns of lurid flames sportively mounting up to the zenith, and dark clouds of crimson smoke curl- ing away and aloft till they nearly obscured stars and moon, while the rushing, crashing sounds, like roaring cataracts mingled with distant thunders, were almost deafening; danger, death, glared all around; it screamed for victims; yet, notwithstanding the imminent peril of prairie fires, one is loth, irresolute, almost unable to withdraw or seek refuge.
In 1849 the county seat was moved to Pekin where it has remained ever since.