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HISTORICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ILLINOIS.
Chicago. It has a high school, churches and two newspapers, besides brick, smelting and oil works. Population (1890), 2,531; (1900), 6,114.
BLUE ISLAND RAILROAD, a short line 3.96 miles in length, lying wholly within Illinois; capital stock $25,000; operated by the Illinois Central Railroad Company. Its funded debt (1895) was 8100,000 and its floating debt, S3,779.
BLUE MOUND, a town of Macon County, on the Wabash Railway, 14 miles southeast of Decatur;; in rich grain and live-stock region; has three grain elevators, two banks, tile factory and one newspaper. Pop. (1890), 696; (1900), 714
BLUFFS, a village of Scott County, at the junction of the Quincy and Hannibal branches of the Wabash Railway, 52 miles west of Springfield; has a bank and a newspaper. Population (1880), 162; (1890), 421; (1900), 539.
BOAL, Robert, M.D., physician and legislator, born near Harrisburg, Pa., in 1806; was brought by his parents to Ohio when five years old and educated at Cincinnati, graduating from the Ohio Medical College in 1828; settled at Lacon, Ill., in 1836, practicing there until 1862, when, having been appointed Surgeon of the Board of Enrollment for that District, he removed to Peoria. Other public positions held by Dr. Boal have been those of Senator in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth General Assemblies (1844-48), Representative in the Nineteenth and Twentieth (1854-58), and Trustee of the Institution for the Deaf and Dumb at Jacksonville, remaining in the latter position seventeen years under the successive administrations of Governors Bissell, Yates, Oglesby, Palmer and Beveridge-the last five years of his service being President of the Board. He was also President of the State Medical Board in 1882. Dr. Boal continued to practice at Peoria until about 1890, when he retired, and, in 1893, returned to Lacon to reside with his daughter, the widow of the late Colonel Greenbury L. Fort, for eight years Representative in Congress from the Eighth District.
BOARD OF ARBITRATION, a Bureau of the State Government, created by an act of the Legislature, approved August 2, 1895. It is appointed by the Executive and is composed of three members (not more than two of whom can belong to the same political party), one of whom must be an employer of labor and one a member of some . labor organiz
