Like the 1881 volume, Combined History of Shelby and Moultrie Counties, this is a vanity "who's who"
publication, padded with biographical information about previous presidents, Illinois governors, and other
contemporary political notables. In this transcription, I have omitted these, as well as those of the Shelby
residents, and have thus included only the biographies of Moultrie residents.
Though I have found no confirmation, I suspect that this book was financed
and published along the following lines:
- Salesmen canvassed the community, seeking subscribers. The subscribers were probably the only recipients
of the book, with the possible exception of a copy for the local library.
- Biographies were probably priced in some way based on the length of the entry.
- Portraits and farm views were extra
As a result, we may be able to judge our ancestors' resources and/or self-esteem by these entries. (Interestingly,
while the quality of the portraits is high, that of the residential views is decidedly inferior to that of those
in the 1881 publication.)
The prose is odd, in that on the one side, it adopts a pompous, "sophisticated" elocution, but is filled with errors
in grammar and punctuation. I have corrected obvious typographical errors introduced by the printer, such as
"teh"/"the" and "Shelbville"/"Shelbyville" but have otherwise left the original writer's (or, more probably,
writers') text as nearly as I can discern it. The few notes that I have inserted are contained in square brackets ([ ]).
