HISTORICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ILLINOIS.
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Rebellion, compelled him to leave his Southern home and seek safety for himself and family in the North. He went to West Virginia, was commissioned Colonel of a regiment and served through the war, being for some nine months a prisoner in Libby Prison. After acquiring his literary education in the public schools, the younger Northcott spent some time in the Naval Academy at Annapolis, Md., after which he was engaged in teaching. Meanwhile, he was preparing for the practice of law and was admitted to the bar in 1877, two years later coming to Greenville, Bond County, Ill., which has since been his home. In 1880, by appointment of President Hayes, he served as Supervisor of the Census for the Seventh District; in 1882 was elected State's Attorney for Bond County and re-elected successively in '84 and '88; in 1890 was appointed on the Board of Visitors to the United States Naval Academy, and, by selection of the Board, delivered the annual address to the graduating class of that year. In 1892 he was the Republican nominee for Congress for the Eighteenth District, but was defeated in the general landslide of that year. In 1896 he was more fortunate, being elected Lieutenant-Governor by the vote of the State, receiving a plurality of over 137,000 over his Democratic opponent.
NORTH PEORIA, formerly a suburban village in Peoria County, 2 miles north of the city of Peoria; annexed to the city of Peoria in 1900.
NORTHERN BOUNDARY QUESTION, THE. The Ordinance of 1787, making the first specific provision, by Congress, for the government of the country lying northwest of the Ohio River and east of the Mississippi (known as the Northwest Territory), provided, among other things (Art. V., Ordinance 1787), that "there shall be formed in the said Territory not less than three nor more than five States." It then proceeds to fix the boundaries of the proposed States, on the assumption that there shall be three in number, adding thereto the following proviso: "Provided, however, and it is further understood and declared, that the boundaries of these three States shall be subject so far to be altered that, if Congress shall hereafter find it expedient, they shall have authority to form one or two States in that part of the said Territory which lies north of an east and west line
