You absolutely should invest research time into reading the columns submitted to papers from the communities your ancestors have links to. Peoria & Cairo both have lots of columns in The Freeman, Defender, and I would suspect in the State Capital and Illinois Record as well.

I have found relatives & friends of many ancestors in the Defender through a column on the tiny town of Braidwood, PLUS I also find lots of them in the column for the nearest large town, Joliet, where lots of former Braidwood residents migrated.

I took a second to do a quick check and the State Capital has tons of hits on the word Cairo and I have included a column here.

Dec 3, 1892