“ Springfield is a trading and shipping centre for a prosperous agricultural region, and ships large quantities of bituminous coal from the immediate vicinity. The Wabash and the Chicago, Peoria & St Louis railways have large repair shops here. Among the manufactures are agricultural implements, watches and watch material the Illinois Watch Company has a large factory here lumber, flour, foundry and machine-shop products, automobiles, shoes and boilers. ”

“ It is the fifth state capitol of Illinois and the second erected in Springfield. Other prominent buildings are the Supreme Court building, the county court house (the old state capitol, finished in 1853) , the city-hall, the state arsenal, the high school and the public library. In Oak Ridge cemetery, adjacent to the city, is the Lincoln monument, erected over Abraham Lincoln's grave with funds raised throughout the country by a Lincoln Monument Association. ”