Editing Grundy County, Illinois (section)

==History==
Grundy County was established on February 17, 1841. It was formed out of [[LaSalle County, Illinois|LaSalle County]] and named after U.S. Attorney General [[Felix Grundy]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Adams |first1=James N |last2=Volkel |first2=Lowell M |editor-last =Keller |editor-first =William E |title =Illinois Place Names |location =Springfield |url=https://archive.org/details/illinoisplacenam00adam |url-access=registration |year=1989 |publisher=Illinois State Historical Society |isbn=978-0-912226-24-8}}</ref> The county was well known for its coal mines<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K3UUAAAAYAAJ|title=History of Grundy County, Illinois: Containing a History from the Earliest Settlement to the Present Time ... , Biographical Sketches, Portraits of Some of the Early Settlers, Prominent Men, Etc|publisher=O.L. Basken & Company, Historical Publishers|year=1882|oclc=27722005|volume=1–2}}</ref> and attracted miners from Pennsylvania and other regions to work its deposits. 
The [[1883 Diamond Mine Disaster]] occurred in Grundy County. The disaster took the lives of 69 men and boys who were trapped underground when water broke through into the mine after days of heavy rain and the pumps could not keep up with the rising water. 22 bodies were eventually recovered, the remaining 44 were left in the mine and the mine was sealed. Today a marker stands near where it was believed the majority of victims were entombed.<ref>{{cite web | title=Diamond Mine Disaster Victims – February 16, 1883 | website=Grundy County ILGenWeb | date=February 5, 2015 | url=https://grundy.illinoisgenweb.org/history/coalmin/minevict.php | access-date=August 11, 2019}}</ref>

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File:Grundy County Illinois 1841.png|Grundy County at the time of its creation in 1841
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