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 ANNALS OF 
 
 KNOX COUNTY 
 
 Commemorating Centennial of 
 
 Admission of Illinois as a 
 
 State of the Union 
 
 in 1818 
 
 ^ 
 
 AUTHORIZED BY THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS
 
 ANNALS OF 
 
 KNOX COUNTY 
 
 Commemorating Centennial of 
 
 Admission of Illinois as a 
 
 State of the Union 
 
 in 1818 
 
 ^ 
 
 AUTHORIZED BY THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS
 
 REPUBLICAN REGISTER PRINT 
 
 GALESBURG, ILLINOIS ■
 
 PREFACE 
 
 This book is the product of the attempt in 1918 to cele- 
 brate the Centennial of the admission of Illinois to Statehood. 
 In accordance with a state-wide movement, designed to pre- 
 serve the annals of all the counties, and properly to commem- 
 orate the creation of Illinois as a State, the County Judge, 
 Walter C Frank, Superintendent of Schools W. F. Boyes, 
 State's Attorney A. J. Boutelle, County Clerk Frank L. Adams 
 and A. 0. Lindstrum, Chairman of the Board of Supervisors, 
 were designated by the Hon. Hugh Magill, who had the State 
 work in charge, to form in this county a Knox County Centen- 
 nial Historical Association, which should originate and carry 
 out in the schools of the county fitting programs, and which 
 should arrange for the collection of material for township an- 
 nals, that should, with the co-operation of the Board of Super- 
 visors, be published and be preserved in the schools and librar- 
 ies of the county and in the State Historical Library. 
 
 At a meeting held on January 22, 1918, the County Cen- 
 tennial Historical Association was formed with Superintendent 
 W. F. Boyes as president and Fred R. Jelliff as secretary, and 
 with the following advisory committee: Mrs. A. J. Boutelle, 
 president of the Galesburg Woman's Club; Mrs. G. W. Thomp- 
 son, Mrs. T. C. Minehan, George A- Lawrence, Fred R. Jelliff, 
 William Pearson, president of the Galesburg Trades and Labor 
 Assembly; Professor D. E. Watkins, of Knox College; Presi- 
 dent J. M. Tilden, of Lombard College, and W. F. Boyes. 
 
 At a meeting of this committee on February 5th, 1918, 
 there was appointed a committee, consisting of Professor 
 Watkins, Mrs. Thompson and Mr. Jelliff, authorized to arrange 
 for the material for the township annals. Requests were sent 
 to a well qualified person in each township in March, 1918, and 
 in nearly every instance there was a cheerful response. The 
 late W. L. Steele, so long superintendent of schools of Gales- 
 burg, was deputized to prepare a general review of the county 
 annals, while Mrs. R. W. Colville, Mrs- Martha Farnham Web- 
 ster and George A. Lawrence were authorized to arrange for 
 the marking of historical points in this county. 
 
 The advisory committee, of which W. F. Boyes was chair- 
 man, also considered and outlined an elaborate program of 
 celebrations for the schools of the counuty, which was to cul- 
 minate in a stately and beautiful pageant in Galesburg with 
 the entire county as guests. All plans, however, were inter- 
 rupted by the dreadful epidemic of influenza, which swept 
 
 I 141937
 
 through the county the fall and winter of 1918, bringing sor- 
 row to many scores of homes. The pageant and many other 
 features of the year's program had to be abandoned. Schools 
 generally were closed to prevent the contagion from spreading. 
 
 Meanwhile several of the township historians died. Su- 
 perintendent Steele suddenly passed away. Illness and other 
 causes delayed some. The committee, however, f eit that it was 
 due to those who had so generously prepared manuscripts, to 
 persevere in the preparation of material, with the result, that 
 due to the generosity of the Board of Supei*visors, the publica- 
 tion is at last made. 
 
 The committee is under great obligations to all who have 
 contributed annals, and to all others who have in any way 
 assisted. 
 
 FRED R. JELLIFF, Secretary 
 WALTER F. BOYES, Chairman
 
 KNOX COUNTY ANNALS 
 
 By FRED R. JELLIFF 
 
 Knox County was named after General Henry Knox and 
 was established as a county, January 13, 1825. 
 
 Knox county has had several and varied shapes. Under 
 the division of Illinois, made in 1790, more than the east half 
 of that part of the State south of the Illinois river was known 
 as Knox county. Changes and further subdivisions were 
 made in 1793, 1801, 1803, 1809 Then the name drops out. In 
 the subdivisions of 1801, 1803 and 1809, its territory was in- 
 cluded in St. Clair county. In 1812 and 1813, the subdivision 
 covering much the same ground, was called Madison county, 
 and in this the Knox territory was included until 1821, when 
 that part of the State lying between the Illinois and Mississ- 
 ippi river was called Pike county. In 1823, Pike county was 
 cut down, and Fulton county was laid out so as to include the 
 south four townships of Knox. The rest of the land compris- 
 ing Knox county and the territory north and east was attached 
 to Fulton county for judicial purposes. 
 
 January 13, 1825, Knox county was formed by act of the 
 legislature, covering the same territory as at present (the four 
 townships at the south being accorded it), save that the four 
 north townships were attached to Henry county. This gave 
 Knox sixteen townships. In 1831, however, the row of town- 
 ships on the north was restored to Knox and two on the east 
 were added. March 2, 1839, these two east two townships were 
 allotted Stark county. This change in the boundaries of the 
 county occasioned interesting incidents of travel, business and 
 politics in the early history of this section. 
 
 The land comprising Knox County has been under ten ter- 
 ritorial jurisdictions, two of them being under extinct races, 
 one under the Indian race, one under France, one under Eng- 
 land, one under Virginia, one a territory of the United States, 
 one the territory of Indiana, one the territory of Illinois and 
 lastly, the State of Illinois. 
 
 The history of Knox county is one that reflects honor on 
 Illinois for it has been marked by devotion to high ideals. Illi- 
 nois was orginally a part of the northwest territory which by 
 the ordinance of 1787 was made free soil. As a county of the 
 State Knox has shared this blessing. Illinois was admitted' to 
 the Union in 1818, and the issuance of this book is to commem- 
 orate the centennial of that event. By the act of June 30, 1821, 
 Pike county was created, including the area north and west 
 of the Illinois river. By the act of Februaiy 10, 1826, Knox
 
 County was attached to Fulton county for governmental pur- 
 poses. May 15, 1830, a public meeting was held at the store 
 of S. S. White, in Henderson, to consider the question of 
 county organization. Dr. Hansford and John G- Sanburn, were 
 authorized to address a petition for the organization of Knox 
 county to Richard M. Young, judge of the Fifth Judicial Cir- 
 cuit. This petition was presented to Judge Young at Lewis- 
 town by Pennington, Hansford, Stephen Osborn, the first 
 sheriff and Phillip Hash, and the judge was convinced that the 
 county contained 350 inhabitants, the number required by law, 
 and on June 10, 1830, he declared the county organized, and 
 fixed the date of the first election at July 3, 1830. This was 
 held at the home of Jacob Gum, four miles northwest of 
 Galesburg, the whole county forming one election precinct. 
 
 The First Government 
 
 Under the constitution of 1818, county government was 
 committed to three commissioners. On July 3, 1830, when 
 the county was organized, Riggs Pennington, Philip Hash, and 
 Charles Hansford were elected, to serve until their successors 
 were elected the following month. They first met at the home 
 of John B. Gum, appointed him clerk, but he, declining to 
 serve, two days later they again met and appointed John G. 
 Sanburn clerk, and Mr. Gum treasurer. On July 17th, the 
 commissioners met again and divided Knox County into two 
 precincts for the coming election, one precinct being known 
 as the Henderson and the other as the Spoon River district. 
 At the election on August 2, 1830, the first board of commis- 
 sioners for a stated term was elected, the successful candidates 
 being Riggs Pennington, Philip Hash and Alexander Frakes, 
 while Stephen Osborn was elected sheriff. Thus Knox county, 
 organized and empowered to choose its own officers and col- 
 lect its own taxes, started on its political career. The com- 
 missioners had general supervision of the affairs of the county. 
 By the same law which defined its boundaries and located its 
 county seat, Henry county was attached to it for governmental 
 purposes and so remained until 1837. It was an economical 
 and judicious system. The county was then in its primitive 
 state, and roads had to be laid out and constructed, bridges had 
 to be built, a jail and court house had to be provided and other 
 large works undertaken, all of which seems to have been effi- 
 ciently done. 
 
 Government By Judges 
 
 By the constitution of 1848, the offices of county com- 
 missioners and probate justice were abolished, and the office 
 of county judge created. On him and two associate judges was 
 the power previously exercised by the commissioners in county 
 government, conferred. George S Lanphere was elected
 
 7 
 
 county judge, and Alfred Brown of Henderson and James M. 
 Hunter of Salem were elected associate judges, November 6, 
 
 1849, and they served four years. Their last meeting was 
 held on March 4, 1853. The county on April 5, 1853, adopted 
 township organization and elected supervisors. It has since 
 remained under this system. There had been two previous 
 attempts to change the county government, one on November 
 6, 1849, and one on November 5, 1850, but as tbe majority 
 secured was not a majority of all the votes ca'^t af these elec- 
 tions, the proposition failed to carry. 
 
 Township Organization 
 
 It was shortly after the election of 1849 or on January 14, 
 
 1850, that the people of the townships met to select the names 
 for their respective townships. The present names were 
 adopted save these of Cedar, Haw Creek, Copley and Elba. 
 The names chosen for these were respectively. Cherry Grove, 
 Ohio, Ritchfield and Liberty, but these the Secretary of State 
 refused to register and they were accordingly changed to the 
 names they now bear. 
 
 The first members of the board of supervisors, twenty in 
 number, met June 5, 1853, and elected Daniel Meek as chair- 
 man. Following are the names of the members of the historic 
 First Board: 
 
 Indian Point Daniel Meek 
 
 Cedar E. P. Dunlap 
 
 Henderson Peter Franz 
 
 Rio R. Heflin 
 
 Chestnut Samuel Collins 
 
 Orange Asa Haynes 
 
 Sparta T. H. Taylor 
 
 Ontario Ed Crane 
 
 Maquon J. M. Foster 
 
 Haw Creek W. M Clark 
 
 Persifer G. W. Manley 
 
 Copley J. 0. Stanley 
 
 Walnut Grove Ames Ward 
 
 Salem S. S. Buffum 
 
 Elba J. H. Nicholson 
 
 Truro A,, Lapham 
 
 Victoria J. L. ^Lamagan 
 
 Lynn J. MjJHodgson 
 
 Knox I. P. West 
 
 Galesburg 1 W. S. Gale 
 
 Honor is due the memory of this first board for building 
 so well the foundations on which the business of the county 
 has been conducted.
 
 8 
 Growth of County Business 
 
 The business of Knox County is now conducted from 
 Galesburg, the county seat, and its place of business is the 
 stately Court House Square with its beautiful embellishments 
 of lawn and trees And still John B. Gum's log cabin on Sec- 
 tion 32 in Henderson township was the first seat of justice in 
 the county and was so designated by the commissioners on 
 July 9, 1830. It was a one-story, two-room log structure and 
 was used for county purposes until January 15, 1831. By a 
 law passed January 15, 1831, the county seat was fixed in Knox 
 Township, where the commissioners platted a village, that they 
 first called Henderson, and which afterward was changed to 
 Knoxville. March 12, 1831, the commissioners contracted with 
 William Lewis to erect a log court house and with Parnach 
 Owen to finish it. The total cost was $395.43. This lumber 
 structure was 28 feet long, twenty-five feet wide, and two 
 stories high. It was occlupied in October, 1832, It was soon 
 outgrown and on March 14, 1838, Zelotes Cooley and Alvah 
 Wheeler took the contract for the erection of a new building 
 at Knoxville which was completed May 1, 1840. At the time it 
 was regarded as one of the handsomest buildings in the State, 
 and it is still attractive because of its classical lines. It was 
 the scene of many noted legal battles, and men, who subse- 
 quently became famous in State and Nation appeared in cases 
 there. A crude jail was built in 1832 and in 1840 another was 
 erected by Alvah Wheeler. Also on the court house ground at 
 Knoxville was built in 1854 a fire-proof building containing 
 two rooms. 
 
 County Seat Contest 
 
 Meanwhile Galesburg, due to its railroad facilities, was in 
 population outstriping Knoxville, and there grew up a demand 
 for the removal of the county seat to the larger city. A long 
 and acrimonious contest ensued that lasted for years. The r--'al 
 battle started with the passage of a bill introduced by W. S. 
 Gale, of Galesburg, then a member of the Legislature, for the 
 removal of the county seat. This bill became a law. The elec- 
 tion under it was held in April, 1869, but the issues were not 
 settled until January, 1873, when the Supreme Court of Illinois 
 upheld the contention of Galesburg. Through the efforto of 
 friends of Knoxville another election was called and was held 
 on November 11, 1873, which resulted in favor of Galesburg by 
 a vote of 3,785 to 3,309. This ended the controversy. 
 
 Under the stipulations by Galesburg, the county was to 
 furnish a place for holding court for ten years, a site for a 
 court house to be constructed in the future, a site for a jail and 
 $20,000 toward its erection, to provide a site and fire-proof 
 building for a clerk's office, and to pay the expenses of the
 
 transfer of the effects of the county to Galesburg, all of 
 which conditions were honorably and satisfactorily met. 
 
 The Court House 
 
 The movement for the erection of of a court house on the 
 park site provided began in 1883 with the appointment of a 
 committee to report a resolution. A building committee was 
 appointed, consisting of W. S. Gale, A. G. Charles, William 
 Robson, John Sloan, M. B. Hardin and William H. Leighton. 
 The next year the place of Mr. Charles, who was no longer a 
 member of the Board, was filled by R. W. Miles, and a year 
 still later, L. A. Townsend succeeded M. B. Hardin The plans 
 of E. E. Myers of Chicago were preferred, bids were finally 
 passed on October 3, and the contract was let to Dawson & 
 Anderson of Toledo, Ohio, for $114,311.52. The corner-stone 
 was laid June 24, 1885, under the auspices of the Masonic 
 Grand Lodge of Illinois. The edifice was completed January 
 26, 1887. The cost all furnished was $156,261, and when 
 completed it was practically paid for. The building is of Berea 
 sandstone, of a pleasing and impressive style of architecture, 
 and contains all rooms necessary for the conduct of all phases 
 of the county business. 
 
 The jail was built earlier by Ira K. Stevens in 1874, for 
 $34,900, and Hon. A. W. Berggren was the first sheriff to 
 occupy it. 
 
 The County Home 
 
 Another fine institution that the county has maintained 
 for over sixty years is the County Home at Knoxville For 
 twenty-five years after the organization of the county paupers 
 were farmed out to the lowest bidders. With the adoption of 
 the township system, the board of supervisors bought an alms- 
 house site for $3,000 of M, G. Smith. The farm house was 
 converted into an almshouse but proved a wretched makeshift. 
 In 1866 the Board of Supervisors determined to erect a new 
 almshouse and R. W. Miles, L. E. Conger and Cephas Arms 
 were appointed a committee on building. After some compe- 
 tition between Galesburg members and Knoxville, the present 
 site, adjoining the old poor farm and comprising then 69 acres, 
 was purchased for $5,340. The contract for the main building 
 was let to William Armstrong for $26,000 and its equipment 
 and stocking of the farm brought the total to $39,037.21. 
 Parry & Stevens built the east wing for $17,400. An insane 
 annex was erected in 1890 for $26,459 by Peter Munson, and in 
 1899 an insane annex for females was built by Munson & Ting- 
 leaf at a total cost of $32,000. A new laundry building was 
 built in 1899 by F. W. Hawkin for $16,000. The entire group 
 of buildings is one of the handsomest in the state and the
 
 10 
 
 grounds have been developed along artistic lines. Many im- 
 provements on and in the buildings have been made from time 
 to time, so that they are supplied with modern facilities. 
 
 Growth of Population 
 
 The Indians were in Illinois before the Whites and the early 
 settlers of the county were not unmindful of their presence. 
 The Foxes, Sacs, Kickapoos and Pottawatomies roved over 
 the prairies and their trails were used by the early settlers. 
 In the vicinity of Maquon another tribe lived. The flint im- 
 plements of the Aboriginies are still found in many parts of 
 the county. There are traces of a still earlier race supposed to 
 be identified with the mound builders. 
 
 Daniel and Alexander Robinson and Richard Mathews, 
 who came to the county and settled in the edge of Henderson 
 Grove in February, 1828, are credited with being the first 
 permanent settlers, although there is a report that a man 
 named Palmer, a bee hunter, lived in Maquon township in 
 1826-27. It is certain that the first considerable migrations 
 came from Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia, and that they 
 were a substantial and worthy element. The tide of immigra- 
 tion from the east set in in 1836 and with the coming of the 
 Galesburg colony in 1836, the movement of population was 
 accelerated. 
 
 Meanwhile in the early annals of the county, the Black 
 Hawk War from 1831 to 1833, growing out of the belief of the 
 Indians that they had been unfairly dealt with, was the out- 
 standing event. In this county a company was raised, to assist 
 in the war, and several forts were erected, one known as Fort 
 Aggie, on Section 27, in Rio township ; Fort Lewis, on Section 
 33, Henderson township; an unnamed fort on Section 10, in 
 Henderson township, and one in Orange township. No harm 
 came to the settlers, although the period was one of much 
 stress and many alarms. 
 
 In addition to the immigration from the South and East 
 following the founding of Henderson, Knoxville and Galesburg 
 and the founding of Knox College, the establishment of gov- 
 ernment, and the improvement of highways, there came groups 
 of foreigners. The Swedes appear to have been first on the 
 field, John Hedstrom arriving in Victoria as early as 1838 
 But the steady stream did not set in until the completion of the 
 C., B. & Q. railroad to Galesburg in 1854, from which time for 
 several years the growth was rapid. This transportation en- 
 terprise with the branches soon afterward constructed from 
 Galesburg and making access to markets easy, gave a tremend- 
 ous impetus to agriculture, to the building up of towns, and to 
 industrial interests- Settlement, before desultory, now became
 
 11 
 
 rapid. Educational and religious growth kept pace. The 
 large Swedish emigration was augmented by sturdy colonists 
 from Scotland, by the warm-hearted and eager companies from 
 Ireland, and by the quotas from Germany and England. The 
 following figures speak eloquently of the growth of the county : 
 
 Date Population 
 
 1830 400 
 
 1840 7,080 
 
 1850 13,279 ■ 
 
 1860 28,663 
 
 1870 39,522 
 
 1880 38,344 
 
 1890 38,752 
 
 1900 43,612 
 
 1910 46,159 
 
 1920 46,678 
 
 This shows that for two decades between 1870 and 1890 
 the population was nearly stationary. The building of the 
 Santa Fe late in the 80's and other causes again produced a 
 steady growth in population. 
 
 The fact that in the county there was previous to the Civil 
 War a strong anti-slavery sentiment caused a movement of 
 Negroes this way, and this continued after the Civil War, 
 resulting in a large Negro population, especially in Galesburg, 
 where the Negroes have their own churches and where they 
 have proved an industrious and useful element. 
 
 Of late years the character of immigration has changed. 
 That from Sweden, Ireland, Scotland and England has become 
 negligible, while that from the southern part of Europe pre- 
 dominates. In Galesburg, more than in any other part of the 
 county, these concentrate. Italians, Hungarians, Roumanians, 
 Greeks and many others not listed in the census. Mexican 
 laborers have in considerable degree supplanted other races on 
 the railroads. It is this large need of common labor that is in 
 great measure responsible for this draft on Southern Europe. 
 The fact that they are proving a worthy element is dissipating 
 the prejudice first created. 
 
 The Municipalities 
 
 Following are the dates of platting and founding of the 
 municipalities of the county : 
 
 Rio Platted in 1871 
 
 Oneida Sept. 1, 1854 
 
 Altona 1854 
 
 Victoria May 11, 1849 
 
 Wataga In Spring of 1854
 
 12 
 
 Henderson June 11, 1835 
 
 Knoxville Aug. 7, 1830 
 
 Appleton Spring, 1888 
 
 Dahinda Summer, 1888 
 
 Williamsfield April 24, 1888 
 
 Gilson July 10, 1857 
 
 Belong 1882 
 
 Abingdon 1836 
 
 St. Augustine 1854 
 
 Hermon May 3, 1842 
 
 Rapatee 1883 
 
 Maquon Oct. 24, 1836; Inc., 1857 
 
 Douglas Oct. 17, 1856 
 
 Uniontown June 4, 1839 
 
 Yates City Oct- 20, 1857 
 
 The influence of railroad construction is clearly evident in 
 the foregoing. 
 
 Statistics of Population 
 
 The following figures of the population of the county and 
 townships as given in the census returns of 1890, 1900, 1910 
 and 1920 will be found interesting. 
 
 1920 
 Knox County 46,678 
 
 Townships : 
 
 Cedar 2,616 
 
 Chestnut 751 
 
 Copley 691 
 
 Elba 558 
 
 Galesburg 1,111 
 
 Haw Creek 788 
 
 Henderson 988 
 
 Indian Point 1,624 
 
 Knox 2,955 
 
 Lynn 608 
 
 Maquon 1,108 
 
 Ontario 1,211 
 
 Orange 662 
 
 Persifer 787 
 
 Rio 734 
 
 Salem 1,360 
 
 Sparta 1,142 
 
 Truro 1,005 
 
 Victoria 1,091 
 
 Walnut Grove 1,103 
 
 1910 
 
 1900 
 
 1890 
 
 46,159 
 
 43,612 
 
 38,752 
 
 2,543 
 
 2,220 
 
 1,574 
 
 748 
 
 877 
 
 919 
 
 799 
 
 923 
 
 910 
 
 619 
 
 725 
 
 775 
 
 1,029 
 
 951 
 
 708 
 
 826 
 
 875 
 
 951 
 
 1,076 
 
 1,162 
 
 1,218 
 
 1,516 
 
 1,607 
 
 1,496 
 
 3,263 
 
 3,366 
 
 2,677 
 
 673 
 
 719 
 
 742 
 
 1,187 
 
 1,250 
 
 1,330 
 
 1,252 
 
 1,405 
 
 1,137 
 
 791 
 
 868 
 
 851 
 
 881 
 
 759 
 
 711 
 
 899 
 
 886 
 
 925 
 
 1,416 
 
 1,579 
 
 1,677 
 
 1,102 
 
 1,298 
 
 1,293 
 
 1,194 
 
 1,129 
 
 865 
 
 1,047 
 
 1,126 
 
 1,179 
 
 1,209 
 
 1,280 
 
 1,350
 
 13 
 
 Municipalities: 
 
 Abingdon, City 2,721 2,464 2,022 1,321 
 
 Altona, Village 506 528 633 654 
 
 East Galesburg, Village 566 753 663 
 
 Galesburg, City 23,785 22,089 18,607 15,264 
 
 Henderson, Village 156 171 170 163 
 
 Knoxville, City 1,708 1,818 1,857 1,728 
 
 Maquon, Village 441 472 475 501 
 
 Oneida, City 563 589 785 699 
 
 St. Augustine, Village 195 187 229 255 
 
 Victoria, Village 415 334 329 308 
 
 Wataga, Village 459 444 545 586 
 
 Williamsfield, Village 435 480 447 
 
 Yates City, Village 582 586 650 687 
 
 These figures show that in 1890, there lived in the muni- 
 cipalities of the county 22,166 people, and on the farms, 
 15,586; in 1900, there lived on the farms 16,700 and in the 
 municipalities, 27,412 in 1910, the municipal population was 
 30,933 and the farm 12,679, and in 1920, the municipal popula- 
 tion is 32,347 and the farm population is 14,363. 
 
 The Religious Growth 
 
 The early settlers of Knox county, no matter what their 
 origin were religiously inclined, and in an early day the move- 
 ment for the establishment of churches gained momentum. 
 According to some, the Methodists were first in the field, and 
 organized a society in the neighborhood of Abingdon in 1829 
 and 1830, from which the Methodist church at Abingdon de- 
 veloped. In 1836 and 1837, the First Presbyterian church was 
 organized by the Galesburg colonists and this afterward grew 
 into the Old First Church, with Congregational tendencies. 
 The county within the next twenty years became a field for 
 active missionary effort and by 1860 the religious work of 
 the county was fully organized. Some of the early pioneer 
 churches no longer exist, but there is no denying that the 
 county is well supplied with all needful agencies for effective 
 religious work. 
 
 As many as sixty-five churches have done Christian work 
 in its confines and nearly all of these are in operation at the 
 present time. In addition in some communities, there have 
 been occasional services and Sunday Schools have been main- 
 tained in many communities where there were no churches. 
 
 The Knoxville Presbyterian Church was organized in 1835. 
 The Lutherans began their fine work in 1851, when the first 
 Lutheran Church of Galesburg was organized. The first Epis- 
 copalian church was that in Knoxville, organized in 1843. The 
 first Catholic parish in the county was formed at St. Augus-
 
 14 
 
 tine in 1844. The Baptists organized a church in Galesburg in 
 1848. The Universalists formed a congregation in Galesburg 
 in 1857. Christian Scientists organized in Galesburg in 1886. 
 The Abingdon Congregational Church dates back to 1835 and 
 the Victoria to 1841 Among the later comers are the United 
 Brethren, the Jewish Church in Galesburg, the Salvation Army, 
 the Seven Day Adventists and the Latter Day Saints. 
 
 The Methodists probably lead at present in the number 
 of congregations in the county, with the Congregationalists 
 next. 
 
 The coming of the railroad gave added impetus to the 
 organization of religious work in the county, and many 
 churches date from about that time. 
 
 There have been during the nearly ninety years since 
 Christian work began in Knox county many revivals, some of 
 them of great magnitude and large results. 
 
 It is a matter of historical interest that the first Swedish 
 Methodist church in the United States was organized in Vic- 
 toria. 
 
 School Development 
 
 The educational facilities of Knox county are equalled by 
 but a few in the Central West. Colleges, Academies, High 
 Schools, Community Schools, Township High Schools and the 
 County Schools, all combine to furnish close at hand the means 
 of mental growth and acquisition. All this has taken place 
 since Franklin B. Barber taught school at Henderson Grove 
 in 1830. The real development began with the appointment of 
 William McMurtry as commissioner to sell lands in this county 
 for school pui-poses under the act of 1831. The first school 
 district land formed was that of 1837 at Log City, the second 
 was the Hague district, south of Galesburg. Indian Point dis- 
 trict was the third. 
 
 The system of Public Schools was created by the Act of 
 1855. More direct supervision of the schools began that year 
 under P. H. Sanford, afterward county judge. At the present 
 time this office of county superintendent of schools is ably 
 filled by Walter F. Boyes. 
 
 The first High School in the county was that established 
 in Galesburg in 1 867 and it was in that early day regarded as a 
 remarkable achievement. 
 
 The following shows the present status of the schools of 
 the county:
 
 15 
 Knox County School Facts 
 
 Number of persons under 21 years of age 16,002 
 
 Number of persons of school age, to twenty-one 11,517 
 
 Number enrolled in elementally schools 8,087 
 
 In High schools 1,542 
 
 Total enrollment 9,629 
 
 High school enrollment is 16% of total. 
 
 Number of school buildings 192 
 
 Number of one-room schools in session this year 151 
 
 Number of High schools 11 
 
 District High schools 3 
 
 Township High schools 2 
 
 Community High Schools 4 
 
 Three year High Schools in Non-High school district 2 
 
 Total number of teachers 384 
 
 High Schools: 
 
 District — Galesburg, Knoxville, Abingdon 
 
 Township — Altona, Gilson. 
 
 Community — Oneida, Wataga, Williamsfield, Yates City. 
 
 In Non-High School District — Maquon, Victoria. 
 
 Community Consolidated districts are being organized 
 around Victoria, Rio and Rapatee. 
 
 Supplementing this fine and developing system are the 
 following colleges and academic institutions, with the dates of 
 their charters or origin : 
 
 Knox College — Galesburg, 1837 
 
 Lombard College — Galesburg, February 15, 1851. 
 
 Hedding College — Abingdon, 1851. 
 
 St. Mary's School— Knoxville, 1868. 
 
 St. Alban's School— Knoxville, 1890. 
 
 St. Martha's School— Knovxille, 1914 
 
 Brown's Business College — Galesburg, 1864. 
 
 St. Joseph's Academy — Galesburg, 1879. 
 
 Corpus Christi College — Galesburg, 1893. 
 
 St. Mary's School— Galesburg, 1907. 
 
 In addition the Galesburg Lutherans have maintained 
 from an early day a parochial school. 
 
 The group of Episcopal institutions at Knoxville, St Mary's, 
 St. Alban's and St. Martha's were founded by Rev. C. W Lef- 
 fingwell, D. D. 
 
 The three Catholic institutions of Galesburg were pro- 
 moted by the Rev. Father Joseph Costa.
 
 , . IG 
 
 Railroads of Knox County 
 
 The first railroad in Knox county was that extending from 
 Chicago to Galesburg and completed in 1854 and developing 
 later into the C, B. & Q. For years subsequently railroad 
 development was confined in this county largely to the con- 
 struction through it of the branches of the Burlington, for 
 all of which Galesburg became a division point. In 1882, there 
 reached here from Havana, the Fulton County Narrow Gauge, 
 afterward acquired by the Burlington. In 1887-8, the Atchi- 
 son, Topeka & Santa Fe completed and began operating its line 
 from Kansas City to Chicago. The county is thus traversed by 
 two great trunk railroad lines. In addition the Iowa Central 
 built in 1879-80, extends through the southwestern part of the 
 county and the C. R. I. & P. through the northeastern part 
 
 Knox County in War 
 
 Knox county has had a glorious part in the wars in which 
 this country has engaged It is believed that in its cemeteries 
 repose the bodies of soldiers of every war from the Revolution- 
 ary down. For years this city was the headquarters of the 
 meetings of the Illinois Mexican war veterans. 
 
 In the Civil War, according to a careful compilation made 
 by the late Albert J. Perry, Knox County furnished4,200 men, 
 distributed among 190 companies and 82 regiments. Of this 
 number 123 were killed, and 168 wounded, 344 died and 96 
 were incarcerated in rebel prisons. In bounties and aid to the 
 farnilies of soldiers, the county contributed $400,000. 
 
 To the war with Spain, the county sent two companies of 
 the Illinois National Guard, Company C. of Galesburg, com- 
 manded by Captain T. L. McGirr and CompanyD, of Abing- 
 don, in charge of Captain Frank W. Latimer. These compan- 
 ies sei'ved in the Porto Rico campaign Subsequently Captain 
 McGirr and a number of men from this county took part 
 in the Phillipine Campaign. 
 
 The War With Germany 
 
 The' war with Germany is a recent memory^ and Knox 
 county's part will in every detail be found treated in a volume 
 edited by S. A. Wagoner, and having the assistance of a com- 
 mittee of citizens. Briefly, as nearly as can be ascertained the 
 county furnished 2,200 of its young men for this war, about 
 one-half of whom volunteered, and the rest saw sei'\nce under 
 the selective conscription act. Many of these engaged in active 
 warfare. Galesburg's Company C was one of the first of the 
 Illinois National Guard organizations to respond. Some of the 
 soldier boys paid the supreme sacrifice. A good many sus- 
 tained wounds, and many were in the thick of the fighting. 
 The county feels great pride in their patriotic achievements.
 
 17 
 
 The county by its response to the call of the government 
 for funds also gave its soldiers the most substantial back- 
 ing. This is indicated by the following tables showing the 
 total contributions to each of the four Liberty Loans and the 
 Victory Loan : 
 
 First $ 923,180 $ 659,600 Not Known 
 
 Second 1,288,030 1,698,250 7,000 
 
 Third 1,256,640 2,229,600 10,557 
 
 Fourth 2,506,900 2,659,900 14,326 
 
 Victory 1,958,450 2,367,050 6,980 
 
 Totals ___$7,933,200 $9,614,400 
 
 One must add to the foregoing the large sums contributed 
 to the Y. M. C. A., the Red Cross, the Salvation Army and the 
 other lines of work to get the full measure of the county's will- 
 ingness. 
 
 It's Political History 
 
 Knox county has had an honorable history in the politics 
 of the districts with which it has been affiliated and in the 
 State ana Nation many of its residents have held positions of 
 prominence. It's citizens have served abroad in diplomatic 
 capacities, in Congress, in influential State positions and in the 
 State Legislature. The service rendered has been of a high 
 type and has reflected honor on the county. 
 
 At the present time Knox county is in the Forty-third Sen- 
 atorial district, comprised of Fulton and Knox counties, and in 
 the Fifteenth Congressional district, composed of Adams, 
 Schuyler, Fulton, Knox and Henry counties- 
 It is in the Fifth Supreme Court district, the Second Ap- 
 pellate Court district and the Ninth Judicial circuit. 
 
 In Congress 
 
 Following is a list of Knox county men who have served in 
 Congress : 
 
 John H. Lewis, Knoxville, 1881-1883. 
 
 P S. Post, 1887-1889; 1889-1891; 1891-1893; 1893-1895; 
 re-elected but died January 6, 1895, when entering on fifth 
 term, 
 
 George W. Prince, 1895-1897 ; 1897-1899 ; 1899-1901 ; 1901- 
 1903; 1903-1905; 1905-1907; 1907-1909; 1909-1911; 1911-1913. 
 Nine terms. 
 
 Stephen A. Hoxworth, 1913-1915. 
 
 Edward J. King, 1915-1917; 1917-1919; 1919-1921.
 
 18* 
 In Constitutional Convention 
 
 Joshua Hai-per represented Knox county in the Constitu- 
 tional Convention of 1847. 
 
 W. S. Gale was a member of the Constitutional Conven- 
 tion of 1862. 
 
 Alfred M. Craig was a member of the Constitutional Con- 
 vention of 1870- 
 
 George Candee Gale is a member of the present Constitu- 
 tional Convention. 
 
 In the Legislature 
 
 At various times Knox county has been hitched up in 
 Legislative districts with Fulton, Mercer, Warren and Hender- 
 son counties, but since the last re-appointment it has been 
 united with Fulton, and the district has been well satisfied. 
 The changes in the number of the districts are due to the reap- 
 portionments from time to time. 
 
 The following shows the Knox county men who have 
 served in the Legislature : 
 
 Tenth General Assembly, 1836-1838— Peter Butler, repre- 
 sented Warren, Knox and Henry counties ; William McMurtry 
 from Knox in House. 
 
 Twelfth General Assembly, 1840-1842— Member of House, 
 John Denny. 
 
 Thirteenth General Assembly, 1842-1844 — Senator, Wil- 
 liam McMurtry ; Member of House, Julius Manning. 
 
 Fourteenth General Assembly, 1844-1846 — Senator, Wil- 
 liam McMurtry; Members of House, H Hardie, Julius Man- 
 ning. 
 
 Fifteenth General Assembly, 1846-1848— Senator, John 
 Denny; Members of House, Ephriam Gilmore, Charles Hans- 
 ford. 
 
 Sixteenth General Assembly, 1848-1850 — President of Sen- 
 ate, William McMurtry; 19th district Senator, John Denny; 
 41st district. Member of House, Henry J. Runkel. 
 
 Seventeenth General Assembly, 1850-1852 — President of 
 Senate, Wm. McMurtry; 19th District Senator, John Denny; 
 41st District, Member of House, Henry Arms. 
 
 Eighteenth General Assembly, 1852-1854— 41st District, 
 Member of House, Thomas McKee. 
 
 Nineteenth General Assembly, 1854-1856 — 58th District, 
 Member of House, Samuel W. Brown, Knox. 
 
 Twentieth General Assembly, 1856-1858— 58th District, 
 member of House, David H. Frisbie. 
 
 Twenty-first General Assembly, 1858-1860— 58th District, 
 Member of House, Rufus W. Miles.
 
 19 
 
 Twenty-second General Assembly, 1860-1862— 58th Dis- 
 trict, Member of House, A- A. Smith. 
 
 Twenty-third General Assembly, 1862-1864— 15th Dis- 
 trict, Member of Senate, Albert C. Mason ; 34th District, Mem- 
 ber of House, Joseph M. Holyoke. 
 
 Twenty-fourth General Assembly, 1864-1866— 15th Dis- 
 trict, Member of Senate, Albert C. Mason ; 34th District, Mem- 
 ber of House, Joseph M Holyoke. 
 
 Twenty-fifth General Assembly, 1866-1868— 34th District, 
 Member of House, John Gray. 
 
 Twenty-sixth General Assembly, 1868-1870— 34th Dis- 
 trict, Member of House, W. Selden Gale. 
 
 Twenty-seventh General Assembly, 1870-1872— 15th Dis- 
 trict, Member of Senate, Henry J. Vaughn ; 68th District, 
 Members of House, 0. F. Price, Joseph F. Latimer, Patrick H. 
 Sanford. 
 
 Twenty-eighth General Assembly, 1872-1874— 22nd Dis- 
 trict, Senator, Patrick H. Sanford ; Member of House, Jacob S. 
 Chambers- 
 
 Twenty-ninth General Assembly, 1874-1876 — Senator, 
 Patrick H. Sanford ; Members of House, John H. Lewis, Curtis 
 N. Harvey. 
 
 Thirtieth General Assembly, 1876-1878— Members of 
 House, Alfred S. Curtis, Joseph F. Latimer, Abraham M. 
 Brown. 
 
 Thirty-first General Assembly, 1878-1880— 23rd District, 
 Members of House, Rufus W. Miles, Joseph F. Latimer, John 
 Sloan. 
 
 Thirty-second General Assembly, 1880-1882— 22nd Dis- 
 trict, Senator, August W. Berggren ; Member of House, Hanni- 
 bal P. Wood 
 
 Thirty-third General Assembly, 1882-1884— 22nd District, 
 Senator, August W. Berggren; Members of House, A. S. Cur- 
 tis, F. A. Willoughby. 
 
 Thirty-fourth General Assembly, 1884-1886— 22nd Dis- 
 trict, Senator, August W Berggren ; Member of House, Orrin 
 P. Cooley. 
 
 Thirty-fifth General Assembly, 1886-1888— 22nd District, 
 Senator, August W. Berggren; Member of House, Orrin P. 
 Cooley. 
 
 Thirtysixth General Assembly, 1888-1890— 22nd District, 
 Members of House, Orrin P. Cooley, George W. Prince, James 
 W. Hunter. 
 
 Thirty-seventh General Assembly, 1890-1892 — 22nd Dis- 
 trict, Members of House, James W. Hunter, George W. Prince.
 
 20 
 
 Thirty-eighth General Assembly, 1892-1894— 22nd Dis- 
 trict, Members of House, Jay L. Hastings, Frank Murdock. 
 
 Thirty-ninth General Assembly, 1894-1896— 35th District, 
 Member of House,Frank Murdock. 
 
 Fortieth General Assembly, 1896-1898— 35th District, 
 Member of House, Frank Murdock. 
 
 Forty-first General Assembly, 1898-1900— 35th District, 
 Senator, Leon A. Townsend; Member of House, Charles C. 
 Craig. 
 
 Forty-second General Assembly, 1900-1902— 35th District, 
 Senator, Leon A. Townsend; Member of House, Charles C 
 Craig. 
 
 Forty-third General Assembly, 1902-1904— 43rd District, 
 Senator, Leon A. Townsend; Member of House, Wilfred Arn- 
 old. 
 
 Forty-fourth General Assembly, 1904-1906— 43rd District, 
 Senator, Leon A. Townsend; Members of House, Wilfred Arn- 
 old, Michael J. Daugherty. 
 
 Forty-fifth General Assembly, 1906-1908— 43rd District, 
 Senator, Charles F. Hurburgh ; Members of House, Edward J. 
 King, Michael J. Daugherty. 
 
 Forty-sixth General Assembly, 1908-1910— 43rd District 
 Senator, Charles F. Hurburgh ; Member of House, Edward J. 
 King. 
 
 Forty-seventh General Assembly, 1910-1912 — 43rd District, 
 Senator, Charles F. Hurburgh ; Member of House, Edward J. 
 King. 
 
 Forty-eighth General Assembly, 1912-1914 — 43rd Dis- 
 trict, Senator, Charles F. Hurburgh ; Members of House, Ed- 
 ward J King, W. B. Elliott. 
 
 Forty-ninth General Assembly, 1914-1916 — 43rd District, 
 Members of House, Owen B. West, James E. Davis. 
 
 Fiftieth General Assembly, 1916-1918— 43rd District, 
 Members of House, Owen B. West, James E. Davis. 
 
 Fifty-first General Assembly, 1918-1920— 43rd District, 
 Members of House, A. O. Lindstrum, O. B. West. 
 
 On State Commissions 
 
 The following are serving at the present time by appoint 
 ment (^ G^ftertA Lowden as members of State commissions : 
 
 On Tax Commission — Charles C- Craig. 
 
 On Industrial Commission — Omer N. Custer. 
 
 As Ambassador 
 Col. Clark E. Carr, deceased, served as ambassador to 
 Denmark during the term of President Harrison.
 
 21 
 
 On Supreme Bench 
 
 Knox county has given three judges to the Supreme Court 
 of IlHnois as follows : 
 
 Charles B. Lawrence, June, 1864 to June, 1873- 
 Alfred M. Craig, June, 1873 to June, 1900. 
 Charles C. Craig, October, 1913 to June, 1918. 
 
 On Circuit Bench 
 
 The record in Circuit Court Judges follows, going back to 
 1873: 
 
 Eighth Circuit, Created in 1873 — Arthur A. Smith elected 
 in 1873. 
 
 Tenth Circuit, Created in 1877 — Arthur A. Smith, re- 
 elected June 16, 1879; re-elected June 1, 1885; re-elected June 
 1, 1891 ; resigned Nov. 15, 1894. 
 
 Ninth Circuit, Created in 1897 — George W. Thompson, 
 elected June 18, 1897; re-elected in 1903, 1909, 1915; still on 
 bench. 
 
 Judge Thompson also served for years as a member of the 
 Appellate benches of the Second and Third Districts. 
 
 Mention of Others 
 
 Among the early Lieutenant-Governors of Illinois wan 
 William McMurtry, and he in this capacity served the Senate 
 as its president during the Thirteenth and Fourteenth General 
 Assemblies- 
 
 In addition to serving his district as State Senator, A. W. 
 Berggren was for a number of years warden of the State peni- 
 tentiary at Joliet. 
 
 Leon A. Townsend, for two terms State Senator, was ap- 
 pointed United States Marshal. 
 
 Moses O Williamson, now president of the Peoples' Trust 
 and Savings Bank, Galesburg, was elected State Treasurer and 
 served one term. 
 
 Many other Knox county men have served on various 
 State boards. 
 
 Banking in Knox County 
 
 The first regular bank in Knox county was a private one 
 founded by Cornelius Runkle in Knoxville, with himself as 
 president and John Babbington as cashier. In 1863, the bank 
 was nationalized. Since that day there has been a great de- 
 velopment, until at the present time there are twenty-three 
 banks in the county, including all three types. National, State 
 and private, representing a capitalization of several millions
 
 22 
 
 and a large total of deposits. These institutions all appear 
 to be substantial and well established. In addition there are 
 in Galesburg four Homestead and Loan Associations, repre- 
 senting a large investment. 
 
 Agricultural Developments 
 
 The agricultural development of the county was accel- 
 erated by the inventive genius of its citizens. H. H. May 
 turned out the first steel mould board plow, George W Brown 
 invented the corn planter. The first threshing machine put 
 in an appearnce in 1842 and the first reaper in 1847. In close 
 succession came other implements down to the present time 
 that made production and farming on a large scale possible. 
 
 Farm Statistics 
 
 The following statistics relate to the farms of the county : 
 
 Number of farms in county in 1900 3,086 
 
 Number of farms in county in 1910 2,863 
 
 Farm area 455,040 acres 
 
 Under cultivation 424,381 acres 
 
 Land in farms in 1910 432,349 acres 
 
 Value in 1910 $60,776,744 
 
 Value in 1900 $31,164,616 
 
 Operated by owners in 1910 1,518 
 
 Operated by owners in 1900 1,756 
 
 Tenants, 1910 1,294 
 
 Tenants, 1900 1,223 
 
 Since 1910 the value of land in the county has materially 
 increased. Agriculture is by all odds the largest single interest 
 in Knox county. 
 
 During the last few years there has been a marked change 
 in farm methods, equipment and facilities The tractor is now 
 finding its place among the implements. The telephone is 
 found in most farm homes and in many there are now electric 
 appliances. Modern treatment of soils to increase and pre- 
 serve fertility is being employed. In years past, farmers had 
 their granges and other organizations and their institutes. 
 The most important agency for promoting crop increases and 
 farm interests is the County Farm Bureau, having the support 
 of the National and State governments as well as of the mem- 
 bership. The Knox County Farm Bureau, which was organ- 
 ized February 28, 1918, now has a membership of 1936, and is 
 one of the strongest in the State.. The fee of ten dollars a year 
 for each member provides ample funds for a large work. A 
 central office is maintained in Galesburg. The officers of this 
 Bureau follow :
 
 23 
 
 President — Henry C. Gehring, Altona- 
 Vice President— W. B. Elliott, Williamsfield. 
 Secretary — Ray M. Arnold, Galesburg. 
 Treasurer — George A. Charles, Knoxville- 
 
 Advisory Council — Oliver Nelson, Altona; C. B. Griff itli, 
 Galesburg; Elias Hughs, Maquon; E. U. Shumacher, Hermon; 
 Frank Gamel, Rio; M. F. Shea, Henderson; Geo. Bond, Abing- 
 don; C. M. C Brown, Oneida; Winn Wilmot, Wataga; Marion 
 Shives, Yates City; H. S. Breece, Knoxville; Ed. Moon, Wil- 
 liamsfield; Willim Beals, Altona; Ben Bjorling, Victoria; Ed 
 Taylor, Rapatee ; John Stevens, Gilson. 
 
 Executive Committee — H. C. Gehring, Altona; W B. El- 
 liott, Williamfsield, Ray M. Arnold, Galesburg; Geo. A. 
 Charles, Knoxville; C, E. Hartsook, Maquon; J. Harry Shu- 
 maker, Abingdon; Willard Miller, Rio; William Beals, Altona; 
 Chas M. Hunter, Abingdon. 
 
 Farm Advisor — E. M. D. Bracker. 
 
 Associate Farm Adviser — Floyd R. Marchant. 
 
 Associate Farm Adviser — Ralph E Arnett. 
 
 This bureau is linked up with the State and National 
 bureaus and is a thoroughly efficient organization, whose 
 work through bulletins, community meetings and institutes, 
 reaches every part of the county. 
 
 The County Officers 
 
 The list of county officers serving at present follows : 
 
 County Judge Walter C. Frank Dec. 1922 
 
 County Clerk Frank L. Adams Dec. 1922 
 
 Clerk of Circuit Court Chas- H. Westerberg__Dec. 1920 
 
 State's Attorney Addison J. Boutelle Dec. 1920 
 
 Sheriff James T. Wheeler Dec. 1922 
 
 County Treasurer Herbert N. Bloomquist Dec. 1922 
 
 County Supt. of Schools Walter F. Boyes Aug 1923 
 
 Coroner Geo. S. Bower Dec. 1920 
 
 County Surveyor Arthur L. Richey Dec. 1920 
 
 County Supt. of Highways- -Arthur L. Richey-_Mar. 17, 1926 
 
 Since the foregoing was written, those whose terms ex- 
 pired in 1920, were re-elected for a four years term. 
 
 The Present Board 
 
 Of the present Board of Supervisors, 1920, C. H. Upp is 
 chairman. The personnel follows :
 
 24 
 
 Towns Supervisors 
 
 Indian Point Willard Tinkham 
 
 Cedar A C. Harvey 
 
 Galesburg Lew E. Wallace 
 
 Galesburg City Fred T. DuVon 
 
 Galesburg City Geo. H. Burgland 
 
 Galesburg City J. G W. Dopp 
 
 Galesburg City E. R. Everett 
 
 Galesburg City A. V. Rowe 
 
 Galesburg City N. L, Ewing 
 
 Galesburg City C. E. Bowles 
 
 Galesburg City Fred I. Taylor 
 
 Galesburg City James Gaines 
 
 Henderson Andrew Hawkinson 
 
 Rio Milton Deatherage 
 
 Chestnut E. U. Shumaker 
 
 Orange 0. L McElwain 
 
 Knox Clarence R. Lacy 
 
 Knox Arthur H. Pearson 
 
 Sparta J. E WilHamson 
 
 Ontario J. J. Clearwater 
 
 Maquon H. L Epley 
 
 Haw Creek C. H. Upp 
 
 Persifer Arthur J. Berry 
 
 Copley Robert Gibbs 
 
 Walnut Grove John A. Johnson 
 
 Salem W. E. West 
 
 Elba 0. W Farwell 
 
 Truro Chester H. Pulver 
 
 Victoria Frank Peterson 
 
 Lynn A. L. Appeil 
 
 Township Officers 
 
 Following is a list of the present township officers, 1920, 
 furnished by the county clerk : 
 
 TOWN CLERKS: 
 Elected April 6th, 1920. Term Expires April, 1922 
 
 Town Name 
 
 Indian Point W. H. Clark 
 
 Cedar R. Y. Campbell 
 
 Galesburg John Vedell 
 
 Henderson Reuben R. Fields 
 
 Rio W. A. Brown 
 
 Chestnut Seaton Moon 
 
 Orange Earl Bowman 
 
 Knox Harrv Woolsev
 
 25 
 
 Sparta O. L. Erickson 
 
 * Ontario C. V. Conyers 
 
 Maquon P C. Lafferty 
 
 Haw Creek Earl Snell 
 
 Persif er Dan McQueen 
 
 Copley R. W. Brown 
 
 Walnut Grove S. Harry Johnson 
 
 Salem Edson Bowman 
 
 Elba R. O. Baird 
 
 Truro Frank E. Welsh 
 
 Victoria W H. Ray 
 
 Lynn Leslie Haxton 
 
 City of Galesburg W. L. Boutelle 
 
 (Ex-Officio) 
 
 ASSESSORS: 
 Elected April 6, 1920, for Term Jan. 1, 1921 to Dec. 31, 1922 
 
 Town • Assessor 
 
 Indian Point G. L. Hagan 
 
 Cedar W. H. Robinson 
 
 Galesburg J. H. Marsden 
 
 City of Galesburg Sander Anderson 
 
 Henderson C. J. Shepard 
 
 Rio M A. Almgreen 
 
 Chestnut Frank Sampson 
 
 Orange Robert Sumner 
 
 Knox W. H. Cronoble 
 
 Sparta William Masters 
 
 Ontario C. A. Peterson 
 
 Maquon Frank Booth 
 
 Haw Creek C. L. Dossett 
 
 Persifer E W. Farquer 
 
 Copley Thomas Hobbs 
 
 Walnut Grove N. H. Nelson 
 
 Salem B. B. Lawrence 
 
 Elba B. L. Baird 
 
 Truro S. M. Parker 
 
 Victoria W. S. Moak 
 
 Lynn Steve Milliken 
 
 COMMISSIONERS OF HIGHWAYS: 
 Elected April 6, 1920— Terms Expire April, 1922 
 
 Town Cimmissioners 
 
 Indian Point Isaac T. Perry 
 
 Cedar Jno. McCracken 
 
 Galesburg George Swedlund
 
 26 
 
 Henderson A E. Walters 
 
 Rio Arthur Robertson 
 
 Chestnut Mason Headley 
 
 Orange Earnest Thurman 
 
 Knox W. H. Steck 
 
 Sparta O. S. Olson 
 
 Ontario Gust Peterson 
 
 Maquon N. H. McGirr 
 
 Haw Creek W J. Kinser 
 
 Persifer R. C. Folger 
 
 Copley F. E. Johnson 
 
 Walnut Grove Gust Bjorling 
 
 Salem R. C. Jones 
 
 Elba T. E. Straub 
 
 Truro W. H. Machin 
 
 Victoria , J. A. Sandquist 
 
 Lynn George Jones 
 
 JUSTICES OF THE PEACE : 
 Term Expires First Monday in May, 1921 
 
 Town Name 
 Indian Point 
 
 W H. Clark, S. Gray 
 
 Cedar G. A. Hickman, B. 0. Baird 
 
 Galesburg 
 
 City of Galesburg Robert J. Walberg 
 
 S. M Meadows, A. B. Pierson, John C. Kost 
 
 Henderson W. B. Nelson 
 
 Rio B. E. Frankenburger, F. M. Epperson 
 
 Chestnut A. F. Bjorklund 
 
 Orange W. H. Wiley, H. H Holsinger 
 
 Knox A. E. Lucas, William Norris 
 
 Sparta S. R. Parkinson 
 
 Ontario E. C. Hannam 
 
 Maquon J. H Farquer, M. H. Taylor 
 
 Haw Creek H. E. Snell, John Housh 
 
 Persifer E. J. Steffen, W. H. Montgomery 
 
 Copley P. A McDowell 
 
 Walnut Grove Oscar McGrew 
 
 Salem W. H. Nash 
 
 Elba 
 
 Truro John Mackie, H. R. Kinson 
 
 Victoria George W. Coleman 
 
 Lynn L. E. Gibbs, A. L. Appell
 
 27 
 
 CONSTABLES : 
 
 Terms Expire First Monday in May, 1921 
 
 Town Name 
 
 Indian Point S. D. Lomax 
 
 Cedar C. M. Hughbanks, A. W. Bolon 
 
 Galesburg E. A. Woods 
 
 City of Galesburg W. G. Kinney, George 
 
 Rodecker, Joshua Davis, John W- Starnes 
 
 Henderson Victor Peterson, Wm. Erickson 
 
 Rio Claus Malmberg, Robert Willett 
 
 Orange W. H. Woolsey 
 
 Knox Geo. W. Witherell, Andrew Spencer 
 
 Sparta Wm. Sandeen, G. L. Newberg 
 
 Village of Wataga C G. Bangston 
 
 Ontario Mack Foster, S. J. Cox 
 
 Maquon T. U. Walters, L. B Hughbanks 
 
 Haw Creek John Housh 
 
 Persifer Edward Smith 
 
 Copley John Harpman 
 
 Walnut Grove O. W. Peterson 
 
 Salem P A. Taylor, Elmer Corbet 
 
 Truro B. F. Speer, E. J. Gray 
 
 Victoria D. W. Suydam 
 
 Lynn F. W. Quick, Steve Milliken 
 
 POLICE MAGISTRATES: 
 
 City or Village Name 
 
 Abingdon F. W. McClure 
 
 City of Galesburg 
 
 Henderson H. C. Davison 
 
 East Galesburg 
 
 Oneida Martin Gehring 
 
 Maquon Adam Kinser 
 
 Knoxville Wm. H Dredge 
 
 Williamsfield J. M. Griffin 
 
 Yates City T. J. Kightlinger 
 
 EARLY SETTLEMENTS 
 By Fannie Wright Bliss 
 
 In 1827 four sturdy young men from Sangamon county 
 made a tour through this part of Illinois in search of honey, 
 as large trees often containing a barrel of it frequently were 
 found by bee hunters. They pushed ahead until two well filled 
 trees were found in the timber afterwards known as Hender- 
 son Grove of Knox County. They camped for one week on
 
 28 
 
 what is now the line between Knox and Warren counties, but 
 met no other person These were the first white men to cross 
 the prairies of our county of whom we have knowledge. Two 
 of them, Mr. Gaddial Scott and Mr. Andrew Olson, subse- 
 quently returned here to live. 
 
 In the following year, 1828, a number of families came to 
 this county to found homes, all settling in what became Hen- 
 derson township. Daniel Robertson was the first permanent 
 settler of the county. In this group were many family names 
 familiar to us because of their descendants, therefore they are 
 mentioned: Robertson, Mathews, Gumm, Pennington, Osborn, 
 Nance, Coy, Fraker, Greenwell, Sheldon, Voiles, Vaughn, Rey- 
 nolds, McKee. 
 
 During the next year, 1829, came the McMurtry brothers, 
 and Reed, Lewis, Davis and Maxwell. In that same year a 
 widow, Mrs. Elizabeth Owen and children settled in what be- 
 came Haw Creek township, the first settlers to locate outside 
 of Henderson. In 1830 the population increased rapidly. 
 Fraker, Owen and Fitch settled in Lynn township in the edge 
 of a beautiful grove, still known as Fraker's Grove, the first 
 white settlers in the northeast part of the county. Mr Fraker 
 found an Indian village on the land he had bought from the 
 government. The Indians disputed his right to the land as 
 they said theirs came direct from the Great Spirit. They fin- 
 ally removed to Indian Creek, seven miles east and built an- 
 other village, but made friendly visits to the Frakers and 
 acquired the habit of coming to the grove in the spring to make 
 sugar and raise "squaw corn." 
 
 There was only one traveled road in the county, the Galena 
 trail or State road from Galena to Peoria, through Victoria 
 and Walnut Grove townships. 
 
 The law required three hundred and fifty legal voters to 
 live in a county before it could be organized as such, yet there 
 was scarcely that number of individuals within the boundaries 
 of Knox county. When Illinois became a state in 1818, the 
 land now comprising Knox county was a part of Madison 
 county. In 1821 it was placed in the boundaries of Pike county, 
 the oldest county in the Mihtary Tract. In 1826 its present 
 boundaries were determined and it was attached to Fulton 
 county for judicial and recording purposes In July, 1830, 
 Knox county was fonnally organized as at present except that 
 two townships were included which, when Stark County was 
 organized in 1837, were severed from Knox and became a part 
 of that county. The town of La Fayette is located in that sec- 
 tion. 
 
 The first business meeting of the county and the elec-
 
 29 
 
 tion of county commisioners were held at the resdence of John 
 B. Gumm, Henderson township, about four miles northwest of 
 Galesburg's present site near the south edge of Henderson 
 Grove. This house was a one-story double log cabin, each divi- 
 sion containing but one room. This building served as dwell- 
 ing, hotel, post office, also temporary seat of justice until 
 the log court house was later built at Knoxville. I am told that 
 this same historic building or at least one part of it, is still used 
 on a farm in this county in sufficiently good condition to serve 
 as a corn crib in spite of its being nearly one hundred years 
 old. How appropriate it would be if the county could purchase 
 and restore it to its former condition and place it in Lincoln 
 Park near its first location, to be furnished with mementoes of 
 those early days, so that the descendants of the pioneers might 
 have some idea of the way their ancestors lived ! 
 
 During this same July, 1830, the county of Knox was 
 divided into two districts for election of justices of peace and 
 constables in each. The first, or Henderson district, included 
 fourteen townships north of a line separating Galesburg town- 
 ship (as known at present) from Cedar township. The second 
 or Spoon River township, included all south of the same line 
 and contained eight townships. 
 
 The citizens of the county soon aspired to the erection of 
 a court house and the building of a town. They therefore, in 
 1831, procured from the State Legislature an act defining the 
 loction of the county seat and authozing commissioners to 
 lay off the town which was on the S. W. Quarter of Section 28, 
 Knox Township. This county seat was christened "Henderson" 
 by the Legislature but re-named Knoxville by that same body 
 two years later in honor of General Knox. The county bought 
 the land on which the business and much of the residence por- 
 tion of Knoxville now stand for $200, at one dollar and a quar- 
 ter an acre, being government or congress land, as it was called. 
 In the spring of 1831 lots were staked out and publicly auc- 
 tioned off, seventy-nine lots being sold, varying in price from 
 two dollars to sixty, aggregating $1,256. 
 
 That portion of Illinois known as the Military Tract in- 
 cludes all land between the Illinois and Mississippi rivers south 
 of the north line of Bureau and Henry counties. It was given 
 to the soldiers of the war of 1812 in quarter sections. When it 
 was laid off into counties most of them were named after mili- 
 tary heroes of the nation. ' Our county was named for the 
 statesman-general, Henry Knox, Secretary of War under 
 Washington and a warm personal friend of his 
 
 If a line be drawn from Galesburg through Vincennes, 
 Indiana, and extended to Kentucky, it will penetrate the heart 
 of the "Blue Grass Country." Along that line as a main chan-
 
 30 
 
 nel poured the tide of emigration from Kentucky, Tennessee 
 and Virginia. 
 
 Up to 1832, the year of the Black Hawk War, Knox county 
 settlers came mainly from these states or from temporary 
 homes in southern Indiana and Illinois. Emigration from the 
 Eastern states started in full force in 1836, the year of the 
 arrival of the Galesburg Colony at Log City. From that time 
 southern emigration began to decline and New England, New 
 York, Pennsylvania and Ohio supplied the majority of the emi- 
 grants. The first considerable European accession was a 
 Scotch settlement in the northeast part of the county, mostly 
 in Copley township. Later influenced by Rev. Jones Hedstrom, 
 a Methodist clergyman, who came from Sweden and then lived 
 in Victoria, a large number left the Bishop Hill colony of Swed- 
 ish settlers in Henry county and settled on farms near Vic- 
 toria. Steady immigration from Sweden followed, the descend- 
 ants of whom form a large and valued part of our population. 
 
 The Irish first appeared in numbers much later, in 1854, 
 with the advent of the railroad, and now occupy large holdings 
 in the county. 
 
 After the founding of Galesburg with its strong anti- 
 slavery sentiment, the town became known as a prominent 
 station of the "Underground Railroad," and so many colored 
 people received help and kindness on their way farther north to 
 freedom that when it was no longer necessary for them to 
 cross the border into Canada to insure safety, it was not 
 strange they came in increasing numbers, largely from Mis- 
 souri, to make their homes in a neighborhood in which public 
 sentiment had always been favorable to them. However, they 
 have not been widely scattered through the county, evidently 
 preferring to live near their churches in Galesburg. 
 
 But before many more years pass, Knox county can cele- 
 brate the centennial anniversary of her settlement How great 
 have been the changes in conditions during the three genera- 
 tions embraced in one hundred years! It may be interesting 
 to consider some of the prominent characteristics of pioneer 
 life as the old settlers of this county knew it. 
 
 They universally settled in the timber or along its edge, 
 the trees furnishing not only material for their cabins, but 
 that protection from the driving storms which was greatly 
 needed, as many of the homes were hastily built and not fin- 
 ished thoroughly at first. The timber also sheltered stock 
 until sheds and outbuildings could be put up. Here, too, was 
 nature's lumber yard, where the settler could find material for 
 home-made furniture to add to the small stock he had brought 
 with him. The fuel supply also was close at hand. And two
 
 31 
 
 kinds of sweetening were secured from the timber, the sap 
 which when boiled down furnished maple syrup and sugar, and 
 the wild honey found in the bee trees containing many gallons, 
 sometimes a barrel or more. The same natural storehouse 
 supplied casks for it, made from hollow basswood logs, some 
 times three feet long, one end of which was plugged up, and the 
 casks were used for years. A similar method was used in mak- 
 ing the hand corn-mills used by many of the original settlers ; 
 these were made by boring a hole in the top of a large stump, 
 then burning it out in the shape of a mortar Attaching a 
 pounder to a long, bent spring-pole, they pounded their grain 
 and corn, making unbolted meal or flour. This when mixed to 
 a dough was placed on a smooth board or piece of iron, placed 
 slanting towards the fire-place. When lard was abundant the 
 well-shortened bread was called "Johnny Cake." Sometimes 
 the dough was baked in lumps called "Corn Dodgers." If 
 the dough was raised with yeast and baked in a "Dutch oven," 
 it was called "Pone." Hominy, roasted com and mush and milk 
 were eaten commonly also. 
 
 The timber gave shelter to many wild animals which made 
 good eating for the settlers. Wild fruits and nuts added to 
 the family bill of fare and nuts and acorns formed no small 
 part of the food for the hogs they raised. 
 
 There being no mills to grind the grain of the first crops 
 those who could grind by hand power did so, while others 
 grated corn in the ear before it became quite hard on tin 
 graters made from old buckets or pans closely perforated and 
 nailed on a board. Mr. Fraker, whose settling in Lynn town- 
 ship has been mentioned, made a hand mill for grinding grain 
 W'hich stood in the living room and had burrs about two feet 
 in diameter, made from stones, which were called "hard- 
 heads." 
 
 The women as well as the men had their share of arduous 
 labor to perform Spinning was a common household duty. 
 The "little wheel" was used for spinning flax, the "big wheel" 
 for spinning yarn, while quite a number of homes had looms 
 set up on which they did weaving for themselves and for 
 others. 
 
 But not all the labor and privations of the early settlers 
 were a series of unmitigated toils and sufferings. They had 
 their times of fun and enjoyment and managed to break the 
 monotony of their daily life with "quilting bees," "apple par- 
 ings," when the fruit was pared, cored and quartered, strung 
 like bead chains and f estoonel on the walls to dry ; "corn-husk- 
 ings," when both sexes gathered, chose sides, husked fast and 
 furiously to see which side finished the allotted work first, 
 variety being furnished by the occasional finding of the cov-
 
 32 
 
 eted red ear with its osculatory reward. 
 
 Regarding the pioneers' schools it may be readily under- 
 stood the accommodations were not good at first, as the homes 
 were not, but they felt the education of their children could not 
 wait for better buildings. A "mud-and-stick" chimney in one 
 end of the building, with earthen-hearth fireplace, wide and 
 deep enough to take in a four-foot backlog and smaller wood to 
 match, served for warming the school house in winter. For 
 windows, part of a log was cut out on either side and the hole 
 was filled with a few small panes of glass or maybe greased 
 paper. Writing benches were made of wide planks or else 
 puncheons, resting on pins driven into two-inch auger holes, 
 bored into the logs beneath the windows- Seats and flooring 
 were also made from puncheons. Everything was plr.m and 
 rude, but many of America's greatest men have gone out f^'oiii 
 just such school houses, who have become an honor to their 
 country. 
 
 In the summer of 1833, in Section 14 of Henderson Town- 
 shtp, the first school in that vicinity was taught and second in 
 the county. It has some peculiar characteristics ; there were 
 no regular hours for recitations, but the teacher began school 
 with the arrival of the first pupil, closing about sun-down. 
 The boys "made their manners" and the girls made a "curtsy" 
 on entering and leaving. This was known as a "loud" school, 
 because all studied aloud. When studying arithmetic they 
 were permitted to go into the woods, where it was more quiet, 
 to get their lessons. 
 
 No mention of the public schools of Knox county should 
 omit the name of Mary Allen West as being inseparably con- 
 nected with them. Born in the county in 1837, truly a child of 
 the Galesburg colony, educated entirely in the Galesburg dis- 
 trict schools and in Knox Seminary, she was in a position to 
 realize the deficiencies in the earlier system of public instruc- 
 tion and later devoted her influence as an instructor prominent 
 among state and national educators to upbuilding and im- 
 proving the system of county schools. In this work her efforts 
 were second only to those of Professor Geo. Churchill and Dr. 
 Newton Bateman. 
 
 Those who are seeking homes will always select those 
 communities in which the school house and the church find a 
 special recognition, rather than those in which they are not 
 found. It has been said that the early establishment of relig- 
 ious institutions in new settlements is a prominent feature in 
 the history of this county With the very first settler came 
 good old Elder Gumm, who preached almost every Sunday in 
 some of the cabins at Henderson. The oldest religious organ- 
 ization in the county was known as the "Henderson Church,"
 
 ^ . 33 
 
 organized at Henderson Grove in 1830, under the Old School 
 Predestinarian Baptists, the church building being in Rio 
 township. 
 
 Knoxville was made an appointment on the Henderson Mis- 
 sion of the Methodist Episcopal church in 1831. Abingdon M. 
 E. Church was organized in 1833, with seven members. Ab- 
 ingdon Cumbreland Presbyterian Church was organized at 
 Cherry Grove in 1835 In Salem township a M. E. Church was 
 organized in 1836. The history of the old "First Church of 
 Christ," founded by the Galesburg colony is unique, having 
 passed through no period of infantile growth but being strong 
 from the time of its organization. More than thirty families 
 were located in cabins on the south side of Henderson Grove in 
 the fall of 1836 in what they called Log City, waiting for the 
 following spring when they were to begin the erection of 
 buildings on the prairie site bought and platted by them as 
 Galesburg. Before the arrival of their regular minister one 
 or another of the men of the company read a sermon in one 
 of the most commodious homes each Sabbath to a crowded 
 house, as the congregation included colonists not only, but 
 also the earlier Southern settlers along the edge of the 
 grove. The following spring the Galesburg colony began to 
 build and occupy their prairie city homes and in 1837 their 
 church was declared organized as a Presbyterian body, al- 
 though it became known as a "Mother of Churches" from the 
 number of other denominations that have become outgrowths 
 and off-shoots from the parent body. 
 
 This brings this introductory sketch to a close, as the 
 object of the writer has been to give a brief outline of those 
 pioneer settlements which preceded the advent of the large 
 Eastern colony, as after that time the "course of empire" took 
 its way westward with rapid strides. Also as others have writ- 
 ten more particularly of other townships of Knox county, the 
 object of this article is to make especial mention of the early 
 settlements of Henderson and Knox townships. 
 
 No more fitting expression of the spirit that actuated the 
 early settlers of this county could be given than is found in the 
 following beautiful sentiment. : 
 
 "With widening vision in the plain they stood, 
 And gazed with eager eyes the country o'er ; 
 
 Beheld her prairies and pronounced them good, 
 And rested, satisfied to seek no more. 
 
 For them the sowing and the toil, the tear, 
 
 Where others reap with laughter and delight, 
 
 So cooling springs refresh the desert drear 
 
 From sources hid in some far mountain height " 
 
 (From "The Pioneers" by George Candee Gale.)
 
 34 
 
 TOWNSHIPS 
 
 CEDAR TOWNSHIP 
 By Mrs. A. I. Sargent 
 
 A township is not large, yet, he who tells its story realizes 
 how many people live within its borders and how much has 
 been lived during the decades that are past. It is impossible 
 to tell it all. I will sketch briefly the first ten years of the 
 township's settlement as the pioneer days, will tell something 
 of the schools and churches that have been influential in its 
 development and of the men and women who started them, will 
 gladly pay tribute to those who went from its borders at their 
 country's call, and will mark a few of the noteworthy enter- 
 prises in which its citizens have had a share. Most of the 
 story will center around Abingdon and its vicinity, for here 
 the first settlement was made and here is the larger portion 
 of its population. 
 
 Cherry Grove, our fathers thought to call this township, 
 because of the abundance of wild cherry trees, but, finding 
 that name already pre-empted, they changed to Cedar, a name 
 suggested by a certain cedar tree, which, as a seedling, Joseph 
 Latimer had dug up on his journey into this new, wild country 
 and had planted with the planting of his home 
 
 Some government claims had been taken in the township 
 and land transfers made before the time of permanent settle- 
 mnt, so that some of the early settlers bought or traded for 
 their land and some filed claims. Government land was $1.25 
 per acre. In those early days, most of the Western and East- 
 ern borders of the township were irregularly but heavily tim- 
 bered. Much has been cut away but beautiful timber may still 
 be found in these sections. Between its wooded borders, 
 stretching from north to south, were miles of fertile prairie. 
 
 Pioneers 
 
 Henderson Township is always spoken of as having the 
 earliest settlers in the county. It is not probably fully realized 
 that Cedar was settled the same year and only a few months 
 later. 
 
 Among the families I shall mention as pioneers in Cedar 
 Township, it is interesting to note that more than half are 
 from the middle southern states, Maryland, Tennessee, Ken- 
 tucky, Virginia and the Carolinas. These settlers were very 
 largely of the sturdy Scotch-Irish stock, to which the Histor-
 
 35 
 
 ian, Fiske, pays such warm tribute of praise, in showing their 
 enterprise as pioneers and their prominence in legislative life. 
 
 The first recorded settlers in Cedar Township were Rev- 
 Hiram Palmer, a Methodist preacher, and a little later, Azel 
 Dorsey, who settled in 1828, as near neighbors on Sections 7 
 and 18. In less than a year, Dorsey sold out his claim to a Mr. 
 Finch, who also soon sold out and both men left for other 
 places. Hiram Palmer moved four years after his coming 
 onto Section 32, where the Abingdon cemetery now stands. 
 The first settlers whose life was built up surely and lastingly 
 into the life of the community was Abraham D. Swartz, who 
 arrived with his wife in 1829, settling at first on Section 17, 
 but moving soon, perhaps with Hiram Palmer, onto Section 32. 
 It was Mr. Swartz who laid out Abingdon, but that was seven 
 years later. 
 
 The winter of 1830 is always characterized as the "winter 
 of the deep snow " There are no records to tell how these 
 first lonely settlers weathered the storms of that notable 
 winter but there is no doubt about the glad welcome they ex- 
 tended to Joseph Latimer when he arrived with his family 
 early in 1831. Joseph Latimer, who settled on Section 29, 
 came to Illinois from Robertson county, Tennessee, having 
 gone thither many years before by ox wagon from the family 
 home near New London, Connecticut. As a young boy he had 
 watched the burning of New London by the British and cried 
 because he was not old enough to bear arms. His father, 
 Jonathan Latimer, se/ved in the French and Indian War and 
 was a Colonel in the Revolutionary War. Six sons, older 
 brothers of Joseph, also served in the Revolutionary War, all 
 df them at some time under their father's command. Two, one 
 a Major and one a Captain, died in the defense of Bunker Hill. 
 
 Mrs. Joseph Latimer, who shared the pioneer days in 
 oedar township with her husband, came from North Carolina 
 and used to tell the story as she remembered it, of the raid of 
 larleton's men on her father's home and how the British car- 
 ried off everything they wanted from the house and cut the 
 rim of her mother's spinning wheel. Six sons and daughters 
 3f Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Latimer had been married in Ten- 
 lessee, all but one of whom later followed their parents to 
 Knox county. Five children came with them and as they all 
 figure in this story, I will name them: George, John, David, 
 m unmarried daughter, Susan, and a widowed daughter, Mrs 
 Sarah L. Boren, 
 
 Mrs. Boren at once took up a claim of her own and settled 
 mth her children near her father on Section 29. 
 
 George added to the early settlement in the following
 
 36 
 
 manner: In the Fall of 1831, some business necessitated a 
 trip to Vandalia, at that time the capitol of the state, and 
 George Latimer was sent on this errand. In Sangamon county 
 a few miles south of Springfield, he stopped over night at the 
 home of William Drennan, a man of prominence in that com- 
 munity, where the guest was served by Mr. Drennan's seven- 
 teen-year-old daughter. They had not met before and did not 
 meet again until just a year from the time of his first visit 
 George Latimer went back to claim her as his bride. Their 
 wedding journey was the trip on horseback through the glory 
 of the October woods from Sangamon county into Knox county 
 where he had a log cabin ready for his bride on Section 29 
 Here they established a rarely happy and influential home. 
 
 The same year, Jonathan Latimer and family, Joseph's 
 oldest son, came up from Sangamon county where they had 
 temporarily resided and settled on Section 28. With them, and 
 settling near them on the same section, came Mrs. Latimer's 
 parents, Mr. and Mrs. Jacob West. Jonathan Latimer was a 
 man of marked character, who figured largely in the commun- 
 ity for many years. He began his business career in the town- 
 ship by trading a horse for the land upon which he settled. 
 He was ever a trader but combined a shrewd knowledge of 
 values with a kind and generous heart. He has one son still 
 living in Cedar township, Hon. Joseph F. Latimer, three times 
 elected to the Legislature, whose home stands right where his 
 father's log cabin was built in 1832 
 
 In 1833, Dennis Clark, then a young man, afterwards 
 Knox County Judge, came up from • Sangamon County and 
 found a home with Mr. and Mrs. George Latimer, He had 
 known Mrs. Latimer before her marriage. 
 
 In 1833, Susan Latimer married Urban D. Coy, the first 
 marriage to take place in Cedar Township. Soon afterwards,, 
 they settled on Section 21. 
 
 The same year, John Latimer left the parental roof and 
 became the first permanent white settler in Indian Point 
 Township- 
 
 Another married son of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Latimer, 
 Alexander, arrived with his family in '34 and settled on Section 
 21. About the same time, came a son-in-law, Israel Marshall, 
 and his wife Mary Latimer or "Aunt Polly" as she was gener- 
 ally known. They settled on Section 31. Israel Marshall 
 brought with him from Tennessee some fine-blooded stock, the 
 first to be brought into a township which later had a wide repu- 
 tation for its high grade stock. 
 
 There were thus, in the first four years of the decade from 
 1830 to 1840, six Latimer families all settled near each other
 
 37 
 
 in the Cherry Grove iieigborhood and one just over the Hne 
 in Indian Point Township. 
 
 About this time, other settlers were arriving in other 
 parts of the Township. Josehua Bland came in '33, settling 
 with his family on Section 16. The story comes down to us of 
 a "corn cracker mill" owned by Mr. Bland. It stood near 
 where the Heller School house now stands and although a 
 primitive affair, run by horse-power, it ground many a grist 
 of corn for the scattered neighbors who were thankful not to 
 be obliged to go as far as Ellisville, on Spoon River, to get 
 their corn ground A few years ago, Stewart Williamson, a 
 grandson of Mr. Bland's, had the old mill post around which 
 the horses or oxen plodded their monotonous way, dug up and 
 made into canes. 
 
 Early Comers 
 
 There was early a scattering settlement along the eastern 
 timber border. The year 1834 saw the arrival in the township 
 of seven families with staying qualities. All but one settled 
 in the eastern portion of the township. The one exception was 
 Wm. Kays, who, with his wife, came from Kentucky, stopping 
 temporarily in Indiana, and established his home on Section 8, 
 about three miles north of the Latimer settlement. 
 
 Hugh A. Kelly, prominent in township life for many years, 
 and his wife, came from West Virginia and settled on Section 
 15. 
 
 The Castle brothers, coming also from West Virginia with 
 temporary stops along the way, took up claims, Reuben and 
 Henry on Section 12 and George on Section 26 They were all 
 prosperous farmers and good citizens. Two grandsons of 
 George Castle, George and Thomas, sons of Vinton Castle, are 
 living now in Abingdon. 
 
 Onto Section 1 came William Thomas Williamson with his 
 wife and family of young people. He came here from Indiana 
 where he lived for a time, but his boyhood home was in New 
 England. His father had been a soldier in the Revolutionary 
 War and once when he, with others, was hard pressed by the 
 British ; he had dropped out of sight behind a log and the 
 British had passed him by unseen, he thus escaping capture. 
 Mr. Thomas Williamson's sons and daughters married and 
 many of them settled around him where they were highly 
 respec:ted citizens. His son, James, married a daughter of 
 Mr Bland's and they, with their married sons and daughters, 
 later became, and some still are especially identified with the 
 neighborhood around Warren Chapel. Squire Frank Williamson 
 and Stewart Williamson, of Galesburg, are the sons of James 
 Williamson. He also has descendants in and around Abingdon. 
 Children and grandchildren of James Williamson were fond of
 
 38 
 
 hearing him tell of riding over the site where Galesburg later 
 stood, when the only road was the Indian trail from Henderson 
 to Brush Creek, which crossed the goodly stream of Cedar 
 Fork where Leroy Marsh's horse barn now stands. 
 
 With the Williamson's, came Daniel Green Burner, a na- 
 tive of Kentucky, who resided in Sangamon County before 
 coming to Knox. Abraham Lincoln boarded at Green Burner's 
 father's home for four years in New Salem and he and Lincoln 
 slept together. When the Burners left their home in New 
 Salem to come to Knox County, it was Abraham Lincoln who 
 drew up the deed of sale. Green Burner settled on Section 1 
 and from that time on through a long life he was closely iden- 
 tified with this part of the township. He added many fertile 
 acres to those originally taken up until he was the owner of 
 more than one thousand. The widow and part of the family of 
 his son, Milton, are now living in Cedar Township, a few miles 
 north of Abingdon. 
 
 Settling as near neighbors to the Williamson's and Bur- 
 ner's and coming the same year, was the Swartz family, which 
 from that day to this have been prominent in the Brush Creek 
 neighborhood. Albert Swartz and his sisters. Miss Mary and 
 Miss Sarah Swartz, are still living on the original farni, now 
 beautiful cultivated, which was occupied by their grandfather 
 in its wild state, while their brother Thomas lives on his own 
 farm across the road. 
 
 The seventh family to arrive that year was that of George 
 Long, who came from Ohio They spent their first winter in 
 Knoxville, and the next year settled upon the farm on Section 
 12, where some wooded land then purchased is still owned by 
 members of the Long family. Two sons of Mr. Long, George 
 and William, when returning home from the mill at Hender- 
 son, were caught in a snow storm and lost their way on the 
 wide prairie where Galesburg now stands. They wandered 
 around, through the growing darkness until they came upon a 
 little stream to the southward that they knew and so found 
 their way home. The township is indebted to the Long family 
 for many years of teaching in its public schools. George 
 Long, the son of George Long, taught school as a young man 
 and put his earnings into the first payment for an eighty acre 
 piece of prairie land, paying for it $5.00 per acre. His sister, 
 Martha Long, was a teacher in Cedar Township and Knox 
 County for a number of years, and his daughter, Miss Jennie 
 Long, taught in the public schools of the county for 38 years, 
 part of the time in Cedar Township and for 29 years in the 
 city of Galesburg Another daughter. Miss Catherine Long, 
 was prominent in W. C. T. U. work, for eight years being 
 State Superintendent of its Department of Work for SoMiers
 
 39 
 
 and Sailors of Illinois. These two daughters are now living in 
 Galesburg. 
 
 Largely through the efforts of their mother, Mrs. Geo. 
 Long, a Sunday School was started in an early day in the 
 Brush Creek School House and maintained through many diffi- 
 culties. This Sunday School kept up more consecutive years 
 of service than any country Sunday School in the Township. 
 
 An early wedding in the township was that of Miss Mary 
 Long with Reuben Castle. 
 
 Settling on Section 11 along the road traveled by the 
 pioneers in their trips to Knoxville for trade, was another 
 worthy family, who, among the first to arrive in 1835, have 
 descendants living in Knox County This was Thomas Marsh 
 and his wife, the parents of LeRoy Marsh, Mrs. Blair and Mrs. 
 Crawford of Galesburg. 
 
 With them came Elisha Humiston and family who settled 
 nearby. Mr. Humiston later moved on to Section 17. In the 
 northwest part of this section is a small, fenced-in grave yard, 
 known as the Humiston Burial Ground. 
 
 Before turning to other localities, mention should be made 
 of Lewis Spurlock and Williams Bevins Both came in '34 and 
 settled on Section 23. So far as I know, none of their descend- 
 ants are now left in the county, but they had a place in the 
 community life in the early days for Lewis Spurlock was a 
 great deer hunter and William Bevins was a great bee hunter, 
 and the venison and honey they brought in for the little colony 
 were much enjoyed. The Spurlock name is also associated with 
 other parts of the township. 
 
 In the northwest corner of the township, near where War- 
 ren Chapel now stands, Uziah Conger, coming from New York 
 State, settled in the early thirties. His family of nine sons 
 and one daughter grew up around him here, some of them 
 marrying and living in the neighborhood for many years. Here 
 were spent the boyhood of Edwin H. Conger, who, when Am- 
 bassador to China, won the gratitude of the Chinese people 
 for his valuable advice in helping settle the indemnity money 
 question, after the Boxer uprising and who gave the rich and 
 beautiful banner, presented to him by the Chinese people, to 
 Lombard College. He was a grandson of Uziah Conger and 
 the son of Lorentus, who served the county on its Board of Su- 
 pervisors at the time of the Court House fight. Here also 
 grew up Seth Conger, another grandson, later identified with 
 business interests in Galesburg, whose son Frank L. Conger is 
 at the present time cashier in the First National Bank of that 
 citv.
 
 40 
 
 Into this neighborhood also, at a somewhat later date, 
 came Ralph Mount. Two of Mr. Mount's sons, Thomas and 
 William, owned farms and lived for many years along the 
 main road between Abingdon and Galesburg It was one of 
 his sons also who failed to return home at the close of the Civil 
 War and his brothers and sisters, supposing him dead, divided 
 his portion of the estate among themselves, when suddenly one 
 day he arrived home all alive and well and they gave it back 
 again. 
 
 Into this northwest section of the Township (Section 6) 
 in 1836, came Francis Portus Goddard whose son. Uncle Jimmy 
 Goddard, a veteran of the Civil War, lives there still. 
 
 In the central north portion of the township, in 1835, 
 Benjamin Marks who came from Kentucky, was the first to 
 stake a claim out on the open prairie. "You will freeze in win- 
 ter," they told him, but the fierce winter winds blew the snow 
 banks around and clear over his little cabin and kept it snug 
 and warm. Benjamin Marks' son, Pleasant, has long owned 
 the farm on which his father settled, adding to it many acres 
 of his own and is proud to tell of this land having been in the 
 Marks family for 83 years. 
 
 Other early names in this general locality are Garrett, 
 McPherren, Lowrey, Nelson, Crawford, Belden, Bundy and 
 Snyder, who later lived in Abingdon and added Snyder's addi- 
 tion to that town. 
 
 Because of her long residence in the township, "Grandma 
 Reed" should be especially mentioned- She and her husband, 
 John Reed, settled in the edge of the timber southwst of Ben- 
 jamin Marks' home in '36. The location was near an excellent 
 spring and had been a favorite camping ground for the Indians 
 before the Black Hawk War- After her husband's death, Mrs. 
 Reed, who was born near Edinburgh, Scotland, continued to 
 live in this part of the township, spending her last years in 
 the home of her son-in-law, James Kays. She lived to be 
 niriety-seven years old. James Kays' son. Reed Kays, is living 
 on the Reed farm today. 
 
 The Dunlap family, prominently connected with the town- 
 ship's life, came during the latter half of that first decade. 
 Henry Dunlap, with his two sons, Edmund and Jackson, and 
 his daughter, Mary, took the long journey on horseback from 
 Kentucky to Illinois, Knox County and Cedar Township. They 
 arrived early in '37 and settled just north of Cherry Grove, the 
 father on Section 20, and Edmund making a home for his bride 
 of a few months on Section 19, where his twin daughters, Alice 
 and Ellen, still live. Edmund Dunlap paid $100.00 for his orig- 
 inal one hundred and sixty acres. A few months later, Mrs.
 
 41 
 
 Henry Dunlap, with her children and Edmund's young wife, 
 arrived to complete the home circles They came by boat down 
 the Ohio and up the Mississippi to Oquawka, bringing their 
 household goods with them. They brought also a colored 
 woman, whom Mrs. Henry Dunlap's father had presented to 
 his daughter to be nurse for her first baby. Henry Dunlap, as 
 the law required, went security for her good behavior. Aunt 
 Phyllis, as she was generally known, lived to be very old and 
 acted as nurse to four generations of Dunlap children. 
 
 So far as is known, the only one now living who remem- 
 bers coming to Cedar Township in that first decade is J. W- 
 Stephens, who, when a lad of thirteen, came with his father, 
 in 1838, and settled on Section 16. Mr. Stephens is ninety- 
 three years old, a tall, well-preserved man, whose memory is 
 clear and who abounds in many and interesting reminiscences. 
 His father, when he came, bought of Mr. Kays eighty acres of 
 fenced and improved land for which he paid $10.00 per acre. 
 The original Stephens' land is now owned by J. W. Stephens' 
 son, Charles, and so has been in the Stephens family since '38. 
 Mr. Stephens tells of his first trip to the village of Knoxville 
 the summer of their arrival where he saw the old Court House, 
 the one now standing, in process of erection. Its walls at that 
 time were up about four feet. 
 
 The decade of the forties saw the township rapidly filling 
 up. I will not trace its population farther with just one excep- 
 tion I want to mention Isaac Hunter, who, with his brother- 
 in-law, Mr. Jordan, came from New England to Peoria in 1839 
 and on to Knox County and Cedar Township in '41, building a 
 log cabin on Section 23. Here he lived for many years. At the 
 time of his sojourn in Peoria in '39 and '40, it was a town of 
 seven hundred inhabitants. Later Mr. Hunter drove a stage 
 coach between Peoria and Rock Island but the story most often 
 told of him is of how he and Mr. Jordan drove 1,000 sheep 
 across country from Massachusetts to Illinois, the trip taking 
 one hundred and twenty-two days. 
 
 Early Conditions and Experiences 
 
 Now that the township is furnished with inhabitants who 
 have gotten a firm foothold it is time to hear a few tales that 
 have come down to us of these early days. 
 
 It is natural to wonder whether or not the early settlers 
 were troubled by Indians. There are indications that, at a still 
 earlier day, the Indians had had favorite camping places on 
 Cedar Township land, especially in the vicinity of Brush Creek. 
 Leroy Marsh tells of plowing his father's faiTn when he was a 
 boy and finding many arrow heads and once the skull of an 
 Indian. There are some reasons for thinking they favored
 
 42 
 
 other localities in the Township but none were very pro- 
 nounced. Indians frequently found their way to the homes of 
 the settlers and often frightened them, but there is no record 
 of their being distinctly hostile. 
 
 Something of the terror of the Black Hawk War days in 
 '31 and '32 was felt by the pioneers of Cedar Township, al- 
 though all alarms proved false. Mrs. Joseph Latimer, look- 
 ing from her door just at dusk one evening, saw that some 
 kind of visitors were approaching. They were coming single 
 file almost completely hidden by the tall prairie grass. She 
 instantly thought of Indians but her alarm was quieted when 
 she saw Mrs Swartz with her children. Lonely and afraid, 
 they had come to spend the night, Mr. Swartz being away 
 from home. 
 
 From the little settlement at Cherry Grove, the name 
 given to the neighborhood where the Latimers first settled, 
 consisting of three or four families, George Latimer and U. D. 
 Coy joined the volunteer rangers in the Black Hawk War. 
 George Latimer was first lieutenant when the little volunteer 
 band was formed. How rank was determined at that time, I 
 do not know but always after the Black Hawk War, these two 
 men were known as Colonel Latimer and Major Coy. Each of 
 the Rangers furnished his own horse. One hundred guns were 
 brought from Rock Island to Oquawka and from there by 
 wagon to Knox and Warren Counties. The men from these 
 counties ranged as far as the Mississippi river in the vicinity 
 of Oquawka. They were gone from home more than two 
 months and did good guard service, although engaging in no 
 battles. Each man was paid eighty-six cents per day for him- 
 self and horse. 
 
 About the Indians 
 
 In the years following the Black Hawk War, the Indians 
 almost all crossed the Mississippi either voluntarily or taken 
 to reservation lands by the government. A large band of 
 Indians very early camped in their westward journey on a 
 hill south of Jonathan Latimer's home. A granddaughter of 
 his, in a school composition when she was quite young, tells a 
 little incident of this Indian Camp in these words: "One little 
 Indian shot another, and the murdered boy was buried on the 
 hill, with his head to the north and his heels to the south, with 
 his pipe, tobacco, guns and his valuable trinkets, beads, furs 
 and feathers also. Being a chief's son, there was a great "Pow- 
 wow" at his death. My Aunt Emily attended the funeral and re- 
 members distinctly about it" By Indian rule, the little boy 
 who shot the other should forfeit his life but Colonel Sands, 
 who was conducting the Indians westward, succeeded in ar- 
 ranging a compromise whereby the parents of the boy that 
 was killed received certain valuable gifts. While these nego-
 
 43 
 
 tiations were being made, the boy was kept in hiding in the 
 Brush Creek woods. 
 
 A very large company of Indians, estimated at from five 
 hundred to seven hundred, accompanied by government offi- 
 cials, on their way to western reservation land, crossed the 
 township, camping over night by Brush Creek. Leroy Marsh, 
 then a little boy, visited the camp which was about half a mile 
 from his father's farm and was badly frightened by their yells 
 to each other. One of the government teamsters, accompany- 
 ing the Indians, was taken ill and left at the Marsh home where 
 he was cared for for several weeks. 
 
 The log cabins of the first settlers have been often de- 
 scribed. The more pretentions ones had two large rooms with 
 an intervening space, roofed, and enclosed on one side. Each 
 room had its large fireplace with cooking accommodations and 
 a bed or beds and trundle beds, a spinning wheel and sometimes 
 a loom. The construction of such dwellings was not a lengthy 
 process. Neighborly helpfulness was universal. Mr. Stephens 
 tells an incident which illustrates this. Wm. Kays had eight 
 daughters and one son. Two married daughters were early 
 left widows and returned to their father's house with their 
 children. It is easy to see that the family were undesirably 
 numerous, considering the log house accommodations, so a day 
 was set, the neighbors all came early, cut and hauled the 
 timber, and in one day put up a log cabin of the double kind 
 just mentioned, so that one daughter and her family had one 
 end and the other, the other. In like manner, when Alexander 
 Latimer's log house burned down, the neighbors gathered and 
 helped him put up another. Here again in one day, the trees 
 were cut down and the building erected The next day, he put 
 down the puncheon floor, cut some windows and made some 
 furniture and that evening the family moved in. Alexander 
 Latimer's one chief regret in connection with the burning of 
 his log cabin was that a number of letters written by Abraham 
 Lincoln to himself were destroyed. He had served under Lin- 
 coln in the Black Hawk War and was greatly attached to him. 
 
 Soon after Jonathan Latimer came, his horses strayed 
 away and he was gone several days hunting for them. The 
 finishing touches had not been put upon his cabin and their 
 only door was a bed tick hanging down from the top, weighted 
 at the bottom with straw. So plentiful were the wolves at that 
 time that during the three nights of his absence, Mrs. Latimer 
 had to keep a bright fire burning in the fireplace to keep the 
 hungry animals from coming in. Wolves were great pests to 
 the early settlers, especially in their propensity to carry off the 
 sheep, for almost everyone owned some sheep, upon which they 
 depended for the wool to be carded, spun and woven into 
 blankets and clothing. Panthers were not uncommon and old
 
 44 
 
 and young avoided paths which led through thick underbrush 
 at night. Deer were also plentiful for a time, as were many 
 kinds of small game. 
 
 Log cabins soon began to give place to more pretentious 
 houses. In 1840, Jonathan Latimer began the construction of 
 a commodious brick house, which was long considered a fine 
 dwelling. It was built in southern style with a wide hall ex- 
 tending through it from north to south. He had chosen a 
 rarely beautiful building site and had planted two long rows of 
 maple trees which soon formed a handsome avenue leading to 
 the house. The lumber used in the house came from his own 
 timber and the bricks were made from clay dug on his fann 
 and burned in two kilns he had made. The first brick burnec 
 he sold to buy window glass and to pay for the sawing of the 
 black walnut lumber and the oak shingles. 
 
 Watson Barber, living just north of Louisville, hauled 
 lumber on wagons from Chicago and put up a frame house foi 
 himself. This house was torn down only a few years ago 
 
 Mrs. Joseph Latimer and Mrs. Swartz used to go on horse- 
 back fifteen miles to Henderson to trade before there was a 
 store in Knoxville. Knoxville being nearer and of growing im- 
 portance, soon became the trade center for Cedar Township 
 people. Heavy, wide-gauge wagons, drawn by either oxen or 
 horses, were used at first but lighter and less clumsy vehicles 
 must have soon come into use. Horseback riding was uni- 
 versal. The women were expert riders, often carrying farm 
 produce to market in this way and bringing back goods in 
 exchange. At one time, Mrs. Jonathan Latimer marketed so 
 much maple sugar of her own making and lindsey-woolsey of 
 her own weaving that when the trading was finished she still 
 had fifty dollars to her credit. 
 
 Stoves were rare. There was occasionally a square-boxed 
 heating stove to be found but cook stoves did not come into 
 the township until the very last of that first decade. Then 
 one was hauled down from Chicago by Mr. Garrett. J. W. 
 Stephens, at that time a boy in his teens, tells of going to see 
 this stove as a great curiostiy. 
 
 For laundry purposes in the very earliest days, any good 
 sized stream was sufficient. Mrs. Swartz and Mrs Jonathan 
 Latimer would carry their washing down to the creek where 
 together they washed the clothes. When these were dry and 
 ready to iron, they would carry the clothes to one or the other 
 cabin and visit while they ironed. 
 
 The Markets 
 
 The nearest markets where the Cedar Township farmers 
 could dispose of their grain, corn and stock were at Oquawka,
 
 45 
 
 about forty miles distant and especially at Peoria some fifty 
 miles away and Copperas Landing, below Peoria. Mr. Stephens 
 says he has hauled many a load of corn to Peoria, and sold it 
 for fifteen cents a bushel, taking it out in trade. Mr. Stephens 
 spent one winter helping run the saw mill at Old Henderson 
 which sawed the logs for the old First Church at Galesburg. 
 As a young man, he sometimes came to Galesburg for evening 
 entertainments and it was not easy to take the ride home with- 
 out getting lost, as all was open prairie to his home some six 
 or seven miles south. To use his expression, "there was not a 
 stick from there to Galesburg." 
 
 In case of sickness, home remedies were mostly used. 
 Knoxville was the nearest place where medical aid could be 
 secured. In the Fall of 1836 Joseph Latimer's youngest son, 
 David, was seriously ill. He was taken to a doctor in Knoxville 
 who asked that he be left in his care for a few weeks. Seeming 
 improved in health, his brother-in-law. Major Coy, with the 
 best conveyance obtainable at the time, was sent to bring him 
 home. When well on their homeward jouniey, the young man 
 complained of feeling faint and asked Major Coy to help him to 
 alight. There, sitting by the roadside, death came quickly and 
 with no one to call upon for help. Major Coy lifted his brother's 
 body into the conveyance and went on alone to the sad home 
 coming. 
 
 These are some of the experiences of those early days in 
 Cedar Township. While some were hard and some were sad, 
 the pleasant part predominated for the exuberance and 
 strength of youth was in the newly settled country- 
 Schools 
 
 The history of the township's schools and churches began 
 with its settling. From the day when A. D. Swartz and Azel 
 Dorsey joined Hiram Palmer in 1829, religious services have 
 been maintained. The services were held first in Mr. Swartz's 
 house, where also, four years later, a church organization with 
 seven members was effected. From this humble beginning 
 grew the strong Methodist Church of Abingdon which later 
 founded and fostered Hedding College. But before that day, 
 there was a school at Cherry Grove, the outgrowth of another 
 church organization, which was far-reaching in its influence. 
 In Chapman's History of Knox County is this sentence, "The 
 first church and school house erected in the county, was at 
 Cherry Grove in Cedar Township in 1832, and Major Coy said 
 he cut the first log for this church and school house." It was a 
 log building and stood just southwest of where Cherry Grove 
 Cemetery now is. Both religious services and school were held 
 in this building. The school and church were always so closely 
 associated that their story belongs together.
 
 46 
 
 On June 20th, 1835, at the home of Joseph Latimer, a 
 little company met and organized a Cumberland Presbyterian 
 Church with thirteen members. Joseph Latimer and John 
 Howard were elected Elders and George G. Latimer, clerk, 
 an office he held until his death, thirteen years later. The 
 records of this meeting and those that followed are in the pos- 
 session today of one of Geo. Latimer's descendants. Quaint 
 old records they are and interesting reading. The brethren and 
 sisters are carefully watched over and reproved by the church 
 when their steps go astray. The little church, full of zeal and 
 purpose, in 1836, the year after its organization, erected a 
 frame building which stood about eighty rods northeast of the 
 school house "in a beautiful walnut and sugar maple grove, just 
 at the edge of the prairie " It was here that Cherry Grove 
 Seminary was started, by this young church, in 1837. 
 
 Cherry Grove Seminary 
 
 Its beginning was small but the hopes of its founders 
 were large. They hoped the school might develop into a college 
 and in 1840, a charter from, the state for a first class college 
 was obtained. A graduate of both Cherry Grove Seminary 
 and Knox College, in later years, compared the curriculum of 
 the two young schools and found them almost exactly the 
 same except that more Latin and Greek were taught at Cherry 
 Grove. In 1841, Rev. Cyrus Haynes, a college graduate and an 
 experienced and capable teacher, took charge as principal. Let 
 me quote from Perry's Knox County History: "For eight 
 years, under Mr. Haynes' management, the school prospered. 
 In his time, a considerable addition was built, adjoining the 
 church, to afford more room for the school. In 1849, a large, 
 substantial, two-story frame building was erected, the lower 
 story for a Chapel and church purposes, fhe upper story ar- 
 ranged for recitations and other school uses. 
 
 "Mr. Haynes was followed by a succession of strong, wide- 
 awake teachers among them Rev. J. M. B. Roach, C. H. Baker, 
 Rev. J C. Wagamon and others, all of whom did good work and 
 under whose management the school continued to prosper. 
 There came to the school a fine class of young people, earnest, 
 enthusiastic and loyal. There was a successful literary society, 
 the Upsilon, and a semi-monthly paper, "The Cherry Leaf," 
 edited by the students. Also, in later years, music was taught. 
 The school was in a sense under the advice and patronage of 
 the Rushville Presbytery of the Cumberland Presbyterian 
 Church. There were students from a large part of Western 
 Illinois and they came also from Iowa, Missouri and Kentucky. 
 A very large percent of those who were students here made a 
 good record in after life, some remarkably so.
 
 47 
 
 "There were grouped about Cherry Grove Seminary- 
 grounds and within a half mile, ten or twelve houses where 
 these students were boarded or boarded themselves. Besides 
 these, home from a mile to a mile and a half away, took stud- 
 ents to board when it was necessary. In maintaining Cherry 
 Grove Seminary, all the community joined heartily. Many 
 sacrifices were necessary and were made cheerfully. In some 
 respects, the burdens fell heaviest on the women, who, with 
 meagre facilities for doing so and very small pay, had to care 
 for the students and see that they had as comfortable homes 
 as possible while at school. Some of the students were poor 
 and some of the young men were studying for the ministiy and 
 were to be encouraged in every possible way. 
 
 "Among the many unselfish and devoted women who 
 helped in this, one is worthy of especially mention because of 
 her long service and her helpful influence. When Cherry 
 Grove Seminary was started, George Latimer with his father 
 and brothers, Jonathan and Alexander, were among the active 
 leaders in the move and gave much of their time and liberally 
 of their means in forwarding the enterprise. George Latimer's 
 home was but sixty rods from the Seminary and Church build- 
 ing and every interest that pertained to either, always received 
 a cheerful and hearty support from Mrs. Latimer. She was 
 with the foremost in entertaining comers and goers and al- 
 ways, of course, without a thought of pay. When the school 
 was started and from that time on, her home was always full 
 of students and at almost a nominal price for board. Her sym- 
 pathy for and helpfulness to young men were a marked feature 
 of her life. Here Dennis Clark, who for eighteen years served 
 so acceptably as judge of the Knox County Court, lived for 
 twelve years. He always held Mrs. Latimer in grateful esteem 
 and affection. In 1848, Mrs. Latimer's first great sorrow 
 came. In the space of two weeks, her husband and three child- 
 ren were taken by death, two of the children being buried in 
 one grave. Left with the entire care of a young family, in 
 addition to her household duties, she now took the management 
 of the farm. Her only son was but ten years old. Besides 
 her watchful care and training of her five children, her man- 
 agement of the farm and stock upon it was equal to that of 
 the best farmers in the neighbood. Meanwhile, she in no 
 degree relaxed her interest in the school. Her only son, after 
 attending Cherry Grove Seminary, graduated from Knox Col- 
 lege and the Law School at Albany, New York. Without com- 
 ing home from Albany, he went directly into his country's 
 service. In the Fall of 1864, while on shipboard off Fortress 
 Monroe, returning from an expedition into the Carolinas, he 
 died of yellow fever and was buried at sea." What it meant 
 to this widowed mother to have her only son fall in the service 
 of his country, just when he so well prepared for the work of
 
 48 
 
 manhood, many mothers at the present time can understand. 
 With sincerest sympathy, her many student friends shared her 
 sorrow. 
 
 Let me pause just here to note again the date of the 
 founding of Cherry Grove Seminary, 1837, the year we Gales- 
 burg people know so well as the year of the founding of Knox 
 College. These two institutions then were twins. Though not so 
 perfect in its conception and organization as the college we 
 honor, yet it is with pride and a sense of appreciative gratitude 
 that I write of this school. Honoring as I do and have long 
 done with all my heart, the founders of Galesburg and Knox 
 College, I want here to pay a tribute to these other founders, 
 still earlier pioneers, who, having experienced the sense of 
 insecurity against Indians and wild animals and endured cheer- 
 fully the discomforts and inconveniences of the very early days 
 and who, without any strong and well organized colony to 
 stand back of them with sympathy and financial support, yet 
 conceived, prayed over and established a school which did them 
 honor, throughout its almost thirty years of history. 
 
 "In the year 1866, there was located at Lincoln, Illinois, 
 a college by the Cumberland Presbterian churches of the state. 
 This school was intended to take the place of two or three 
 schools similar to the one at Cherry Grove and make of all one 
 strong college. The establishing of this college, together with 
 the fact that there were at the time two colleges in Galesburg, 
 two in Abingdon and one or two in Knoxville, made it apparent 
 that there was no longer a demand for Cherry Grove Seminary 
 and accordingly in 1866, the school was closed. 
 
 The town of Abingdon now has one and has had two 
 schools of college grade, Abingdon College in South Abingdon 
 which is in Indian Point Township and Hedding College in 
 North Abingdon. 
 
 In 1858, Abingdon College received its charter. It had 
 been opened as an academy in a plain wooden building two 
 years before by P. H. Murphy. The story of this college, for 
 many years a strong and influential school, belongs to Indian 
 Point Township. 
 
 Hedding- College 
 
 Hedding College in North Abingdon is the fulfillment of 
 a prophecy made by the city's founder, Mr. Swartz Soon after 
 he and his wife came to live in their log cabin near where the 
 Abingdon Cemetery now is, the story goes that he took a walk 
 one day and stopped to rest on a little knoll of rising ground. 
 As they stood looking around them at the wide stretching 
 prairie, Mr. Swartz said to his wife: "We shall live to see a 
 village here and where we stand a college will be built." On
 
 49 
 
 the ground where he stood when he uttered those words, 
 Hedding College now stands. At another time, he said to a 
 companion : "Here is my college site. I do not expect to live to 
 see it, but I have an impression that some day there will be a 
 college built here." Mr. Swartz died in 1852. In the division 
 of property, the present site of the college fell to his daughter 
 Sarah, who afterward married Thomas R. Wilson. They gave 
 five acres of ground and $500 to help cany out the plan of es- 
 tablishing an institution of learning. Oregon P. and Benjamin, 
 sons of A. D. Swartz, were also among the most liberal donors. 
 The school was first opened November 19, 1855, and held its 
 sessions for two years in the old Methodist Episcopal church, 
 with Rev. N. C Lewis as principal. It was called Hedding 
 Collegiate Seminary in honor of Bishop Hedding. The name 
 was suggested by J. B. F. Chesney. 
 
 The first building was erected by voluntary subscriptions 
 in 1856 and '57. September 16, 1857, the school opened in its 
 new building. On February 9, 1857, a charter had been 
 granted and the name changed to Hedding Seminary and Cen- 
 tral Illinois Memale College. Ten years later, the first class 
 graduated in the regular Seminar>^ course. In 1873 and '74, 
 the large main building, seventy-one by seventy feet and three 
 stories high, was put up at a cost of $45,000. In 1875, the 
 name was again changed to Hedding College and a ne^^■ college 
 charter was granted. 
 
 The college is under the patronage of the Methodist Epis- 
 pal Church Like all colleges. Hedding has had its times of 
 special prosperity and adversity. Let me quote from its last 
 college catalogue: "The decade of the 90'c saw the beginning of 
 an endowment fund. In 1903, the gymnasium was erected and 
 the era of expansion ushered in. The endowment campaign of 
 1908 and '09 added materially to the resources of the college, 
 while that of 1911 and 1912 not only increased the fund, but 
 awakened a fine spirit of enthusiasm for its usefulness. The 
 campaign begun in the spring of 1912, was carried forward for 
 the next four years, coming to a victorious conclusion on De- 
 cember 6, 1916. At midnight of this date, a total of $350,000 
 was announced. The Board of Trustees set aside $250,000 of 
 this amount for endowment and $100,000 for indebtedness, 
 buildings and equipment. $10,000 have been invested in the 
 purchase of books for the Library, equipment for the labora- 
 tories and in the remodeling of the basement of the main col- 
 lege building, and $40,000 have been spent in remodeling Old 
 Main. The plant is now modem in every detail." At present, 
 the college has the following buildings : Old Main, enlarged and 
 remodeled; the Gymnasium; the Nessie Blodgett Hall for 
 young women and Novella McHard Home for boys; besides 
 owning a handsome residence for the home of the president.
 
 50 
 
 Nearly four hundred names are on its alumni roll, including 
 many who have achieved commercial or professional success 
 above the average. Doctor Walter D. Agnew is its present 
 efficient and beloved president. 
 
 Hedding college and Cheriy Grove Seminary are the only 
 schools of higher education which Cedar Township has had, 
 but district schools, almost all of them begun in log houses, 
 were erected wherever settlements were made. There are to- 
 day and have been for many years, schools taught in the Louis- 
 ville, Brush Creek, Hunter, Heller, Warren, Earle, Cheriy 
 Grove and Cross Lanes districts. Professor W. F. Boyes, 
 County Superintendent of Schools, has written for Mr. Perry's 
 County History a fine and authoritative article upon "The 
 History and Development of the County Common Schools." 
 In this article he makes mention of the valuable work of 
 Leanna Hague, who was closely identified with educational 
 interests in Cedar Township for many years. Her father, with 
 his wife and two little children, spent the winter of '51 and '52 
 in the Cherry Grove neighborhood, where he had come in Octo- 
 ber from Pennsylvania. The next year, he moved over into 
 Galesburg township where he lived for the remainder of a long 
 life. His oldest daughter, Leanna, after graduating from 
 Waynesburg College in Pennsylvania, came back into Cedar 
 Township and for fifteen years taught school in the newly 
 erected country school house at Cherry Grove. She proved 
 herself a rare educator. Thorough and enthusiastic in her 
 work, she had the gift, to a marked degree, of inspiring her 
 pupils with great loyalty and ambition. Working in close asso- 
 ciation with Mary Allen West, County Superintendent of 
 Schools from 1873 to 1882, she did valuable service to the 
 township and county in classifying and providing graded 
 courses of study for district schools. Her own school was re- 
 peatedly the banner school in number of premiums taken for 
 fine work shown at the County Fair. For several successive 
 years, this district school excelled all others in the state, in 
 number and value of premiums taken for superior work sho\/n 
 at the State Fair. Leanna Hague's work with Cheriy Grove 
 School, ceased when she married George Dunlap in 1883. She 
 is living today, frail in body, but strong in mind and spirit, in 
 the city of Galesburg. 
 
 Churches 
 
 In the history of the township, its churches have had an 
 important part. The organization of the two oldest has al- 
 ready been mentioned. I will add a few facts about these be- 
 fore telling of others. 
 
 The Methodist Episcopal Church of Abingdon was organ- 
 ized in the home of A. D. Swartz in 1833, three years before
 
 51 
 
 the town of Abingdon was laid out, with the following mem- 
 bers: Mr. and Mrs. Swartz, Mr and Mrs. Joseph Latimer, Mr. 
 and Mrs. Finch and Mrs. Nanc}' Latimer. Two years later, Mr. 
 and Mrs. Joseph Latimer withdrew to help organize another 
 church of their own denomination. The little new Methodist 
 church worshipped for sometime in private houses. In 1846, 
 their first church was erected in Abingdon on the corner of 
 Washington and Jefferson streets. This building was used 
 both for religious worship and for two years by Hedding 
 College for school purposes. When the first college building 
 was put up in 1857, the congregation worshipped in its chapel 
 until a new church building was erected in 1867. This build- 
 ing, a fine one for its day, stood for thirty years on the corner 
 of Washington and Latimer streets. It was torn down to giv^e 
 place to the present well-appointed, modern church building, 
 which was completed in 1898. This strong church has always 
 been closely identified with the life of the city of Abingdon. 
 
 The Congregational Church of today in Abingdon had its 
 origin in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church at Cherry 
 Grove about which I have already told in connection with 
 Cherry Grove Seminary. For its history and in explanation 
 of its change in denominations, I quote from an article pre- 
 pared at the time of the dedication of the present Congrega- 
 tional Church building: "At the present time when the new 
 Congregational Church building in Abingdon is being dedi- 
 cated, it seems most appropriate that there should be given 
 and recorded a brief history of the congregation that wor- 
 shipped in the old church home and is now entering the new 
 one, showing a continuous and connected history of the organ- 
 ization that took its start more than 80 years ago, and thus pre- 
 serve in permanent form some, at least, of the more important 
 facts connected with a congregation that has taken an import- 
 ant part in shaping the religious and educational life of this 
 community from the time of its very first settlement. Briefly, 
 therefore, we find that between 1830 and 1835, there came 
 hither from that part of Tennessee and Kentucky, known as 
 the Cumberland country, several families and located in the 
 vicinity of Abingdon, mostly to the north of what is known 
 as Cherry Grove neighborhood. These people were of staunch 
 Presbyterian, Puritan stock. They brought with them letters 
 from the Cumberland Presbyterian Church On June 20, 1835, 
 these families by appointment met at the home of Joseph Lati- 
 mer and organized the Cherry Grove congregation of the 
 Cumberland Presbyterian Church. Rev. James H. Stockton, 
 a minister of that denomination, was present and after preach- 
 ing a sermon, acted as moderator, and conducted the service of 
 organization. The following names were enrolled as members : 
 Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Latimer, Mr. and Mrs. John Howard, Miss 
 Ellen Howard, Mrs. Susan P. Coy, Mr. and Mrs. Geo. G. Lati-
 
 52 
 
 mer, Mr. and Mrs. John Crawford, Mr. and Mrs. Alexander 
 Latimer and Mrs. Nancy Lomax 
 
 This was the first church that built, as has been related, 
 the first meeting house in the edge of the timber and later 
 worshipped in the Cherry Grove Seminary building. I resume 
 the quotation: 
 
 "In 1866, there was located at Lincoln, Illinois, a Cumber- 
 land Presbyterian College for the state. Cheriy Grove was a 
 competitor for this college but falling to secure it, the church 
 decided to abandon the school and build a church house in Ab- 
 ingdon. Thus, after a career of marked usefulness for nearly 
 thirty years, was the dual work of this congregation aban- 
 doned. 
 
 "In the fall and winter of 1866, the church building in 
 Abingdon on the corner of Washington and Pearl streets was 
 erected and in February of 1867, it was dedicated and occupied. 
 At that time it was the most commodious church building in 
 Abingdon. Rev. J. R. Brown, D. D., was then the popular and 
 well beloved pastor. After a period of fourteen years, during 
 which time every department of the church work was main- 
 tained without an interruption, the congregation decided to 
 change to the fellowship of the Congregational Church. In 
 1881, by a vote of the congregation, they changed their fellow- 
 ship in a body from the Cumberland Presbyterian Church to 
 that of the Congregational Church. This action was taken 
 without any change in belief, they then and now retaining the 
 same articles of faith as formerly. It was done for the sake of 
 closer fellowship with the churches in the nearer vicinity and 
 because of the then existing prejudice between the North and 
 South growing out of the recent rebellion. The Cumberland 
 Presbyterian Church was organized in the South and had its 
 membership largely there. Its name, too, tended to localize it 
 there- Because of this prejudice, the church felt that its use- 
 fulness was being hindered. Rev. James M. Campbell, D. D., 
 was the last pastor before this change was made and Rev. Wil- 
 liam Clerk, was the first after the change." The present com- 
 modious and modern Congregational church building was com- 
 pleted and occupied in 1917. 
 
 A Protestant Methodist Church was started in Abingdon 
 about 1838. They at first worshipped in a small frame build- 
 ing on the corner of Main and Latimer streets. In '46, or near 
 that time, they put up a church building on Jackson street a 
 little west of where the C. B. and Q. railroad tracks now are. 
 Later, about 1868, they built a commodious and substantial 
 church home that stood on the corner of Jefferson and Jack- 
 son streets. For a while they were a flourishing church. 
 After some years the church organization was abandoned.
 
 53 
 
 In this Protestant Methodist church building in 1879 a con- 
 gregation was organized known as the Jefferson Street Chris- 
 tian Church. After worshipping here for a time, they pur- 
 chased the old Methodist Episcopal Church building on the 
 corner of Washington and Jefferson streets. They refurnished 
 it and worshipped there until 1884, when this church reunited 
 with the Christian Church then worshipping in the chapel of 
 the old Abingdon College building 
 
 The present Christian Church of Abingdon, so long con- 
 nected with Abingdon College, was founded in 1840 by Hiram 
 Smith and Richard Johnston. It is another strong church 
 closely connected with the life of the city, but its histoiy be- 
 longs to Indian Point Township in which township it is located. 
 
 About 1858, a Congregational Church was organized in 
 Abingdon. Among those who started this church were Isaac 
 Hunter, Thomas Marsh, Thomas Andrews, Thaddeus Merrill, 
 Wm. Hughey and their families. They bought a lot and put up 
 a building on the west side of Main street opposite the present 
 city park. Here they worshipped for ten years, or until 1868, 
 when the church was desbanded. Each member of the church 
 was given a letter of dismissal and recommendation to any 
 church he or she might wish to unite with. 
 
 In 1910, a Universalist Church was organized in Abing- 
 don which is doing service at the present time. 
 
 There have been several influential country churches in 
 the township. About 1838, both the Methodist Eposcopal and 
 the Methodist Protestant people organized each a church. 
 The Methodist Episcopal organization occurred in the village 
 of Louisville ; the Methodist Protestant a mile north of it. 
 Both congregations worshipped for a time in private houses. 
 In 1841, a Methodist Episcopal Church building was erected on 
 the public square of Louisville. Mr. Stephens thus describes 
 it: 'Tt was built by Reuben Castle in 1842 and he received for 
 the labor and the material which he put into it, $150.00. Every 
 piece of dimension stuff that was in the building was hewn out 
 of oak. The structure was exceedingly well built and thor- 
 oughly pinned together with wooden pins. It stood on blocks 
 that raised the building quite high from the ground so that the 
 sheep that were running at large, used to go under the building 
 and stay there during their resting time and in the hottest part 
 of the day " In 1878, under the leadership of Rev. Kinney, 
 the little church known as WaiTen Chapel was built, at which 
 time the Louisville church was abandoned as a house of wor- 
 ship. It was given to Rev. R. Kinney and he occupied it about 
 five years as a residence. Then J. W. Stephens purchased the 
 ground and the church which stood upon it." The Warren 
 Chapel Methodist Episcopal church did good service for a long
 
 54 
 
 time. The building now stands unused, the organization having 
 been given up. 
 
 The Methodist Protestant church was built soon after 
 the Methodist Episcopal, near where Pleas Marks now lives. 
 Their first building was, in process of time, replaced by a 
 larger and more imposing structure. This, however, because 
 of so many deaths and removals was abandoned long ago, and 
 in 1894, the building was sold and torn down. 
 
 Sunday Schools were kept up more or less regularly for 
 some years at Warren Chapel, Louisville, and in the Brush 
 Creek, Hunter and Earle School Houses. No school house Sun- 
 day Schools are held regularly so far as is known at the present 
 time and out of all these churches, there are only three in the 
 township today, the Abingdon Methodist Episcopal, Congrega- 
 tional and Universalist. 
 
 Towns and Industries 
 
 It is interesting to note that Galesburg, Abingdon and 
 Louisville were laid out as towns in the same year — 1836. 
 Abingdon was laid out by A. D. Swartz, Louisville by John S. 
 Garrett. 
 
 On the map of Cedar Township in the 1870 '*Atlas Map of 
 Knox County," the plat of the town of Louisville, on Section 16, 
 is shown. Louisville never grew to be more than a village but 
 had several good-sized hewed log houses, a post office, a Metho- 
 dist Episcopal church and a store started by Alexander Ewing 
 of Knoxville The post office was at first called "Farmers' 
 Hall." The mail was carried by a hired conveyance from 
 Macomb to Galesburg. Thus, both Abingdon and Louisville 
 were on this mail route. The mail was all carried in one bag, 
 the postman stopping at each town on the way and sorting out 
 the mail for that town. 
 
 When, in 1853, a township organization was perfected, the 
 first township election was held in Louisville with Hugh A. 
 Kelly as moderator and Lorentus W. Conger clerk. The result 
 of this first township election was as follows: E. P. Dunlap, 
 Supervisor ; William Marks, Clerk ; William Lang, Assessor ; 
 James W. Smoot, Collector; J. W. Stephens and W. H. Heller, 
 Commissioners of Highways ; P. M. Shoop and Joseph Harvey 
 Justices of Peace ; Thomas S. Bassett, Overseer of the Poor ; 
 Solomon Stegall and Eli Butler, Constables. The election of 
 the following year was also held at Louisville but ever since, it 
 has been held at Abingdon No trace of the village of Louis- 
 ville is left today, but the Louisville District School House 
 stands near the original site. 
 
 Abingdon, beautifully located on high rolling ground in
 
 55 
 
 the southwest quarter of Section 33, as originally laid out by 
 Mr. Swartz, comprised sixteen blocks. In 1849, the Frederick 
 Snyder addition, just over the line in Indian Point Township, 
 was added. It was long known as South Abingdon. There 
 have been a number of later additions. The town was named 
 after the city of Abingdon, Maryland, the birthplace of Mr. 
 Swartz. From the fuller accounts of Abingdon as written up 
 in the various Knox County histories and from old residents, 
 I have culled a few facts. The first residence, a one-room, 
 log house, was erected on Main street by A. M. Curry. He 
 and John Green built a log store near the dwelling and received 
 a license to sell goods in 1837. Alonzo Reece, a brother of Dr. 
 Reece, who was so long and closely identified with Abingdon 
 life, was the first child bom in the town. Where the Globe 
 Factory now stands, the first hotel was erected. It was run 
 by Captain Thomas Ellison. Before this, in 1836, the very 
 year the town was started, we are told there was a tavern kept 
 in a double log house by a certain John Evans. Here both 
 man and beast could find accommodations. The first school, 
 taught by a Mr Mcintosh in 1838, was held in a small frame 
 building which stood just north of where the Globe Factory 
 now stands. In 1855, the population of Abingdon was only 
 about five hundred. The founding of its colleges about that 
 time, an account of which has already been given, gave great 
 impetus to the growth of the town. In 1867, a large brick 
 graded school building was built. At present, Abingdon has 
 two graded schools and has a fine new high school building in 
 process of erection. 
 
 Abingdon was incorporated as a village in 1845. In 1857, 
 north and south Abingdon united and were incorporated as a 
 city by a special act of legislature. The first officers were: 
 W. H. Gillaspie, Mayor; C. C. Lewis, Sidney Owens, Jesse Per- 
 due and George Inness, Aldermen ; C. L. Summers, Clerk ; 
 Jesse Burr, Assessor; Andrew Bradbury, Collector; W. H. Gil- 
 laspie, Treasurer and W. Merrick, Marshal. In accordance with 
 the terms stipulated in its original charter, no intoxicating li- 
 quor has ever been legally sold within the boundaries. The 
 store kept by Jonathan Latimer, later known as Latimer and 
 Meeks, is noteworthy because it demonstrates the fact that a 
 department store flourished in the forties and fifties even if 
 not so well organized or extensively housed as those of the 
 present time. Perry's History of Knox County says of this 
 store: "Under one roof were employed a shoe-maker, a tailor 
 and a milliner This store kept dry goods, groceries, boots and 
 shoes, hardware, meats cured by themselves and a small var- 
 iety of drugs. They also bought and sold cattle, hogs, sheep 
 and all the products of the farm. There were two ways in 
 which they disposed of hogs of which they often owned sev- 
 eral thousand taken in exchange for goods sold during the
 
 56 
 
 year. They would either slaughter them on the farm and haul 
 their carcasses to Copperas Landing on the Illinois River, or 
 they would drive them on foot to the same shipping point. 
 Sometimes, the meat that was slaughtered would be packed in 
 barrels, salted and shipped in this way. Generally, the return 
 wagons would be loaded with goods to be again traded to the 
 farmers for their farm products." Copperas Landing was the 
 center of this shipping trade as it furnished water facilities to 
 St. Louis and other cities. 
 
 There are two prosperous banks in Abingdon at the pres- 
 ent time, the First National, known as the People's Bank, or- 
 ganized in 1879 by M. C. Bates, J. B. McKay and M. C. Kimball, 
 and the State Bank, organized in 1902 by John Mosser and 
 sons, James Cox, J. W. Hunter, Henry Simmons, and Joseph 
 Main. 
 
 Abingdon is justly proud of its manufacturing interests. 
 They began back in the forties and fifties with certain hand- 
 manufactured articles. J. B. F. Chesney manufactured plows 
 which were celebrated throughout this section of the country. 
 Also, Jonathan Latimer built carriages and buggies in the early 
 days Boots and shoes were made by Henry Frey. 
 
 The following statistics for 1918, have been given me by 
 the city officials. At present, Abingdon has sixteen factories 
 with an annual pay roll of approximately $500,000 and num- 
 bering some eight hundred or more employees. The annual 
 production is approximately $2,000,000. The largest of the 
 manufacturing concerns are the Globe Shirt and Overall Com- 
 pany, Abingdon Wagon Company, Abingdon Sanitary' Manu- 
 facturing Company and the American Sanitary Manufactur- 
 ing Company. In a factory way Abingdon has the largest pro- 
 duction per capita in normal times, of any city, town or village 
 in the State of Illinois. Today, 1918, her large factories are all 
 employed in producing war materials. Abingdon is a city of 
 homes, factories and schools. Her present population is three 
 thousand. 
 
 Outside of Abingdon, farming and cattle raising have al- 
 ways been the main pursuits of Cedar Township people. There 
 is a very small proportion of poor land in the township and its 
 farms have reached a high degree of cultivation. Anyone rid-' 
 ing over the township as I have done in search of material for 
 this paper, cannot fail to be impressed with the rich productive 
 beauty of its farm land. In the business of stock raising, 
 Cedar Township has ranked with the veiy best, and still ranks 
 high. Perry's County History says of this industry in the 
 Township: "Some as fine stock has been raised there as could 
 be found upon the market. Large herds of Shorthorn, Here- 
 ford, Galloway, Angus, Holstein and Jersey cattle have been 
 bred in the township."
 
 57 
 
 The Quincy Branch of the C. B. & Q. Railroad passes 
 throughout the length of Cedar Township, At the time of its 
 building, the two ends building toward each other, the one from 
 Quincy, the other from Chicago, met just south of Abingdon 
 and formed a completed line. A Cedar Township man, Jona- 
 than Latimer, took the contract for furnishing the ties for 
 what is now the Quincy Branch of this railroad and for furn- 
 ishing a large amount of corded wood to be used as engine 
 fuel. Wood was the only fuel used at first in railroad engines. 
 
 Some Noteworthy Emigrations 
 
 Cedar Township has sent many of its sons and daughters 
 to be pioneers in other states. I will mention three instances 
 involving more than usual experiences. 
 
 When the memorable little company of "Forty-Niners," 
 known as the Jay hawkers started from Knox County April 1, 
 1849, in quest of California gold. Cedar Township furnished 
 one of the men, Lorenzo Dow Stephens, a brother of J. W. 
 Stephens. The Jayhawkers, thirty-nine in number in seeking 
 a short cut to California, left the Los Angeles Trail and enter- 
 ing through a ravine "struck out bodly, at first, into the gi'eat 
 American desert." They wandered for weeks in the desert, 
 including that awful desolation of Death's Valley, which they 
 discovered and which was never crossed before by a white man. 
 Three perished there and the rest, having been fifty-two days 
 with almost no food and suffering terribly for lack of water 
 in the sandy valleys of salt and alkali, came out at last, little 
 more than living skeletons at a hospitable cattle ranch near 
 the head waters of the Santa Clara River in Ventura County, 
 Southern California. Of this company, only two are living to- 
 day, Lorenza Dow Stephens of San Jose, California, and John 
 B. Colton of Galesburg, Illinois. 
 
 In the very early days of Minnesota, a young couple went 
 from Cedar Township to be missionaries among the Indians. 
 These were Mr. and Mrs. Amos Huggins. ]\Ir. Huggins was for 
 a while a student in Knox College and his wife was Sophia 
 Marsh, oldest sister of Leroy Marsh. It was a time of much 
 hostility among the Indians. After a few years residence 
 there, Mr. Huggins stepped out of his house one evening into 
 the yard on some errand. The light, streaming out of the open 
 doorway, made him a fine target, a shot rang out and he fell, 
 the victim of a hostile Indian's bullet His wife and baby were 
 held as captilves by the Indians for six weeks and carried 100 
 miles farther north before they were rescued by some govern- 
 ment troops. Mrs. Huggins is still living in the State of Mis- 
 souri. 
 
 A little company from Cedar Township became pioneers 
 in the far west and the founders of a great city. Mentioned
 
 58 
 
 among the first to settle in the township, in 1831, was Mrs. 
 Sarah Boren, the widowed daughter of Joseph Latimer. Mrs. 
 Boren hved on the land adjoining her father's until her one 
 son had grown to manhood and her two daughters were young 
 women. The older of the daughters, Mary, married Arthur A. 
 Denny, who was County Sur\'eyor in Knox County, from 1848 
 to 1851. Soon after this marriage, the parents of the bride 
 and gi'oom, Mrs. Sarah Latimer Boren, the mother of Marj- 
 Boren Denney, and John Denny, the father of Arthur A. 
 Denny, were married. John Denny, who had been a volunteer 
 in the war of 1812 and had served in the legislature where he 
 was associated with Lincoln, Baker, Yates and Trumbull, with 
 his five sons and Mrs. Sarah Latimer Boren Denny with her 
 sons and two daughters, became enthused with the idea of 
 settling on the far Pacific coast. They had known pioneer 
 days in Illinois and had the true pioneer spirit. On April 10, 
 1851, just two years after the Jayhawkers left Knox County, 
 Mr. and Mrs. John Denny with their gi-own-up sons and daugh- 
 ters, children and grandchildren, began the great journey 
 across the plains. They started that April morning, from the 
 family home at Cherry Grove in four "prairie schooners" as 
 the canvas covered wagons were called, three of them drawn 
 by four-horse teams, one by a single span ; they took also a 
 few saddle horses and two faithful watch dogs, that proved 
 of great value in traveling in the wilds Their long toilsome 
 journey, full of incidents and adventures, was ended when, in 
 the fall, they reached Puget Sound and Eliott Bay. They 
 camped temporarily for the winter and in Februarv' of '52, less 
 than a year after leaving Cedar Township, Arthur Denny, 
 having made soundings of the bay and determined where the 
 city of his dreams should be located, used the experience gained 
 as surveyor in Knox County, in surveying and laying out claims 
 where was to be the city of Seattle. He, with his brother, 
 David, and two or three other men, were the first to occupy 
 claims and start business interests in that city. They lived to 
 achieve great wealth and many of their descendants reside in 
 Seattle today. 
 
 War Record 
 
 Cedar Township is justly proud of its war record. All 
 through the Forties and Fifties, its inhabitants were wide- 
 awake to war issues. These issues were ardently discussed in 
 the Upsilon Society of Cherry Grove Seminary- and in the 
 college debating socities in Abingdon and were often hotly dis- 
 puted in gatherings of the men. When Lincoln and Douglas 
 spoke in Galesburg, wagon loads went from Cedar Township 
 to hear them Among the Township's strong Abolitionists was 
 Abel T'^omas, already mentioned in this history as one of the 
 early settlers. He lived in the countrv east and north of
 
 59 
 
 Louisville and was a zealous pilot in the Underground Rail- 
 way traffic. Mounted on a fence post, where the lane leading 
 to his house turned off from the main road, he always kept 
 the skull of a cow or of some other animal. This was a sign 
 which meant to those helping runaway slaves, that here they 
 would find a friend. 
 
 When the call to arms came, the Township responded 
 quickly and loyally, with its full quota, probably more, of men. 
 The strong loyalty everywhere manifested before and during 
 the Civil War is noteworthy because such a large proportion 
 of those who had been shaping the opinions of the different 
 communities for the thirty years preceding the war, grew up 
 in homes where the passing generation had come from semi- 
 southern states and some of whom had slave-owning relatives. 
 Exact statistics are almost impossible to obtain. In the Knox 
 County list of Civil War volunteers, three hundred and sev- 
 enty-two names from Abingdon and Cedar Township appear. 
 Some of these men merely enlisted from Abingdon and were 
 not Cedar Township people. The Township can undoubtedly 
 claim three hundred volunteers and probably sent more. All 
 who went from the Township were volunteers. There were no 
 drafted men from Cedar. 
 
 While the men were seizing on the battle field, the 
 women were doing all they could to furnish needed lint, band- 
 ages and supplies. Nowhere was there sincerer mourning 
 when the bells announced the death of Abraham Lincoln. 
 
 In 1897, Company D of the Illinois National Guards was 
 organized in Abingdon. At the outbreak of the Spanish War 
 in the spring of '98, members of Company D volunteered and 
 were mustered in with the rest of the regiment foiTnin? the 
 Sixth Illinois Volunteer Infantiy, which sensed through the 
 war and was mustered out at Springfield, Illinois, November 
 25, 1898. 
 
 A very large number of Cedar Township men are serving 
 at the present time in the various departments of service in 
 the great allied war against Germany. Perry's Histoiy says 
 of the Township: "Cedar has always maintained a high de2ri*ee 
 of patriotism. Of the old settlers, there are seventeen soldiers 
 of the war of 1812, four of the early Indian wars and two of 
 the Mexican war, found in its cemeteries- Forty-nine soldiers 
 of the Civil War are also buried within the Township limit>." 
 Since these statistics were given, in 1912, a very large number 
 of Civil War soldiers have been added to those alreadv buried 
 in the Township. 
 
 The men and women who had to do with the settlement 
 of Cedar Township and with the shaping of its early life are 
 almost all resting now and their voices are silent. It is fitting
 
 60 
 
 that we who come after, not so far removed in time but that 
 we have often heard rehearsed the stories of pioneer days, 
 should pass on to coming generations the annals of those times. 
 Admiring, honoring, loving those who have wrought for 
 us, to us in these days, comes the message Emerson voices : "I 
 have no expectation any man will read history aright, who 
 thinks that what was done in a remote age, by men whose 
 names have resounded far, has any deeper sense than what he 
 is doing today." 
 
 LIBERTY LOAN RECORD 
 
 Owing to the omission of a line which makes the mean- 
 ing obscure, the following showing the Liberty Loan Record 
 of the county in the late war is republished : 
 
 The county by its response to the call of the government 
 for funds also gave its soldiers the most substantial back- 
 ing. This is indicated by the following tables showing the 
 total contributions to each of the four Liberty Loans and the 
 Victory Loan: 
 
 Amt. 
 
 Quota Raised Contributors 
 
 First $ 923,180 $ 659,600 Not Known 
 
 Second 1,288,030 1,698,250 7,000 
 
 Third 1,256,640 2,229,600 10,557 
 
 Fourth 2,506,900 2,659,900 14,326 
 
 Victory 1,958,450 2,367,050 6,980 
 
 Totals___$7,933,200 $9,614,400 
 The county far exceeded the total quota.
 
 61 
 
 CHESTNUT TOWNSHIP 
 From Sketch by H. M. Reece 
 
 The following interesting notes on Chestnut Township are 
 from a sketch by H. M. Reece in 1899 : 
 
 The earliest settler of Chestnut Township was Anson 
 Dolph, who came from Kentucky in 1833. He raised a crop 
 of wheat that year on Section 17, and in 1834, came as a per- 
 manent settler. In the year last named came also John Terry, 
 from Virginia, who settled on Section 16, and became the first 
 Justice of the Peace. He enjoyed the distinction of having per- 
 formed the first marriage ceremony in the township, the con- 
 tracting parties being a Mr. Gay and a Miss Cope, whose wish 
 for a legal union was sufficiently strong to induce them to 
 ride a long distance on a single horse. Those early marriages 
 often presented romantic features wholly lacking in the fash- 
 -ionable weddings of these days of purer refinement and higher 
 civilization. To illustrate: One of the marriages solemnized 
 by 'Squire Terry was that of a couple who stood on one bank of 
 the Spoon River, while he pronounced the fateful words on the 
 other, the stream being too swollen to permit either party to 
 cross to the opposite bank. Mr Terry afterward engaged in 
 trade, and amassed what in those days was regarded as an in- 
 dependent fortune. 
 
 In 1836, Robert Leigh and Archibald Long came from 
 Ohio and settled on Section 33, where Mr. Leigh remained 
 until his death. Soon after his arrival he commenced raising 
 hemp, and, there being no market for the raw product, he con- 
 structed a factory of a rude description, where he manufac- 
 tured his own and his neighbors' hemp crops into rope. For a 
 time the industry proved very profitable, and he, too, amassed 
 a comfortable fortune. Mr. Long, soon after settling on Sec- 
 tion 33, removed to Section 19, where, in 1842, he platted the 
 village of Hermon. 
 
 He was a local Methodist preacher, and soon after his 
 arrival at his new home he organized a Methodist class, which 
 met regularly at his house for many years. The last of this 
 devoted band was Mrs. Sally Shafer. 
 
 Among the early settlers should be also mentioned 0. P. 
 Barton. He was famous in those times as a pedestrian, and 
 gave repeated evidence of his prowess and power of endurance 
 in this description of exercise. Once, starting on foot at the 
 same time with several horsemen for the land office at Quincy, 
 one hundred miles distant, he out-stripped them all, securing 
 the prize offered to the winner of the race which consisted of
 
 62 
 
 forty acres of government land in Section 17. Another pioneer 
 was Harmon Way, who was famous as a marksman and hunter. 
 
 The first house was built of logs by Mr. Dolph on Section 
 17, in 1833. The first brick house was that of Robert Leigh, 
 erected about 1845 The first road was the old State road, 
 from Peoria to Oquawka, which ran diagonally through the 
 township from southeast to northwest. Its course, however, 
 has been since changed, so that it now follows section lines. 
 The first bridge was built about 1846, at the point where the 
 old road crosses Spoon River. It was a very cumbersome, 
 wooden affair, which was carried away and demolished bv a 
 flood in 1855. 
 
 The first birth was a daughter to Mr. and Mrs. Shaver, in 
 1835. The first death was that of Jacob Hartford, in 1836. 
 
 The first graveyard was on Section 33, and was estab- 
 lished by Robert Leigh, soon after he settled on the section. 
 It is not now used as a burial spot, though the few graves there 
 are well cared for by his son Benjamin, who is a prominent 
 citizen of the township. Two other cemeteries have been laid 
 out, as follows : One on Section 19, near the Methodist Church, 
 by Archibald Long, which has been several times enlarged, the 
 other inl863, by the trustees of the Christian church, near 
 their house of worship on Section 18. 
 
 The first school house, after the fashion of those early 
 days, was built of logs, and was exceedingly rude as regarded 
 both its exterior and interior. It was put up in 1836, and some 
 years afterward was replaced by a frame building which, after 
 undergoing many alterations, is still used as the school house 
 of District No. 3. Two years later (1838) the second school 
 house, likewise of logs, was built on Section 28. It disappeared 
 long ago, and the site is now occupied by the Church of the 
 United Brethren. The first school teacher to exercise his voca- 
 tion was Mr. Haskins, who taught in what is now District No, 
 3. At present, 1899, the township has eight schools, none of 
 them graded, occupying buildings valued at six thousand, five 
 hundred dollars The aggregate attendance is two hundred and 
 forty-three, out of a total population of three hundred and 
 eighty-six minors. 
 
 The first mill was built by Mr. Howard on Haw Creek 
 about 1845. It was designed both for sawing lumber and 
 grinding corn, but was used only a few years and has long 
 since been only a memory. There was also a saw mill on Lit- 
 ler's Creek, on Section 25, about the same time, which has 
 shared the same fate. Early in the forties, Mr. Parker manu- 
 factured brick on Section 23, for several years. 
 
 The first store was kept by John Terry on Section 16, and
 
 63 
 
 its stock was very limited. A Mr. Moor early established an- 
 other on Section 15, but it proved unsuccessful and he soon 
 abandoned the enterprise. 
 
 One of the earliest taverns was kept by Jonathan Potts, on 
 Section 22, on the old State road. The first physician was 
 Dr. Porter, who came in 1838 and remained but a short time. 
 He was succeeded Dr. Morris, and he, in turn, by Dr. Wilson. 
 
 The first settlers of the township were compelled to de- 
 pend on Troy, in Fulton County, and on Knoxville, then the 
 county seat, for postal facilities, but in 1848 a post office was 
 established at Hermon, the mail being brought from Knox- 
 ville once a week. The first postmaster was a Mr. Massie. 
 
 The township was organized at a meeting held in 1857, by 
 the choice of the following officials : Samuel Collins, Super- 
 visor ; John Terry and David Massie, Justices of the Peace ; Mr 
 McCoy, Clerk ; William Graves and Freeman West, Constables ; 
 Robert Benson, Collector; and Owen Betterton, Assessor. 
 
 Justices of the Peace since the first elected have been 
 Owen Betterton, Hiram Culver, Walter Bond, Samuel Jamison, 
 Henry Bond, George Haver, Marion Dyer, T. J. Routh, Clay- 
 ton Trumbeel, J. W. Ogden and John E. Davis and Lee Lucas, 
 the present dispensers of justice, (1899), for the township. 
 
 There is but one village in Chestnut, originally called 
 Harrisonville, but now known as Hermon. A village was laid 
 out in Section 23, in 1852, by Andrew J. Parker. It was situ- 
 ated on the right bank of the Spoon, near where the present 
 bridge crosses that stream. It never grew, and the plat was 
 vacated by the legislature in 1869. 
 
 The Christian Church in the township was organized in 
 1854, by Revs. John Miller and Gaston. The Church of the 
 United Brethren was organized in 1859, and the denomination 
 has a well-built edifice, on Section 28. 
 
 The Methodist church was first organized by Archibald 
 Long, an early settler and local preacher. Through his efforts 
 a modist church building was erected in 1842. The Baptist 
 Society was organized early in the forties by Elders A. Gogorth 
 and C. Humphrey- 
 
 The township furnished its quotas to the Civil War and 
 to the wars since then. It's citizens have had a conspicuous 
 part in the affairs of the county.
 
 64 
 
 COPLEY TOWNSHIP 
 From Sketches by J. W. Temple 
 
 The surface of Copley Township, so named from a prom- 
 inent family of that name at one time residing in it, consists 
 chiefly of fertile prairie land, just sufficiently rolling to ensure 
 good drainage, though in its southern part there is some broken 
 ground, probably one-fourth of its area having been originally 
 timber land. 
 
 The first settler in the township was a Mr. Berry, who, in 
 1836, located near the present village of Victoria, which lies 
 partly in this and partly in Victoria Township. Mathew Her- 
 bert and Larkin Robinson followed, the next year. In 1839, 
 the first members of what soon became a thrifty Scotch colony 
 began to settle on some of the best lands ; and the descendants 
 of these sons of "Auld Scotia" are now men of wealth and high 
 moral standing in the community. The Gordons, Cooks, Mc- 
 Cornacks, Taits, McKies, Leightons, McClymonts, McMasters, 
 McDowells, Stevensons, Milroys, McQuarries and others, with 
 their numerous and thrifty progeny, were among the most 
 prominent citizens of the township. Later, its rich lands have 
 attracted a large number of Swedes, whose thrift, industry 
 and probity have made of these first immigrants wealthy 
 farmers and landholders. Their descendants, by intermarrying 
 with the native population, are fast becoming homogeneous, as 
 they are a patriotic body of American citizens, while their 
 success is due to brain no less than to brawn. 
 
 When the first settlers arrived, a small tribe of Indians 
 still inhabitated a grove, now known as Foreman Grove, near 
 the northern limits of the present township. 
 
 The first child born in Copley was a son of Mathew Her- 
 bert, in 1836. The first death was that of Harriet Foster, in 
 1842. Rev. Charles Bostwick and Mrs Hurr were the first 
 couple to be married, and Rev. Mr. Bostwick preached the 
 first sermon in 1840, in a log school house. 
 
 The first school was taught by Miss Mary J. Smith, after- 
 wards Mrs. John Becker, in a log cabin, one and one-half miles 
 northwest of Victoria. 
 
 There are few townships where the value of an education 
 is more genuinely appreciated than here, the result being 
 shown in the exceptional intelligence and culture of its citizens. 
 
 The first saw mill, that of Jeremiah Collinson, operated 
 by horse power, was put up in 1850. Mr. Berry was the builder 
 of the first frame structure, on Section 9, in 1840. Now some
 
 65 
 
 of the finest residences in the county are to be found on its 
 prairie farms. 
 
 Copley Township has lacked railroads, and by reason of 
 that want has no large towns. In 1894, however, to reach 
 the extensive coal fields of this and Victoria townships, a 
 railroad was built from Wataga, on the line of the Burlington 
 and Quincy Railroad, running through nearly the center of the 
 township, to a mining village called Etherly, located on the 
 eastern boundary of Copley. This village was laid out on the 
 southeastern quarter of Section 35, on August 10, 1894, by 
 Samuel Charles. Owing to legal complications, which pre- 
 vented for a time the operating of the road, the village is yet, 
 (1899), without many inhabitants. It is believed, however, 
 that, under altered conditions, a thriving mining town will 
 soon be built up to develop the rick, unworked coal deposits 
 which underlie nearly all the southern part of Copley. This 
 railroad has been since extended into the village of Victoria, 
 which, with its natural advantages of situation, has heretofore 
 only lacked railroad facilities to become one of the most pros- 
 perous villages in the county. 
 
 The first town officers elected in 1853, were: J. Stan- 
 \ey, Supervisor; N. Kelsey, Clerk; J. M. Perkins, Assessor; 
 Austin Gaines, Collector; Isaac Copley and A. W. Buckley, Jus- 
 tices ; A. A. Smith, S. McCornack and J. Sirie, Commissioners 
 of Highways, and J. Collinson, Overseer of the Poor. 
 
 Its population in 1860 was one thousand and ten; in 1870 
 it was twelve hundred and nineteen; in 1880 it had fallen ot 
 one thousand and seventy-six and in 1890 was nine hundred 
 and ten.
 
 66 
 
 HISTORY OF ELBA TOWNSHIP 
 By Miss Elsie D. North 
 
 The Illinois Indians were no doubt the first inhabitants of 
 Elba Township, but were gradually driven further South by 
 the Kickapoos. These were industrious, intelligent and cleanly 
 in comparison with most of their kind, and made this town- 
 ship only their temporary home, on the way to and from other 
 hunting grounds. So the white men never had to dispute pos- 
 session of this land with the Indians, nor were they ever 
 molested by the Red Men, so far as history shows. 
 
 The first white man to locate in the township was John 
 King, of Ohio, who, in 1835, came and took up 80 acres on Sec- 
 tion 2, then returned to Ohio to bring out his family. The next 
 Spring he again started West, leaving his family to follow 
 later, but arriving at Peoria, he was taken sick and died before 
 reaching Knox County- As soon as they could leave their old 
 home, but which was not until 1837, his widow and nine 
 children, the youngest less than 2 years old, made the long 
 westward journey in wagons drawn by oxen, stopping with her 
 brother in Peoria County until their new home could be built. 
 
 Very soon thereafter came Darius Miller and his brother ; 
 then Felix Thurman settled on Section 34, L. A. Jones on Sec- 
 tion 15, Jacob Kightlinger on Section 27 and James H. Nichol- 
 son on Section 25. Josiah Nelson, John Thurman, John and 
 William West, Vachel Metcalf, J. H. and W. H. Baird and 
 Samuel Tucker were also early settlers. 
 
 The first marriage was Moses Smith to Tabitha George in 
 1840, by Jacob Kightlinger, the first Justice of the Feare, 
 whose Commission was dated August, 1839. The first birth 
 was Tabitha Smith, on Section 35. 
 
 The first house in the township was the one built by 
 Thomas King for his widowed mother and sisters and brothers. 
 It was on the north side of Section 2, on the Knoxville and 
 Peoria stage road, and was a one room log building, with a loft 
 above. 
 
 The population increased steadily as the township was 
 built up, many of the early settlers having large families — the 
 majority of these were from Ohio, Pennsylvania and New 
 York, while several came from England. 
 
 The first school house in the township was built by Jacob 
 Kightlinger in 1842, on Section 27, but before this Mr. Kight- 
 linger had employed a private governess, named Antoinette 
 Walker, to teach his children, eleven in number. Vachel Met- 
 calf had also taught school in a private house, in 1840. As the
 
 67 
 
 township became more settled, other school houses were built 
 until now there are eight in the township, all being substantial 
 frame buildings of one room each 
 
 The early settlers did not meet with such hardships as 
 were endured by many pioneers. Their homes were usually in 
 or near the timber, which furnished material for their build- 
 ings as well as fuel and shelter for their live stock until they 
 could build barns and sheds. There was plenty of game and 
 fish for food and good grazing for stock out on the prairie. 
 Only the cultivated land was fenced and cattle, horses and 
 hogs roamed at will over the prairies, and as they often failed 
 to come home at night, much time was spent hunting for them. 
 Money was not plentiful and prices were very low, corn selling 
 for 20 cents per bushel ; potatoes, 18% cents per bushel ; pork, 
 2 cents per lb. ; lard, 4 cents per lb. ; butter, 6 cents per lb ; 
 flour, $4.50 per barrel; wheat, 60 cents per bushel; oats, 30 
 cents per bushel, etc., but the wants of these people were not 
 many and were easily satisfied. 
 
 Travel at first was mostly on foot, on horseback or in 
 wagons drawn by oxen or horses, while the fortunate owners 
 of the first buggies and carriages were frequently called on 
 to loan them to their poorer or less provident neighbors. Dur- 
 ing busy seasons, while horses were working in the fields, some 
 thrifty housewives would occasionally take a basket of eggs 
 and butter on either arm and walk three or four miles to mar- 
 ket, bringing home groceries in exchange for their produce. 
 At the present time travel is mostly by buggy and automobile, 
 very few farmers feeling themselves too poor to afford the 
 latter. 
 
 In the early days Farmington in Fulton County, Charles- 
 ton (now Brimfield) in Peoria County, and Knoxville were the 
 nearest trading points. Later there were stores at Newburg 
 in Peoria County and Glenwood in Salem township. There was 
 a store at Eugene in Elba township. When Elmwood and 
 Yates City were started they secured most of the trade of this 
 township, which they now share with Williamsfield and Doug- 
 las. Also the early settlers hauled much of their wheat to 
 Peoria, and it was not uncommon to haul a load to Chicago, 
 bringing back lumber or something not obtainable at nearby 
 towns. 
 
 The first store in the township was at Eugene, on Section 
 2. It was a general store kept by E. A. Ellsworth, in a small 
 building near his residence, and was started prior to 1850- 
 There was also a Post Office here, the mail being brought by 
 stage from Knoxville and Peoria. Later, (in 1860), Miss 
 Mary King moved both store and Post Office to her home, 
 just east of her brother, James King's house; sometime after
 
 68 
 
 her marriage to John Wilson in 1862, they were moved across 
 the road in Truro township. 
 
 The first Post Office in Elba, however, was at the home of 
 Jacob Kightlinger, and in 1870 one was established on Section 
 15, called Spoon River, but the following year the name was 
 changed to Elba Centre. There was also a store here. Miss 
 Rebecca Boyes, an aunt of County Superintendent of Schools, 
 W. F, Boyes, being Postmistress and store-keeper. 
 
 Felix Thurman put up the first saw-mill in the township, 
 on French Creek. It was a small mill, run by water power. 
 There was at one time a tile factory on the farm of George W. 
 Smith, on Section 24; E. A. Ellsworth also owned one on Sec- 
 tion 1, and there were brick kilns on Section 13 and 14, but 
 these industries have long since passed away. 
 
 In early days Samuel Tucker kept a tavern at his home, 
 a double log house on Section 2. 
 
 Coal was discovered in 1847, on Section 15, by Jacob 
 Kightlinger. 
 
 Elba township was organized in April, 1853, as Liberty 
 township, but the same year its name was changed to Elba. 
 N. S. Barber was named Moderator and J. W. Himes, Clerk. 
 Forty-nine votes were cast, resulting in the choice of James H. 
 Nicholson for Supervisor; H. L. Bailey, Assessor; Henry Smith, 
 Collector; J. W. Himes, Clerk; H. Oberholtzer, John West and 
 K. Himes, Commissioners of Highways; John West and B. F. 
 Johnson, Justices of the Peace; William Searles, Overseer of 
 the Poor; Henry Smith, Constable. 
 
 The present officers are: H. W, Oberholtzer, Supervisor; 
 J. P. Cecil, Assessor; Thomas Stroub, Highway Commissioner; 
 Ralph Baird, Clerk ; William Fuller, Justice of the Peace. 
 
 Rev. S. S. Miles, a Methodist minister, preached the first 
 sermon in the township at the home of Mr. Lambert, in 1839. 
 Preachers would come through the country and services would 
 be held at different homes, on any day. After the school houses 
 were built, services were held in them. The Rev. Cross, who 
 figures prominently in Underground Railroad affairs, lived in 
 this township and preached at various places. In Oct. 1854, he 
 lectured to a fair-sized crowd in the newly-built Pleasant Hill 
 school house, the first meeting held in the building. For years 
 quarterly meetings were held in groves through the township 
 and "protracted" meetings in the various school houses. Sun- 
 day School was held in the school houses, also. 
 
 The first church was built by the Methodists, in 1874, on 
 Section 17, and was dedicated in June of that year, by Presi- 
 dent Evans of Hedding College. No regular services have been 
 held in this church for some time now. In 1875 the Presby-
 
 69 
 
 terians built a Church on Section 10, but as many of the mem- 
 bers soon after died or left the township, the building was sold 
 and moved. In 1876 the Methodists erected a church on Sec- 
 tion 13, which is called Bethel. No services have been held 
 here for some months. In early days the Bible and religion 
 were the principal subjects for discussion whenever thinking 
 men got together, taking the place now filled by politics and 
 events of the day. 
 
 At one time there was a strong leaning toward temper- 
 ance in the community and a" Good Templar Lodge was organ- 
 ized in 1867, and a hall built on Section 16, but gradually inter- 
 est died out, and the members dropped out one by one. In 1876 
 the building was sold and turned into a dwelling. 
 
 The first farms received very little cultivation ; indeed it 
 was not needed to raise a good crop. When the hazel-brush 
 was cleared off the land, the soil was very productive, and it is 
 said that on this newly cleared land, after the seed had been 
 scattered by hand, it was sometimes brushed into the soil by 
 drawing the bough of a tree over it. On prairie land the sod 
 was sometimes cut with a spade and the seed dropped into the 
 cut. Usually however, new land was broken with a breaking 
 plow drawn by several yoke of oxen. With these plows, brush 
 eight or ten feet tall would be turned under. A free negro, 
 named Solomon Bradley, did considerable breaking for Elba 
 farmers. 
 
 When ready to hai^'est the grain was cut with a cradle and 
 threshed out on the barn floor either with flails or trampled by 
 horses. Corn when harvested and even wheat was often piled 
 up on the ground outside, with no protection but a rail pen 
 around it, but little spoilage resulting. 
 
 At first the amount of live stock raised was comparatively 
 small, as there was not a very good market for it. Hogs had to 
 be killed and dressed on the farm, then hauled from 10 to 40 
 miles or even farther, to market. After the railroad from 
 Peoria to Galesburg was built, and it became possible to ship 
 live stock to market, more cattle and hogs were raised on the 
 farms, until at the present day it is no uncommon thing to see 
 a drove of from 100 to 200 on a farm. 
 
 There are many good herds of cattle found on the farms 
 of Elba, some being pure-bred, while others are high grade. 
 The first pure-bred Shorthorn cattle were brought into the 
 township by G. W. Kennedy in 1866, and at one time he had a 
 herd of 126 head. Some years ago there was a strong inclin- 
 ation toward the raising of Daily cattle, but of late, owing to 
 the inability of the farmers to secure competent help, and to 
 the high price of daiiy feeds, more dual-puiiDose and beef cattle 
 are being kept.
 
 70 
 
 At first there were very few sheep kept, because the 
 wolves and dogs were so destructive to them, but about the 
 time of the Civil War, when wool became so scarce and high- 
 priced, many farmers bought flocks or added to those they 
 already had. Within the last few years, also, there has been 
 considerable increase in sheep-raising, caused by the high 
 prices of wool and mutton. The first sheep were the coarse- 
 wool kind, but were soon succeeded by the Merino variety. 
 Today the medium wool are about the only kind that are raised 
 here. Many farmers of the township are also interested in 
 raising pure-bred horses. 
 
 June 5, 1844, a most destructive wind and rain storm vis- 
 ited Elba township as well as the rest of the county. Houses 
 and barns were unroofed or destroyed and other damage done. 
 It is likely that this is the storm which took the roof off the 
 Widow King's home, destroying much of her personal property. 
 
 In May, 1858, another severe storm visited this township. 
 Mrs. James King recalls that all the windows on the west side 
 of their house, both upstairs and down were broken by the hail, 
 and the rain poured in in such volume that, the upstairs floors 
 being tight, it ran down the stairway, like a river. In the 
 northwest part of the township a Mrs. Farster was killed by 
 the storm, and on the farm of J. H. Nicholson a large new born 
 was blown off its foundation. 
 
 In August, 1907, a storm of wind, rain and hail passed 
 through the township breaking windows, up-rooting trees and 
 destroying crops. Hail stones, having the circumference of 
 baseballs, but with uneven, jagged edges, were picked up in 
 the path of the storm. 
 
 There have been several notably severe snow storms, the 
 worst ones in January and February, 1885, and December, 1917 
 and January, 1918. In both of these a great amount of snow 
 fell, accompanied by high winds which caused it to drift badly, 
 completely filling and blockading roads, making travel impos- 
 sible for several days. Even railroad trains were caught in 
 snowdrifts and unable to get through for a couple of days. As 
 the temperature was well below zero, much . suffering was 
 caused both to people and animals. 
 
 In the Fall of 1869 or '70, in the northeast part of the 
 township, a little Cowley child wandered away and was lost. 
 The mother was attending a quilting at the home of a neigh- 
 bor. She supposed the child, a little boy of some 2 or 3 years, 
 was playing with the others, but when she was ready to go 
 home he was not to be found. Search about the place failed to 
 reveal him, and soon the entire neighborhood was aroused. 
 The little fellow, thinly clad and without wraps, was found the 
 next morning, face downward on the frozen ground, by his dis-
 
 71 
 
 tracted grandfather, William King. He had died of exposure. 
 
 In pioneer days the homes were very simple and scantily 
 furnished. Because of the great distance the early settlers 
 had to come to reach their new homes, and the difficulty of 
 transportation, only such articles were brought along as were 
 deemed necessary. A few dishes and cooking utensils, some 
 chairs, a table, a bed or two, and their bedding would comprise 
 their household furnishings. Often beds would be built into 
 the side or corner of the home, thus simplyfying matters. 
 Many families also owned spinning wheels and looms, and the 
 mother spun yarn and wove cloth for her family's garments. 
 Later rag carpets were woven on these looms, and the homes 
 were thus made more comfortable. 
 
 At first fireplaces served both for heating and cooking; 
 these gradually gave place to cook stoves and heating stoves, 
 which today are replaced in many homes by the kitchen range 
 and furnace. The dirt or bare wood floors and rag carpets 
 gave place to carpets of ingrain and brussels and these in turn 
 to polished hardwood floors and velvet rugs. 
 
 At first the tallow dip, or candle furnished light, but was 
 superseded by the kerosene lamp, and this in many homes by 
 electric lights or acetylene gas. 
 
 The heavy stone-china or pewter dishes have been replaced 
 by china, glass and silver, and the iron pots and skillets by 
 those of aluminum and enameled ware. 
 
 The washing and sewing machines, the power churn, 
 vacuum cleaner and bread-mixer have been brought into many 
 homes to make easier the farm woman's work. 
 
 Where fifty years ago the organ in an Elba home was a 
 novelty, today there are very few homes without an organ, 
 piano, phonograph or musical instrument of some sort. 
 
 As the pioneers became prosperous and conditions easier, 
 the old log cabin was found insufficient and new and more 
 commodious homes of frame or brick were built. Many of 
 these houses, built fifty or sixty years ago, are still in use, 
 and, so substantial were the materials of which they were 
 made, and so thorough the workmanship employed in their 
 construction that today they compare favorably with houses 
 built many years later. Of these homes, probably none is 
 much if any older than the brick house built by J. H. Nicholson 
 on Section 25 in 1848, which is at present the home of his 
 grandson. 
 
 Life was by no means all work and no play for the early 
 settlers. There were house-raisings and barn-raisings to call 
 the men together and quite needless to say there was always 
 much pleasure to be had at such a time. At butchering time also
 
 72 
 
 several neighbors would be called in to help. The women had 
 their quiltings and apple-parings, while the young people took 
 especial delight in singing and spelling school and dances. Vis- 
 iting played an important part in the lives of these hard- 
 working people and helped to keep alive in the community a 
 spirit of neighborliness and good-fellowship. 
 
 They were a veiy hospitable people, and though their 
 accommodations might be meager, seldom was the traveler 
 turned away from their door, even though he were a stranger. 
 
 On the whole the residents of Elba are very prosperous ; 
 most of the farms are attractively located, well cultivated and 
 improved and the houses generally comfortable and commod- 
 ious buildings, some having all the conveniences of city homes. 
 
 Elba has always done her part in whatever way she was 
 called upon. During the Civil War she sent her share of sol- 
 diers to the front, and fine young men they were, too, some of 
 whom did not live to come back to their homes, but found 
 graves in Southern battlefields. During the recent World War 
 she sent her quota of noble manhood, regardless of the fact 
 that they could ill be spared, and gave generously of money to 
 help the Red Cross and other war activities. 
 
 This is the only township in the county without a railroad. 
 Neither is there a Post Office or business house of any kind 
 within its limits. About three-fourths of the township is fine, 
 roHing prairie, with a rich, black, loamy soil, especially suited 
 to the production of cereals, being one of the best townships in 
 the county for that purpose. A yield of 52 bushels of wheat 
 per acre and 75 bushels of oats has been known. 
 
 The population in 1910 was 619.
 
 73 
 
 ANNALS OF GALESBURG 
 By Martha Farnham Webster 
 
 The annals of Galesburg are cherished in the hearts of her 
 children. The children of the Founders, their children, and 
 their children's children, for generations to come, may well 
 look back with emotions of pride and veneration upon the suc- 
 cessful fulfillment of a worthy purpose by those men and 
 women of sterling worth and noble achievement — the Found- 
 ers of Galesburg — the Colonists of 1836-37. 
 
 The founding of Galesburg was the fulfillment of a dream 
 which took hold upon the fancy of the Rev. George W. Gale of 
 Whitesboro, N. Y., and which held him under its potent spell 
 until it became a ruling passion with him. It came to him not 
 only as a "dream, in a vision of the night when deep sleep fall- 
 eth upon man," but by day and by night, for many days and 
 nights in succession it held in thrall, until no longer able or 
 willing to ignore its influence, he yielded to its spell and gave 
 up a work which he had successfully promoted for seven years 
 and devoted his every talent and energy to the carrying out of 
 a plan which had been maturing in his thought and seeking 
 fulfillment at his hand. 
 
 Before entering into a discussion of this plan, viz., a scheme 
 for the founding of an institution of learning somewhere in 
 the far, unknown western country which had begun to stretch 
 forth beckoning hands to the substantial citizens of New York 
 and New England to come out and possess the land, let us learn 
 something of the previous history of that man who was above 
 all others the founder of the town, the college, and the church, 
 and whose name set as a signet in the name of our fair city, 
 shall be held in honored remembrance so long as the city itself 
 remains. 
 
 George Washington Gale was born in Stanford, Dutchess 
 County, New York, December 3, 1789. He was the only son 
 and the youngest child of his parents, and was of frail consti- 
 tution and delicate health. At eight years of age he was left 
 an orphan to the care of his older sisters, of whom there were 
 eight, all of them well-married and living in the home neigh- 
 borhood. Naturally their oversight of the young, only brother 
 was most tender and loving, but it was also tinged with the 
 austerity which characterized the rigid methods of family 
 government in that period. They kept him constantly em- 
 ployed, either in study, or in the thousand nameless duties that 
 fall to the lot of a willing and obedient boy on a large farm. 
 
 George Gale was ambitious and much devoted to study, 
 and at an early age he entered Union College in Schenectady,
 
 74 
 
 N. Y., successfully completed the course of study and was 
 graduated with honor. From Union College he went to Prince- 
 ton Theological Seminary, then, as now, one of the leading 
 Theological schools of this country. But his health did not 
 permit him to complete the course of study in the Seminaiy, 
 and greatly to his regret, he was compelled to leave the school, 
 hoping, however, to return at some future time to finish his 
 course. This he did in 1819, at thirty years of age. In the 
 meantime he had been licensed to preach, and during the period 
 of rest from his studies, he labored as a Home Missionary in 
 a comparatively new territory in northern New York. During 
 this period he was actively engaged in evangelistic work and 
 was the means of organizing a number of churches in that ter- 
 ritoiy. Returning to Princeton and completing the course 
 there, he immediately thereafter accepted a call to the church 
 at Adams, Jefferson County, N. Y., riding thither on horse- 
 back from Princeton, New Jersey. 
 
 After a time failing health again compelled Mr. Gale to 
 give up his work, and he resigned from this, his first and last 
 regular pastorate, much to the regret of all. Seeking health 
 in a milder climate, he went to Virginia and spent some months 
 there. His experiences in the South and his contact and inter- 
 course with people of a different type broadened his vision and 
 taught him lessons which were of value to him in later years. 
 Step by step he was led into experiences which would especially 
 fit him for taking up the crowning work of his life. 
 
 Improved in health, Mr. Gale returned to New York, but 
 found himself still unable to take up the duties of a pastorate. 
 He therefore found a temporary home in a comfortable old- 
 fashioned house on a small farm in Oneida County, N. Y. 
 This old farm house proved to be the source and inspiration 
 of the dream to which we have referred — the dream which led 
 him on to the establishment of a school for young men with 
 limited means, and later to the development of a plan which 
 resulted in the founding of Knox College and the City of Gales- 
 burg. 
 
 Briefly, the plan was to provide an opportunity for young 
 men of small means, or of no means at all, to secure an educa- 
 tion ; preferably for those who had the gospel ministry in 
 view. He invited young men of the neighborhood to come to 
 him for instruction. Half a dozen young men responded, and 
 to these he gave instruction and furnished books, while they 
 each agreed to perform three hours' daily work upon the farm 
 in return. 
 
 The plan was a success, and attracted much attention with 
 the result that after a time with the aid of interested friends, 
 he founded a school in the village of Whitesboro, Oneida 
 County, New York, which bore the name of Manual Labor In-
 
 75 
 
 stitute. This experiment proved to be the germ and the grad- 
 ual development of the project which resulted in the organiz- 
 ation of the Galesburg colony and the founding of Knox Col- 
 lege. 
 
 Mr. Gale remained with the school at Whitesboro for seven 
 years. In 1834 he retired from the management and entered 
 into a new scheme looking toward the founding of an institu- 
 tion of learning in the far away western country, then so 
 largely unoccupied or even unexplored. 
 
 He carefully prepared a "Circular and Plan" clearly set- 
 ting forth his enlarged scheme. (This interesting document 
 is quoted in full, beginning at page 9 in the volume entitled 
 "Seventy-five Significant Years — The Stoiy of Knox College," 
 prepared by the writer of these annals at the request of the 
 trustees of Knox College.) 
 
 Mr. Gale sent out his circular and set about securing sub- 
 scriptions to his entei'prise, making a personal canvass among 
 his friends in Central and Eastern New York, striving to inter- 
 est both clergymen and laymen in the plan in which he himself 
 was so deeply and vitally interested. In the early part of the 
 year 1835, he had secured a sufficient number of subscriptions 
 to justify an organization of the effort, and the action was 
 therefore taken which was to be of such untold influence and 
 importance in the years to come. 
 
 An organization was accomplished in the First Presbyter- 
 ian Church in Rome, New York, on the 6th of May, 1835. A 
 Prudential Committee was selected which was composed of 
 six men who were empowered to fill out their number to eleven 
 members. These six men were Walter Webb of Adams, Nehe- 
 miah West of Ira, Thomas Gilbert of Rome, John C. Smith of 
 Utica, George W. Gale of Whitesboro, and H. H. Kellogg of 
 Clinton. Where should the new enterprise be located ? Where 
 should be found the ways and means for carrying it to com- 
 pletion? These were the questions which involved long and 
 earnest discussion on the part of this committee. 
 
 An exploring committee must be named. Who should be 
 selected to undertake this highly important and responsible 
 work? The choice fell upon Nehemiah West, Thomas Gilbert 
 and T. B. Jervis for the exploring committee, and the Rev. 
 George W. Gale was to enlist families and secure funds for 
 the new colony. 
 
 By June, 1835, about one-half of the proposed sum was 
 subscribed; that is, about $20,000. Only about $6,000 of this 
 was ever paid. But, having "set their hands to the plow," the 
 promoters of this enterprise would not turn back, and so, on 
 the 6th day of June, 1835, was held in Rome, N. Y., the first 
 meeting of the subscribers. Of that meeting the Rev. John
 
 76 
 
 Waters, afterward a conspicuous figure in the Galesburg col- 
 ony, was made chairman and T. B. Jervis, secretary. The fol- 
 lowing were appointed trustees of the fund: Messrs. Wal- 
 ter Webb, Nehemiah West, Thomas Gilbert, John C. Smith, G. 
 W. Gale and H. H. Kellogg ; and as already stated, Rev. George 
 W. Gale was general agent. 
 
 Thirty-three persons had given their approval to the plan 
 and had subscribed $21,000 toward carrying it into execution, 
 but only about half the names on that orginal subscription 
 list became permanent names on the records of the colony. 
 The list contained, of course, the names which have been men- 
 tioned above in connection with the various committees, and 
 others, making forty-six in all, many of the names never ap- 
 pearing in the annals of the colony. (A list of the original sub- 
 scribers may be found on page 12-13 in the volume to which 
 reference has been made, "Seventy-five Significant Years." 
 The book may be found in the Galesburg Public Library 
 and the Library of Knox College, the State Historical Libraiy 
 at Springfield, 111., and the Library of Memorial Continental 
 Hall, Washington, D. C.) 
 
 The exploring committee was instructed to explore the 
 prairie state of Indiana and Illinois between the fortieth and 
 forty-second degrees of north latitude, with reference to the 
 best location for the proposed settlement. The intructions give 
 evidence of shrewd calculation on the part of those who drafted 
 them and are so explicit In every detail that unwise or ill ad- 
 vised action on the part of the committee could scarcely have 
 been possible. (An interesting outline of these instructions 
 may be found on page 15 of "Seventy-five Significant Years.") 
 
 The committee went out as instructed, explored the re- 
 gions designated, fixed upon a location in Knox County in the 
 State of Illinois, and returning made their report to the sub- 
 scribers at their second meeting, August 19, 1835. The report 
 was accepted and a purchasing committee was appointed, con- 
 sisting of Rev. George W. Gale, Silvanus Ferris and Nehemiah 
 West. Their instructions were to purchase not less than 
 twenty sections of land and as much more as their funds 
 would allow, one-tenth of which must be timber and the rest 
 prairie, and for which the government price of $1.25 per acre 
 was to be paid. Three sections should be reserved for college 
 and village purposes and the rest sold to actual settlers at 
 $5.00 per acre. The surplus thus accruing was to constitute 
 the endowment of the college ; while the proceeds from the sale 
 of village lots were to be used toward the endowmnt of a Fe- 
 male Seminary. 
 
 And so the purchasing committee set out upon that final 
 mission in this great enterprise — the purchase of the land on
 
 77 
 
 which now stands the fair city of Galesbiirg as a monument to 
 their wise and far-sighted investment. 
 
 The story of the journey of the purchasing committee is 
 most interestingly told in a letter written by Nehemiah West, 
 one of the committee, to a relatives, immediately after his re- 
 turn from the trip. We quote portions of the letter. After 
 describing the experiences of the journey, some of them peril- 
 ous and all of them interesting and which occupied three 
 months for the round trip, he referred to the purchase of the 
 site selected by the exploring committee; he says: "We pro- 
 ceeded to Illinois and after examining all the places visited by 
 the committee in the spring, we selected a location in the 
 county of Knox, lying nearly central between the Illinois and 
 Mississippi rivers in the Military Tract, 150 miles southwest 
 from Chicago and about 40 miles west of Peoria. We pur- 
 chased about 20,000 acres nearly in a square form, mostly 
 prairie. It is a fine tract of land in a very healthy country, 
 well watered and supplied with abundance of stone and coal. 
 We surveyed it out into lots of eighty acres each, agreeable to 
 our plan of distribution among subscribers. 
 
 In the center we laid off three contiguous sections of 640 
 acres each, for college and village purposes — two for the col- 
 lege and one for the village — stuck the stakes of our college 
 building and returned home. * * * We have about thirty fam- 
 ilies, all pious, who are to settle together, so you see we have 
 the prospect of a good socciety and the facilities for educating 
 our children. We expect to start with our families as soon as 
 the roads are passable in the spring. I have a log cabin ready 
 to move into till I can build and 40 acres broken up all ready for 
 any kind of grain. We expect to break and fence 200 or 300 
 acres of the college land next season and sow it to wheat. 
 
 Crop Conditions 
 
 Thirty bushels to the acre is the usual product for the 
 first crop. It is worth six shillings per bushel, eighty bushels 
 to the acre of corn, worth two shillings per bushel, but it is 
 worth more to feed, as pork is worth $4.00 per cwt. to send to 
 New Orleans." The last paragraph quoted gives us an idea 
 of the crop conditions of that period and the financial returns 
 which the early settlers received from their produce. 
 
 Comparative Prices, 1836-1918 
 
 In 1836 wheat sold for between $1.40 and $1.50 per bushel ; 
 com sold for 50 cents per bushel and hogs for $4.00 per hun- 
 dred. Now, in 1918, wheat is worth $2.10 per bushel, corn 
 $1.50 per bushel and hogs are selling for $20.00 per hundred 
 weight, and therefore, now, as then, the farmers find that corn 
 is "worth more to feed" than to sell.
 
 78 
 
 The First Company Sets Out for "The West." 
 
 As early in the spring of 1836 as the roads would permit, 
 "the advance guard of the army of occupation" under the lead- 
 ership of Nehemiah West, left their pleasant homes in New 
 York and started westward. They journeyed in strong, well- 
 built, canvas covered wagons drawn by patient, plodding 
 horses. Their rate of progress was that of about as many 
 miles per day as the average railway train covers in an hour. 
 Four long weeks measured their slow and toilsome length 
 before the new home was reached and they beheld "the city of 
 their dreams." 
 
 The First Dwellings 
 
 And what did they look upon ? Not a city of comfortable 
 homes, of schools and churches and business houses, as were 
 their own familiar Utica and Albany, not even the pretty, 
 peaceful village nestling at the foot of the green hills from 
 which they turned their faces as they bade good-bye to home 
 and friends ; but just a few rude log cabins standing in the out- 
 skirts of a "stretch of timber" that bordered an apparently 
 limitless expanse of trackless, treeless prairie. These cabins 
 were located three and one-half miles northwest of the center 
 of the site of their future city of Galesburg. They had been 
 built and occupied by settlers coming up from Kentucky and 
 other parts of the south, who had within the five or six years 
 previous fringed the grove with a tier of farms and had then 
 vacated their cabins presumably for more commodious quar- 
 ters. There were not enough of these cabins to accommodate 
 even the first party that arrived, but they distributed them- 
 selves as best they could until they could build cabins for them- 
 selves, and in their turn vacate those they found to be occupied 
 by a succession of later arrivals who came during the summer 
 and fall of 1836 and the spring of 1837. Some of the young 
 people slept in corn cribs belonging to the cabins, or were 
 housed in tents made of boughs until a sufficient number of 
 cabins could be built for the shelter of all who came ; albeit 
 they must be crowded to the extent of two and three families 
 in a single room of these rude buildings. 
 
 ; "Log City" 
 
 The cluster of cabins which thus sprang up along the edge 
 of Henderson Grove, and scattered for a mile or more along the 
 woodland trail, came to be known in the history of the colony 
 as "Log City," a name revered and honored in the hearts of all 
 true and loyal descendants of the Founders. 
 
 Description of the First Cabins 
 
 Prof. George Churchill of Knox College in one of his his- 
 torical papers says: "It would astonish a modern builder to
 
 79 
 
 examine one of these mansions. Some of them were built 
 without as much as a single nail or pane of glass in the entire 
 structure. Log walls were chincked with mud, outside chim- 
 ney constructed of sticks and clay, with upper aperature so 
 large as not only to give egress to the smoke, but ingress to 
 the light when the cabin door was shut. Doors made of split 
 boards fastened with wooden pins to a wooden hinge ; a punch- 
 eon floor, and roof covered with shakes (narrow strips of 
 wood) held down by heavy log riders. 
 
 First Rude Furnishings 
 
 The furniture was at first as rude as the cabins. Boxes, 
 barrels and short logs were the chairs, a larger box the table, 
 and a one-post bed stood in one corner of the room." 
 
 Shipments of Furniture Long Delayed 
 
 One reason for the utter crudeness of the furniture thus 
 described, and the lack of household conveniences of all kinds 
 was the fact that their goods were shipped by water and were 
 delayed many weeks after the colonists themselves had arrived 
 on the scene. The "one-post bed" referred to above was con- 
 structed in this way : A pole was mortised into a log at the 
 end of the room at a proper distance from the corner to meas- 
 ure the width of the iDed. Another pole was mortised into the 
 side wall at the distance of a bed's length. The two poles which 
 came together at a right angle were supported by a third up- 
 right post which constituted the only outer support. Ropes 
 were interlaced across and around these poles forming by their 
 network a foundation for a straw bed, the popular mattress of 
 that day. A straw or husk or hay mattress made a fragrant 
 wholesome resting place, providing the filling of the ticks was 
 replenished often enough to meet sanitary requirements. A 
 third bed was often made between the two corner beds by plac- 
 ing four "chests" side by side. These chests were a necessary 
 article in the household furniture of every family. They con- 
 tained the wearing apparel of the family, and every time an 
 article stored in them was needed, the bedding had to be re- 
 moved. The one room was equipped with a stove for cooking 
 and heating purposes, or sometimes with only a fireplace. One 
 of the stoves in a Log City home has been thus described : The 
 stove was in the shape of an oblong box with one large opening 
 in the center of the top ; directly underneath this was the fire- 
 box with a wide, projecting hearth in front where the hoe- 
 cakes were toasted. 
 
 In these crowded, crude, and neccessarily unsanitary 
 quarters they cooked, and ate, and slept and suffered all kinds 
 of privations and hardships, but remained strong in courage 
 and hope. The manner of housing and furnishing was only a 
 temporary "make shift" until their furniture arrived and
 
 80 
 
 more comfortable houses could be built. Before the winter 
 drew near they were all comfortably housed in log cabins, suf- 
 ficient in number and capacity for their immediate needs. The 
 cold weather of the autumn of 1836 found 175 residents in 
 Log City busily preparing for the coming winter. During the 
 winter the men were busy getting timber ready for the houses 
 to be built on the prairie in the spring. After the first saw- 
 mill was put up, house building began in good earnest. 
 
 First Saw Mill in 1837 
 
 A steam saw mill was built on colony land in Henderson 
 Grove by John Kendall and was completed in 1837. Previous 
 to the completion of this mill sawed lumber for building was 
 only obtainable by hauling logs from Henderson Grove to 
 Knoxville, and paying for the mill work with two-thirds of the 
 boards. Naturally it was greatly to the advantage of the col- 
 onists to have their own saw mills located upon colony land. 
 The next year the Feri'is brothers. Western, Olmsted, and Wil- 
 liam, sons of Silvanus Ferris, built the second mill two miles 
 northwest of the Kendall mill, and shortly afterward a third 
 saw mill was erected in Galesburg b}^ Nehemiah West, Erastus 
 Swift, and George W. Gale. This mill was located on the north 
 side of Ferris Street between West and Academy. Although 
 located four miles from the nearest timber the output of this 
 latter mill was in great demand and found ready use at the 
 point where it was turned out. And doubtless the combined 
 output of the three mills was needed to meet the demands of 
 the colonists who were building their village and their farm 
 houses upon the prairies during these first busy years from 
 1836 to 1840. The houses upon the prairie were, with an ex- 
 ception, frame houses, albeit they were plain and modest in 
 their structure. An early settler in writing of these buildings 
 says, "In the early days of the Galesburg settlement few vill- 
 ages in Illinois could boast of painted houses and the white 
 dwellings of the embryo city attracted the pleased attention of 
 eastern travelers. This distinction was rendered possible by 
 the oil mill built and operated by Leonard Chappell on Kellogg 
 street, between Main and Ferris. There oil might be had in 
 exchange for flax seed raised on the farms." 
 
 The first dwelling house built upon the site of the city of 
 Galesburg was that of William Holyoke, and it stood on the 
 lot now occupied by the Mathews block, between Prairie and 
 Kellogg streets, and on the north side of Main street. A frame 
 house built at Log City and occupied by Riley Root and his 
 family was placed upon large sleds and in that way removed to 
 the village on the prairie and located upon the lot at the north- 
 west corner of Main and Cherry streets in the block now occu- 
 pied by the Farmers' and Mechanics' Bank, the Rearick Hard- 
 ware Store, etc.
 
 81 
 
 The First Meeting- House 
 
 The log cabin of Hugh Conger has the distinction of hav- 
 ing been the first meeting house of the colonists, it being more 
 commodious than some of the others, as was necessary for his 
 family of seven children. But before the cold weather of their 
 first winter set in a more commodious and comfortable build- 
 ing was provided which was designed for both church and 
 school pui"poses. 
 
 First Building for Both Church and School Purposes 
 
 This was a two-room building with a wide door between 
 the rooms in which the speaker stood so as to be readily seen 
 and heard from both rooms. It was constructed of split tim- 
 bers, roofed with split shakes, floored with split boards, and 
 when the saw mill began to run, ceiled upon the inside with 
 rough basswood boards and the space between the clapboards 
 and the ceiling filled with saw-dust. Professor Churchill says : 
 "It would not be much out of the way to say that in this very 
 building the first terai of Knox College was held with Profes- 
 sor Nehemiah H. Losey as principal and Miss Lucy Gay as 
 assistant." 
 
 First Public School Building 
 
 It also served the pui-pose of a public school and was the 
 only building for that purpose until the following year, or pos- 
 sibly two years, when the first public school building devoted 
 primarily and especially to that purpose was erected in the 
 new village on the prairie. It stood on the northeast corner of 
 the public square facing the south. It could boast of one feat- 
 ure of the most approved and up-to-date type ; that is, the floor 
 was inclined from the front to the rear of the room, so that the 
 teacher standing or seated by his desk at the further end could 
 readily supei'\'ise the deportment of the pupils. 
 
 First Public School Teacher 
 
 Among the many who held sway over this school from 
 1840 to 1850 were Eli Farnham, who had the distinction of be- 
 ing the first teacher of the first public school in Galesburg; 
 James H. Noteware, afterward superintendent of public schools 
 for the State of Kansas ; Marshall Belong, one of the most pop- 
 ular and successful teachers of the early day, in this vicinity ; 
 George Churchill, prince of teachers from the very beginning 
 of his long career in the school and class-room ; and Henry 
 McCall, whose wife and daughter. Miss Ida McCall, many years 
 thereafter, were both of them, and for a number of years both 
 at the same time, the honored and beloved teachers of many 
 successive classes in Knox Academy. 
 
 Development of Galesburg Public Schools 
 
 From that small beginning the Galesburg Public School
 
 82 
 
 system has developed and increased until it has reached the fol- 
 lowing proportions: In the fall of 1918 there are twelve build- 
 ings with a total enrollment of 3,721 pupils. The High School 
 is a modem, well-equipped building of forty-four rooms. The 
 grade buildings range in size from four to thirteen rooms. 
 There are one hundred twenty-eight instructors and supervis- 
 ors and fifteen secretaries and other helpers, making in all 
 one hundred forty-three upon the pay roll. The school build- 
 ings with the exception of the High School and the Central Pri- 
 maiy are named in honor of the two most distinguished men 
 our state has given to the nation ; for Presidents and Profes- 
 sors in our Colleges, and for substantial citizens who have given 
 efficient service upon the board of trustees in the colleges, and 
 the board of education in the Public schools. These are the 
 names : 
 
 Names of Public School Buildings 
 Lincoln, Douglas, Weston, Bateman, Churchill, Hitchcock, 
 Cooke, Farnham, Silas Willard and L. T. Stone. An attractive 
 and finely equipped gymnasium was completed during the 
 summer of this centennial year, and to this building is given 
 the name of the W. L. Steele Gymnasium, in memory of the 
 lamented superintendent of our city schools who for thirty- 
 three years devoted himself untiringly and with pronounced 
 success to the improvement and the upbuilding of these schools 
 and died in May, 1918, just previous to his voluntary retire- 
 ment from the active service which he had so well performed. 
 
 But to go back to the autumn of 1837. At this time so 
 many had moved out to their farms or to the village upon the 
 prairie, that the church services were held alternately at the 
 grove and at the village, in the latter place the meetings being 
 held in a store building which was owned by Matthew Cham- 
 bers and was located at the intersection of Main street with 
 the Public Square, east of the Square and on the south side of 
 Main street. 
 
 Population of the Town at the Close of 1837. 
 
 By the close of 1837 there was a community numbering 
 232. Of these 175 came in 1836 and 57 in 1837. Besides these 
 there were at least two families belonging to the original colony 
 who settled elsewhere. Mr. Thomas Gilbert settled in Knox- 
 ville and Mr. Isaac Wetmore in Ontario. But the colonists of 
 1836 and 1837 were the original "Old Settlers," and these were 
 they who, building themsetlves, "their lives, their fortunes and 
 their sacred honor," into the structure of the College, the 
 Church, and the community, won for themselves the distinctive 
 title of "The Founders." As a matter of historic interest in- 
 terest and for purposes of information to further inquirers we 
 give below the names of the colonists of 1836 and 1837, the 
 "Founders of Galesburg."
 
 83 
 
 Names of Colonists — 1836 
 
 The first company who arrived on the second day of June, 
 1836, consisted of the following persons: Mr. and Mrs. Nehe- 
 miah West and their five children ; Mr. and Mrs. Hugh Conger 
 and seven children ; Miss Elizabeth Hudson ; Mr. Barber Allen 
 and his son, Daniel ; and the young men, John G. West and 
 Abram Tyler. 
 
 The First Wedding, August 31, 1836 
 
 Miss Elizabeth Hudson and Mr. Henry Ferris were the 
 principals in the first wedding of the colony. They were mar- 
 ried August 31, 1836, only two months after the arrival of 
 Miss Hudson. Mr. Ferris had spent the previous winter, that 
 of 1835-1836, in one of the log cabins in Henderson Grove, and 
 was on the ground to welcome the first company on its arrival. 
 There is a difference of opinion as to whether he lived entirely 
 alone in his cabin, or had the company of another man, one of 
 the Goodell family. 
 
 Other Companies Arrive 
 
 The names of other colonists who arrived with their fam- 
 ilies during the summer and fall of 1836 are the following: 
 Messrs. George and H. Troop Avery, their mother and sisters ; 
 Mathew Chambers ; Leonard Chappell ; C. S. Colton ; Patrick 
 Dunn ; Caleb Finch ; Lusher Gay ; Daniel Griffith ; Abel 
 Goodell ; William Hamblin ; John Haskins ; Mrs. Sarah Warner 
 Hitchcock, a widow and her sons, Elam and Samuel ; the two 
 Kendall brothers, Adoniram and John ; Elisha King ; John Mc- 
 Mullen ; Isaac Colton ; Roswell Payne ; Riley Root ; Thomas 
 Simmons ; Erastus and Job Swift ; Daniel Wheeler, and Henry 
 Willcox. The most of them had families of two or more little 
 children. Two of the young men were married during the sum- 
 mer or fall of 1836. This list does not include the members of 
 the canal boat company who arrived about August 1, 1836, 
 Rev. George W. Gale with his wife and family of young child- 
 ren arrived quite late in the fall of 1836. 
 
 "The Canal Boat Company," 1836. 
 
 The historic "canal boat trip" of the summer of 1836 was 
 made up of a series of vicissitudes and disasters seldom paral- 
 leled in the annals of pioneer emigration. The company num- 
 bered thirty-seven and included men, women and children rang- 
 ing in age from an infant of six weeks to men and women of 
 forty or fifty years. The persons making up this party were : 
 Captain John C. Smith and wife (Mr. Smith being one of the 
 subscribers to Mr. Gale's enterprise, and the promoter of this 
 water trip for the party) ; Miss Catherine Ann Watson, a neice 
 of Mrs. Smith, and two little sons of Dr. Grant, a Nestorian 
 missionary who came under their care ; Mr. and Mrs. Mills, two 
 sons and a daughter; Miss Hannah Adams, a sister of Mrs,
 
 84 
 
 Mills ; a girl named Mariah Fox, and a negro boy named Harry, 
 who was under the charge of Mr. Mills ; Mr, Lyman, his wife, 
 two sons and two daughters ; Mr. Orrin Kendall, his wife and 
 two little sons ; John Kendall ; N. H. Losey, his wife, and one 
 child ; Henry Hitchcock, a brother of Mrs. Losey ; Mrs. Clarissa 
 Phelps, two daughters and one son, two nieces and a nephew 
 (the children of Riley Root) ; John Bryan and a negro who 
 steered the boat. The disastrous experiences of this party are 
 related in Chapter VI of the book entitled "Seventy-five Signi- 
 ficant Years," to which we have previously referred. They are 
 of pathetic and tragic interest. 
 
 Arrivals in Spring of 1837 
 
 In the spring of 1837 a number of substantial citizens with 
 their families arrived to swell the population of the little com- 
 munity. Among them were the following, the most of them 
 married and with children of various ages: Silvanus Ferris 
 (although one of the chief promoters of the enterprise, he was 
 one of the later arrivals), his sons William and Olmstead, 
 both of them married ; Mr. Ferris' son-in-law, Dr. James Bruce ; 
 J. P. Frost, the founder of the Frost Manufacturing Company, 
 and wife; Eli Farnham and wife; H. H. May, the inventor of 
 the first steel plow, and wife ; Agrippa Martin and family ; Levi 
 Sanderson and family ; Junius Prentice aind family ; Sheldon 
 Allen, wife and infant son ; Jonathan Simmons and wife ; 
 Harvey Jerauld ; Western Ferris ; N. 0. Ferris ; George Ferris 
 and possibly others. One section at least of this group of fam- 
 ilies was six weeks on the way. Judging from the record of 
 the names of the towns and villages touched along the route, 
 their line of travel was much the same as that followed by the 
 Michigan Central railroad today. 
 
 Methods of Travel Then and Now 
 
 The early methods of travel were as we have seen, slow, 
 wearisome and hazardous. They were in almost overwhelm- 
 ing contrast to the luxurious service and the rapid transit 
 afforded by the railroads, the ocean liners, the private motor 
 cars, and most amazing of all, the air craft of the present day. 
 Many have made the mistake of concluding that the Galesburg 
 colonists traveled from the East in wagons drawn by ox teams. 
 This is not true. They came either in wagons covered with 
 canvas to protect them from the weather and drawn by strong 
 horses, or by the water route which included in its devious 
 course the Erie canal. Lake Erie, the Ohio canal, the Ohio 
 River, and the Mississippi and Illinois rivers. Some of the 
 men who came singly came by water as far as Chicago, which 
 was then a village of a few hundred inhabitants, and then 
 by horseback the remainder of the way.
 
 85 
 
 The Pioneers from the Southern States 
 The southerners who settled along the outskirts of Hen- 
 derson Grove five or six years previous to the coming of 
 our colonists made the journey on horseback bringing with 
 them their personal belongings and such small articles of fur- 
 niture as they could carry upon pack horses. A remarkable 
 example of pioneer enterprise and intrepid adventure may be 
 found in the case of Mrs. Henrietta Brown, the widowed 
 mother of eight sons and daughters who grew up to be prom- 
 inent and useful citizens in the townships adjacent to Hen- 
 derson Grove. When the spirit of emigration took hold upon 
 a group of her friends and neighbors, substantial citizens of 
 the ''Kentucky Blue Grass Countiy," she joined their ranks 
 and with her children, ranging in age from an infant to young 
 manhood and womanhood, she journeyed from Kentucky with 
 a train of horses of the fine old Kentucky stock, sufficient in 
 number to transport herself and her children, the family cloth- 
 ing and bedding and a few pieces of furniture. The children 
 who were too small to ride alone, and the younger ones too 
 numerous to ride upon the horse with their mother were sus- 
 pended in panniers swung across the backs of the pack horses. 
 
 The First Fort in Knox County 
 
 Upon the tract of Government land which Mrs. Brown 
 acquired which was located about seven miles N. W. of Gales- 
 burg, the first fort or stockade in Knox County was erected. 
 This served the purpo^^e of a dwelling for her family and a 
 place of refuge for the neighbors in case of alarm from the 
 Indian bands who roamed the prairie at that period. Later, 
 when that building became too small to protecting the increas- 
 ing population, another fort was built upon the premises of 
 her son-in-law, Peter Franz, and was located about one-half the 
 distance between the first fort and the present site of Gales- 
 burg. Two other forts erected in Knox County in that early 
 period as protection against the Indians were located respec- 
 tively on Section 10 in Henderson Township and S. E. of Knox- 
 ville in Orange Township. The forts N. W. of the site of 
 Galesburg were called Fort Aggie and Fort Lewis. 
 
 The First Store 
 
 The first store in the community was conducted bj' one 
 of the colonists from Maine, Mr. Chauncey S. Colton, who came 
 in the season of 1836. It is said that, with true Yankee thrift 
 and enterprise, he began to sell goods in one end of the log 
 cabin of one of the Kentucky settlers, with whom he and his 
 family were quartered until his store building about a mile 
 farther west, in the Log City neighborhood, could be com- 
 pleted. This building is described as an 8 by 10 foot structure 
 in which Mr. Colton displayed a varied assortment of goods —
 
 86 
 
 "a department store" in embryo. But about this nucleus he 
 gathered a fortune as the years passed by, until he became one 
 of the wealthiest men of his day in this section of the state. 
 As the homes upon the prairie were occupied Mr. Colton re- 
 moved his stock of goods to a building on the northwest corner 
 of the intersection of Main street and the Public Square in the 
 village which building also served the puiT)ose for his family 
 for a number of years. 
 
 Others Stores 
 
 During that same season other stores were opened by 
 Mathew Chambers and Levi Sanderson who also carried on a 
 thriving and prosperous business and were reckoned among 
 the moneyed men of the county. 
 
 Commercial Development Along All Lines 
 
 The mercantile business thus started has developed along 
 all lines suited to household needs until Galesburg with its var- 
 ious wholesale and retail business houses has become the com- 
 mercial center for a large area of one of the richest tracts of 
 country in the state. 
 
 First Academy Building 
 
 Late in the fall of 1838 the first Academy building was 
 finished and occupied. It stood where the First National Bank 
 building now stands, on the northeast corner of Main and 
 Cherry streets. Years ago it was moved farther north to 
 the middle of the block, fac'ng Cherry street, and was at first 
 used as a private residence, and afterward as a boarding 
 house. This historic structure was demolished early in the 
 spring of 1918, and is now only a memory. 
 
 With the Academy building completed and occupied by an 
 academic department of forty students and a corps of teachers, 
 it began to look as if Mr. Gale's great idea was about to 
 be realized. The college had entered upon its career of use- 
 fulness. But since it could not spring into being fully equipped 
 it must first be established upon a strong and durable founda- 
 tion. That foundation was the preparatory school, the Acad- 
 emy. 
 
 First Knox College Faculty 
 
 The first faculty of the college was composed of five mem- 
 bers. They were the following: Rev. Hiram H. Kellogg, Pres- 
 ident ; Rev. George W. Gale, Acting Professor of Languages ; 
 Nehemiah H. Losey, A. M., Professor of Mathematics and Nat- 
 ural Science; James H. Smith, A. B., Tutor; Miss Julia Chand- 
 ler, Preceptress of the "Female Department." After the re- 
 quired training in the Academy the first Freshman class was 
 ready to enter upon the regular college curriculum in the 
 fall of 1841, five years after the arrival of the colonists at 
 "Log City."
 
 87 
 
 First Knox Commencement 
 
 In June, 1846, the first Knox Commencement Day oc- 
 curred, and a class of nine young men was graduated. Of 
 these, five became ministers, two of whom were foreign mis- 
 sionaries, two became physicians, one a professor in college, 
 and one a farmer. Dr. Jonathan Blanchard, who became Presi- 
 dent of the college in 1845, had the distinction of presiding over 
 this first notable occasion and with this event the Idea had 
 fully materialized, the dream came true. 
 
 Numbers Then and Now 
 
 Some figures by way of comparison will show the develop- 
 ment of the college up to the present time. The first college 
 faculty numbered five. The faculty at the beginning of the 
 school year, 1918, numbered 24. The first graduating class 
 numbered 9; the class of 1918 numbered 50. Presumably the 
 first Freshman class numbered 9, although we have not the 
 figures at hand. The Freshman class in the fall of 1918 num- 
 bered 292. Of these 235 were inducted into the Student's 
 Army Training Corps, according to the new order of things 
 throughout the entire country in consequence of the "World 
 War." There were in all 301 new students of whom 288 were 
 men. A large number of men who would naturally have swelled 
 the ranks of the other classes had enlisted for active service 
 in the army and were either in the train'ng camps or had gone 
 "overseas." 
 
 Lombard College 
 
 In the year 1851, another college was founded in Gales- 
 burg by the Universalists, of which denomination there were 
 a number of influential families among the early settlers. The 
 intention was at first to make it more of a preparatory school 
 than a college, and it was to be known as the Illinois Liberal 
 Institute. Accordingly on February 15, 1851, a charter was 
 granted to this new enterprise under that name. In 1852 the 
 school opened its doors to pupils in a new building which was 
 erected on the northwest comer of Tompkins and Seminary 
 streets. The first faculty was composed of two teachers, the 
 Rev. Paul Raymond Kendall and a lady assistant who not long 
 afterward became his wife. Between sixty and seventy pupils 
 were at first enrolled. Dr. Kendall was President and his wife, 
 who was a lady of versatile accomplishments was able to assist 
 him in the various branches taught. 
 
 Dr. J. V. N. Standish 
 
 In 1854, John Van Ness Standish, a descendant of Captain 
 Myles Standish of "Pilgrim" fame, was added to the faculty. 
 He was a native of Vermont and a graduate of Norwich Uni- 
 versity. From the time of his arrival in Galesburg to the 
 present time, for a period of seventy-four years, the presence
 
 88 
 
 among us of this honored citizen has been a powerful influence 
 and aid in the up-building of our city. Educational, moral, 
 reformatory, phalanthropic, beneficent, and all other measures 
 looking toward our city's growth and well being have been 
 vigorously, untiringly, and generously supported by him. For 
 forty-one years he has been President of the Park Board, and in 
 that office and also as City Forester, his labors for the beauti- 
 fying of our city have been of inestimable value. Had he ac- 
 complished no other work during his long and fruitful life, that 
 which he has done for the improvement and beautifying of 
 Galesburg would have won for him the tribute : "Well done, 
 good and faithful servant." 
 
 Mrs. Harriet Augusta Standish 
 
 His wife, who as Miss Harriet Augusta Kendall, a cousin 
 of of the President, came also to join the faculty of the new 
 enterprise in 1854, was a woman of very superior mental at- 
 tainments and culture. After her marriage to Dr. Standish 
 she became his inspirer, his helper, and his counselor in all his 
 undertakings. She joined with him in large gifts for educa- 
 tional purposes, and beautiful Standish Park, the Knox campus, 
 Lombard campus, and many private grounds in our city are a 
 monument to their mutual plans and personal efforts. 
 "Should you seek their monument, look about you." In 1855 
 the building of the Liberal Institute was burned to the ground, 
 and a new project for the school came to the front. Its trus- 
 tees decided that in planning for a new and better building, 
 plans for the school should also be enlarged. 
 
 Benj. Lombard, Sr. 
 
 They began to solicit funds with the new building, the 
 higher standards, and the enlarged course of study as their 
 objective. Mr. Benjamin Lombard, Sr., a wealthy Universalist 
 of a neighboring town promised to give $20,000 to the enter- 
 prise, providing the trustees would raise $15,000 and give his 
 own name to the school. Arrangements were finally made for 
 carrying out this plan, and a new charter was secured naming 
 the school Lombard University. This is the name which its 
 charter still bears, although some years ago the trustees voted 
 to drop the name University, (as their plans for University 
 courses had not been realized), and call it simply Lombard Col- 
 lege. 
 
 New Location Chosen 
 
 The new building was located upon an eighty acre tract, 
 lying one mile S. E. of the original site which gave ample space 
 for such additional buildings as they might need. Mr. Lom- 
 bard offered to pay for this ground if the trustees would pur- 
 chase 't and locate the building there. The deed was given to 
 the trustees by Lorentus E. and Mary W. Conger and the pur- 
 chase price was $3,200.
 
 89 
 
 Dr. Standish is authority for the statement that no col- 
 lege in this section of the country and possibly not one through- 
 out the entire land has been erected under such trying and 
 adverse conditions because of the entire lack of financial re- 
 sources with which to meet the expense of construction. Mr. 
 Lombard's gift which was large for that day was not available 
 until near the close of the year 1856. 
 
 The building was erected by degrees, or in sections as it 
 were. After exhausting the slender means at hand at the 
 beginning of the work, the building waited until further funds 
 could be solicited to meet further expenditures. For example, 
 the foundation was laid, the first story put up, the walls tem- 
 porarily roofed with boards, and the workmen dismissed until 
 President Kendall could make a tour of the surrounding towns 
 and country-side presenting the needs of the institution, and 
 urgently soliciting contributions, however small, so that the 
 work might go on. Then the walls of the second story were 
 laid and the work again stopped until a second canvass could 
 be made. Finally the third story was finished and permanently 
 roofed, and the skeleton of the shapely structure awaited for 
 many months the interior finishing of partitions, plastered 
 walls and permanent floors. 
 
 Lombard's First Commencement — Prof. Standish Presides 
 
 The Commencement exercises of the year 1857 were held 
 in the building temporarily fitted up for the occasion, and Pro- 
 fessor Standish, then acting President while President Kendall 
 was out soliciting funds, conferred the degrees upon a graduat- 
 ing class of five members. Their names were Fielding Bond, 
 Floyd G. Brown, James H. Chapin, Edward D. Lunn and David 
 Scott Wick. Two of these young men died in early manhood 
 and the other three became prominent in public and profes- 
 sional life. 
 
 Divinity School 
 
 A Divinity School was for some years connected with '' 
 institution, but a number of years ago, it was removed to Chi- 
 cago University, and Dr. Lewis Beals Fisher, the President, 
 was placed in charge of it while a new President was chosen for 
 the college. 
 
 Lombard S. A. T. C. 
 
 The present faculty numbers twenty-two, and the college 
 is one of the units of the Student's Army Training Corps, as a 
 result of our country's participation in the great *'World War." 
 
 The First Church 
 
 Up to about 1840 the material growth of the Church was 
 noteworthy for so comparatively brief a period. The organ- 
 ization of the church had been effected in February, 1837, 
 when sixty-four united with the church by letter and eighteen
 
 90 
 
 by profession, making eight-eight on the first enrollment. At 
 the close of a series of revival meetings which followed the 
 occupancy of the new Academy building as a place of worship, 
 fifty-eight names were added to the membership of the church, 
 and its moral power was greatly strengthened. 
 
 A New Church Building 
 
 Early in the forties it became evident that a "meeting 
 house" must be built. The Academy building erected in 183 > 
 was found to be entirely too small for the gathering congrega- 
 tions for in those days everybody attended church. The his- 
 tory of the meetings and discussions which were held in plan- 
 ning for the ways and means of providing for a new and ample 
 building in those days of great privation and rigid economy 
 form a most interesting chapter in the annals of the colony, but 
 there is not space for it here. 
 
 Plans Adopted 
 
 A plan for the new building was finally adopted. It was to 
 be sixty feet wide by eighty feet long, and twenty-four fset 
 high from floor to ceiling. As they sat in their unpretentious 
 Academy building and discussed and compared dimensions it 
 seemed to some of them that the height was overwhelming, 
 for the room in which they were assembled measured eight feet 
 "between joists," and twenty-four feet would be three times 
 as high as that room, which would be absurd. 
 
 Work of Building Commenced 
 
 The original dimensions, however, were adopted and the 
 work commenced. After a time, for lack of money and matei - 
 ial, the construction was discontinued ; and for months length- 
 ening into years the material which had been gathered lay 
 in unsightly heaps completely filling the southwest corner of 
 the square near the unfinished structure. The building was 
 finally completed sufficiently to be used for the Commence- 
 ment exercises of 1846. It was not wholly enclosed and not 
 seated, but temporary seats of rough planks and a temporary 
 platform were provided. There was to be still further delay 
 before it was finished. In 1848, the building was at last com- 
 pleted and arrangements were made to dedicate it on Bacca- 
 laureate Sunday of Commencement week. The date was June 
 25th. 
 
 President Blanchard preached the sermon and Father 
 Waters offered the dedicatory prayer. He, it was, who with 
 the other members of the purchasing committee, thirteen 
 years before, had kneeled with uncovered head upon the un- 
 broken prairie and dedicated the new enterprise to the Lord, 
 imploring His favor and blessing upon it, and upon all who in 
 all time to come should be connected with it. The momentous 
 events of the intervening years and the interesting and im-
 
 91 
 
 pressive exercises of that occasion were in part an answer to 
 that prayer. 
 
 At two o'clock of the same day Dr. Gale preached the 
 Baccalaureate sermon and Rev. J. R. Walker gave the address 
 before the Society of Religious Inquiry connected with the Col- 
 lege. It was truly a strenuous day for those who attended the 
 entire series of services. 
 
 Professor Churchill says of this building subsequent to its 
 completion and dedication : "For many years, as there was no 
 other room in the village so capacious, it was used, not alone for 
 religious meetings, but for musical concerts and scientific lec- 
 tures, temperance lectures, anti-slavery lectures, and conven- 
 tions, and mass meetings held in the interests of many of the 
 great reforms of the day. The most eloquent pulpit and plat- 
 form orators who graced the lecturere's rostrum in the hey-day 
 of its glory always found the old First Church ready to give 
 them welcome. Among those who have lectured there were 
 Ralph Waldo Emerson, Edward Everett, Henry Ward Beecher, 
 Wendell Phillips, John B. Gough, and many others of world 
 wide fame. Many a time I have seen the house so crowded on 
 such occasions that it was almost impossible for the speaker 
 to make his way up the aisle to the platform." 
 
 Development of Religious Life in the Community 
 
 Since the dedication and occupancy of that First Church of 
 Galesburg, which was a notable achievement for that early 
 period in this section of Illinois, the development of the organ- 
 ized religious life of the community has kept pace with the 
 increase in the population. At the present time there are 16 
 Protestant churches with a total enrollment of between 6,000 
 and 7,000 resident members, all of them having upon their 
 rolls non-resident members, who for various reasons, have not 
 severed their connection with the Galesburg Church. These 
 figures represent a church membership equal to about one- 
 fourth of the population. There are also two Roman Catholic 
 churches with a combined membership of somewhat more than 
 2,000. This includes the baptized children as well as the adults. 
 
 Hospitals, Etc., At Present Time 
 
 Added to these strictly religious organizations are our 
 philanthropic and beneficent institutions which always go hand 
 in hand with the church. There are two Hospitals; an active 
 and efficient Free Kindergarten Home ; an Association Home 
 for the care and comfort of boys and girls too old to be cared 
 for by the Kindergarten, the Young Men's Christian Associa- 
 tion, and the Catherine Club, a delightful home for young 
 women who need the atmosphere and the protection of a home 
 in a strange city. The buildings belonging to all of these above 
 mentioned institutions are fine, up-to-date, well equipped build-
 
 92 
 
 ings. A Day Nursery has also been recently started for the 
 purpose of caring for babies and small children whose mothers 
 are obliged to labor during the day, and have no one with whom 
 to leave their helpless children while they are away from home. 
 
 Galesburg Railway Service 
 
 In 1854 the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad com- 
 pleted its line from Chicago to Galesburg, and in due course 
 of time this city became an important division station on that 
 great rail way system. The first train reached the town on 
 December seventh between seven and eight o'clock in the 
 morning. The impetus which the varied and far-reaching ac- 
 tivities of this road have given to the commercial and industrial 
 life of our city has been of inestimable value as a factor in its 
 growth and development. Later, in 1886, the great Santa Fe 
 system (which according to Clark E. Carr is one of the great- 
 est railway systems in the world), surveyed its line through 
 Galesburg, and established one of its important stations here, 
 thus contributing in a large degree to our influence and pros- 
 perity. Not every inland prairie town can boast of having 
 given the right of way to two of the greatest trans-continental 
 railway lines of the world, over which tourists and traffic must 
 of necessity unceasingly roll in their passage between the At- 
 lantic and Pacific seaboards. 
 
 Notable Events in Galesburg 
 
 Galesburg has been the scene of many notable events, some 
 of them involving national and even international issues. Con- 
 spicuous among these was the great Lincoln-Douglas Debate of 
 October 7, 1858. This was one of a series of debates between 
 those two great men and pronounced political rivals, Abraham 
 Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas. These were held at differ- 
 ent points throughout the state during the summer and autumn 
 of 1858. The occasion for these notable political discussions 
 known in history as the Lincoln-Douglas Debates was the can- 
 didacy of the two men for election to the United States Senate, 
 and the question at issue was the momentous question of slav- 
 ery, which had became a national issue. 
 
 Col. Clark E. Carr in his book, "The Illini"," says in refer- 
 ence to these debates : "It may be said of this contest that the 
 Constitution of the United States was the platform and the 
 whole American people the audience, and that upon its issue 
 depended the fate of a continent." 
 
 Galesburg in the Civil War 
 
 The outbreak of the Civil War, in 1861, aroused Galesburg 
 to a high pitch of patriotic enthusiasm and devotion. Many of 
 the best and noblest of her sons offered themselves to the ser- 
 vice of their country and quite a number of them were called
 
 93 
 
 upon to make the "supreme sacrifice," while others suffered 
 from disease and wounds, and the horrors of confinement and 
 starvation in southern prisons, carrying with them for the 
 remainder of their lives the physical effects of their distressing 
 and disabling experience. Among the soldier volunteers were 
 a large number of students from Knox and Lombard colleges. 
 This greatly depleted the enrollment and interrupted the pre- 
 scribed courses of study in both these institutions from the 
 depressing effects of which they did not soon rally. Too much 
 cannot be said in appreciation of the loyal and sympathetic 
 support of the men in the field by their kindred and friends 
 who remained at home. Especially is this true of the women 
 of Galesburg who were at once organized as .a working unit 
 under the name of "The Soldiers' Aid Society," working as sys- 
 tematically, untiringly and effectively as do the women of to- 
 day under the organization of the Red Cross. 
 
 Again and yet again were the homes of Galesburg and 
 v'icinity opened to receive their dying and their dead, but still 
 uniaunted the women toiled on, making garments, scraping 
 lint, tilling comfort bags, packing boxes of supplies of all kinds, 
 and writing letters to the soldiers in hospitals and camp. 
 
 The reports which have been preserved of the activities 
 of "The Soldiers' Aid Society of Galesburg" and its auxiliaries 
 speak eloquently and thrillingly, and with a touching pathos, 
 of the work of the mothers and sisters, even of the little child- 
 ren in their juvenile societies, for the relief and comfort of the 
 brave boys in blue who had gone out from their midst. The 
 story of what was accomplished for their aid reads like a ro- 
 mance. (A more detailed account of the activities of the women 
 of Galesburg during the Civil War may be found in A. J. 
 Periy's History of Knox County, in the section entitled, 
 "Woman's Work in Knox County," prepared at the request of 
 Mr. Perry by the writer of these annals) . 
 
 Company C — Illinois National Guards 
 
 In the spring of 1893 Galesburg again responded to our 
 country's call for the defense of the honor of the government, 
 in the war which is known in histoiy as the Spanish-American 
 War. 
 
 Company C of the 6th Regiment, Illinois National Guards, 
 an organization of Galesburg and Knox County men; a thor- 
 oughly organized, well-drilled, efficient company of one hun- 
 dred men, promptly re.sponded to the summons and held 
 themselves in readiness to obey marching orders. 
 
 On the evening of the 28th of April they were entrained 
 for Springfield with the expectation that they would soon be 
 called into active service in Cuba and Porto Rico. 
 
 At this call to arms the whole city was aroused as it had
 
 94 
 
 not been before since the days of the Civil War. A great 
 throng, estimated at 10,000 or more of our citizens, gathered 
 first at the armory, where the men of Company C were assem- 
 bled, and again at the Burlington Station where the}" were to 
 entrain, to give them last messages of farewell and God-speed. 
 
 According to an account of the event given in the columns 
 of the Republican-Register of that date, "the scene growing 
 out of their departure was one such as is witnessed but few 
 times in the life of a generation." 
 
 On July 26th following, colored men and boys, more than 
 a score in number, also went forth into their country's service, 
 and were given an enthusiattic send-off by the citizens of the 
 city. 
 
 Company C, because of its past record during times of 
 strikes and riots, and also because of its manly and patriotic 
 attitude in the present crisis, was one of whom our city was 
 justly proud. During their service abroad, which happily 
 proved to be but brief, they made a remarkable record in more 
 than one respect. 
 
 After some weeks spent in camp, they were ranked among 
 the best of the Illinois troops, they were sent across to Cuba 
 to have a hand in the campaign against the City of Santiago. 
 With other picked men they were assigned to a very important 
 duty in the final charge. The final charge, however, never 
 v/as made, because of the surrender of the city. 
 
 Then came the order to proceed to Porto Rico and our men 
 were among the first of the American troops to arrive there. 
 It is claimed that the men of Company C were the very first 
 of our soldiers to set foot upon that island. 
 
 They took part in the campaign there and although the 
 Company suffered no loss in killed or wounded, they suffered 
 greatly from diseases incident to the climate, from distress- 
 ing unsanitary conditions, from insufficient and improper food 
 and from lack of suitable camping privileges and equipment. 
 
 Many of them were sick, almost unto death, and all of 
 them returned emaciated and worn, bearing the marks of great 
 hardships and suffering. 
 
 The company took pait in but one battle, that of July 
 25th, and but one skirmish on the following day. 
 
 After four months of service, the 6th Regiment was 
 ordered home, and our men with the others embarked from 
 Ponce, Porto Rico, for the United States. 
 
 Naturally there was great rejoicing when the news came 
 that they had set sail for home, and large plans were la'd 
 for their reception upon their arrival in their home city.
 
 95 
 
 They arrived on Wednesday September 21st, amidst the 
 rejoicing and acclamations of thousands of citizens who had 
 gathered at the Burlington Station and lined the streets for 
 blocks, to express to them their welcome home. 
 
 The plans which had previously been made for their rece])- 
 tion were successfully carried through in detail. 
 
 They included a banquet given them at the Universalist 
 Church by the Army and Navy League, and public exercises at 
 the First M. E. Church, with addresses of welcome and appre- 
 ciation by Mayor Cooke, Congressman Prince, President John 
 H. Finley of Knox College, Chaplain Ferris of the 6th Fvegi- 
 ment, the Rev. Dr. Geistweit of the First Baptist Church and 
 others. Captain T. Leslie McGirr, who so successfully led his 
 men through the entire campaign that they returned home 
 without the loss of one, was called upon to speak, and he re- 
 sponded in behalf of his company. 
 
 His men enthusiastically gave him three cheers as he arose 
 to speak and again when he had finished, a fine tribute to his 
 popularity with them. 
 
 In the months immediately following their return home 
 other courtesies in the way of public recognition and apprecia- 
 tion were extended to the men of Company C. 
 
 Notable among these was an elaborate reception and din- 
 ner given by the Ladies' Society of the First Presbyterian 
 Church, which was most complete, beautiful and soul-inspiring 
 in every detail. The dining hall and audience room in the 
 church were most elaborately and appropriately decorated with 
 the national colors, artistically arranged in many unique and 
 beautiful designs expressive of the welcome of the church to 
 their brothers who had so bravely represented them in the 
 country's hour of need. 
 
 After a most appetizing dinner during which hospitality 
 and good cheer abounded, the company adjourned to the aud- 
 ience room for the crowning feature of this delightful occasion. 
 This consisted of speech-making, gift-giving and singing by a 
 male quartette. 
 
 Miss Belle Beatty presided during the evening's program 
 and after a few appropriate words of welcome and appreciation 
 for their honored guests, the men of Company C, she intro- 
 duced Mrs. George A. Lawrence, the President of the Ladies' 
 Society. 
 
 Mrs. Lawrence made an address to the men which was re- 
 plete with patriotic fervor and with serious and convincing 
 argument and utterance regarding the obligations and the 
 high privileges of American Citizenship, she warmly com- 
 mended the part which they had so nobly played in fulfilling
 
 96 
 
 such obligations and rising to such privileges. After referring 
 to the military maps, charts and tactics which had guided 
 them in their recent campaign, she spoke of the Bible as em- 
 bodying in its teachings the only sure and safe chart and rule 
 of practice, which if loyally followed would successfully guide 
 one through the great battle of life. 
 
 She then presented to the Company, a large and beautiful 
 Bible, handsomely bound in flexible covers, for their desk at 
 the Company's Headquarters. 
 
 Needless to say, the address made a deep and serious im- 
 pression upon the men, and the gift was received with great 
 applause. 
 
 Mrs. John H. Finley, the wife of President Finley of Knox 
 College, then addressed them. Her remarks very fittingly and 
 skillfully led up to the presentation of a large and beautiful 
 silk flag for the use of the Company, which was enthusiastic- 
 ally received by them. Mrs. Finley also presented to each one 
 of the men a booklet with red covers, tied with blue ribbon in 
 which was printed upon white paper in blue lettering, a poem 
 written by Dr. Finley, descriptive of their trip to Porto Rico 
 and return. 
 
 Captain T. L. McGirr fittingly responded to all these cour- 
 tesies and accepted the gifts in behalf of the men of Company 
 C. 
 
 Following this. Dr. W. Hamilton Spence, the pastor of th( 
 church, made the address of the evening, which was character- 
 istically eloquent, inspiring and helpful. 
 
 And so this most enjoyable and noteworthy occasion came 
 to a close as a befitting climax to the series of welcoming 
 events which had been accorded the patriotic men of Company 
 C, I. N. G. 
 
 In commemoration of the part which Galesburg took in the 
 Spanish-American War our city takes a just pride in a fine old 
 Spanish Cannon, a gift from the U. S. Government to Post 45, 
 G. A. R., through whose efforts, ably supplemented by the per- 
 sonal work of our Congressman George W. Prince, this sou- 
 venir was secured from the authorities at Washington. 
 
 It was given by the government to Post 45, G. A. R., and 
 was erected by the city upon a site on the east side of our Cen- 
 tral Park at the head of Main Street. 
 
 This cannon is made of the finest metal and was cast in 
 Spain in 1740. It was, among others, sent across to the island 
 just previous to the outbreak of the war to help in the rein- 
 forcement of the fort upon San Juan Hill. When Col. Theo- 
 dore Roosevelt and his Rough Riders charged up the hill and
 
 97 
 
 captured the fort, thirteen of these guns fell into the hands of 
 the Americans and were sent to Washington as trophies. 
 
 The inscription upon it is in ancient Latin, and at the 
 time of its erection in our park the inscription was trans- 
 lated by the late Professor Albert Hurd of Knox College and 
 by Dr. J. V. N. Standish, an accomplished linquist and for more 
 than forty years the President of the Park Board. 
 
 Galesburg- "A Convention City" 
 
 Many patriotic and political rallies, especially during the 
 period of the Civil War, and many state and national conven- 
 tions have chosen Galesburg as a rallying point because of its 
 importance and influence both as to its advantageous location 
 and as to those great moral and educational forces which make 
 for the well-being of a nation and which this community, in 
 years gone by, has possessed in full measure. 
 
 Galesburg- Made the County Seat 
 
 In the year 1873 the County Seat was removed from Knox- 
 ville to Galesburg. This action followed a long controversy 
 during which rival claims for the honor of being the executive 
 center of the county were vigorously supported by opposing 
 factions representing Knoxville and Galesburg. Up to that 
 date the County seat had been located in Knoxville, which^ be- 
 cause of its beautiful situation and its honorable record as a 
 community, was eminently worthy of the distinction. But it 
 suffered the disadvantage of remoteness from the more popu- 
 lous sections of the county and from the superior railroad facil- 
 ities which Galesburg enjoyed because of being an important 
 division station on the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy road. 
 Moreover Galesburg was more accessible as a distributing cen- 
 ter for the products of the rich agricultural areas of the county. 
 All things considered it was in every respect better situated to 
 be the seat of government, and the better judgment of the citi- 
 zens of the county finally prevailed, the majority voting in 
 favor of the transfer. This decision was of course in every 
 way advantageous to Galesburg, while at the same time it is a 
 matter of regret that the civic prosperity of Knoxville suffered 
 in consequence. The change of location necessitated the build- 
 ing of a new court house, and this was accomplished in the 
 years 1884-86. 
 
 A stately, handsome, and well equipped building was 
 erected in the east half of the city park which was donated by 
 the city for that purpose. The business of the county has al- 
 ready outgrown the capacity of this large structure, and plans 
 are maturing for its enlargement and improvement. 
 
 Industrial Development 
 
 The manufacturing industries of Galesburg had their be-
 
 98 
 
 ginning in the little machine and repair shop of J. P. Frost, one 
 of the colonists of the spring of 1837. His small venture has 
 increased and developed throughout the years and is now 
 known as the Frost Manufacturing Company, which ships the 
 output of its great machine and boiler shops to all parts of the 
 United States and to many foreign lands. Around this have 
 sprung up factories and shops of various kinds suited to com- 
 mercial and household needs till there are now about 50 manu- 
 facturing establishments in our city. The number includes 
 machine, boiler and repair shops, planing mills, flour mills, gar- 
 ment factories, automobile factories, welding works, Coulter 
 Disc works, rug factories, candy and ice cream factories, both 
 wholesale and retail, bottling works, etc., etc. 
 
 Galesburg As A Music Center 
 
 Galesburg has always been at the fore-front as a musical 
 center. At a very early date in its history it commenced its 
 musical career under the instruction and leadership of Samuel 
 Bacon. 
 
 This Prince of Music Masters, sweet singer and skillful 
 violinist, came at regular intervals to give instruction to large 
 classes, or "schools" as they were then called and to give con- 
 certs and lead choruses to the delight of enthusiastic pupils and 
 an appreciative community. He was the predecessor of men of 
 no mean reputation in the field of musical leadership. One by 
 one they have had their day and passed on, using their own 
 methods, winning their own honors, and leaving each his own 
 impress upon a large and enthusiastic following. 
 
 Knox Conservatory of Music 
 
 Last, but by no means least among them is our own Prof. 
 Wm. F. Bentley, who for thirty-three years has been the popu- 
 lar director of the Knox Conservatory of Music and the sup- 
 porter, promoter and director of the musical activities of Gales- 
 burg. Under Dr. Bentley's efficient management the Knox 
 Conservatory of Music has become one of the leading musical 
 institutions of the state and its graduates have become prom- 
 inent as musical educators and artists all over the United 
 States. 
 
 Other Schools of Music 
 
 There have recently been established two other schools of 
 music in Galesburg, one in connection with the "School of 
 Three Arts" at Lombard College under the direction of Madame 
 Anna Groff Bryant, and the other "The Maude Alma Main 
 School of Fine Arts," founded and conducted by Miss Main. 
 The success and reputation of all these schools have been 
 greatly enhanceed by the able co-operatin of an efficient corps 
 of teachers in each department of the different schools. 
 
 Especially is this true in the Knox Conservatory of Music,
 
 99 
 
 where John Winter Thompson, Mus. D., head of the Organ and 
 Theory Department, and Miss Blanche M. Boult, Professor of 
 Pianoforte, have been for a quarter of a century or more Dr. 
 Bentley's loyal colleagues. 
 
 And so through the medium of these annals we have 
 brought our favored city adown the "long, long trail" which 
 has been blazed for us by a succession of historic events from 
 the beginning to the present time. It would have been pleasant 
 sometimes to take the more devious route, to discover the hid- 
 den trails, to linger by the way-side gathering souvenirs of the 
 past and to revel among the fascinating romances which "half 
 concealed and half revealed" have beckoned to us here and 
 there as alluring possibilities in the pioneer experiences of our 
 colonists and their descendants. But these are forbidden indul- 
 gences. The journey has been a pleasant one although the 
 enjoyment has been tinged with regret that many persons 
 places, objects and events which were worthy of remembrance 
 have been passed without mention because of lack of space; 
 and we regretfully leave them to the chroniclers of the future. 
 
 With congratulations to all who have in any way contri- 
 buted to that which has already been achieved, and with a chal- 
 lenge to our city to see to it that the future shall witness still 
 better and greater achievements, we leave her to the enjoyment 
 of her many privileges and unusual opportunities, her churches 
 and colleges, her schools and happy homes, her exceptional 
 musical advantages, her literary and social prestige, her com- 
 mercial and industrial advancement, her superior facilities for 
 travel and transportation ; and all things else that have con- 
 tributed to the development of Galesburg into a city fitted to 
 be the seat of the legislative and executive activities of our rich 
 and prosperous counuty of Knox of the great state of Illinois 
 in this her centennial anniversary of A. D. 1918.
 
 100 
 
 HAW CREEK 
 
 By Wm. Scott. 
 
 In attempting to write the annals of Haw Creek Township, 
 Knox County, Illinois, the writer of this short sketch will be 
 somewhat handicapped as to the early history of the same. 
 
 After having served two terms of enlistment in the War 
 of the Rebellion in Ohio organizations, and after having been 
 discharged from said service in June, 1865, came to Illinois in 
 October, same year, and located in Haw Creek Township, En- 
 tering school in Hedding College, Abingdon, Illinois, the winter 
 term of 1865, remained in same school (excepting vacations) 
 until the late fall of 1866, when he began District school teach- 
 ing and continued in that Profession until the ending of the 
 school year, 1878, embarking in the Mercantile business in 
 Gilson, 111,, March 1878 ; ran a general merchandise business 
 for over forty years. 
 
 In order to obtain anything like an accurate knowledge of 
 Haw Creek's early histoiy the writer will have to glean his 
 knowledge from various sources. He will in some instances 
 have to refer to a former history written in 1899 by C. W. 
 McKown, of Gilson, (now deceased). 
 
 In attempting to answer the questions of the committee 
 who have this matter under consideration will say that veiy 
 little is known of the first inhabitants of this Township, I now 
 refer to the Redmen or Indians of the forest and prairies of 
 Illinois, There are evidences in Haw Creek Township that the 
 Redmen at one time roamed over our prairies hunting the game 
 that was plenteous and fishing in our principal river, (the 
 Spoon), which at that time abounded with vast numbers of 
 fine fish. 
 
 The population at the present time consists almost wholly 
 of native born inhabitants of Haw Creek. Most of the early 
 settlers came from Ohio, We note from the former histoiy 
 referred to, that the first White settler in Haw Creek was 
 Mrs, Elizabeth Owens, accompanied by her son Parnach Owens, 
 the settlement was made in 1829 on Section 18. In 1834, other 
 settlers came from Ohio and settled in this township. Among 
 those families were John Scott, Zephaniah Scott and Jacob 
 Harshbarger, About the same time also came the following 
 families and located in Haw Creek, these were James Nevitt, 
 Samuel Slocum, David Teel and David Enochs. They were soon 
 followed by Woodford Pierce, David Housh, Joshua Burnett 
 and Lineas Richmond, William Dickerson and others, so that in 
 1835 there was quite a settlement in Haw Creek, all coming 
 from Southern Ohio, Highland and Jackson counties. 
 
 The first white child born in Haw Creek was a son to
 
 101 
 
 James Nevitt and wife, soon after locating in their new home. 
 The first death in the township was that of Eleanor Jarnigan, 
 1834. First sermon preached by the noted Rev. Peter Cart- 
 right, 1831. 
 
 After the settlement of Haw Creek there were no Churches 
 but services were held in the homes of the fanners. The Rev. 
 Peter Cartright, Richard Haney (Uncle Dick) and William 
 Clarke officiated at the services held in the farm houses. The 
 first denomination in the field was the Methodist Episcopal, 
 afterwards followed by the United Brethren in Christ. After 
 the erection of school houses the religious services were held 
 in them. The first regular church built in Haw Creek was 
 Clark's Chapel, Section 17, built in 1864, since discontinued. 
 There are at present three churches in the township, the Meth- 
 odist in Gilson, built in 1865 ; the Gilson United Brethren, built 
 in 1866. The value of each church when built was not over 
 $1,200, but now $2,500 would not replace them and their furn- 
 ishings. The other church referred to is a United Brethren lo- 
 cated in Section 3, known as Union or Wolfs Chapel, at a value 
 of $1,500. They are all of them well kept up and in good con- 
 dition. The present ministers are: Methodist, Rev. E. B. Mor- 
 ton; United Brethren, Rev. Jay A. Smith, each of them live 
 wires. 
 
 As to the first school house built in the township, I am not 
 able to say, but I presume it was the log structure erected on 
 the Northwest Quarter of Section 15. The first school in the 
 township was taught by Miss Susan Dempsey in 1836, who 
 afterward became the wife of Booker Pickrel. The school sys- 
 tem of Haw Creek is up to that of average of other townships 
 in the county. We have nine districts with that of Gilson, 
 which is a graded school, besides we have the Haw Creek Town- 
 ship High School with three teachers. Classes in this school are 
 regularly graduated after a four years prescribed course by 
 the efficient School Board. None but good and efficient 
 teachers are emploj^ed in any of the schools of the Township. 
 
 The methods of travel are varied at the present time. But 
 the early methods were principally by wagon and carriage. 
 Before the days of the railroad the farm produce was hauled 
 by wagon to Peoria and Chicago ; principally to Peoria, wagons 
 loaded back with groceries and merchandise of various kinds. 
 
 The first store in the township was conducted by Edmond 
 Smith at Mechanicsburg, southwest of Gilson three-fourths 
 miles on Section 18. This store was of a general stock. The C. 
 B. & Q. railroad was surveyed and built in 1856. In 1857 the 
 Village of Gilson was surveyed and regularly established on 
 the southeast one-fourth section 7 by Lineas Richmond and 
 James Gilson, after whom the village was named. Ever since
 
 102 
 
 Gilson was established it has been a good trading point for the 
 sale of farm produce, such as all kinds of grains and stock. 
 Gilson at present has a population of 200. Three general stores 
 in the town, all seem to do a good business, one elevator and one 
 lumber yard, one blacksmith shop and one general repair shop, 
 post office and one rural delivery. 
 
 The only mill of an early date was a large grist mill on 
 Section 34 on Spoon River, known in 1865 as the Burnett Mill. 
 It did a very fine business when first built but was abandoned 
 about twenty years ago on account of a lack of power for only 
 about six months in the year. There was also a saw mill 
 erected on Haw Creek 2 miles southwest of Gilson which did a 
 very good business for several years. 
 
 The organization of the township was effected on April 5, 
 1853. This organization took place at the Nevitt school house, 
 
 southwest of Gilson two and one-half miles. The following 
 officers were elected: William M. Clarke, Supervisor, Wood- 
 ford Pierce, Clerk ; Isaac Lott, Assessor ; Joseph Harshbarger, 
 Collector; Jacob Wolf, Overseer of the Poor; John S. Linn and 
 Enoc Godfrey, Justices of the Peace ; Geo. Pickrel and William 
 Lewis, Constables ; Milton Lotts, Allen T. Rambo and Benoni 
 Simpkins, Commissioners of Highways. The present officers 
 follow: C. H. Upp, Supervisor; Clark H. Snow, Assessor; C. 
 L. Dossett, Overseer of Poor; C. H. Upp (by virtue of office) 
 Justice of Peace ; Earl Snell, Constable ; John Housh and H. L. 
 Connor, Commissioner of Highways, Ben Taylor. With my 
 limited knowledge, prior to 1865, I am unable to give the loca- 
 tion of the first farm and how cultivated, but I should judge 
 that the method of cultivation was principally by the one and 
 two-horse cultivators, as a great many of these settlers were 
 from Ohio and there they had to use the one and two horse 
 cultivators, on account of the stumps and roots in the ground. 
 Much improvement has been made in this part of the country 
 in the farming line in the manner of preparing the seed bed be- 
 fore planting or sowing the seed. The farm tractor is just now 
 coming into use in Haw Creek. It may eventually take the 
 place of horses in the extra heavy, hard and hot work. 
 
 The homes of the farmers and laboring class are much 
 better furnished of late years than formerly, and I attribute 
 that to the younger generation. The better educated, the more 
 up-to-date they wish to become and when that is uppermost in 
 the mind of the younger class, something is going to happen 
 and that something is to have a home better equipped. 
 
 Early pastimes and amusements were as follows: Celebra- 
 tions, which usually occurred on Holidays ; Spelling Schools, 
 Singing schools, Corn huskings, Log rollings and Quilting Bees. 
 
 The township at the present time is in a very good and
 
 103 
 
 prosperous condition owing to the extra good crops and the ex- 
 tremely high prices obtained for all kinds of farm commodities. 
 The population of the township, as near as we can estimate it, 
 is 1,080. 
 
 The first good farm house built in the township was that 
 of James Nevitt in 1835. First brick house built by Woodford 
 Pierce in 1836 on Section 7, Northeast Quarter. First post of- 
 fice established May 7, 1852, and named by the Government, 
 Haw Creek. The post office was in the general store at Me- 
 chanicsburg, run by Edmond Smith. The first postmaster was 
 Joseph Harshbarger and was succeeded by Allen T. Rambo, 
 Sept. 16, 1852. The latter was succeeded by Woodford Pierce 
 in March 17, 1855. On March 5, 1857, the office was removed 
 to Gilson which then was a railroad station. Mechanicsburg 
 then going out of existence as a village. 
 
 I wish to acknowledge my indebtedness to the former his- 
 torian of the township, Mr. C. W. McKown, for my knowledge 
 of the organization of the township, also the first officers of 
 the same and also for the first post office and first postmaster 
 of the township. 
 
 I also wish to relate a couple of instances relating to the 
 Rev. William M. Clarke and Rev. Richard Haney, the founders 
 of Methodism in Haw Creek. In the early settlement of Knox 
 County and Haw Creek the Rev. William M. Clarke was ap- 
 pointed by the Conference to the Knoxville Circuit, which con- 
 sisted at that time of three or more appointments. At that 
 time he was living on his farm,, just east of the old Gilson 
 Camp Grounds, where the Methodist church held their Camp 
 Meetings for so many years. After he had taken charge of the 
 Knoxville Circuit he called the official Board together and con- 
 tracted with them for his year's salary, which was not an 
 overly large one. The Board agreed to pay his salary regu- 
 larly as he had a large family to support and the salary would 
 be needed to support them. He had preached for them a part 
 of the year and the good brothers had failed on their part of 
 the contract. He called the Board together and stated to them 
 that he was in need of the money for the support of his 
 family. They made him a good promise, but failed to carry it 
 out, so Uncle Billy, as he was familiarly called, called the offi- 
 cial Board together again. He said to them: "Brethren, you 
 have not treated me right in the matter of filling your obliga- 
 tion to me in the matter of salary. I have endeavored to do 
 my best for you in the matter of Pastorial work, but you have 
 utterly failed to keep your part of the contract, so, I am going 
 to tell you something which is not very pleasant for me, 'You 
 can all go to the devil and I will go back to the farm ;' " and he 
 went. 
 
 I now wish to relate an incident in which Uncle Dick Haney
 
 104 
 
 was interested. He was preaching at a farm house in the early 
 settlement of Haw Creek and in those days window glass was 
 a very scarce article. In the absence of glass a white greased 
 paper was tacked to a frame and used as a sash in the window 
 frame. Uncle Dick said at this farm house he was delivering 
 his sermon in his best possible manner, he had taken his posi- 
 tion close to the windows supplied with the greased paper. 
 When he was at his best in the discourse he heard a commo- 
 tion on the outside of the house, which proved to be a fracas 
 between the cat and dog belonging to the premises. He said he 
 was doing his best in the way of the delivery of his discourse, 
 when the noise increased all at once, pussy to escape the dog 
 sprung directly through the greased paper in the window 
 alighting directly in front of Uncle Dick. Afterwards in speak- 
 ing about the incident he said it was always a question in his 
 mind what he should call it ; whether a Dogmatical or a Cate- 
 gorical problem. 
 
 At another time of his preaching at a farm house, and the 
 good sister of the house had no place to keep her well filled 
 milk crocks, only on a bench placed at one end of the room, in 
 which the services were being held. Uncle Dick said he took 
 his position close to the milk bench, he stated when he warmed 
 up in his sermon and using all the oratory he could com- 
 mand, making all the gestures that was possible for him to 
 make and giving it all the force and power he could, at this 
 point he noticed a peculiar sensation in one of his lower limbs. 
 When he cast his eyes in that direction, he discovered that his 
 coat tail had completely skimmed one of the good sister's 
 crocks of milk and the cream was running down the calves of 
 his legs and filling his shoes.
 
 105 
 
 HENDERSON TOWNSHIP 
 
 By Susan McMurtry 
 
 It is meet and seemly that some permanent record be 
 placed in the archives of the Centennial History of Illinois of 
 the citizens of Henderson, who have been identified with the 
 early history of Knox county and been prominent in the up- 
 holding of the commonwealth that those who came after them 
 may know to whom they are indebted for the benefits they now 
 enjoy. We are all debtors to the honored and useful lives of 
 those brave pioneers, who blazed and prepared the way for 
 coming generations. 
 
 The distinct personality of this locality in the history of 
 our state and county arouses in us a feeling of pride in our 
 past, because our earliest settlers exercised a great influence 
 that has been a great value to humanity. The future of Knox 
 county and Henderson in no small part lay in the hands of 
 those early pioneers. A future full of hardships but also full 
 of hope. 
 
 In writing the early history of this particular locality, one 
 is obliged to ignore much that must naturally come in other 
 parts of this history. We find we have to tell the history of 
 the state or the history of the county, not the history of Hen- 
 derson township. Take the important figures in the history of 
 this region during the earlier period and you will find they do 
 not belong particularly to Henderson, but to the greater areas 
 of which this place is but a small part. 
 
 The question naturally arises, whence came the first 
 settlers ? What conditions drove them to face the hardships 
 and privations of the frontier to make new homes. 
 
 It has been said that before the railroads emigration 
 moved on parallels of latitude. This was never more clearly 
 illustrated than in the early settlement of Knox county. It is 
 safe to say that the majority of the early settlers were either 
 natives or descendants of natives of Virginia, North Carolina, 
 Kentucky and Tennessee. Many of them had ancestors who 
 were also pioneers in these same states. Some came from the 
 eastern states. They were extraordinary people, courageous, 
 hardy, intelligent, honest, industrious, honorable, patriotic and 
 God-fearing. A more self-reliant set of men and women never 
 trod the earth. The immigrants who were to settle Henderson 
 crossed the Ohio river in their covered wagons (prairie schoon- 
 ers), with a jerk line in one hand and a rifle in the other, a few 
 coming by horseback or by foot. Conditions in Kentucky and 
 other southern states drove the small farmer to emigrate. 
 
 To us of the later generations who view these fertile fields 
 of grain in all directions and know of the great wealth above
 
 106 
 
 and below the ground, it seems strange there was not a rush of 
 settlers into this region in spite of the natural inference that 
 the land that could not produce trees must be worthless as 
 farm land, which has proved in the end to be the richest pos- 
 session of our "Prairie State." 
 
 When we consider that Daniel Robertson and his brother, 
 Alexander, the first settlers in Henderson township, did not 
 come until 1828, when Illinois had been a state ten years, one 
 naturally asks why it was that a locality full of possibilities 
 was not settled at an earlier date? There were many influ- 
 ences to retard immigration ; the actual opening of land offices, 
 the promised land sales, the extinguishing of Indian titles, the 
 limited means of travel, the Indians themselves, and others no 
 less important. 
 
 The early settlers of Henderson invariably located in the 
 timber or along its border. This is not so strange when we 
 consider that these pioneers mostly had been brought up in the 
 shelter of the woods. This nearness to the timber was an ad- 
 vantage in many ways. It furnished material for their log 
 houses, fuel for their fireplaces, meat for their food, and shel- 
 ter from the fierce cold winds in winter, which often caused a 
 great deal of suffering. The first settlers were verj^ fond of 
 hunting and many interesting stories are told of them in quest 
 of wild turkey, prairie chicken and deer. 
 
 First Settled 
 
 Henderson was the first township in Knox county to be 
 settled by white men. It is well watered by the branches which 
 make up the head waters of Henderson river. Along these 
 branches originally stood one of the finest groves of timber to 
 be found anywhere in Illinois. Here was a favorite place for 
 Indians, who had extensive fields of corn on Sections 23 and 
 26, south of the village of Henderson. These Indians were 
 friendly and remained till the breaking out of the Black Hawk 
 War, when they left without doing any serious harm. 
 
 Alexander and Daniel Robertson, two Scotch brothers, left 
 their father's home in Morgan county, Illinois, and came to 
 Schuyler county, where they remained one year. In February, 
 1828, they set out, each riding an old mare and carrying a gun 
 and ax, came to Henderson township and settled first on Sec- 
 tion 15. Daniel 22, and Alexander 20 years of age and single. 
 Here they built their first log house together. This house 
 stood east of the creek at the top of the hill, a short distance 
 south of the wagon road and was about midway between where 
 is now the Rio Branch of the C, B. & Q. railroad and the State 
 Aid road. The Robertsons lived here several years together, 
 till their land was claimed by a speculator named Baker. 
 During the discussion over the possession of the land Baker
 
 107 
 
 shot at Daniel but missed him. The later went to the cabin for 
 his gun, but was persuaded by his wife to make no further 
 trouble. The Robertsons gave up this land and settled on the 
 southwest comer of Section 11. Here they built their second 
 log house, which stood across the road and northeast of the 
 first, where Daniel lived most of his life. About 1836, Alexan- 
 der settled and built a log house on Section 2, where he lived 
 till his death in 1853. 
 
 During the next spring and summer others came, among 
 them, Jacob Gum, a Baptist minister, who preached the 
 first sermon in 1829, at the residence of his son, John B. Gum, 
 on Section 32. This two-roomed log house was the first county 
 court house. Here the first circuit court was held October 1, 
 1830. The judge presiding was the Hon. Richard M. Young, 
 afterward United States Senator. Here also the first county 
 election was held, Mr. Gum being elected the first county 
 treasurer. 
 
 The son of Zephaniah Gum and grandson of John B. Gum 
 was the first white child born in the county. 
 
 Riggs Pennington came about this time, who became one 
 of the most prominent men of northern Illinois. Phillip Hash 
 and Chas. Hansford. These three were the first county com- 
 missioners after the actual organization in 1830. Stephen Os- 
 bom, the first sheriff; Parnac Owen, the first county sur- 
 veyor; Alex. Frakes, Major Thomas McKee, Robert and Eaton 
 Nance, who settled on Section 9. 
 
 The first death in the county was that of a young man, 
 Philip Nance, which occurred January 9th, 1829, in Henderson 
 township, and was buried on Section 9. Major McKee, who 
 came the fall before, was present at his death and funeral and 
 was instrumental in erecting a suitable stone at his grave. A 
 few years later, the people of the vicinity of Henderson raised 
 money and erected an iron fence around his grave. 
 
 The Black Hawk War 
 
 The next year, 1829, the brothers, William and James Mc- 
 Murtry and their families, came in November and settled on 
 Section 3, on a quarter bought of Riggs Pennington, paying 
 $1.25 per acre; but afterward had to repurchase to secure a 
 clear title. It was on their farm on the northeast 40 acres of 
 Section 10, that the entire neighborhood assisted in building a 
 fort, which would protect them from the Indians. Into this 
 the surrounding families before and during the Black Hawk 
 War would often gather. While there were often rumors of 
 Indian uprisings, and the settlers were constantly on the watch 
 for them, they were never molested by them. A company of 
 rangers was organized by Wm. McMurtry, who was their cap- 
 tain, to be ready to pursue the Indians in all directions if
 
 108 
 
 needed. In 1832, James McMurtry, accompanied by F. Free- 
 man and Thomas McKee went to Rock Island for guns to pro- 
 tect the settlers during the Black Hawk War. They secured 
 100, which were sent down the river as far as Ruthsbury, and 
 from there by teams to his home, where they were distributed 
 to the settlers. He sei*\'ed during the Black Hawk War under 
 Major Butler. The pioneers, Wm. and James McMurtry, were 
 descended from pioneer ancestors. Their grandfather, Captain 
 John McMurtry, was a pioneer in the state of Kentucky, along 
 with Daniel Boone and others. He made the stones and the 
 first mill for grinding com meal in Kentucky, He was killed 
 fighting the Indians as Captain of Kentucky militia in 1790. 
 William McMurtry became quite an active and prominent poli- 
 tician. He was a firm believer in the principles of the Demo- 
 cratic party and a friend of Stephen A. Douglas. It was 
 largely through him that the history of Henderson is so closely 
 connected with the early history of the county and the state. 
 He was active in the organization of Henderson township, April 
 5, 1853. In 1832, he was appointed first county commissioner of 
 school lands. This office he held till his resignation in 1840, 
 his chief duty being to sell the school section in each township 
 and later to distribute interest money to the teachers from the 
 school fund.. He always took an active interest in the early 
 schools, sold the school lands, invested the money and advanced 
 the educational interests of the county very much. He was 
 keenly awake to public needs, and had an eye to the interests 
 of the people. Thus his name was brought before them as a 
 candidate for office in the state. He was a member of the 
 Legislature during the years 1836-37 and 1838-39 ; State Sen- 
 ator up to the time he was elected Lieutenant-Governor with 
 Gov. French in 1848. In 1862 he was commissioned Colonel of 
 the 102 Illinois Voluntaiy Infantry. After serving a short 
 time in Kentucky he resigned on account of ill health and was 
 honorably discharged. The McMurtrys were natives of Ken- 
 tucky. They lived and died on the farms on which thev first 
 settled in 1829. 
 
 In 1830, Thomas Furguson, Roundtrees, Goffs, Lewis and 
 Davis with their families came in locating along the south side 
 of the grove. Following them were the Browns, settling along 
 the old "Galena Trail." 
 
 Peter Bell, Thomas Maxwell, Squire Reed and James Rey- 
 nolds also moved in in 1830. During 1831-32 a number of fam- 
 ilies came. Among these were the Ferrises, who put up a saw 
 mill on Henderson Creek ; Rees Jones, who built the first grist 
 mill, in 1830, on Henderson Creek. These mills were great 
 events to the pioneers and they felt now they had all they 
 needed.
 
 109 
 
 Galesburg Colony Came 
 
 In 1836 the first of the Galesburg Colony came, locating 
 south of the grove and built up what afterwards became known 
 as Log City, on Section 33. This settlement was only tempor- 
 ary and does not strictly belong to Henderson township, but 
 more to Galesburg where they finally settled. 
 
 The first few years the settlers had to go to Rushville 
 for their mail, about 75 miles. Here Alex Osborn was obliged 
 to go for his license to marry Ann Hendricks. This was the 
 first marriage ceremony in Knox county. Philip Hash, the 
 first Justice of the Peace, officiated. 
 
 In 1833 the first postoffice in the county was established 
 on Section 32, at the store of John C. Sanburn. Mr. Sanburn 
 held the commission from the government as the first post- 
 master. 
 
 The first school in the county was in Henderson township 
 in 1830. This school was a subscription school taught by 
 Franklin B. Barber in a log shanty near the grove. There was 
 another school opened in 1833 on Section 31, taught by Harmon 
 Brown. The first school district was formed at Log City in 
 1837, under the management of Wm. McMurtry, the first 
 school commissioner. 
 
 The first plow in this township, perhaps in the county, 
 was a wooden one, brought in by Daniel Robertson. 
 
 The first pair of lines for driving seen in this section was 
 brought in by Gov. Wm. McMurtiy. Having seen them used by 
 a stage driver in Springfield, decided to have a pair. The first 
 Sunday he was home the entire neighborhood spent trying to 
 adjust these lines, but it could not be done till the Governor 
 went back and had another view as to how they worked. Then 
 he saw one check went to the other horse. 
 
 Two of the four forts built by the pioneers of Knox county 
 were located in Henderson township. These were to protect 
 them from hostile Indians before, during and after the Black 
 Hawk War. One fort site has recently been located on Sec- 
 tion 33, on what was long known as the Peter Franz farm. The 
 other fort was on Section 10 on the land always known as the 
 McMurtry farm. These sites commanded the view in all direc- 
 tions. To this the surrounding families often went, remaining 
 for days and nights. 
 
 For a number of years the oldest house in Knox county 
 was about one-half mile north of the village of Henderson. It 
 was a two-roomed log house, built in 1834 by Wm, Riley. 
 Later the oldest house standing was two miles northwest of 
 Galesburg. Of these primitive log houses scaarcely a one can 
 be found in the township today. No one remains who can
 
 110 
 
 look to the days when this country was a wildnerness, to the 
 time when the foundations for homes were laid. For a number 
 of years, to 1903, the longest continuous resident was Dr. 
 James C. McMurtry, son of Wm., who came with his father's 
 family in 1829, and was less than one year of age. 
 
 The First Roads 
 
 The first roads were Indian trails. The wild Indian hav- 
 ing similar instincts as the buffalo, followed the same trails 
 which led from timber groves to timber groves, always choos- 
 ing the shortest and best routes. Many of these same trails 
 the first settlers traveled seeking homes, and are public high- 
 ways today. One of these, the great "Galena Trail," from 
 Peoria, passed throuh the western part of this township in a 
 northwesterly direction. Traces of this old trail can be seen to- 
 day. There are evidences that the American army in the Revo- 
 lutionary War under Col. Montgomery, passed over this same 
 trail through Henderson. Ordered by Gen. George Rogers 
 Clark to follow the Sacs and Foxes to the lake on the Illinois 
 river (Peoria) across the country and attack them on Rock 
 river near the mouth. This he did in 1780. The old Peoria and 
 Rock Island road passes through the township in a north- 
 westerly direction. This was among the first main traveled 
 roads, much of which today is State Aid road. 
 
 These pioneers at first lived like one big family. They 
 helped each other build their houses or anything where help 
 was needed. They kept open-house. Strangers were always 
 welcome and cared for. Their first log houses had a puncheon 
 floor, split out of lynn wood, a clap-board door. The clap- 
 boards were lapped over each other from top to bottom to turn 
 the rain. The latch was made of wood, with a string tied to it 
 to lift and lower it in a wooden catch. Their windows were 
 holes in the logs. Their furniture was made by hand and split 
 from logs. The fire-places were made of mud and sticks at 
 first, later of brick. In these rude fire-places they cooked, 
 using long handled "skillets" and in iron pots, and baked in 
 covered "skillets" surrounded with hot coals. Fires were 
 started from flint stone or borrowed from a neighbor. The 
 bedrooms were made in one end of the house by hanging quilts 
 for curtains between the beds. Children slept in "trundle" 
 beds, which were pushed under the larger beds during the day. 
 Their first lights were twisted cloth floated in a saucer of 
 grease. Later candle moulds were obtained and each family 
 made their own candles of tallow. 
 
 The first year or two their bread was made of corn grated 
 on a tin grater. Then their grain was prepared for food in a 
 neighbor's mill, a hand mill, made of two stones placed to- 
 gether, the top one being turned back and forth with a lever.
 
 Ill 
 
 Soon a water mill was started on Henderson Creek by Mr. 
 Jones. Later people went to Milan, where was started a better 
 mill for wheat floor. Often one of two neighbors went for 
 the neighborhood and would fish while their wheat was being 
 ground. 
 
 Sugar was made from the sap of the hard maple, which 
 was boiled in large pans in the timber. The "buckets" were 
 wooden troughs to catch the sap. The spiles were made of 
 Sumack, with the pith burned out with a hot iron. Barrels of 
 sugar and molasses were made from this sap. When it would 
 not make these any longer they made the best of vinegar of it. 
 Soap was made from lye, leached from ashes and grease. 
 Starch was made from potatoes. 
 
 After the Indian War sheep were brought in and spinning 
 wheels. The women spun and wove the wool into cloth for 
 their clothing. This "homespun" they dyed at first with wal- 
 nut bark and hulls for brown and oak bark for yellow. For 
 green the yellow was dipped into indigo blue. They raised flax 
 from which their linen was made. Money was scarce, but they 
 needed little money, as there were no markets near. About the 
 first means of obtaining money was from hunting honey of 
 which there was an abundance in the timber. The Robertsons 
 obtained their first money by selling honey at St. Louis. Many 
 interesting stories are told of their bee hunts. 
 
 West of the center of Henderson township is located one of 
 the best examples of a community center to be found. At an 
 early date these Swedish people began to come into this town- 
 ship and by hard work and saving were able to purchase land 
 and build themselves homes. Thsi community built a church in 
 1881. This church was burned and replaced by a more modern 
 one about 1914. 
 
 The only village in this township is Henderson, on Section 
 14. It was laid out June 11, 1835, by Pamach Owen, and in- 
 coi^porated in 1838. In early days it was a flourishing place 
 and there were great expectations for its future. Between 
 1840 and 1850, over 30 coopers were employed here in making 
 barrels, which were shipped all over the state. 
 
 In 1839, the post office here was the largest in the county 
 and previous to the building of the railroad in 1854, Henderson 
 was nearly as important as either Knoxville or Galesburg. 
 Through Gov. McMurtry it was able to exert sufficient influ- 
 ence to secure the insertion of a provision in the railroad incor- 
 poration act that the line should pass through the town, but the 
 provision was evaded. The road going to Galesburg, leaving 
 Henderson a few miles to the north. Subsequently, trade be- 
 ing attracted to the railroad stations, the village gradually de- 
 clined, until little remained. In 1886, the Rio branch of the C.,
 
 112 
 
 B. & Q. railroad was constructed through the village and saved 
 it from complete extinction and some improvements have re- 
 cently been made. 
 
 Note: Miss McMurtry gives Robertson as the name of 
 two early comers to the township. Elsewhere the name ap- 
 pears as Robinson. As Miss McMurtry grew up in the town- 
 ship, her spelling must be accepted as correct.)
 
 113 
 
 INDIAN POINT TOWNSHIP 
 By Geo. L. Hagan 
 
 Every intelligent and patriotic citizen manifests a pardon- 
 able pride in the achievements and progress made in this great 
 state during the past century. To understand these and appre- 
 ciate them fully, a man must know some thing of the history 
 of his town, county and state. The origin of the different races 
 of people, who inhabited this country prior to the coming of 
 the white man, has always been a debatable question. To 
 many there is a striking similarity between the facial features 
 of the Oriental type of mankind and the American Indian. 
 This similarity has lead them to believe that the Indian is of 
 Oriental parentage. Still there are others, who see peculiar- 
 ities in his physical structure that preclude the American 
 Indian from common parentage with the rest of mankind. In 
 the absence of either history or tradition, archaeologists have 
 advanced many plausible theories relative to the prehistoric 
 races that inhabited this country prior to its discovery in 1492. 
 Discussion of the question of their origin seldom enlightens and 
 frequently confuses. There is, however, one point, upon which 
 all agree, and it is the fact that when Columbus landed on the 
 shores of America, he found the Indians in undisputed posses- 
 sion of the continent. 
 
 Early events, affecting this locality, transpired long be- 
 fore Indian Point township, or Knox county, or even the State 
 of Illinois assumed its its present boundary. History records 
 the fact that as early as 1673, the Indians had well established 
 trails running diagonally across Knox county, the oldest, and 
 perhaps the most important of which was the one leading from 
 the Mississippi River near Keokuk, to La Salle on the Illinois 
 River. This trail passed where Abingdon is located. There can 
 be but little doubt that this trail followed the same public high- 
 way now entering that city from the southwest and extending 
 in a northeasterly direction. It is believed by many that it is 
 the trail traveled by Father Marquette, a Jesuit missionary, on 
 his occasional visits to the Indians of this section of Illinois in 
 1673. It is said "History hold in her iron hand no more pic- 
 turesque story than these trails could reveal were their guarded 
 secrets known." 
 
 While the pioneer settlers in Indian Point encountered no 
 Indians, they found many traces of their occupancy. The re- 
 mains of the wigwams, axes, spears and arrow points, gave 
 evidence that Indian Point was once their "happy hunting 
 ground." 
 
 History records the fact that Azel Dorsey came to this 
 township in 1829. To him is given the honor of being the first 
 white man to enter Indian Point for settlement. He came from
 
 114 
 
 Cedar, and remained but a few years. The first permanent 
 settlement in Indian Point was made on Section 16 in 1833, by- 
 John B. Latimer, who came with his family from Tennessee. 
 The following year came John H. Lomax and Stephen Howard 
 of Kentucky, John Howard, Isaac and Alexander Latimer and 
 John Crawford. In 1835, Daniel Meek and John Killiam settled 
 in Indian Point. The former purchased the home of Alexander 
 Latimer. This farm lies just east of the Indian Point school, 
 and has for generations been known as "the Meek farm." 
 
 Among the list of early settlers in Indian Point, who came 
 shortly after the above were: Silas Roe, Bartley Boydstun, 
 Wm. Stewart, Seth Bellwood, Hugh Lowry, Henderson Hagan, 
 L. A. McKiearnan, Chas. Fielder, Geo. Hunt, David and Benja- 
 min South, Wm. Flannagan, Bry and Wm. Edmundson, James 
 Martin, H. Chrisman, Henry and Austin Mattingly, Martin 
 Burke, Joseph Probasco, Robt. Supple, Harrison and Thos. Im- 
 mel, Dan Ryan, Jacob, Nathan and Zene Bradbuiy, Jacob 
 Dorman, George and Joseph Wheat, Francis Robey, George and 
 Mortimer Clements. 
 
 Owes Much To Pioneers 
 
 The present generation owes much to these sturdy pioneers 
 who blazed the way to ciivilization. With them must be shared 
 the honor for the many blessings we are enjoying today. Their 
 lives were lives of privation, and oftentimes of suffering. 
 They lived not for themselves alone, but were mindful of the 
 happiness of future generations. When we consider the rigors 
 of the long winters on the open prairies, unprotected by trees, 
 the deep snows that often rendered transportation impossible, 
 the great distances to the river markets, the inconvenience of 
 getting medical aid in times of accidents and sickness, the lack 
 of communication between the scattered settlers, their meager 
 stores of food and fuel, we realize then some of the privations 
 and hardships endured by those good people. Notwithstanding 
 all this, they were mainly happy and content. If they raised a 
 surplus of grain or livestock, it was marketed, usually at either 
 Copperas Creek Landing or Peoria, the nearest river markets. 
 The prevailing prices of farm commodities in those early days 
 were not such as to prompt farmers to produce much in excess 
 of his needs. Dressed pork sold in those days at $2.00 per cwt., 
 half cash and half trade. Corn often sold at 6 cents per bushel. 
 The good mothers then spun, wove and made the garments 
 worn by the family. Contrast conditions then with those of 
 today. This was long before the advent of the railroad. The 
 completion of the Quincy branch of the C, B. & Q. from Gales- 
 burg to Quincy, in 1855, gave an impetus to farming and live- 
 stock operations in this locality. Since that time land values 
 advanced steadily. At that time the government sold land at
 
 115 
 
 $1.25 per acre, which today commands from $300 to $400 per 
 acre. 
 
 The first white child born in Indian Point was Ann Frances 
 Lomax, daughter of John H. and Nancy Lomax, born Sept. 25, 
 1835. The first death recorded was a Mr. Hibbard, in 1838. 
 
 Educational facilities in those pioneer days were very 
 meager. The principal studies were represented by the three 
 R's, readin,' ritin,' rithmetic. The first school house erected in 
 Indian Point was on Section 16, near where the Point school 
 now stands. It was built of logs, with split logs for seats. This 
 was in the year 1837. It was first taught by Dennis Clark, who 
 was aftenvard elected and served many terms as County Judge 
 of Knox County. He too was an early settler here. The school 
 district comprised all of Indian Point and the eastern part of 
 Warren county. The school year then was only the fall and 
 winter months. Thirty pupils were enrolled the first winter, 
 that of 1837-38. Today very few country^ pupils have more 
 than two miles to go to reach school. Aside from the country 
 schools there are splendid educational facilities within easy 
 reach of the pupils of Indian Point to complete their education 
 in the high schools, colleges and academies of Knox county. 
 
 The Religious Growth 
 
 Education and religion usually go hand in hand. They 
 mark the beginning of civilization. In Indian Point there are 
 only two religious bodies, Catholic and Christian. The later 
 has two church organizations, one at Abingdon and the other 
 at St. Augustine. 
 
 Since 1836 Catholic services have been held at St. Augus- 
 tine. The first services were conducted in that year by Father 
 Le Fevre, who afterwards became Bishop of Detroit, Michigan. 
 The first church was built in 1843, and dedicated the following 
 year by Bishop Kenrick of St. Louis. Among the pioneer 
 priests, who held services here were Fathers St. Cyr, Conway, 
 Doyle, Drew, Raho, Brady, Griffith, Kennedy, Edward and 
 Thomas O'Neil, Fitman, Meehan, Albrecht, Larmar and Man- 
 gon. In 1863, the present church was erected, and five years 
 later moved to its present location. Father Halpin came in 
 1873, and was the first resident priest. Since that time the 
 following pastors have resided here: Fathers McMahan, Dal- 
 ton, Howard, O'Reilly, now auxiliary Bishop of Peoria, Falli- 
 hee, Dunne, Scheuren, now of Providence, R. I. ; Walsh, Kniery, 
 now of Peoria ; Kelley, Markey, now of Loda, 111. Since Octo- 
 ber, 1912, the present pastor. Father P. V. Egan, has been car- 
 rying on the work inaugurated here more than four score years 
 ago. When completed, the interior decorations of the Catholic 
 church here will eclipse any church decorations, from an artis- 
 tic standpoint, in the state, outside of cities. The present
 
 116 
 
 membership is about 400. 
 
 The first Protestant services held in Indian Point, of which 
 there is any record, were conducted by Rev. John Crawford, a 
 Cumberland Presbyterian minister, at the home of John Ho- 
 ward in 1848. The Methodists effected an organization at the 
 Pleasant Valley School, under the leadership of Rev. Williams. 
 This was in the Sixties. Services were held occasionally, but 
 the organization did not continue long in Indian Point. The 
 Christian church was first organized at Abingdon in 1840, by 
 Hiram Smith and Richard Johnston. The first church was 
 erected in 1849 at a cost of $1,000.00. The present church edi- 
 fice is a beautiful brick veneered structure. The interior dec- 
 orations are artistic and in keeping with the attractive appear- 
 ance of the exterior. The present pastor. Dr. A. M. Hale, is 
 veiy popular with his people, whom he has served many years. 
 He is a booster for any worthy cause. The present member- 
 ship is about 300. At. St. Augustine, the Christian church or- 
 ganizaton was effected in in 1868. The number of charter 
 members was 104, of whom only four are living, namely. Dr. P. 
 Harrod, of Avon; J. E. Edmundson of Houston, Texas; Nathan 
 Harrod and L. B. Harrod, of Galesburg. The first services 
 were conducted here by Rev. Miller. In 1874, Rev. J. A. Sea- 
 ton held a revival here, and the membership was increased to 
 148. The present membership is about 100. In 1870, the 
 church was erected. Among the resident pastors of the church 
 were: Revs. Seaton, Kincaid, Stevens, Dillard and Hiett. The 
 following ministers served here at various times since the 
 organization of the church : Revs. Joseph Royal, J. S. Gash, F. 
 M. Bruner, Knox P. Taylor, W. B. Foster, John Hankins, M. 
 Jones, W. Branch, W. J. Burner, Fred E. Hagan, S. M. Thomas, 
 H. G. Bennett, N. L. Collins, D. Shanklin, Rev. Keefer, Davis, 
 Brannie and Cook. 
 
 Its Name. 
 
 Indian Point took its name from a body of timber extend- 
 ing from Cedar Fork to Section 16. Along the edge of this 
 timber was a favorite camping ground of the Indians, the 
 remains of whose camps were extant long after settlement by 
 the whites. This, coupled with the fact that many axes, spears 
 and arrow-points were found here, gave rise to the name of 
 Indian Point. By this name of "Indian Point" the township 
 was christened on Monday, January 14, 1850, when the town- 
 ship organization was perfected. Daniel Meek was elected the 
 first supervisor in 1853, The first meeting of the Supervisors 
 was held on April 5, 1853, at Knoxville, then the county seat of 
 Knox county. 
 
 At the present time Indian Point has the following offi- 
 cials: Willard Tinkham, supervisor; W. H. Clark, town clerk; 
 Geo. L. Hagan, assessor; I. T. Perry, single highway commis-
 
 117 
 
 sioner; W. L. Mills, K. R. Marks and A. C. Fielder, school 
 trustees ; W. M. Clark and S. Gray, Justices of the Peace, and S. 
 D. Lomax, constable. 
 
 About St. Augustine 
 
 St. Augustine is the only municipality lying wholly within 
 the boundaries of Indian Point. It is the oldest town in this 
 section of Illinois. It was originally laid out a half mile south 
 of its present location by Henry and Austin Mattingly on May 
 6, 1835. The early settlers who located here were principally 
 from Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio. For twenty years business 
 was transacted where the village was originally laid out. Upon 
 the completion of the C, B. & Q. Railroad from Galesburg to 
 Quincy in 1855, the village was moved to the present site, on 
 account of the improved railroad facilities. Business naturally 
 drifted to the new location. The former location is now known 
 as "Old Town." Sebastian Pike was the first merchant, Isaac 
 Rubart, the first postmaster. Dr. A. Baldwin, besides being 
 the first physician, was also the first agent for the railroad 
 company. Among the pioneer merchants were Clements & 
 Son, Thos. Terrj% Hall & Carbon. Thos. Blake was the first 
 blacksmith. Clements & Smith owned and operated the first 
 lumber yard in 1857. J. G. Gallett and P. H. Smith built the 
 first elevator in 1857. Ten years later the building and con- 
 tents burned. The only grist mill ever built in Indian Point 
 was erected by Craighton & Ogden at St. Augustine in 1857. 
 Besides making flour and meal, a distillery was run in con- 
 nection. A few years later, a wool-carding machine was in- 
 stalled. This machine was operated by Henry Livers. During 
 the spring of 1879 the mill and contents burned. While St. 
 Augustine has had several fires, the most disastrous from a 
 business standpoint,, was that of April 30, 1897. The fire had 
 had its origin in a vacant building. It swept all the business 
 buildings on the north side of Sixth street and left but three 
 on the south side of the street. Buildings of a more substan- 
 tial nature have since been erected. In April, 1911, the Cath- 
 olic parsonage burned. The fire was discovered at midnight. 
 It had gained such headway that nothing could be saved. Miss 
 Elizabeth McKeon, the house-keeper, was alone at the time and 
 lost her life. 
 
 The merchants of St. Augustine are an energetic lot of 
 business men, who by close application to business, have turned 
 the tide of trade their way. Among them are Mills & Sons, 
 Harrod & Fielder, James Tanney, S. H. Ryan, Miss Kate Jen- 
 nings and Neice & Co, In 1902, the Bank of St. Augustine was 
 chartered and began business the following year. Since that 
 time the business of St. Augustine has more than doubled. 
 This being an agricultural community any enterprise to suc- 
 ceed must have the patronage and support of the farmers.
 
 118 
 
 Much of the success achieved is attributable to them. Geo. L. 
 Hagan, Assistant Cashier of the bank, was born and raised on 
 an Indian Point farm, and is famihar with the hkes and dislikes 
 of the farmers. He knows that they appreciate courtesies ex- 
 tended them in business. For this reason, he serves them from 
 6 a. m. to 9 p. m. 
 
 Saloons had a long lease of life in St. Augustine. This 
 had a tendency to drive the better element of trade away from 
 town. However, in 1908 ''John Barleycorn' 'was voted out for 
 all time to come. Since that time many new residences have 
 been erected, and an improvement in business has been very 
 noticeable. Any history of St. Augustine, without mention of 
 the trade boosters, would be incomplete. For the past ten 
 years, T. J. Sailer, Walter Clark, Sherman Babbitt and later on 
 G. L. Smith, have been instrumental boosting the business in- 
 terests of St. Augustine. These gentlemen are extensive farm- 
 ers, buyers of livestock and grain, feeders and shippers. Fre- 
 quently these gentlemen handle 12 to 15 carloads of livestock 
 per week. They also make a good market for all the surplus 
 corn and hay of this community. 
 
 Since 1903, the St. Augustine Eagle has kept the village in 
 the limelight, and has given it a prestige that it never enjoyed 
 before. It is published by Karl R. Haggenjos, and has for its 
 local editor Geo. L. Hagan. 
 
 The City of Abingdon 
 
 This beautiful city enjoys many natural advantages, 
 which tend to make it an ideal location for a city. It is sur- 
 rounded by broad and fertile prairies, which have contributed 
 much toward its prosperity. As only a small portion of the 
 city lies within the boundaries of Indian Point, it is my pui*pose 
 to write only of the institutions and enterprises located in 
 this part of the city, leaving the major portion of the city to 
 the writer of the Annals for Cedar Township, In May, 1846, 
 "South Abingdon," as this part of the city was formerly called, 
 was laid out by Frederick Snyder. At that time it contained 
 only two and one-half blocks. The first school house was a 
 frame structure, 20 by 40 feet, and contained but one room. 
 Later the building proved too small and several additions were 
 added. It stood a few rods south of the present Washington 
 school, which was built in 1888. In 1853, P. H. Murphy opened 
 an academy in a frame building. For two years he lectured 
 among his people, and infused into them much of his own zeal 
 and wishes, to such an extent that they were ready to give his 
 academy the rank of a college and erect the necessaiy build- 
 ings. A plain three-story brick building was erected, in which 
 the college work was inaugurated in 1855. Mr. Murphy became 
 its first president. Ill health forced him to resign the position
 
 119 
 
 in April, 1860, and he died the following August. He was suc- 
 ceeded by J. W. Butler, who was elected in January, 1861. 
 President Butler served until 1874, Dissensions broke out 
 among the faculty a few years prior to this time, which had a 
 telling effect upon the influence and power the institution for- 
 merly wielded. It was the beginning of the end. The college 
 building stood vacant many years, and was finally razed in 
 1917, to make room for the new Community High School, which 
 was erected at a cost of near $75,000. 
 
 Foremost among the factories of this part of the city is 
 the Abingdon Sanitary Mfg. Co. This enterprise was organ- 
 ized under the law of State of Illinois in August 1908. Prom- 
 inent among the early promotors were: James Simpson, Dr. 
 Bradway, Orion Latimer, G. A, Shipplett, G. K. Slough, P. H. 
 Maloney and others. The first buildings erected were thought 
 to be sufficiently commodious to serve the wants of the com- 
 pany for years. The popularity gained by the output of the 
 factory was such that the company was forced to make several 
 additions to the original plant. They make not only plumbers' 
 earthenware, but many vitreous china specialties. At the 
 present time the company employes 130 men, and the annual 
 production amounts to near a million dollars. While much of 
 the raw material is obtained from the states of Maine, Dela- 
 ware, New Jersey, Kentucky, Tennessee and Georgia, great 
 quantities are imported from England. The products are 
 shipped to every nook and corner of the Union, and many ship- 
 ments are exported to South America and Australia. J. E. 
 Slater is president of the company. 
 
 Another factory that is rapidly forging to the front, is 
 the Abingdon Milling and Cattle Feeding Co. On October 24, 
 1913, the company was incorporated under the laws of Illinois, 
 and the manufacture of feed was begun in May, 1914. The 
 early promotors of this enterprise weve I. L. Reynolds, of Clin- 
 ton, Iowa; Roy A. Johnson, of Taylorville, 111. ; D. E. Kincaid, of 
 Greenfield, 111.; Carl S. Burnside, of Galesburg; L. H. Robert- 
 son, E. I. Blevins and S. H. Whiteneck of Abingdon. The feeds 
 manufactured are "Malasso" for cattle and "Jumbo" hog 
 feed. The raw material entering these products are oil meal, 
 tankage, cotton seed meal, bran, hard-wood charcoal, corn, flax 
 seed products and Cuban cane molasses. The bulk of the small 
 grain is bought at Minneapolis, the bran and corn in Central 
 Illinois, the charcoal in the State of New York, and the mo- 
 lasses in Cuba. The products of this mill have grown in favor 
 with feeders all over the com belt. Shipments have been made 
 to the Pacific coast. The demand for the products has steadily 
 increased until many thousand tons are manufactured and 
 shipped annually. The present board of directors are: L. H. 
 Robertson, E. I. Blevins, S. H. Whiteneck, L. M. Fralich of
 
 120 
 
 Abingdon, and W. H, Gridley of Kirkwood, 111. The officers 
 are: L. H. Robertson, president; C. B. Gaddis of Avon, vice- 
 president ; L. M. Fralich, secretary, and S. H. Whiteneck, 
 treasurer. 
 
 On March 8, 1882, the Abingdon Argus was launched by 
 its present efficient and talented editor, Hon. W. H. Clark, 
 For near forty years he has been untiring in his efforts to 
 make the Argus a truly representative weekly newspaper. He 
 is regarded as an exceptional writer. 
 
 In reviewing what we are pleased to call the "Pioneer 
 Days," we must not loose sight of the fact that those good old- 
 fashioned people had their sports and pleasures, as well as 
 their privations and hardships. For the men were the wolf 
 hunts, log rollings, political rallies and horses races. The ladies 
 had their quilting bees, rag tackings and social gatherings. 
 The younger people had their dances, singing and writing 
 schools in the winter time. Later on the spelling schoDls 
 proved both interesting and profitable. Each school took a 
 pariticular pride in seeing its pupils win in spelling contests. 
 The literary and debating societies were a source of pleasure 
 and profit in their day. 
 
 It may be interesting to know that the biggest snow storm 
 that ever visited this county was during the winter of 1830-31. 
 It continued to fall for several days, and measured four feet 
 deep on the level. In many places the drifts were twenty feet 
 high. It lay on the ground for months. Another heavy snow 
 fell during the winter of 1863-64. It drifted badly, and it was 
 not an unusual sight to see teams and sleds driven over hedges 
 and fences. 
 
 The following are still living in this community, who were 
 here prior to 1850, Hon. W. H. Clark, T. H. Roe, Miss Delia Bell- 
 wood, of Abingdon, Mrs. Leah South, Mrs. L. D. Jennings, Wm. 
 South and wife and Luke Filder. Those who have spent three 
 score year or more here are: Jas. W. Cox, J. E. Cox, J. E. and 
 W. F. Robertson, J. W. Lomax of Abingdon, David and George 
 South, Mrs. Laura Edmundson, Mrs. T. B. Bourn, Miss Josie 
 Edmundson, Mrs. C, H. Mason, Geo. L. and Albert Hagan and 
 Mrs. Luke Fielder. 
 
 The future historian of Indian Point may look back to our 
 times with the interest that we now view what we are pleased 
 to call pioneer days. If our efforts in writing the Annals of 
 Indian Point at the present time prove helpful to him, we feel 
 that our work has not been in vain. 
 
 Grateful acknowledgement is herebv made to T. H. Roe, 
 Hon. W. H. Clark, L. M. Fralich and J. E. Slater for valuable 
 assistance rendered in compiling these annals.
 
 121 
 
 KNOX TOWNSHIP 
 By O. L. Campbell 
 
 Knox township, Knox county, Illinois, goes to par in this, 
 the year of our Lord, 1919. In the early days of a century ago, 
 as was mete and proper, counties and towns were named after 
 famous generals of the wars of preceding years, and Knox 
 county, Knox township and Knoxville have always pointed with 
 pride to the brave General Henry Knox, a soldier of the war of 
 the revolution, who commanded the storming party at the bat- 
 tle of Stony Point. After a major general and Washington's 
 secretary of state this garden of Eden was named. "For there 
 was nothing base or small, or craven, in his soul's broad plan." 
 In his second annual message to the House of Representatives, 
 November 6, 1818, President Monroe laid before that body for 
 their advice and consent the several treaties which had been 
 made with the twenty-five tribes of Indians. By reference to 
 the journal of commissioners it appeared that George and Levi 
 Calbert had bargained and sold to the United States the reser- 
 vations made to them by the treaty of 1816, and that a deed of 
 trust had been made by them to James Jackson of Nashville, 
 Tennessee. He therefore suggested that in case the Chickasaw 
 treaty was approved by the senate the propriety of providing 
 for the payment of the sum stipulated to be given to them for 
 their reservation. The land upon which Knox county was lo- 
 cated was, therefore, ceded to the United States, August 30th, 
 1819, just a hundred years ago. The exact location of the 
 township is number eleven north of range two east and is 
 marked by the C, B. & Q. railway survey as being the highest 
 point of land and almost equi-distant between the Illinois and 
 Mississippi rivers. According to the state records, Knoxville is 
 the tenth town incorporated in the State of Illinois. The 
 land is a rich, alluvial soil, being thoroughly drained on the 
 south by Haw Creek and on the north by Court Creek. It was 
 on this high point that the Indians and many friendly tribes, 
 passing through from Peoria Lake to the Mississippi River, 
 found a pleasant home, and there are many evidences that this 
 point was their headquarters for many years. On the road 
 which led north from Hebard street, recently closed, many 
 arrow heads and chips of flint were found. The early settlers 
 found a cleared plot of ground about a half mile north of 
 town showing evidences of having been used for raising crops. 
 Surrounding this field was a dense timber of white and black 
 oak trees of immense size, growing so closely together that the 
 sun could scarcely shine through the leaves. But closer and on 
 the border of the clearing, was an abundance of wild fruit, in- 
 cluding strawberries, raspberries and blackberries, while im- 
 mense wild cherry, red and black haw trees bore fruit of most 
 excellent quality and in great abundance. So carefully had this
 
 122 
 
 fruit been cultivated that even as late as 1860 fruit of rare 
 quality and unlimited quantity was gathered by the white 
 people. 
 
 Old Captain Stevens, a retired naval officer, who made 
 his home in Knoxville, organized a cavalry company of young 
 men of this community and it was on this spot of land that the 
 company was drilled. When the boys were sufficiently skilled 
 in military tactics, P. D. Rogers, for many years proprietor of 
 the old Hebard House, was elected captain and they were 
 ready to defend the people from incursions of all foes. An- 
 other company, with Captain Hale of the United States regular 
 army, as drill master, was organized about the year 1855, and 
 with their old muzzle-loading guns, they were so proficient that 
 when the call to arms came in 1861, Knoxville was among the 
 first to respond to the call by Lincoln for an army of defense. 
 A little later a company of Zouaves was organized, but the calls 
 for recruits were then so frequent that its members soon en- 
 listed for "three years or during the war." At this time Knox- 
 ville was the county seat and this probably accounts for the 
 fact that the town is credited with sending 547 soldiers to the 
 front during the War of the Rebellion. When the call came for 
 volunteers for the war with Spain, 29 Knox township boys 
 responded. During the late World War, 132 responded from 
 this township to fight for "freedom for all, forever." 
 
 It was in Knox township that the Indians spent their sum- 
 mers and harvested their crops, made their preparations for 
 their annual hunt in the region now known as Wisconsin. 
 
 The east part of the State of Illinois in 1790 and the larger 
 part of Indiana was once named Knox county, but by a change, 
 in boundaries, Knox was joined to Fulton county. 
 
 Knoxville was a stopping place and trading point for the 
 Indians who lived in or traded through this locality 75 and 
 more years ago. Sam McFarland, who lived in Chestnut town- 
 ship, tells of coming to Knoxville 77 years ago with his father 
 to see a tribe of Indians pass through this place, it being the 
 only town of importance between the two rivers. The Black 
 Hawk Indians were in the habit of coming down from Rock 
 Island with a supply of beaded moccasins and other specimens 
 of their work to sell to the visitors here. Where less than a 
 century ago wolves and deer roamed in the wild country, now 
 thousands of sleek cattle browse on the rich pastures. 
 
 Early Settlers 
 
 The first child born in Knox township was Grace Hans- 
 ford, whose married name was Shock. She was the daughter 
 of Dr. Charles Hansford, our first physician, and she was bom 
 in 1834. E. T. Eads, a son of John Eads, was the first boy 
 born in this city and he first saw the light of day in 1835.
 
 123 
 
 Harvey Montgomery, who is now living on the spot where he 
 was born, is the oldest child in the township, and has probably 
 lived longer in the county than any other person now alive. 
 The date of his birth is 1834. He is the largest land owner in 
 the town, having more than 1,200 acres upon which he pays 
 taxes. Jacob Gum came here from Menard county in 1827. 
 He was the first student of the first school taught in the 
 county. The first couple married here was Alexander Osborne 
 and Ann Hendricks, who were united in the hold bonds of 
 matrimony July 1, 1829. 
 
 Our first postoffice was established in 1831, and John G. 
 Sanburn was our first postmaster. The first observance of 
 Independence Day was in what is now known as Gilbert's Park 
 on July 4, 1836, and Hon. James Knox was the orator of the 
 day. The display of fireworks was on the prairie north of 
 the Knoxville Old Ladies' Home. Balls of candle wicking were 
 soaked in what was then known as coal oil and they were 
 lighted and thrown from one side of the lawn to the other. 
 When the balls began to unravel and streams of fire were seen 
 flying from one to the other. 
 
 The first meeting of the board of supervisors was in Knox- 
 ville in 1853, The first session of the circuit court was held 
 October 1, 1830, Judge Richard M. Young, presiding. The first 
 jail was built in 1832 at a cost of $250, J. G. Sanburn being the 
 builder and contractor. 
 
 The first men tried for murder in the county was John 
 Root, a Henry county man. John M. Osborn was the only man 
 ever hung in Knox county, suffering the death penalty for the 
 murder of Adelia M. Matthews, at Yates City, August 5, 1872. 
 
 Our first hotel was built on the corner of the public square 
 and West Main street and was owned and kept by William 
 Newman. R. L. Hannaman was Knox township's first lawyer, 
 coming here in 1831. The first court house was built in 1831, 
 at a cost of $393.43. Our first alms house was built in 1856. 
 The Old Settlers' association was orgnized in Knoxville in 
 1867. The Knox County Agricultural Board was organized in 
 1851. 
 
 Our first county clerk, John G. Sanburn, sei'ved from 
 1830 to 1837. The First National Bank has been in existence 
 since 1865. 
 
 The first mayor of Knoxville was James Price. Knoxville 
 has long been an educational center, Ewing Female University 
 was established in 1859, and St. Mary's school has been in 
 exsitence since ever since. There are many interesting stories 
 of people of the early days. Daniel Fuqua came to this place in 
 1830 — the year of the big snow, when the snow was three 
 feet deep on the level and all roads were badly drifted.
 
 124 
 
 Uncle Dick Haney, an old-time Methodist minister, tells 
 of a sight which he witnessed in the early days, when he went 
 into a cabin and saw there a woman running a spinning wheel 
 with one foot, rocking a cradle with the other, her hands mean- 
 while being engaged, one in churning, the other holding the 
 flax as it was made into yarn. To some this stor\^ seems like 
 a fable, but the truth of the statement was vouched for by 
 others present, the lady being none other than the wife of 
 Uncle Daniel Fuqua, who, in a reminiscent way, related to the 
 old settlers' secretaiy that he came to Knox county May 2, 
 1830, landing at Henderson Grove, coming from Kentucky with 
 oxen and horses, and lived in an old log cabin the first six 
 months. He took possession of a small clearing of about seven 
 acres and raised a crop of corn. It made about 50 bushels to 
 the acre and it was all that was needed for the family use! 
 He took a land claim in the fall and built a double log house on 
 the land. In those days there was no need of fraternal organ- 
 izations, for as soon as a newcomer arrived, provisions were 
 prepared and for miles around they assembled to give what was 
 usually a very home-sick family a hearty welcome to the new 
 home. At this time there was not a town in Knox county, but 
 shortly afterwards the house of John Gum was used in which 
 to transact business. 
 
 In 1831 Knoxville was laid out and the court house was 
 established in a log cabin, the only houses then known. In the 
 fall of 1830 he broke up five acres of land, sowed wheat and 
 raised 250 bushels. Horses trampled out the grain and a sheet 
 was the fanning mill. This was the winter of the big snow, 
 three feet deep on the level. This made traveling almost im- 
 possible, but with plenty of corn and an abundance of wild 
 game, such as deer, squirrels, wild turkeys and chickens they 
 lived in what would now be considered the most profligate 
 luxury. The tediousness of life was relieved by going to mill. 
 There was a good water mill at Rock Island, about 60 miles 
 away, another on Spoon River, in Fulton county, a third in 
 Stark county and still another in Warren county. The time 
 spent in these long travels was not considered lost, for this 
 was their only opportunity to get a glimpe of the outside world. 
 Human nature, then, as now, ever sought companionship. 
 
 The first ripple in the quiet life of those early inhabitants 
 was the breaking out in 1831 of the Black Hawk War. The 
 Indians were feared and dreaded, and to protect the families 
 Fort Gum was built near Henderson. After a short time their 
 fears were allayed and they returned to their homes. In 1832 
 block houses were built in different parts of the county and a 
 company was enlisted. Looms were seen in almost every cabin, 
 and until sheep could be reared, the clothing was all of flax and 
 cotton. They made a virtue of necessity and lived within
 
 125 
 
 themselves, for money was a scarce article in 1830. Every- 
 thing was barter and trade. What little money they had was 
 used to pay taxes. Each of the few first families brought with 
 them a few cooking implements, but soon the young people be- 
 gan to mate, and then the houses that enjoyed two cooking im- 
 plements was fortunate, indeed, for then they could divide with 
 the young people. There being no stoves, fire places were used 
 to cook over, the kettle hanging from a crane and the hoe cake 
 taking on that delicious toothsome brown while reposing in 
 depths of hot ashes. "How dear to my heart," said the old 
 gentleman, as he waxed into a reminiscent mood, "is the mem- 
 ory of my first attempts at founding a home. I had attained 
 the mature age of 19 years and my dear wife of blessed mem- 
 ory was a demure maiden of almost 16, the most beautiful wo- 
 man and the best the Lord had ever made, whose life of love 
 and constancy continued through 52 short but happy years. 
 With what happy expectation I watched her boil water for 
 coffee in an old cast iron skillet, which was then used to fry the 
 venison, which was kept warm on the cover, while the same 
 faithful utensil did triple duty on baking our bread. Our 
 daughters have a local reputation as good cooks, it is true, but 
 none of them have been able to furnish me a feast so delectable 
 and satisfying as was this, the first repast eaten with thank- 
 fulness and joy under vine and fig tree. 
 
 Our first furniture was indeed crude, but tired nature's 
 sweet restorer, balmy sleep, was just as refreshing upon a bed 
 of clapboards, held in position by poles inserted in holes in the 
 logs of our 14x16 cabin. A clapboard table was a luxuiy, the 
 making and using of which was enjoyed and stools and benches 
 served instead of the present divans and upholstered rockers. 
 
 "There were no churches in those days, but occasional ser- 
 vices were enjoyed at a centrally located cabin, where all 
 seemed to be fervent in the worship of the Lord, and who shall 
 blame us if, as now the case, these occasions were often used 
 to form acquaintances which often resulted in happy alliance? 
 Matches are made in heaven, it is said; I know there were 
 heavenly matches made in the old log cabins in those days." 
 
 Politics in Knoxville were always of the independent kind. 
 While the Republicans usually have a plurality of about 200 
 when general elections were held, in spite of the fact that in 
 the county the Democratic vote only varied 29 in five years, 
 and the Republican vote only 49, a Democrat has represented 
 Knox township more terms on the board of supervisors than 
 have Republicans. 
 
 Knoxville has always been considered the center of agri- 
 cultural industry. She looks down upon a century of achieve- 
 ment with a pride that is little short of devotion, and having
 
 126 
 
 given to the world such men as Judge Craig, of the Illinois Su- 
 preme court ; Hon. James Knox and Hon, J. H. Lewis to the 
 halls of the nation's congress ; Hon, R, W. Miles, Hon, P, H, 
 Sanford, Julius Manning and Henry J, Runkle to grace the halls 
 of Illinois legislature, she feels that she has done her full share 
 in furnishing men and names by which this great common- 
 wealth has taken its high place upon the topmost round, 
 
 (Note: Mr, Campbell gives the date of the laying out of 
 Knoxville as 1831, instead of the earlier date, given in the 
 county histories.
 
 127 
 
 LYNN TOWNSHIP 
 From Sketch of J. A. Beals 
 
 The northwest township of Knox county is and will be, 
 because of its location and environment, a township of tarms. 
 In the early days some effort was made to attract the merchant 
 and mechanic to a point on the south line, called Centerville 
 (afterward platted as Milroy), but it failed of success, and 
 there has never been a postoff ice, a church building or a village 
 within the limits of Lynn. 
 
 Great is the contrast between the landscape of today, 
 dotted with well-improved farms, with their commodious 
 dwellings and barns, and that of 1828, when Michael Fraker, 
 with his family, came to Section 23, to find the tract of land he 
 had purchased in Kentucky in the possession and occupancy of 
 the Indians. The braves were away hunting, having left only 
 the old men, women and children to contest his claim. So the 
 white man made himself at home. But the returning hunters 
 disputed his title, claiming that theirs came from the Indian 
 God and was long prior to that of the new settler. Mr. Fraker 
 thought diplomacy was better than valor. He was adroit; 
 he had tact and genius, and was kind and helpful. He was a 
 blacksmith, and could mend their guns. They took him to their 
 hearts, and helped him build his cabin, but could see no neces- 
 sity for his making tight joints between the logs. But his 
 trust in his new-found friends was not wholly without reserva- 
 tion — bullets had a better chance where the cracks were large. 
 They finally left him their wigwams and council house, and 
 made new homes at Indian Creek, seven miles east, returning 
 yearly as friends at the sugar season. A granddaughter of 
 Mr. Fraker says she has heard her grandmother say that the 
 only white women she saw for four years were those of her 
 own family, and those who came with them. A fair-sized band 
 of Indians lived and roamed from Spoon River to the Mississ- 
 ippi, their trails being distinctly perceptible long after they 
 had left the country. A clear, flowing spring on the east side 
 of Fraker's Grove had trails from all directions centering 
 there. Some of the early settlers long afterward remembered 
 the friendly visits of the Chief Shaubena after the Black Hawk 
 War. Mr. Fraker was a middle aged man when he came from 
 Kentucky. He buried two wives and was living with his third, 
 and was the father of twenty-four children. 
 
 George Fitch, a son-in-law of Mr. Fraker, settled near by 
 soon after the Frakers, and was the first school teacher and 
 Justice of the Peace in the settlement. His son, Luther, is re- 
 ported to have been the first white child bom here. The first 
 marriage was that of William Hitchcock and Julia Fraker. 
 John Essex was the first settler on Walnut Creek, in 1830.
 
 128 
 
 His wife was the daughter of Jacob Cress, who, with his fam- 
 ily, settled on Section 24, in 1831. These were the only per- 
 sons living in Lynn before the Black Hawk War. During that 
 struggle they went to Forts Clark and Henderson for safety. 
 
 About 1834, William Dunbar bought the improvements of 
 one of the Frakers on a portion of Section 13, and entered the 
 land, going to Galena by wagon, with two yoke of oxen, to do 
 so. He came from Kentucky, and, being a hatter by trade, 
 burnished fur hats to the neighborhood, peddling them on 
 horseback. Mrs. Theodore Hurd says that when she, a girl 
 of twelve years, came here with her father (Luther Driscoll) in 
 1836) they found twelve families here, settlement being known 
 as Fraker's Grove ; not all of it in Lynn, however, as the east 
 township line ran through the middle of it. 
 
 In 1836, on Walnut Creek there were only John Lafferty, 
 on Section 36; the Montgomery boys, on Section 35; Samuel 
 Albro (who was a soldier of the War of 1812 and settled on 
 land patented to him for his military service), on Section 34; 
 John Essex and the Talors, south of the creek near Centenille ; 
 and Hugh and Barney Frail, on Section 31. Mrs. Hugh Frail 
 was the pioneer sister of the Gravers and the Collinsons, who 
 followed, from time to time, settling that corner of the town- 
 ship. By 1838 the population had increased considerably. 
 Jonathan Gibbs came then, and purchased the Montgomery 
 property on Section 35, where he lived until his death. He was 
 always a leading man in the township, a Justice for twenty- 
 five years and Supervisor for half that period. About this 
 time also came Elison Annis, who settled on land patented to 
 him for service in the War of 1812; Solomon Brooks, John Sis- 
 son, Ralph Hurley and Elder Shaw, all from Ohio, and origin- 
 ally from Maine. They were old neighbors, and were members 
 of the Free Will Baptist Church. Soon after coming they or- 
 ganized the Walnut Creek Baptist Church. Elder Shaw and 
 Luther Driscoll for years acting as pastors. It is now extinct. 
 
 Peter Hagar, Simeon Collinson, the Sniders and Edward 
 Selon were early. Mr. Selon had been mate on an ocean vessel 
 and in one of his last voyages across the ocean the Charles 
 family were passengers on his ship. One of them he soon after 
 married. Another daughter is Mrs. Ira Reed, of this township 
 and Mr. Charles, of Round Grove, Henry County, who was the 
 first man married on the Stark county side of the Fraker 
 settlement, is a member of the same family. In 1836, there 
 was a rather large immigration from Goshen, Connecticut, for 
 which Goshen township in Stark county was named. Captain 
 Gere and William and Ira Reed were among these settlers. In 
 1840, came a considerable number of Mormons, but most of the 
 latter remained only a short time.
 
 129 
 
 The first tavern opened was that of Mr. Dunbar, who so 
 used his own home, but in 1846, Nathan Barlow opened the 
 "Traveler's Home," on Section 24. It was on the Chicago trail 
 and the stage road, and hence afforded accommodations much 
 needed at the time. 
 
 Population increased slowly until the railroad was pro- 
 jected. That was the ending of the old, and the beginning of 
 the new era in the history of Lynn. J. A. Beal's relation to the 
 township began in this transition period. Proximity to the 
 railroad influenced his selection of a small piece of land for a 
 future home, on the then unbroken prairie. The following 
 spring his wedding trip from the home in Vermont was be- 
 gun by rail, and finished by stage at Victoria. The ending was 
 a little analogous to the overturning of the old by the new. It 
 was a frosty March morning when the stage stopped at Vic- 
 toria, with two newly wedded couples, the destination of one 
 of which was Galesburg. The wife whose journey had ended 
 and the husband who had yet to reach Galesburg both stepped 
 out. The driver had dropped the reins and was at the boot, 
 removing the baggage. The horses, impatient with cold and 
 excited by their drive, suddenly started on the run and made 
 a short turn to the Reynolds barn. In a moment's time the 
 startled travelers were standing on their heads (to judge from 
 the way they felt and looked afterwards) inside the coach. 
 The shock was but for a moment, though the impression was 
 that they were being dragged, and that something was yet to 
 happen ; the side door was above them and open ; the hind 
 wheel was revolving ; and the head of the young wife was soon 
 at the opening inquiring if "we were hurt in there." The stage 
 had uncoupled in the overturn, and three horses had dragged 
 the fourth and the front wheels to the barn. 
 
 The first physician at the Fraker settlement was Dr. 
 Nicols ; at Centerville, Dr. Spaulding. Mr. Leek built the first 
 saw mill, in 1837, at Centerville, and later Jonathan Gibbs put 
 up a second. The first log school house, used also for meetings, 
 was built prior to 1836, by volunteer labor, near the home of 
 the Dunbars, in the edge of the grove. Squire Fitch and Maria 
 Lake were the earliest teachers. Later, a school house was 
 built near Fraker's. Dr. Nicols is said to have been one of the 
 first teachers. One of the early pedagogues at the Centerville 
 school was a boy of eighteen, who, in 1863, became General 
 Henderson, and afterward was a member of Congress. Anna 
 Shaw, Betsy Smith and Catherine Annis were early residents, 
 the last named teaching for a time in a log house near the 
 Frails. In 1841, James Jackson was appointed school trustee, 
 and made two districts of the township, which till then had 
 formed but one. There are now 1899, eight frame school 
 houses, worth about nine thousand dollars. None of the schools
 
 130 
 
 is graded, and the aggregate attendance at that time was about 
 one hundred and seventy-five pupils. 
 
 Besides regular services provided at Centerville by Revs. 
 Shaw and Driscoll, there were circuit ministers, who had regu- 
 lar appointments to meet the people. Jonathan Hodgson, one 
 of the earliest settlers at the Grove, became a local Methodist 
 preacher. He was a man of influence in the settlement, a 
 Probate Justice while a resident of the State, and a radical 
 anti-slavery man. At the time of the Kansas struggle he cast 
 in his lot with the free-soilers. He became so much interested 
 in the work of Jonas Hedstrom, at Victoria, that he learned 
 enough of the Swedish language to preach to people of that 
 nationality in their own tongue. Edward Selon also became a 
 minister, and Rev. Alba Gross preached as well as farmed, un- 
 til called to the Baptist Church in Galva in 1857. Though there 
 has never been a church building in the township, the school 
 houses have been freely opened to Sunday schools and relig- 
 ious meetings. 
 
 In the presidential election of 1840, the polling place for 
 both Lynn and Walnut Grove was at Centerville ; four years 
 later at the school house near the Frails', Squire Ward being 
 one of those in charge. The practice of betting on elections 
 dates back at least to this time, for James Jackson lost and Dr. 
 Nicols won a pair of trousers on that election. 
 
 The grist mill and the market involved much labor and 
 forethought for the early settlers. The first grist which Wil- 
 liam Dunbar sent away went as far as Tazewell county, and in 
 1838 the nearest points of shipment were Canton and Moline. 
 After getting to the mill one often had to wait for two weeks 
 for his turn to grind. It can be imagined what a convenience 
 was even the little hand mill of Mr. Fraker. 
 
 One winter Jonathan Gibbs contracted to deliver a drove 
 of hogs at Peoria on a certain date. Deep snow came, and ' 
 order to fulfill his agreement he made a snow plow, of two 
 planks, set on edge and wedge-shaped. A yoke of oxen was 
 hitched to this and driven ahead, making a path in which 
 the pigs could walk. 
 
 Recreation was not entirely neglected. Social life, where 
 there were so few, perhaps meant more than it does now. A 
 wolf hunt took not only the men with their guns, but the 
 women with their kettles, chickens and potatoes, to make 
 chicken pies for the tired hunters. The pies were baked out 
 of doors in twenty-five gallon kettles, set over the coals. 
 
 Lynn was organized in 1853, by the election of Jonathan 
 Hodgson, Supervisor; I. S. Smith, Clerk; William A. Reed, 
 Assessor; A. Gross, Collector; Erastus Smith, Overseer of the 
 Poor; S. G. Albro, John Lafferty, and H. A. Grant, Highway 
 Commissioners ; John Hodgson and John Gibbs, Justices ; John 
 Snider, Constable.
 
 13i 
 
 MAQUON TOWNSHIP 
 From Sketch by Dr. J. L. Knowles 
 
 In 1827, ten years subsequent to the original survey of this 
 military tract, William Palmer and family, consisting of his 
 wife and five children, located on the southwest quarter of 
 Section 3, about forty rods southeast of the present limits of 
 Maquon Village. This was doubtless the first white family to 
 settle in Knox county. Mr. Palmer's cabin, made of black 
 hickory poles, stood in the midst of Indian gardens, which were 
 usually deserted by the savages in early spring in favor of bet- 
 ter hunting grounds farther west. They returned every fall 
 to remain during the winter, until the year 1832, when, as a 
 result of the Black Hawk War, they took a final leave and that 
 neighborhood knew them no more. Mr. Palmer lived here five 
 or six years, planted an orchard and cultivated the gardens, or 
 patches vacated by the Indians, and, as his cabin stood on the 
 old Galena trail, it afforded a stopping place for the miners 
 going to and from their homes in the southeastern part of the 
 state. A few years later Palmer sold his cabin to Nelson Selby 
 and removed to St. Louis. 
 
 The following year Simeon Dolph, the pioneer ferryman of 
 Spoon River, settled on Section 4, building his cabin of logs 
 where the Rathbun house now stands. Owing, however, to a 
 suspicion of his having been implicated in the death of an un- 
 known traveler, he left the community a short time afterwards. 
 
 In 1829, Mark Thurman, with his family, settled on Sec- 
 tion 25, and one of his daughters, Mrs. Hughs Thurman, of 
 Yates City, is recalled as one of the oldest residents of the 
 county. The next year the families of William Darnell, Wil- 
 liam Parmer, Thomas Thurman and James Milam settled on 
 Sections 24 and 25. They all came from Highland county, 
 Ohio. Subsequently a small, but regular and ever-increasing 
 stream of settlers took up claims in the township, until in 1837, 
 it was thought a favorable opportunity had arrived for laying 
 out a village, which was called Maquon. This is of Indian 
 origin, signifying spoon. Sapol means river, and as the stream 
 bearing this name assumes somewhat the shape of a spoon 
 from source to mouth, it was called Maquon Sapol, or Spoon 
 River. 
 
 This township was one of the chief Indian settlements in 
 the state, and here were congregated families of the Sacs and 
 Foxes and Pottawattomies. Their principal village was located 
 on the present site of Maquon as here the Indian trails centered 
 from all directions in pioneer days. A vast number of Indian 
 relics have been and are still being unearthed in the vicinity, 
 and there are a great many mounds scattered about the neigh- 
 borhood, the most prominent being the Barbero mound, which
 
 132 
 
 is supposed to have been built by the Aborigines and to contain 
 human remains. Maquon is well drained by Spoon River and 
 the many small tributaries that flow into it, fine timberlands 
 abound throughout the township, and about one-half of the 
 surface is underlaid with an excellent quality of bituminous 
 coal. The township organization was completed in 1853, by the 
 election of James M. Foster as Supervisor; Nathan Barbero, 
 Assessor, and James L Loman, Collector. 
 
 The first school house in the township was built of logs in 
 1834 on Section 23, or, to locate it more accurately, about 
 eighty rods west of where James Young's dwelling now stands. 
 The first teacher in that building was Benjamin Brock. The 
 next house to be devoted to educational purposes was erected 
 in 1836 or 1837, and was situated about fifty rods south of 
 Bennington. The first school north of Spoon River was con- 
 ducted by Miss Mary Fink in a shed adjoining the residence of 
 Peter Jones, a father of John Jones, at one time postmaster. 
 The only reading book at that time was the New Testament. 
 It is claimed by some of Miss Fmk's pupils, that she could read 
 and write, but could not "cipher." However, notwithstanding 
 this defect in her education, it was said that her labors were 
 most commendable and satisfactory. 
 
 The township at first contained the three villages of 
 Maquon, Bennington and Rapatee. Bennington was originally 
 laid out in the center of the precinct in 1836 by Elisha Thur- 
 man, but it failed to develop sufficient importance to be called 
 a village, although it was the township's polling place until 
 1858, when the name was changed to Maquon. 
 
 The township is justly proud of its unbounded patriotism 
 some of its residents having taken part in three of the nation's 
 most important wars. Among the early pioneers of the town- 
 ship were Philip Rhodes, John W. Walters and John M. Combs, 
 who were soldiers in the War of 1812. Avery Dalton, who 
 lived to a great old age and who has furnished much informa- 
 tion of the early history of Maquon township, and Madison Fos- 
 ter, deceased were members of the Fulton County Rangers in 
 the Black Hawk War, The rifle carried by Mr. Foster while in 
 service is now owned by his son, Albert, and is in a good state 
 of preservation, the old flint lock having been replaced by one 
 of more modern manufacture. A full quota of two hundred 
 and fifty soldiers was furnished during the Civil War, many of 
 whom died on the field of battle fighting for the Union, while 
 others still survive and occasionally live over again one of the 
 most exciting epochs in the history of the country. 
 
 The first birth and the first death to occur in the township 
 was that of Rebecca, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Thurman, in 
 1831. The first marriage took place on Christmas, 1834, the
 
 133 
 
 contracting parties being Elisha Thurman and Anna Hall, and 
 the first postmaster was William McGown, who held that posi- 
 tion in 1837. The first bridge across Spoon River built in 1839, 
 by Jacob Conser, but it subsequently collapsed by its own 
 weight and was re-built by Mr. Conser the following year. It 
 was located almost directly south of the village of Maquon. 
 The second bridge was erected by Benoni Simpkins, in 1851, 
 a few rods below the site of the present structure, which was 
 built in 1873. The stone work was done by J. L. Burkhalter 
 and John Hall, the wood work by Andy Johnson, and the iron 
 work by Mr. Blakesly, of Ohio. The first distillery in Knox 
 county was situated in Maquon and it furnished the cargo for 
 the first shipment from Galesburg over the Chicago, Burling- 
 ton and Quincy Railroad. 
 
 Maquon township is known for its excellent schools and its 
 history is of large interest. 
 
 Note : The positive statement by Dr. Knowles regarding 
 the William Palmer family seems definitely to fix Palmer as 
 the earliest settler in the county.
 
 134 
 
 ONTARIO TOWNSHIP 
 By Hugh Greig" 
 
 While it is true that no well defined Indian trail crossed, 
 in any direction, this township, yet there is indisputable evi- 
 dence that the Redman was a frequent visitor. The large num- 
 ber of arrow points found in the vicinity of Pilot Knob prove 
 this. The point named is one of the few decided elevations in 
 what is now Knox County and must have been used in times 
 innumerable by the Indians to watch the coming or going of a 
 friend, or to detect the stealthy approach of a dusky enemy. 
 
 The area in timber was much too limited to furnish an 
 ideal hunting ground, and no living spring now known could 
 have supplied water for any large number of people. There- 
 fore, Pilot Knob, despite its sightliness, lacked many qualifi- 
 cations which could induce the wanderer to make of it an abid- 
 ing place. 
 
 That there were large numbers of magnificent trees near- 
 by and in every direction, far as the eye could reach, a waving 
 ocean of tallest grasses, proving the unsurpassed richness of 
 the soil was to the Indian a matter of little or no importance. 
 
 It is quite probable that more than a century before the 
 white man, as a settler, looked on this rich, rolling prairie land, 
 the explorer on his way from the Illinois to the Mississippi 
 or vice versa, had traversed this region and unquestionably the 
 hunter of a much later date had stood on Pilot and in ever 
 more than fancy "was monarch of all he surveyed." 
 
 However, though explorers and hunters have a place in 
 history, a place which bold, venturesome men only can fill, still 
 it is of a truth he and she who are possessors of or possessed 
 by the ideas of the settler, the settler who squats on a defin- 
 ite spot of earth, in some legal form obtains the squatters right 
 to stay and stays. Such is the germ from which in due time 
 Ontario township, Knox County, Illinois, the nation is made. 
 
 And if we are to judge the Ontario of today and of all the 
 succeeding tomorrows by the all around make up of the early 
 settlers we may well be thankful and take courage, for were 
 they not all or nearly all the not distant descendants of those 
 who made homes, built schools and churches, fought Indians 
 and brought a thousands smiles to the flinty face of sterile 
 New England, and some in the morning of their manhood as- 
 sisted in Central New York by arduous labor in transforming a 
 forest into a farm ; and though here they found the unbroken 
 prairie a new problem, its solution was simple in comparison; 
 it is true the implements needed were different, the skill to pro- 
 duce them was not yet acquired, but here was the soil, stubborn 
 indeed, but not more so than the settler. With a plow largely of
 
 135 
 
 timber, much prairie was brought under cultivation ; corn was 
 planted, not with a planter and check-rower, but with an axe, 
 in due time this gave place to the hoe, and as evolution seems 
 to be a universal law the two-horse planter came and stays. 
 
 Besides the corn, all the grains suitable to our soil and 
 climate were sown and rich were the rewards of the husband- 
 man. One crop now never seen in this township was to a 
 limited extent grown, viz., flax, and not only grown, but by 
 skilled and willing hands became by much patient labor a part 
 of the clothing of the almost moneyless early settlers, and in 
 even this year of grace and carnage this writer was shown a 
 considerable sample of linen fabric, the flax from which it had 
 been made grew on Section 31, Ontario township, the home for 
 more than sixty years of G. W. Melton, Mrs. Melton and family, 
 and we have reason to believe that the aforesaid Mrs. Melton 
 with her own hands heckeled, spun and wove the linen cloth to 
 the writer shown. 
 
 In the same year but previous to Mr. Melton's arrival, an 
 Alexander Williams had fenced and plowed some twenty acres 
 on the northwest quarter of Section 30 and therefore, so far as 
 known, was the first settler in the township, who evidently 
 intended to remain. However, in 1836 he sold his holdings to 
 I. M. Wetmore. The latter became one of the large landholders 
 in the neighborhood and in all his after years was a most prom- 
 inent and successful farmer. And though the name, Wetmore, 
 is less common than in the early days it is still with us and 
 with a goodly number of others in a most interesting and pleas- 
 ant way links the present with the past. 
 
 As stated, a goodly number of names familiar in the early 
 daj^s are still here, yet it is very true that a large and increas- 
 ing percentage of our land owners and tenant farmers can and 
 do speak an alien tongue, but we all know by evidence that 
 cannot be gainsaid that alien speech is no indication of alien 
 sentiment. When we bear in mind that perhaps even a major- 
 ity of our voters are of foreign birth or are the children of 
 those who hail from the land of Thor, and also recognize the 
 fact that when the R. C, the Y. M. C. A.„ the K. of C. or other 
 similar agencies let it be known that funds are needed in their 
 ceaseless works of mercy, Ontario has unhesitatingly gone over 
 the top. 
 
 In the matter of the various bond selling campaigns, over 
 the top is simply considered the normal thing. This, however, 
 is usually looked on as a fairly good investment ; yet take it all 
 in all, the profit, the real profit, that which never tarnishes, is 
 that derived from that giving where nothing is returned in 
 kind. But to speak of the cold facts of history it is a pleasure 
 to mention that while settlers were few, money almost unbe- 
 lieveably scarce, yet the matter of education was not forgotten,
 
 136 
 
 for in 1839, a school house was built on the Northwest Quarter 
 of Section 32. Just in what manner the project was financed 
 we do not know, we only know that the free school system or 
 anything much resembling it had not yet arrived ; we have no 
 reason to believe that the curriculum was very varied. All, no 
 doubt, had at times an uncomfortable amount of fresh air; as 
 has been hinted the course of study was somewhat brief, but as 
 was proved on many subsequent occasions, the pupils graduated 
 having, in the words of John Hay, "a middling tight grip on 
 the handful of things they knew." 
 
 The first teacher was Sally Ann Belden. The school house 
 for several years was used for religious services, and as denom- 
 inational lines were not strictly drawn, the preacher of the 
 occasion was not questioned very closely as to his beliefs or un- 
 beliefs on doctrinal matters. 
 
 There are now in the township eight rural schools, and 
 while all of them have been to some extent remodeled and 
 greatly improved in general appearance externally and in- 
 ternally, the course of study has become practically uniform; 
 the teachers in a knowledge of teaching methods and in schol- 
 arly equipment far surpass those of the so-called good old days 
 of long ago. The Oneida district, officially known as No. 27, 
 is what is known as a graded school. Four teachers are em- 
 ployed and all pupils who successfully pass the eighth grade 
 are eligible to enter the High school. The latter which is con- 
 ducted in the same building, employs four teachers, each of 
 whom we are glad to say is a graduate of a State University 
 or College in good standing, and pupils honorably finishing the 
 four year course are, provided they have made the best of their 
 opportunities, able to enter any college in our state. 
 
 Every girl or boy in this township is in some High school 
 district or in non-High school territoiy which amounts to the 
 same thing. And yet, sad to say, very many of our young 
 people never pass the eighth grade and some never reach it. 
 
 It was a number of years after the establishment of the 
 first school when the township became a political unit, the 
 first Supervisor was Edward Crane ; Clerk, W. J. Savage ; As- 
 sessor, J. Burt; Collector, E. C. Brott; Overseer of the Poor, 
 T. F. P. Wetmore. They also had constables and highway com- 
 missioners. It is not all likely that the latter gentlemen were 
 at any time urged to use their influence in favor of hard roads, 
 and if their successors ever have been the good advice given 
 them appears to have been wasted. The justices of the peace 
 were E. Chapman and T. E. Mosher. 
 
 The names of the supervisors who until the present time 
 have succeeded Mr. Crane, are as follows : J. Hammond, W. B. 
 LeBaron, J. Hammond, W. B. LeBaron, A. S. Curtis, 0. Beadle,
 
 137 
 
 E. Crane, A. S. Curtis, G. L. Stephenson, 0. L. Fay, G. E. Fred- 
 ericks, Hugh Grieg, J. J. Clearwater. There is in the town- 
 ship but one village, Oneida. It was platted in the autumn of 
 1854 by C. F. Camp, B. T. West and S. V. R. Holmes. It is said 
 that there was no intention on the part of railroad officials to 
 have a station at that point but there were more convincing 
 inducements presented at that time to the needy company chief 
 of which was a gift by C. F. Camp of a plot of ground 500x1,000 
 feet, on which at this date are the R. R. Station, two grain 
 elevators, various other buildings, and last and greatest is the 
 beauty spot of the village, the little park which is the admir- 
 ation of all, and as the years come and go the home one and 
 the passing traveler notes the deep green sward, the clumps of 
 shrubbery each in its season blossom tinted, the spreading 
 branches of the elms, maples, chestnuts giving promise of the 
 future forest shade where all can realize it, if they will that 
 our pagan ancesters were not far amiss when they, in the 
 shady woodland's "dim religious light" saw a temple in which 
 they did and we might worship God. 
 
 The writer calls Oneida a village, and, as he thinks rightly, 
 so as more befitting our small and sadly diminishing numbers, 
 still it has a city charter, a special charter by the way. How- 
 ever, it is quite doubtful if the makers thereof could today rec- 
 ognize their handiwork. It will interest some to know that 
 Oneida's first school was built in 1855, and its first teacher was 
 Mary Allen West, who later became County Superintendent of 
 Schools, and in such position and in others subsequently filled, 
 she not only raised the standard of scholarship among the 
 teachers but raised the standard of civic righteousness in every 
 community that knew her presence. 
 
 The village, as has been noted, has two grain elevators, 
 two banks, the First National and the Anderson State Bank ; 
 we have had and now have a weekly paper, the Oneida News, a 
 Masonic lodge with a large membership, a Modern Woodmen 
 Camp, a Mystic Workers Insurance Company, two Woman's 
 Clubs, which are decidedly helpful in a social and literary way. 
 There is also an organization known as the Oneida-Altona 
 Branch of the Knox County Free Kindergarten, and out of this 
 has grown what may be called an auxiliary. The latter is wholly 
 composed of farm wives and daughters, and has its centre in 
 that intangible, but yet very real, something known as Ontario. 
 The meetings are no doubt beneficial in a social way, but it is 
 the sentiment of the heart materialized by the hands that on 
 many, very many occasions brings cheer to the little homeless 
 ones in the Galesburg Kindergarten. 
 
 The Church in Ontario Township 
 
 In 1840 the Presbyterians planned and in a measure ef-
 
 138 
 
 fected an organization, which so far as now known in a short 
 time as such disappeared. The same denomination again in 
 1863, probably as a result of the seed sown in 1840, took the 
 necessary steps to found a church in Oneida, and in 1865 one 
 was erected. The building was completely destroyed by a wind- 
 storm in 1868. A new church was immediately erected and has 
 been added to, the interior remodeled, the congregation is out 
 of debt, has a resident pastor, but the membership is slowly 
 but constantly diminishing. 
 
 In that part of Ontario township which is known as On- 
 tario, paranthetically it may be said, that this section has a 
 social center of its own ; it is really a community within a com- 
 munity, although not nearly so much so as in the days that 
 are gone; yet it still exists, resembling some of the European 
 States, however small. The Ontarioans are staunch believers 
 in autonomy, and this being so the settlers who favored the 
 congregational system of church management came together in 
 1848 and discussed the feasibility of organizing a church of 
 this denomination, and in 1852 the church which is still in 
 existence, was erected ; there has been no resident pastor for a 
 number of years and though preaching services are occasion- 
 ally held it would seem to an unbiased onlooker that the end of 
 the Ontario Congregational church is near at hand. 
 
 About the same time in the same communuity a certain 
 number, who, from the old eastern home, had brought cer- 
 tain inherited theological ideas which to them seemed essen- 
 tial, decided to build a Baptist church. Such was built ; also a 
 parsonage, and for many years preaching services were regu- 
 larly held. However, for a considerable time no services were 
 held, the church building was demolished, the parsonage sold, 
 the society disbanded, and the place which knew it, and knew 
 it for its good, will in all probability know it no more. 
 
 In 1852, in the neighborhood of what is now Oneida, a Con- 
 gregational Society was formed. In 1855 the church building, 
 which is still the property of the society, was built, has had an 
 eventful and most useful existence, but the church is pastor- 
 less, with slight signs of rejuvenation. There are still mem- 
 bers of the church and of the society who hope and look for- 
 ward to a new life for their beloved church, and for them and 
 for the community as a whole such a consumation is to be 
 wished. 
 
 The Oneida Methodist church was built in 1863. It was 
 a live organization to begin with, all its past history proves 
 that it has not lost its pristine enthusiasm, and in keeping with 
 its inner life its material progress is well shown in the new 
 brick edifice which occupies and graces the site of the old 
 wooden structure, and at this writing a new, handsome brick 
 veneered parsonage is nearing completion.
 
 139 
 
 Sometime between 1850 and 1860 a Baptist and a Uni- 
 versalist church were built in Oneida. The latter was destroyed 
 by fire; was rebuilt, but was wrecked by a windstorm. The 
 Baptist church was demolished at the same time and neither 
 was ever rebuilt. There was also a Lutheran organization 
 which at no time had more than thirty members, its existence 
 was brief as its list of members. The Seven Day Adventists 
 had a place of worship for a short time. Church and church 
 goers have disappeared. 
 
 There is also on Section 1 a Christian church. It has al- 
 ways been numerically weak and in common with all, or nearly 
 all Ontario churches, it is not only weak, but constantly be- 
 coming weaker. 
 
 It would appear from the foregoing that at some time 
 there have been in Ontario township ten religious societies, at 
 least eight have had places of worship. At present there are 
 but two congregations having resident pastors — the Methodist 
 and Presbyterian. For this condition there may be many 
 reasons given. It is true that there are a less number of in- 
 habitants in the township, and a smaller percentage of the 
 lesser number are church goers, and again there is a Swedish 
 Lutheran Church in Altona, where a large number of the older 
 people of our township regularly attend public worship. On 
 such occasions they meet with friends of kindred speech and 
 from the pulpit hear the words to memory dear and sing the 
 songs they first heard in their old home, "over there." There 
 is also a church of the same denomination in Wataga and 
 though not so largely attended as that in Altona still quite 
 a number of families from the southern side of Ontario are 
 attendants and members. The same may be said of the extreme 
 north of the township, the people here going to Woodhull. 
 
 However, it will have to be admitted that the chief cause 
 of the decadence and disappearance of churches is the fact that 
 a large and increasing number of people never go to any church 
 and another large, and perhaps increasing, number, seldom go. 
 Neither class mentioned can be depended on as a liberal giver 
 to any department of church work, and churches need friends. 
 
 However, in the not distant future all three societies, Al- 
 tona, Wataga, Woodhull, in all their meetings will use and use 
 only the English tongue. In that case will the present average 
 church attendance prevail, or will decadence and, in many in- 
 stances, disintegration take place? 
 
 Yet even if the church as the embodiment of Christianity 
 should largely or wholly pass, would not that something in it 
 which is greater than itself continue to live, ever, ever march- 
 ing on.
 
 140 
 
 ORANGE TOWNSHIP 
 From Sketch by John C. Eiker 
 
 Orange, as a present defined and bounded, was one of the 
 first townships in the county to attract the attention of early 
 immigrants to northern Illinois, and the pioneers were not 
 wholly free from fear of predatory visits from the aboriginal 
 owners of the soil. As a matter of fact, however, in 1830 — the 
 year the first settlers arrived — the Indians were migrating to 
 the west, and the comparatively few of them remained. A 
 blockhouse was erected, however, in 1830, or '31, and the mur- 
 der of a white man by a straggling band of hostile savages 
 during the Black Hawk War threw the small community into a 
 ferment of apprehension. 
 
 The township is crossed by several well defined trails. 
 That which is known as the Peorian and Galena runs diagonally 
 from northwest to southeast, passing also through Knox, 
 crossing the northeastern corner of the present city of Knox- 
 ville, A little to the west of this is another, which crosses 
 Brush Creek, in Section 30, and forms a sort of pathway from 
 that stream to the headwaters of Haw Creek, Several Indian 
 graves have been found and their traces are yet plainly discern- 
 able just across the Knox Township boundary line, on Section 
 32, The last appearance of any considerable body of aborigines 
 in the township was in 1843, when several hundred Sacs and 
 Foxes camped on the northwestern quarter of Section 5, while 
 on their way from the north to their reservation in Indian Ter- 
 ritory. 
 
 The first white family to settle within the present limits 
 of Orange was that of Joseph Wallace, who located on Section 
 15, in 1830, and found a rudely constructed cabin suffice for 
 their shelter. After the death of his wife, on the old farm, Mr. 
 Wallace removed to Iowa. 
 
 Asa Haynes (born in Dutchess County, New York, in 
 1804,) came in 1836. He had bought the three hundred acres 
 on Section 30, on which he erected a one-roomed log cabin, in 
 which he took up his residence with his wife, formerly Miss 
 Mary Gaddis, to whom he had been married October 7, 1830. 
 He was hardy, daring and adventurous, but without education 
 other than such as he had obtained during two months' attend- 
 ance at an Ohio district school each winter during six or seven 
 years. He brought with him his two children, a half brother, 
 Hiram, and a nephew, Isaac Hill. During their journey from 
 Ohio, which occupied nineteen days, they encountered more or 
 less rainfall during seventeen days, and found the rivers swol- 
 len to the summit of their banks, even the horses' harness 
 never drying. Mr. Haynes was energetic and enterprising, and 
 from the outset proved a potent factor in the development of
 
 141 
 
 the new country. He started the first brick yard and in 1840, 
 built the first saw mill, which was operated by water power 
 obtained from Brush Creek. In 1841 he erected a large barn, 
 and the following year replaced his primitive cabin with a brick 
 house, which in those early days was regarded as commodious. 
 While by no means a profound scholar himself, he took a deep 
 interest in imparting of at least a sound primaiy education to 
 children. For a time he himself taught an elementary school 
 in his little cabin, and when his brick home was completed, one 
 room was reserved and furnished as a school-room. Miss 
 Frances Moore was the instructress, becoming later, Mrs. 
 Hiram Haynes. Asa Haynes became, in his day, the largest 
 land holder in Orange Township, at one time owning nine hun- 
 dred and eighty-nine acres. He was one of the adventurers of 
 1849 and Captain of the "Jayhawkers" company of gold seekers 
 formed at Galesburg. He led this little band of sixty across 
 the continent. The hards-hips and privations which the men 
 underwent caused many to drop by the way, but Mr. Haynes 
 reached California safely, where he remained until 1851. Later 
 in life he returned to California and made that State his resi- 
 dence for several years. He returned home and died at the 
 house of a daughter, in Missouri, March 20, 1889. 
 
 James Ferguson came from Kentucky, with his family, in 
 the same year with Mr. Wallace settling on Section 11. He had 
 several children but only two are at present residents of 
 Orange; Andrew J., a farmer living on Section 10, and Mrs. 
 Sarah Weir, whose home is on Section 15. The elder Ferguson 
 attained prominence as being the first Justice of the Peace and 
 the first Overseer of the Poor in the township. He was also 
 a soldier in the Black Hawk War, being commissioned as Major. 
 He died in 1841, his widow surviving him for twenty years. 
 Both sleep in the quiet plot of ground reserved for sepulture on 
 the old farm. 
 
 Peter Godfrey is among the best known settlers of 1832, 
 and he and his wife are among the oldest and most honored 
 couples belonging to the "Old Settlers' Association of Knox 
 County." John Denney and John and Simon McAllister arrived 
 two years later. Isaiah Hutson and wife emigrated from the 
 State of New York in 1837. He has since died (1883), but his 
 widow and daughter still find their home on the homestead, 
 which was theirs sixty years ago. Thomas Gilbert was also 
 an early settler, his farm being on Section 8. His son, Thomas, 
 is a prominent citizen of Knoxville, and two of his daughters 
 still reside in that city. 
 
 Other early settlers of the township who are worthy of 
 especial mention are as follows: Thomas and James Sumner, 
 who came from Ohio in 1837 and settled on Section 23. James 
 lost his life through an accident.
 
 142 
 
 Isreal Turner emigrated from Chester county, Pennsyl- 
 vania, in 1837. He entered two hundred and forty acres on 
 Section 32, remaining there until he died. Anderson Barnett 
 also came in the same year, settling on Section 10. To him 
 belonged the distinction of begetting the largest family of 
 children (eighteen) ever reared in the township. 
 
 The early houses were, of course, of logs and of these Mr, 
 Wallace built the first, on Section 15. Thomas A. Rude erected 
 the first brick dwelling, on the farm of the late William Turner, 
 in the same section. A portion of the latter is still standing, 
 but the residence of Mr. Asa Haynes is probably the oldest 
 structure in the county, remaining precisely as it was built. 
 
 The two earliest marriages were those of Alexander Rob- 
 ertson to Narcissa Ferguson, and of Danie IFuqua to Lydia 
 Bomar. This was a double wedding and the ceremony was 
 solemnized by Rev. Jacob Gum at the Ferguson residence, on 
 Section 10. The first white child born (1833) was Cynthia, 
 daughter of James Ferguson. 
 
 The first school house was of logs, and stood on Section 
 14. It was known as the Wallace school, and religious ser- 
 vices were occasionally held within its rude, unplastered walls. 
 The first teacher was Thomas Ellison, who wielded the birch 
 during the winter of 1836. He died at Abingdon, in 1897. Mr. 
 Ellison was followed by Anderson Barnett, who taught in 1837 
 and in 1838. The school house erected in what is now District 
 No. 8 was of brick, Isreal Turner being the mason and the car- 
 pentry being done by Charles Corwin. Miss Amanda Corwin, 
 one of the earliest graduates from Knox College, was the first 
 teacher and remained six years. Another early school house 
 was that within the limits of the present District No. 3, where 
 Miss Mary Gilbert Chaffee was the first to give instruction to 
 boys and girls, some of whom have long since passed away, 
 while others have grown old and silver-haired. At present 
 Orange township has eight schools, all ungraded, occupying 
 well constructed frame buildings. The houses are modern and 
 represent an outlay, in the aggregate, of about ten thousand 
 dollars. In addition to this sum, libraries and equipments have 
 cost a thousand dollars. The total enrollment of pupils is two 
 hundred and seventeen. 
 
 The earliest religious service held in the township was con- 
 ducted by Rev. Jacob Gum, a Baptist minister, at the home of 
 James Ferguson. 
 
 The first denomination to organize into a church society 
 was the Methodist Episcopal. This body erected a house of 
 worship known as Orange Chapel, in 1855. It was built on Sec- 
 tion 22, and was of brick, burned in the yard of Anderson Bar- 
 nett and laid by Thomas Rambo. The building was dedicated
 
 143 
 
 in the Spring of 1856, by Rev. Richard Haney. The Gilson Cir- 
 cuit was estabhshed in 1857-8, and Orange Chapel was included 
 within its limits. 
 
 Early in the seventies revival services were held at the 
 school house in District No. 4, which resulted in a general 
 awakening of religious interest. At that time there was no 
 organized church other than Orange Chapel, although there 
 was in the township a moderate sprinkling of Congregational- 
 ists and Protestant Methodists. The fervor of both of these 
 sects was aroused. Both denominations organized societies, 
 and Haynes Chapel was built (1871-73) by the Protestant 
 Methodists. The Congregational church had no place of wor- 
 ship and soon ceased to exist as a local organization. A general 
 religious decline appeared to be supervene about the same time, 
 spreading over the territory btween Knoxville and Hermon, 
 on the north and south, and Gilson and Abingdon on the east 
 and west. In fact, for nearly twenty years, or until 1890, 
 Orange Chapel was the only center of organic Christian effort. 
 In the last mentionel year, however, a branch of the Young 
 People's Society of Christian Endeavor was formed at Haynes 
 Chapel, with nine active members. For several years the 
 young people conducted weekly services there, after their cus- 
 tomary fashion, and in 1893, Rev. A. W. Depew, of Abingdon, 
 began preaching with marked success ; Haynes Chapel being 
 considered an outlying station. By this time the Christian En- 
 deavors numbered forty, and it was not long before another 
 Congregational church was organized with twenty-two mem- 
 bers. Its first pastor was Rev. Mr. Slater, who preached for 
 the congregation from May, 1894, to February, 1895. 
 
 The township was organized and its name chosen at a 
 meeting held April 3, 1853. The name seems to have been 
 selected on account of the shape of the central prairie, which, in 
 those early days, was one of the most beautiful spots in the 
 State. Asa Haynes was elected Supervisor ; A. Barnett, Clerk ; 
 A. Pierce, Assessor; J. G. Rude, Collector; Peter Godfrey and 
 David Stephens, Constables ; Samuel Mather and J. Wallace, 
 Overseers of the Poor ; J. H. McGrew, Thomas Gilbert and Mor- 
 ris Chase, Highway Commissioners. 
 
 The chief industries are agriculture and stock raising, 
 although in those early days, brick yards were started by Asa 
 Haynes, Thompson Rude and Anderson Barnett. These ven- 
 tures proved unprofitable, however, and the kilns long ago 
 fell into disintegration and decay. From the time of its settle- 
 ment Orange ranked high among the best cereal producing 
 sections of the county, although a lack of transportation facili- 
 ties prevented the marketing of the grain raised. More than 
 half was used in the fattening of stock. Haynes, Godfrey and 
 Sumner Brothers manifested great interest in improving the
 
 144 
 
 quality of live stock and were the first to introduce spotted 
 China hogs and Shorthorn cattle. 
 
 The principle market of the pioneers was Peoria, although 
 Canton and Oquawka received a fair share of the farm pro- 
 ducts. The farmers hauled their produce by teams, receiving 
 in exchange supplies which they carried home to their expect- 
 tant families. The opening of the first railroad, in 1854, 
 altered the entire situation, shippers now finding Chicago at 
 once the most accessible and most profitable market. 
 
 The only village in Orange is De Long, a flourishing little 
 station, on the line of the Narrow Gauge Road, now C, B. & Q. 
 It came into existence in 1882, and owes its being — as it does 
 its name — to S. H. Malory. He bought the site from Wayne 
 Marks when the preliminary survey of the line was made, in 
 anticipation of a station being established thereon, and called 
 the village DeLong, in honor of the explorer of that name. It 
 can boast two general stores, one grain elevator, a barber shop, 
 two blacksmith shops, a building containing a hall and store 
 room, and about twenty-five residences. Its population is 
 about 100 and it is a relatively important point for grain and 
 stock. 
 
 The township furnished its full quota of troops in both the 
 Mexican and Civil Wars. 
 
 Wm. H. Wiley is the only surviving soldier now living, 
 January, 1920, in the township from which he enlisted. 
 
 John Lawrence, Isaac and Samuel Mather were among the 
 early settlers. The Township Hall is located in the center of 
 the township and is a building originally used for a Farmer's 
 Grange Supply Store, Wm. Forlow being the manager in the 
 years from '75 to 80. The White School House, two miles north 
 of Belong, was one of the first schools in the township, the first 
 building was built of logs. The Civil War was furnished two 
 Captains, Wm. Reynolds and Wright Woolsey. 
 
 Orange township furnished its quota 
 American and also in the recent World War. 
 
 in the Spanish- 
 
 (Facts in the foregoing sketch, not contained in the Reeee 
 history, were furnished by W. A. Wiley.)
 
 145 
 
 PERSIFER TOWNSHIP 
 By Joseph M; Miles 
 
 The name — Persifer — was given to a postoffice which was 
 located at the home of Charles Bradford, who owned the north- 
 west quarter of Section 27 in this township and whose home 
 was located at the southwest corner of his farm. We do not 
 know who chose the name, but it was named in honor of Gen- 
 eral Persifer Frazier Smith who served in the Mexican war. 
 Morgan Reece told me that people wrote the name they wanted 
 and sent it to Knoxville. 
 
 The township was set off as a separate town sometime in 
 the Fall of 1849, and on January 14, 1850, the voters at an elec- 
 tion chose the name Persifer for the township. At that time 
 Haw Creek and Persifer were in one precinct and I have heard 
 my father say that the polling place was at the residence of 
 Booker Pickrel which was located at the northwest corner of 
 Section 3 in Haw Creek township. It is now the home of John 
 Spear. 
 
 The township is located near the top of the east slope of 
 the ridge which lies between the Illinois and the Mississippi 
 river. As a consequence the general slope is east and south. 
 A bend in Spoon river cuts off about 300 acres on the east 
 side of the township, and this with Court Creek and its tribu- 
 taries (Middle Creek, North Creek and Sugar Creek) and other 
 small streams, furnish excellent drainage for the township. 
 These streams render the greater part of the land very rough 
 there being only about 3,000 acres of prairie land in the town- 
 ship, making it more of a grazing than a farming region. 
 
 Originally at least three-fourths of the township was cov- 
 ered with timber or scattered trees. The land where the scat- 
 tered trees grew was called barrens, but the word was a mis- 
 nomer for the barrens is now the home of some of our most 
 progressive and well to do citizens. When the early settlers 
 came nearly all of the timber was large trees. Then as the set- 
 tlers cut the trees, new trees came up from the seed and now 
 what timber we have is nearly all what is called second growth. 
 Nearly all of this second growth has been cut and killed until 
 we have very little timber left at the present time. The prin- 
 cipal timber is the oak of which the white oak is probably the 
 most useful variety. Burr oak comes next in usefulness. Black 
 oak is the most plentiful. There is also red oak, pin oak and 
 jack oak. There are also a few cottonwood, a few elms, a few 
 lynn, a few box alder, a few ash, hickory, black walnut and 
 hard maple. When the early settlers first came to the county 
 there was a white pine grove on Section 25. Some of the trees 
 were more than two feet through at the stump. This grove was 
 soon all cut and used up. Most of it was sawed at the Whitton
 
 146 
 
 saw mill which was situated at the Sumner bridge on Spoon 
 river in the northeast corner of Haw Creek township. One 
 house was built from this white pine lumber — that of Captain 
 Taylor of Trenton. This house was the first (or second) frame 
 house built in the township. Excepting this small grove, none 
 of the native timber is of much use as building material except 
 as frame materiel. Very little wood is now used for fuel, nearly 
 everyone uses coal for heating and cooking purposes at the 
 present time. The greatest use of native timber is posts, coal 
 props — of which a great many are shipped from the township 
 — and bridge plank. 
 
 Mineral Deposits 
 
 There are plentiful deposits of shale in the township that 
 would make excellent brick but as yet there is no factory for 
 making brick and as concrete is beginning to be so extensively 
 used and is such an excellent building material, there prob- 
 ably never will be any brick made from it. 
 
 Coal is also found in all parts of the township, but it is not 
 mined to any extent. Three separate veins of coal crop out in 
 the township. The highest vein is in the north part of the 
 town and is 4 feet thick and is of excellent quality. The other 
 veins are but two feet thick and are very hard and make a 
 great many cinders. 
 
 The only stone in the township is sandstone, of which 
 there is a small supply. It is soft and does not withstand the 
 climate very well. As there is practically no gravel to use in 
 making concrete, and the other building materials are so 
 scarce, it is readily seen that materials for building is one of 
 our worst drawbacks. 
 
 Persifer is well supplied with fertile soil. About one- 
 fourth of the land is what is know nas "Marshall Silt Loam" 
 and is what was originally prairie and barrens. All the re- 
 mainder of the land — except the bottom land — is called "Miami 
 Silt Loam." 
 
 In the early days the settlers used springs or shallow wells 
 for water, but year by year the wells had to be made deeper 
 and deeper until at the present time drilled wells from 50 to 
 300 feet deep furnish the purest and the most abundant supply 
 of water. In the early days people secured soft water by set- 
 ting buckets, washtubs, or barrels under the eaves of their 
 houses to catch the rain water as it ran from the eaves. Now 
 nearly every house has its cistern for rain water. Cisterns 
 usually hold from 60 to 80 barrels of water and people are sel- 
 dom out of it. 
 
 The prairies not only furnish a fertile soil for farming 
 but in the early days furnished spontaneously an abundant sup-
 
 147 
 
 ply of roughage for stock. The timber also furnished acorns 
 in sufficient quantities to fatten not only deer but all the 
 hogs the early settlers raised. Honey was also plentiful. Mr. 
 R. C. Benson told of one bee tree that he cut from which he 
 filled all the tubs and buckets he had and then stood in honey 
 several inches deep. 
 
 Several kinds of fruit and nuts are native to the township. 
 Wild grapes, plums, black-berries, straw-berries, elder-berries, 
 and wild crabs were found, and black walnuts, butternuts, hick- 
 ory nuts, and hazelnuts were also plentiful. A party of young 
 people once went into Court Creek bottoms near where Apple- 
 ton now stands and gathered a washtub full of wild straw- 
 berries. 
 
 Game Abundant 
 
 Game was plentiful until about 1850. Parts of the ele- 
 phant and the mastodon have been found in Persifer. A mas- 
 todon's tooth was found on North Creek by Albert Wyman and 
 I think it is now in the possession of Fred R. Jelliff, editor of 
 the Republican-Register. The writer also found a part of a 
 mastodon tooth on Section 35. What appears to be an entire 
 tooth of an elephant was found by Luther Webb in Court Creek 
 on Section 22 in 1917. I have often heard my father, R. W. 
 Miles, say that the bones and horns of the bison were plentiful 
 upon the prairies when he came here in 1836. Although these 
 larger animals had disappeared from the country before the 
 settlers came, there remained plenty of deer, a few elk, and 
 numbers of wild turkeys. Prairie chicken, quail, squirrels, the 
 raccoon and rabbits were abundant in those days but most 
 of them have now disappeared. Prairie chickens were so num- 
 erous in the early days that Charles Bradford and his son Wil- 
 liam killed 24 by firing one shot each at a flock sitting on the 
 first grain stacks ever stacked in Persifer. R. W. Miles on 
 several occasions killed as many as 7 prairie chickens at one 
 shot and the writer has seen as many as a thousand in one 
 flock, but they have now almost disappeared from this part of 
 the country. 
 
 Fur bearing animals are still to be found in small numbers. 
 Probably $500.00 worth of furs are procured each year. 
 
 Indians were doubtless quite numerous at one time but 
 very few were ever seen after the white settlers came and they 
 were doubtless wandering bands. Many of their flint arrow 
 heads and stone axes have been found. The poles of their 
 wigwams which were standing when the settlers came would 
 indicate that there was an Indian village where the town of 
 Dahinda now stands. There are a few mounds in the township, 
 but they may have belonged to a former race. The Indians 
 had no burial place in the township so far as I have ever heard, 
 unless the mounds be such place. What is known as the Galena
 
 148 
 
 trail — one branch of it — passed through the township. It ran 
 almost straight north from the south side of the township to 
 Court Creek, crossing that stream where the present Appleton 
 bridge stands. From there it followed a northwesterly direc- 
 tion. A branch trail from the mouth of Court Creek joined it 
 near the northwest corner of the township. The trails were 
 much used by the early settlers as they were veiy good roads, 
 the Indians not having to follow the section lines in the selec- 
 tion of their highways. Mr. W. G. Sargeant says that there 
 were a number of poles of wigwams on the hills on the east side 
 of Sugar Creek and south of what is known as Round Bottom. 
 
 One of the Indians who sometimes visited this section dur- 
 ing the days of the early settlement was the chief, Shabona. 
 He once offered to show William Morris a silver mine in the 
 northeast part of the township, but Mr. Morris, fearing treach- 
 ery, would not go with him. Afterwards when returning from 
 a journey of some sort he came acoss a spot that corresponded 
 with that decribed to him by Shabona. But when he went to 
 look for it again he could never find the same place. It may 
 seem strange that Mr. Morris could not find the place again, 
 but I have heard my father say that once when returning from 
 a hunting trip crossing Court Creek bottoms which had been 
 freshly burned over he found quite a large piece of land strewn 
 thickly with human bones, which were so badly burned that 
 they fell in pieces when he tried to pick them up and although 
 he tried to find the place afterwards he could not do so. 
 
 Early Settlers 
 
 William Morris, mentioned above, was probably the first 
 white settler. He bought the N. W. 1-4 Section 26 on March 
 10, 1832. During the winter of 1832-3 he lodged in a hollow 
 sycamore tree which stood near the south bank of Spoon River 
 just below the mouth of Court Creek. Mr. Morris came from 
 Wilksville, Gallia Co., Ohio. He married Miss Ruth Vaughn, 
 who came frorn Kentucky. Mr. Morris probably built his cabin 
 in 1833, but it is said to have burned down soon after it was 
 built. 
 
 Beverly Young and Jesse and Willis Reynolds came to the 
 township in 1833. They came from Munfordsville, Kentucky. 
 Beverly Young settled on the east 1-2 of the northeast of Sec- 
 tion 26. 
 
 Jesse Reynolds settled on the west 1-2 of the same quarter. 
 Willis Reynolds settled on the west 1-2 of the southwest 1-4 
 of Section 25. Some time in the fall of 1834 Charles Bradford 
 came from Licking county, Ohio, and bought the Beverly 
 Young place and moved into the house which Mr. Young had 
 built there. The next year, 1835, Mr. Bradford bought the 
 north west 1-4 of Section 27 and moved into a house that stood
 
 149 
 
 just across the road west on Section 28. In 1836, Rev. S. S. 
 Miles came to the township from Ohio and bought a part of the 
 northwest 1-4 of Section 34, but did not move onto the place 
 until the spring of 1839, although he lived nearby while he was 
 building his house which, as he was in poor health and his old- 
 est son was but 14 years old, it took him some time to do. 
 
 In 1837 many families came to the township, among them 
 being those of Edmond Russell, Isaac Sherman, G. W. Manley, 
 T. D. Butt, Caleb Reece, John Caldwell and James Maxey. Af- 
 ter this new arrivals became quite frequent and neighbors were 
 not so far apart. 
 
 First Marriages 
 
 The first marriage in which the contracting parties were 
 residents of the township, was that of Charles Bradford and 
 Parmelia Ann Richardson. Mr. Bradford was a native of New 
 Hampshire but after his first marriage lived in the state of 
 Maine a short time. He then moved to Licking county, Ohio, 
 and later, in 1834, came to Illinois. Mr. Richardson came from 
 Kentucky. They were married in Peoria some time in the 
 spring of 1836. 
 
 The first wedding which occurred in the township was 
 that of Harvey Stetson Bradford, son of Charles Bradford and 
 Hester Whitton. They were married October 24, 1836, at the 
 home of the groom's father who lived on the northwest 1-4 sec- 
 tion 27. The Rev. Bartlett, a Baptist minister from Knoxville, 
 performed the ceremony. 
 
 It has often been stated that R. C. Benson and Sarah 
 Bradford were the first couple married in the township, but 
 they were not married until JanuaiT 5, 1837. They were mar- 
 ried at the home of the bride's father, Chas. Bradford. The 
 ceremony was performed by the Rev. S. S. Miles. 
 
 The first child bom in the township is said to have been 
 a daughter to Mr. and Mrs. Jesse Reynolds, but there was a 
 child born to Mr. and Mrs. Willis Reynolds in January, 1835. 
 
 First Death 
 
 The first death was that of Mrs. Charles Bradford, which 
 occurred on January 5, 1835. Mrs. Bradford was in poor 
 health when she came to the township, in 1834, and lived only 
 a few months. She was buried on their own farm almost 
 at the center of of the N. E. 1-4 of Section 26. 
 
 The first public cemetery was in Section 9 on what is 
 now known as the Charles Myers farm. The first burial 
 therein was a son of John Henderson, who then owned the 
 farm. 
 
 Mr. David Russell, who came to the township with his 
 father in 1837, says that there was a cemetery at Trenton at
 
 150 
 
 that time. This cemetery is located just east of where the 
 town of Trenton stood and is known as the Trenton cemetery. 
 
 Modes of Travel 
 
 Traveling in those days was not very rapid. In the winter 
 of 1835-6 Rev. S. S. Miles, who lived in Newark, Ohio, was in 
 very poor health. The doctors told him that he would live only 
 until spring came, but as soon as he was able to get onto a 
 horse he began riding out every day and as soon as he could 
 ride 10 miles a day he started for Illinois. He came to the 
 township in June of that year and bought his farm and rode 
 back to Ohio on horseback. When there he loaded his family 
 into a wagon and brought them to Illinois the same fall. 
 
 They traveled quite slowly, leading a cow behind the 
 wagon and camping out nights. The milk from the cow was 
 hung up in the wagon in a tin bucket every morning and at 
 night fresh butter was taken from the bucket. Many of the 
 roads were cordoroy, especially in Indiana, and most of the 
 streams had to be forded or ferried. Mr. Miles lived 40 years 
 after coming to Illinois. His death was October 6, 1876. 
 
 Charles Bradford brought his family to Illinois in the 
 same way. He brought one two-horse wagon and one six- 
 horse wagon. His daughter, Mrs. P. C. Benson, told me that 
 the only incident that she could think of in the journey from 
 Ohio was that one of the wagons upset after they had passed 
 all the hills and streams and were only about a mile from the 
 place where they located. Nearly all of the settlers came in 
 wagons, but it is quite likely that a few of them came on foot. 
 
 The first mail was carried on horseback, the carrier cross- 
 ing Spoon River at a place called Jack's ford. This ford was lo- 
 cated about 80 rods below the mouth of Court Creek and about 
 the same distance above the township line. 
 
 The first public conveyance and one which also carried the 
 mail was the stage-coach. Just when the stage began running 
 through Persifer we do not know, but it seems to have been 
 running in 1837, according to Mr. David Russell, who came to 
 the township that year and was 15 years of age. The first 
 route of the stage was from Trenton west nearly to the R. C. 
 Benson farm, then in a southwesterly direction to the Miles 
 farm, thence nearly on a straight line to Knoxville, passing the 
 G. W. Manley farm, (now owned by Geo. W. Haner), where 
 was a fine spring where people stopped to water. This route 
 missed all the hills between Spoon River and Knoxville. The 
 state road through Trenton and Knoxville was laid out in 1838. 
 T. D. Butt, Caleb Reece and John Coleman were the commis- 
 sioners. 
 
 In the early 40's the people desired a postoffice closer 
 than Knoxville and one was established at the home of Charles
 
 151 
 
 Bradford, Mr. Bradford being appointed postmaster. We do 
 not know the date when the office started but some place the 
 date as early as 1842. Several years aftervvards the office was 
 moved to Trenton and the name was charged to Trenton. 
 
 Schools 
 
 The first school of which we know was taught by Mary 
 Ann Long in 1839. The school was held in a cabin which stood 
 in the hollow just north of the present Maple Grove School 
 house, District No. 91. This school was not a public school, 
 but was supported by subscription. Mr. C. N. Butt, now living 
 in Knoxville, was a pupil of that school. 
 
 The first school house was built in 1841 on the line be- 
 tween the Francis Wilson and the John Caldwell farms. It 
 stood on the north side of the road 1-4 mile west of the center 
 of Section 30. It was a log structure with the door in the 
 south and one row of panes where a log had been sawed out in 
 the east and west of the house for windows. We believe that 
 John Mcintosh was the first teacher and that Curtis Edgerton 
 was the second, but some have said that Mr. Edgerton was the 
 first. So far as we know the pupils who attended the first 
 public school were James and George McPherrin, Neptin, Lu- 
 cina and Mary Russell, Charles N. Butt, Jacob Brunk, and John 
 C. Hearn. 
 
 The first school trustees of Persifer were T. D. Butt and 
 Samuel McCormack. The first meeting was on January 10, 
 1846, and the first official act was the appointment of Francis 
 Wilson to the office of Secretary and Treasurer. 
 
 Another log school house was built in an early day near 
 the town of Trenton, but it was probably not built until after 
 the one on the Wilson farm. This building stood between 80 
 and 90 rods almost due east of the present Trenton school 
 building. 
 
 There are now nine frame school buildings in the town- 
 ship and the schools are all graded. According to the census of 
 June 1st, 1918, there are 207 pupils of school age in the town- 
 ship. The value of the school property in the township is 
 $9,830.00 and the amount of tax levy for last year was 
 $6,325.00. 
 
 Business 
 
 Persifer boasts the first mill in Knox county. It was built 
 in 1834, by Robert Hendrix. It stood on the south bank of 
 Court Creek at the mouth of Middle Creek — just above where 
 the Knoxville and Victoria road crosses Court Creek on Section 
 19. At first only corn was ground at this mill, but later wheat 
 was also ground by Samuel McCormack. This mill was after- 
 wards converted into a saw mill and was owned and operated 
 by Andrew Fletcher, Hubbard Huggins, Daniel Anderson and
 
 152 
 
 David Russell. Mr. Russell was operating the mill when the 
 dam was washed away in 1853. 
 
 The next place of importance in the township was the town 
 of Trenton. It was the first town and was laid out in 1839 by 
 Hyram Bowman on Section 25. It contained a tavern and hos- 
 telry, a postoffice, 2 stores, a blacksmith shop, a pottery and a 
 brick yard. Charles Bradford kept the postoffice, which was 
 moved from his farm to Trenton. A man by the name of Good- 
 man kept the first store. It was a regular stopping place for 
 the stage as long as that mode of conveyance was in use, which 
 was up to 1853. The name of one of the stage drivers was 
 Dave Brownlee and the name of another was Oliver Pike. Thece 
 men were of the rough and ready sort or they would not have 
 been in such a business at that time. At one time one of these 
 men brought a young lady to Galesburg who was to teach in 
 Knox College. It was a very icy time and when the driver 
 opened the stage door and reached up to help the young lady 
 out his feet went from under him and he went flat on the 
 ground. The young lady, (I forget her name), was so far out 
 of the coach that she could not keep her balance, so she very 
 neatly jumped over the fallen driver and alighted on the curb 
 without any assistance. But the driver was not daunted by the 
 mishap to himself. He turned to a half dozen young men who 
 were standing by and beginning to laugh at him and said: 
 "Boys, there's terrible times over in Knoxville. The niggers 
 are dying off at the rate of six a minute." (There was but one 
 negro in Knox county at the time). Both these men went to 
 California in the gold digging days. 
 
 An Early Mill 
 
 Elliott's Mill, so-called in hpnor of Captain Hiram Elliott, 
 who was captain of Company H, 102 Illinois Infantry, and who 
 owned and operated the mill for several years, was built in 1840 
 at the mouth of Court Creek on Spoon River. It stood on the 
 south bank of the river at the mouth of the creek and has 
 quite a history. Some time prior to 1840, probably in 1839, 
 Thomas Gilbert who lived south of Knoxville and who was one 
 of the men who sought out the location for Knox College and a 
 man named Captain Jack made a tour of inspection along Spoon 
 River and decided that the spot we have described was the best 
 place for a mill site. As these men did not wish to go partners 
 in the mill and neither wanted to pay the other for what the 
 law gave free to the man who first began to build, both men 
 went home and watched for an opportunity to get the first 
 start. Finally Captain Jack started for Oquawka for two loads 
 of castings for a mill. After his departure Mr. Gilbert heard 
 of it in some way and not to be out-done he engaged all the 
 men that he could get to go with him from Knoxville and they 
 went out to the river and began cutting walnut logs in the creek
 
 153 
 
 bottoms just west of the mill site. They worked all night, cut- 
 ting, hewing and dragging out the logs and when Captain Jack 
 got back with his castings he found that he was beaten. It is 
 said that he hauled the castings down the river a short dis- 
 tance, threw them out of his wagons and never picked them up. 
 Although Mr. Gilbert secured the site for the mill, for some 
 reason he did not build. the mill. He may have sold the site to 
 a man named McKee, for a man named named McKee built the 
 mill. Mr. McKee doubtless began building the mill in 1839 for 
 the frame was up early in the spring of 1840, and it was fin- 
 ished that year. It was a large substantial structure and re- 
 mained standing 41 years. In the beginning it was a saw mill 
 but it was later converted into a flour mill and was for many 
 years one of the most important milling centers in the county. 
 As the mill grew in importance Trenton declined and one of the 
 stores was moved from Trenton to the mill. For several years 
 there were two stores and a blacksmith shop and at one time 
 there were two saloons in operation. One of them was even 
 named the Blue Goose. The mill was owned first by McKee 
 then by the Lewis boys, (Laderic, Loid, Loren and Luther 
 Lewis), then by a Mr. Stinocker, then by Captain Elliott, then 
 by Proctor Myers, then by Henry Corbin and last by John 
 Degrummond. After about 1870 the water began to fail so 
 badly in the streams that the mill finally had to quit business 
 about 1875. The building finally became unsafe and was torn 
 down by Mr. Degrummond in the spring of 1881. 
 
 The Golden Circle 
 
 During the Civil War the Knights of the Golden Circle 
 were quite numerous in the vicinity of the mill and for a long 
 time they met every Saturday night in an old log house that 
 stood on the west side of the road just on the high bank of the 
 creek. The house was one story with a loft and a stone chim- 
 ney on the outside. Mr. Henry Butt, who told me of the cir- 
 cumstances, was a good sized boy at the time and was staying 
 with the miller. He says that on Saturday evenings when it 
 was getting dark men would begin to ride in on horseback from 
 all directions and tie their horses in the low ground back of the 
 house where they would be entirely out of sight from the road. 
 There were usually about 25 of them and they would gather in 
 the loft of the old house and stay there for quite a long time 
 before they dispersed. Mr. Butt was very anxious to know 
 what they were meeting for and so one night he climbed up the 
 chimney until his head was above the floor of the loft and list- 
 ened, but although he could hear them talking he could not 
 distinguish anything that they said. The Knights kept up 
 their meetings until the draft was called when some of them 
 in order to escape the draft left the country and the circle was 
 broken up. The Knights of the Golden Circle was a secret
 
 154 
 
 organization, originated in the south for the extension and de- 
 fense of slavery. It contained many men in all the southern 
 states and a great many northern men. In Persifer they went 
 so far as to plot the murder of some of the prominent citizens. 
 The writer's father was the first one whom they planned to 
 execute, but a friend of our family who was a member of the 
 Circle, came to our people and told them, what was planned. As 
 I think of it now I do not know the man's name, I only know 
 that he was an Irishman. 
 
 The third and last mill to be built in the township was 
 built by Charles Haptonstall about 1848. It was built on Court 
 Creek, about 80 rods west of the road leading south from the 
 town of Appleton. In it corn and buckwheat were ground at 
 first, but it was later converted into a saw mill and not being 
 very substantial was never a place of much business. 
 
 All of the mills and the town of Trenton have long since 
 disappeared as places of public business and there were no 
 other places of that character except a few blacksmith shops 
 until the A. T. & S. F. R. R. was built in 1888. There have been 
 several blacksmith shops in the south half of the township 
 aside from the ones already mentioned. The following are all 
 that the writer remembers: Francis Wilson on his farm on 
 Section 30, Thomas Gordon on the Wm. Morris farm on Section 
 26, Stephen Clark on what is now known as the Wm. Breece 
 farm on Section 26, and, at a later date, Jas. Kelso, on the hill 
 south of Appleton. 
 
 Dahinda was laid out in the summer of 1888 by the Santa Fe 
 Town and Land Co. It stands on the west bank of the Spoon 
 River on the N. W. of Section 24 and is a station on the Santa 
 Fe R. R. There is a Methodist Episcopal church and a Latter 
 Day Saints church, generally known as an offspring of the 
 Mormon church. Guy H. Peters has a store and is postmaster. 
 Charles Woolsey and A. E. Sargeant each have stores and 
 James Kelso has a blacksmith shop. A. E. Sargeant also runs 
 the elevator and E. W. Farquer has a barber shop. The A. T. 
 & S. F. R. R. which traverses the township from west to east 
 with a fine double track has a fine bridge across Spoon River 
 at this place. 
 
 Appleton was laid out by the Hon. J. H. Lewis in the spring 
 of 1888, on the S. E. 1-4 of Section 16. It is situated on the 
 north side of the Santa Fe R. R. and is a station on that road. 
 Mr. Wm. A. lies has a store and is postmaster. Alfred E. 
 Saline has a store and a grain elevator. There is also a black- 
 smith shop and a Church of the United Bhrethren in Christ. 
 Quite a large amount of grain and stock is shipped from Apple- 
 ton each year. 
 
 The Prairie State Oil Co. has pipe lines and a pumping 
 station in the township. The pipe lines follow the Santa Fe
 
 155 
 
 tracks and the pumping station is by the side of that road on 
 Section 23. They also have a switch from the Santa Fe tracks. 
 
 Another pipe line runs through the south part of the 
 township but has no pumping station here. 
 
 Churches 
 
 The first sermon preached in the township so far as we 
 have any record, was at the home of Charles Bradford in June, 
 1836. The preacher was the Rev. S. S. Miles. He also organ- 
 ized the first Sunday school at the same place in 1838. The 
 first lesson was from the Book of Daniel. The first church 
 was built in 1863 on the Robert Young farm at the center of 
 Section 30. It cost $1,800.00. There are now seven church 
 buildings in the township but two of them are not used. The 
 church on the Young farm is called Bethel and is Methodist. 
 Maxey Chapel stands at the center of Section 5 and is Metho- 
 dist . One of the churches at Dahinda is Methodist and the 
 other is an offshoot of the Mormon church, called the Latter 
 Day Saints. The church at Appleton is the old United Breth- 
 ren denomination. The church which stands at the center of 
 Section 8 and the one standing at the southwest corner of Sec- 
 tion 27 belong to the revised division of the United Brethren 
 church. The two latter are not in use aet the present time. 
 The U. B. Church at Appleton built a parsonage in 1917. It is 
 the first parsonage in the township. 
 
 Religious Life 
 
 A great deal might be said about the religion of Persifer 
 people. In the first days of the settlement there were no 
 churches nor school houses and the meetings had to be held for 
 the most part in the homes of the settlers and later when a 
 large bam was built it would sometimes be used for holding 
 meetings. The barn on the Robert Young farm was once used 
 for holding a revival meeting, Mr. Young being himself a 
 great church man. A goodly number were converted at this 
 meeting and some of them became very enthusiastic. One man 
 coming out of the barn after he had joined the church saw his 
 son talking with some other young men out in the yard and 
 
 coming up to him said: "Son, you d d fool you, why don't 
 
 you go in and join the meeting? Mother's joined and I've 
 joined and the girls have joined and we've all joined." Possibly 
 the enthusiasm would to a certain extent excuse the profanity. 
 
 After the school houses were built they were used almost 
 exclusively for holding religious services until the churches 
 were built. They were the only places of public worship for 
 years. Many people liked the school house the best for church 
 services as it was not the property of any denomination and 
 people felt more at home there.
 
 156 
 
 At one time in the early days a Spiritualist came into the 
 Young neighborhood and gave a few talks and the older people 
 began to be worried on account of the young people, and tried 
 to get the man to leave the community. Instead of leaving, 
 however, he proposed that they get some one to debate the 
 subject with him and leave the question to be settled in that 
 way and Mr. Robert Young took him at his word and tried to 
 find some preacher who would debate with him. But Mr. 
 Young could not find a preacher who w^ould undertake the task 
 and finally a man named Ruff Branscom told him to get R. W. 
 Miles. Mr. Miles said he would debate with him and got Mr, 
 Branscom to pretend that he wanted to join the spiritualists 
 and get some of their books for Mr. Miles to study. The de- 
 bate was finally called and lasted only an hour and a half when 
 the spiritualist was ready to quit. Mr. Young now said that as 
 Mr. Miles had spent some time in studying up for the debate 
 and had given them such good service it was no more than 
 right that they should take up a collection for him. He then 
 proceeded to take up the collection wearing a very broad smile 
 at the same time. One of the neighbors seeing this smile spoke 
 up and said that if it was a victory, it was not a Methodist 
 victory, at which remark Mr. Young's smile only grew the 
 broader. 
 
 Many meetings of great interest have been held in the 
 township and many people have been converted in them and 
 although there have been many backsliders there have also 
 been those who were faithful. 
 
 Agricultural Evolution 
 
 The first land broken was six acres on what is known as 
 the Stevens farm in the S. E. of the N. E. of Section 28. Six 
 acres were also broken on the S. E. of Section 34 at about the 
 same time. 
 
 The first crop was oats and wheat and the farmer was 
 Wm. Morris. 
 
 The prairie sod was very tough and hard to plow. The 
 plows were made almost wholly of wood, there being an iron 
 shire and I suppose an iron clevis. Usually the plows were 
 attached to wagon wheels as a man could not manage one of 
 them and they were drawn by oxen, generally two or three 
 yoke to a plow. The sod was often left to rot over winter. One 
 man planted corn on freshly broken sod by using an ax to make 
 the holes and cover the corn. 
 
 The first crop did not need tending but after that the 
 weeds were too bad to let go. One man in speaking of this 
 fact said that he trusted to providence to raise a crop one year 
 and got a good crop, so he tried it again and got nothing and 
 he was not going to trust to providence again.
 
 157 
 
 After the sod was rotted the soil could be furrowed out 
 with a shovel plow, and then a man by walking across the 
 fun'ows could drop the corn so that it would be in rows both 
 ways. Sometimes they would cover it with a hoe, sometimes 
 with a plow and sometimes with a harrow. 
 
 The first corn planter was made about 1851, but they were 
 not in general use until in the sixties. The first check-rower 
 was a rope but it was soon replaced by the wire as the rope 
 would shrink and stretch too much. The check-row planter 
 came into use about 1875. 
 
 The sowing, harvesting and threshing of the small grains 
 has improved as much as the planting of corn. In the early 
 days small grain was all sown by hand. A man would take 
 from 1-2 to 1 1-2 bushels of grain in a sack and carry it across 
 the field, reaching his hand into the sack every second step, 
 taking thence a certain amount of seed and scattering it in 
 front and to one side of him. Finally the hoe drill was in- 
 vented, which was used mostly for seeding fall grains. Later 
 the broadcast seeder came into use, being used mostly for seed- 
 ing spring grains. Finally in the end of the nineteenth century 
 the endgate seeder and the disk drill came into use. 
 
 The cradle was used for cutting the grain for many years 
 after this country was settled. A man could cut and bind and 
 shock about an acre a day in those days. After the cradle came 
 the dropper, the hand rake reaper, the self rake reaper, the 
 Marsh Harvester, the wire binder and finally the twine binder, 
 which has been without a competitor for almost forty years. 
 
 For threshing their grain the earliest settlers were obliged 
 to use the flail. Then they began using horses. A small piece 
 of ground would be smoothed off nicely and some grain would 
 be unbound and scattered on this smooth spot. Then a man, or 
 sometimes two men, would mount a horse and leading 2 or 3 
 other horses he would go around and around on the grain until 
 the grain was all trampled out of the heads, when they would 
 dismount and cleaning away the straw with forks would gather 
 up the grain and put it in sacks ready for cleaning. 
 
 The first threshing machine was called a ground-beater. 
 It was only a cylinder. The grain and straw and chaff all came 
 through onto the ground together and had to be separated by 
 pitch fork and fanning mill. It was run by horse power, the 
 power being made for six horses. Tumbling rods were used. 
 The first threshing was done on what was then the Parkins 
 place, on the hill near the center of the place. The place is the 
 south 1-2 of the S. E. of Section 32. The man who owned and 
 ran the machine was named Pittner and he lived near Canton, 
 Fulton county. Milton Lotts helped thresh. 
 
 Great improvements have been made in the kind of power
 
 158 
 
 used and in the handling of the straw so that the thresher is 
 now almost as well perfected as the binder. 
 
 At the present time the gas tractor is very much talked 
 of and is used to a limited extent, but its place as a mode of 
 power is not yet established. 
 
 Plows have been greatly improved upon from the wooden 
 plow of the pioneers to the two-bottom gang drawn by four 
 horses. 
 
 The manure spreader is another very practica 1 farm 
 machine. 
 
 The tiling of land has been a great improvement to much 
 of the land here. It is quite generally conceded that 4-inch tile 
 is as small as should be used. 
 
 Fertilizing the soil is coming more and more into vogue 
 and we believe that the practice will increase very rapidly in 
 the next few years. 
 
 The use of concrete on farms is increasing very fast also. 
 
 Corn is considered the banner crop in this township but 
 wheat has been doing very well for several years, at least it 
 has averaged better than it used to do. A great many fields 
 of wheat made 30 bushels to the acre in 1918. Some fields 
 made better than 40 bushels to the acre. The price of wheat 
 was fixed by the government at $2.26 per bushel for the 1918 
 crop at Chicago. The farmer got $2.08 at his station. 
 
 Unusual Events 
 
 The country is subject to sudden changes of temperature. 
 The most notable was perhaps in the winter of 1836-7. It was 
 a warm, misty day, with the wind in the south until about 2 
 o'clock P. M., when the wind suddenly changed to the north- 
 west and the two inches of slush which was on the ground was 
 turned to ice in fifteen minutes. In some instances hogs and 
 cattle were frozen to death standing up. Some people took 
 their horses into their houses to keep them from freezing. 
 
 In the winter of 1874-5, one morning in January, the 
 weather was very nice until about 10 o'clock a. m., when it be- 
 gan snowing. Immediately afterward the wind began blow- 
 ing from the northwest and in one hour the mercury fell 24 
 degrees. 
 
 On June 5, 1844 occurred one of the most destructive 
 storms of wind, rain and hail. The crops were almost totally 
 destroyed. There was no wheat left to cut and my grandfather 
 told me that his corn crop that year was only a ten bushel 
 box full of nubbins in which was only five bushels of corn. The 
 hail stones were as large as goose eggs. 
 
 What has been known as a hurricane occurred in 1857.
 
 159 
 
 It was a straight wind with rain. The storm was 40 miles wide 
 and was severe enough to blow the roofs off of many buildings 
 and blow some of them down. I do not know what time of the 
 year this storm was but it must have been in the spring as I 
 have never heard that it destroyed any crops. 
 
 About the first of August, 1875, a tornado passed through 
 the township from west to east. A two-story house which 
 stood a short distance west of the Flynn school house in Court 
 Creek bottom was picked up and carried two or three rods and 
 dashed into kindling wood. A good deal of other damage was 
 done but fortunately no one was injured, although this was not 
 the case in Knox township. 
 
 On the 21st of May, 1918, another tornado started ap- 
 parently on Section 28 and proceeded in a direction a littk 
 north of east, wrecking buildings and uprooting even the larg- 
 est trees and passing about V2 mile north of Dahinda. One mar, 
 a Mr. Walker, pump man at the oil pumping station, was killed 
 and the pump house, a concrete building, was completely 
 wrecked. Another man, the name unknown, was blown a 
 distance of ten or fifteen rods and w^as found after the storm 
 pretty badly bruised but not seriously hurt. Very little dam- 
 age was done to the crops by this storm as it was so early in 
 the season. The farm buildings of Henry Anderson and the 
 dwelling house of Harry Little were very badly wrecked and 
 Mr. Little was himself unconscious during the storm. He 
 showed no marks where any object had struck him and he does 
 not know what rendered him unconscious. 
 
 Some winters we have lots of snow and many of the roads 
 are drifted so as to make them impassible. In the spring of 
 1881 the snow lay on in sheltered places until the first of May. 
 
 Dwellings and Furnishings 
 
 The first houses in the township were of logs. The first 
 one is supposed to have been that of Wm. Morris on Section 26. 
 
 About 8 years afterwards there seem to have been three 
 frame houses built at about the same time. Edmond Russell 
 built a frame house on his faiTn on section 31 in 1841. It was 
 burned down in 1886. Captain Taylor, who emigrated here 
 from Nova Scotia, built the first frame house in Trenton in 
 1841. The frame of this house was sawed from native white 
 pine which grew on what was called Pine Bluff about V2 mile 
 north and east of Trenton. (The logs were said to have been 
 sawed at the Whitton mill at what is now known as the Sumner 
 bridge in the northeast corner of Haw Creek township.) The 
 third frame house and the first house to be painted white was 
 built on the Bethel corner at the center of Section 30. It was 
 built by a Mr. Davenport for his daughter, whose name was 
 Easley.
 
 160 
 
 James M. Maxey built the first brick house in 1851, mak- 
 ing his own brick. The first brick building was a smoke house 
 built by T. D. Butt. The Stevens house has stood the longest 
 of any brick house in the township. It has stood about 60 
 years. The brick for it were burned on the Biggerstaff place 
 just across the road from where Henry Wesner lives. Sam 
 Conaway burned the brick for this house. 
 
 The frame house seems to be the most healthful and com- 
 fortable dwelling made although it is not so substantial as some 
 other materials. 
 
 Some great improvements have been made in the furn- 
 ishings of the dwellings. The fireplace has given place to the 
 range and the furnace, the washboard to the power washer, 
 tallow candle to the incandescent electric light in a great many 
 cases, the needle to the sewing machine, the melodeon to the 
 piano and the talking machine, the straw bed on the floor to 
 the spring bed and mattress, the husk rug to the Brussels, the 
 Axminster or the Wilton rug, the home-made lounge to the 
 hammock and the costly couch and davenport, the old fashioned 
 chair to expensive elegance but not to comfort. 
 
 The writer is not posted on early amusements, but he has 
 heard his people tell of some of the things they did in the early 
 days. There were the quilting bees, the shooting matches, the 
 debating societies, the singing schools, the Fourth of Julys, 
 the com huskings and the wool washings. As I have never 
 seen the wool washing described I will try to do so. The young 
 people would be invited to a home to spend the evening. Sev- 
 eral tubs would be secured and in these would be placed wool 
 and water. Then the young people (young men and women) 
 would gather around a tub, as many as could conveniently do 
 so, remove their shoes and stockings, put them into the tub 
 and work them up and down until the wool was thoroughly 
 scoured. The washed wool would then be removed and fresh 
 wool put in its place and the performance would go on until 
 the wool was all washed or until it was time to go home. 
 
 Horse racing on the road was also one of the incidentals 
 of the day. In the early days the wagon boxes were put to- 
 gether with pins and could be easily taken apart and some- 
 times when the wagon was being driven very rapidly the 
 pins would bounce out and let the box come to pieces of its 
 own accord. One man who had been to Peoria and was coming 
 home with his groceries in the wagon box got into a race with 
 some other people who were coming in the same direction. 
 The race began somewhere east of the Spoon River and lasted 
 until Trenton was reached. When this man stopped he had 
 neither groceries nor wagon box, both having been lost on the 
 way and he was sitting on the coupling pole of his wagon. He
 
 161 
 
 might not have stopped there if his horses had not run into a 
 tree and stopped themselves. 
 
 Politics 
 
 Politics in Persifer has sometimes been very interesting 
 although mostly in a small way. 
 
 Before the township was organized, G. W. Manley was 
 Justice of the Peace. The first election was held April 5, 1853, 
 at the White school house, now known as the Union or District 
 No. 90. The following officers were elected : 
 
 G. W. Manley, Supervisor; Richard Daniel, Clerk; James 
 McCord, Assessor ; Williams T. Butt, Collector ; Wilson Fearce, 
 Overseer of the Poor ; Francis Wilison, Caleb Reece and David 
 Cobb, Commissioners of Highways ; Thomas Patton and R. W. 
 .Miles, Justices ; L. A. Parkins and David Russell, Constables. 
 G. W. Manley was moderator and Richard Daniel, clerk of the 
 meeting. 
 
 The writer does not know when the custom began but 
 when he was a boy the elections were held at the Union school 
 house one year and the next at the Wyman school house. 
 
 About 1892 or 1893, Mr. E. J. Steffen offered his caiT)en- 
 ter shop in the town of Appleton for election purposes and it 
 was used until the Town Hall was built in 1895. Mr. E. J. Stef- 
 fen built the hall for the township at a cost of $540.00, The 
 elections have always been held at the hall ever since that time. 
 
 At the time of Lincoln's second election feeling ran very 
 high in this part of the country, and it was not considered safe 
 to count the ballots at the school house so they were brought to 
 my father's home for counting. Abram Rambo, James Dos- 
 sett, William Patton and my father, R. W. Miles, sat around 
 the dining table with big navy revolvers lying handy and 
 counted the ballots. Mr. Patton, being a long ways from home, 
 did not go home that night, but Mr. Rambo went home on 
 horseback and said he was going to carry his revolver cocked 
 all the way. Mr. Dossett went home on foot across the fields. 
 He also carried a revolver and he was one of the kind that 
 would have shot first and made inquiries afterwards if any one 
 had tried to molest him on that trip. We can hardly imagine 
 that such times have ever existed in this peaceful country. 
 
 The following men have been Supervisor of the township : 
 G. W. Manley, R. W. Miles, James M. Maxey, John Biggerstaff , 
 James Dossett, R. C. Benson, E. J. Wyman, J. R. Young, W. H. 
 Montgomery, J. J. Patton and Geo. A. Gibson. R. W. Miles and 
 J. R. Young each held the office for about 20 years, Mr. Young 
 holding it for 20 years continuously without opposition. Mr. 
 Miles was for many years chairman of the board. 
 
 Mr. Gibson, our present supervisor, has been quite severe-
 
 162 
 
 ly tested in caring for the Liberty loans and the Red Cross 
 and other war work organizations, but he has responded loy- 
 ally and royally to the calls. 
 
 The present township officers are: Geo. A. Gibson, Su- 
 pervisor; Leonard Harmison, Town Clerk; E. W. Farquer, As- 
 sessor; Roy Stevens, Commissioner of Highways; E. J. Stef- 
 fen and W. H. Montgomery, Justices; Roy W. Manley, Con- 
 stable, Arthur Berry having recently resigned from the office 
 of Constable; Arthur Berry, Bert Wagher and C. W. Harmi- 
 son, Trustees of Schools and J. W. Miles, Township Treasurer. 
 
 This is the first year that we have had but one commis- 
 sioner of highways. 
 
 Old Settlers 
 
 So far as we have been able to learn there is no one living 
 in the township now who has lived here continuously since 
 1850. Mr. G. W. Sargeant came to the township with his par- 
 ents in 1845 and settled on the north 1-2 of the northeast 1-4 of 
 Section 14. The Sargeants have always owned this farm since 
 then but have not always lived there, although they have never 
 lived very far away. Henry Butt, W. H. Montgomeiy and 
 Jacob Lorance each came to the township in the early fifties. 
 
 So far as we know Mr. W. G. Sargeant and Dr. J. R. 
 Bedford are the only old soldiers of the Civil War who are 
 living in the township at this time. 
 
 The people of Persifer are mostly prosperous and happy. 
 They are situated on the main line of the A. T. & S. F. R. R., 
 having a direct route to the Chicago market for their produce. 
 They have good homes and are pretty well fixed as to this 
 world's goods. Nearly all have some kind of a motor vehicle 
 and some of them have two or three of them. They always 
 went over to top when it came to Liberty loans and Red Cross 
 and all other forms of war work and they also furnished their 
 full quota of men to face the German bullets. 
 
 One of Persif er's boys, a son of N. L Cherrington, was one 
 of the first Knox county boys to give his life for his countiy 
 in France. 
 
 Not in the road of the cannon, 
 Not in the roll of the drum, 
 : But with love and honor in our hearts, 
 
 Let their requiem be sung, 
 
 Respectfully submitted, 
 J. W. MILES.
 
 163 
 
 HISTORY OF RIO TOWNSHIP 
 By Heber Gillis 
 
 Joseph Rowe is acknowledged as the first man to settle 
 in Rio township. He built some sort of a house, the first one a 
 white man put up in the township, but his future is lost to the 
 history of Rio. 
 
 Some squatters made temporary light camp stops in the 
 early 20's at Rio, and a family that had built a cabin on the 
 slope of Pope Creek near where the State Aid Road now crosses 
 had their house burn in the late thirties while they were at 
 the fort at the Snodgrass house near Henderson on the Mc-' 
 Murtry farm. 
 
 John McMurtry, whose daughter was the first white 
 woman to be buried in Rio, came from Kentucky by way of 
 Indiana to Section 33 in 1829. He served as a soldier in the 
 Black Hawk War. His descendants occupy a large space of 
 farming land near North Henderson; the Piatts of Gales- 
 burg, together with the Heflins of Rio, are among those now 
 living. 
 
 In 1833 Reece, Sam and James Jones likewise came from 
 Kentucky. Both Kentucky families brought good oxen and 
 horse teams with them and also drove in good loose animals 
 of all kinds. Reece Jones permanently settled in a home, de- 
 fended it from the Indians, and when they burned one cabin 
 he built another better than before. He educated his family 
 in the best schools of that day within his reach, and they moved 
 socially in the best circles in the state. The Jones family built 
 the first school house in Rio township, aided by the sulDscrip- 
 tions of other settlers in labor and money. A Miss Jones was 
 the first teacher. 
 
 In the early thirties Erasmus Hall settled on Pope Creek, 
 where he operated a saw mill. Noted Indians called at his 
 home and the trader Le Claire was. an acquaintance of his. 
 Hall's Ford was on the trail from Peoria to Rock Island as was 
 also Bruner's cabin near the southeast part of the township. 
 
 Bennet Fleharty came to Section 6 just west of the Jones 
 family in 1834. He afterwards kept a store on his farm where 
 Fred Anderson now lives. 
 
 Geo. Simms settled about the same time as Fleharty on 
 Section 6 in Rio, and Section 1 in North Henderson township, 
 Mercer county, building his house, which consisted of one large 
 room, with one end of it in Rio, Knox county, and the other in 
 Mercer county. At dances held here it was not uncommon to 
 have the music in one county and the dancing in the other. 
 When marriages were solemnized in this house, care was taken
 
 164 
 
 to have the bride and groom stand well over in the county that 
 issued the license. Mr. Simms gave public addresses to the 
 older people on the subject of slaveru, outlining the history of 
 the Rebellion in advance, and made quite good guesses concern- 
 ing the result. 
 
 Joseph Hahn came from Pennsylvania in 1835 and settled 
 in Section 33 on a farm extending from the south line of the 
 township to the center, much of the way one mile wide. It 
 sloped gently to the south and was a most excellent farm with 
 good drainage, fine soil, good timber and was close to the store 
 of Goff, the Baptist church, and the second school house built 
 in the township. All of these public buildings Hahn assisted 
 . in building and maintaining. He had served in the War of 
 1812 and was well fitted to engage in pioneer enterprises. 
 
 About this same time Mr. Westfall came to Section 6. The 
 year 1835 also marks the advent of several other Rio pioneers. 
 Pedro Epperson and his brother, Edly, settled on the section 
 south of Westfall. Their brother-in-law, the father of Dr. 
 John N. Cox, came in the fall of that year, but soon moved 
 to some very good farm land near Old Oxford, where he spent 
 the greater portion of his life. During the Civil War he was 
 given a commission by Governor Yates. Pedro Epperson, a 
 man of great energy, soon had good buildings and fences. Im- 
 mediately after locating he made a large rail crib like a house 
 and was able to entertain his sister and her family royally. 
 While the Jones and McMurtry families were forward in school 
 building, the Simms and Epperson families did their share in 
 maintaining same. Pedro Epperson and his descendants are 
 reputed to have owned at times a strip of six sections a mile 
 wide across the township. 
 
 Geo. W. Weir built a flat-boat and floated down the Miss- 
 issippi River to New Boston in 1835, where he chopped wood 
 for the original Drury of that place. In the winter of that year 
 being in need of bacon he walked to the home of the original 
 Jones family in Rio township. On his return trip with the 
 bacon on his back, the wolves bothered him considerably. As 
 a result of this trip to Rio he hired to Sam Jones for $3.00 a 
 month and stayed two or three years. As part of his pay he 
 took a pair of steers and some wheat, putting the latter in a 
 rail pen chinked with straw. Two or three years later he drove 
 the steers to Milan and traded the wheat for log chains. He 
 also acquired another breaking team of oxen. Mr. Weir lived 
 to be over ninety years of age. 
 
 In 1835 Isaac M. Wetmore came to Rio with John Wycoff 
 on horse-back by way of Chicago where he partly bargained 
 for 160 acres of land. Later he relinquished it for more till- 
 able land on the Rio and Ontario line. Dearborn St. is on the 
 Chicago land which he contemplated buying or is a boundaiy
 
 165 
 
 of it. Mr. Wetmore ran a store in Rio on the slope south of 
 the Washington school house and afterward established a very 
 fine farm on both sides of the township line with extra fine 
 buildings on the Ontario side of the line. 
 
 In 1835 Michael Bruner drove a pair of oxen from Breck- 
 enridge county, Kentucky, to Rio, bringing his wife and young 
 family. Later Mrs. Bruner died. In 1839 he drove a pair of 
 oxen to the same place in Kentucky and brought a second wife, 
 his father, Adam Bruner, and his uncle, Peter Bruner, with 
 him to Rio. Both the elder Bruners had spent long years 
 preaching the gospel. They with their two brothers had served 
 in the Revolutionary War and all four were later buried in a 
 cemetery on the Bruner farm. Knox county now owns this 
 site and has erected a monument to their memory. The Bruner 
 farm in 1850 had a licensed tavern upon it and possessed un- 
 usual buildings for that day. It was on the trail from Peoria 
 to Rock Island and during the Civil War fruit from its fine 
 orchard sold for $50 per tree on the stem. 
 
 About this time Michael Loveridge, an English educated 
 veterinary, settled about one mile west of Joseph Hahn. He 
 was a useful and highly respected man in this community, 
 preaching the plain truth of the gospel in a fearless manner 
 during the forties and up to 1862, when he moved to Oregon. 
 Hahn, Loveridge, the Deatherages and Lewis Goff built the 
 second school house in the township, also a Baptist church 
 which, with the store of Goff 's, made the south central part of 
 the township quite a public settlement. 
 
 Samuel Brown came about this time to the west of these 
 and is the only one of this group now living, being more than 
 ninety years of age. 
 
 Soon the Woodman's, the Larkin Robertson family, the 
 two Coe's, Lewis and Nelson, with Benjamin Harvey and 
 Luther Fitch, settled more centrally in Rio township. 
 
 John D. Bartlett and family came in 1842. Wm. Dailey, 
 James Hinchliff, Philip Prior and David Woodman built near 
 the center, with Wm. Barnard a little farther north. 
 
 The first period when the very early settlers came was a 
 ranch life. Cattle and hogs ran loose on the open prairie. The 
 small grain fields were fenced. A law of "common field" pre- 
 vailed ; everybody gathered his corn and the cattle were turned 
 on the fenced section to feed at will. Later, as the farms were 
 cultivated, the law caused the stock to be taken from the 
 highways and no open prairie grass was left. The cows that 
 the early settlers brought were good stock. The Kentucky 
 settlers later brought fine beef sires. 
 
 The pioneer traveled in wagons, on horse-back, and on foot.
 
 166 
 
 He was wont to stop at the nearest house for dinner or lodging 
 and was always welcome. He brought the news of his locality 
 and they told him of their affairs so that he was a medium of 
 intelligence at his next stopping place. The amusements were 
 dances, foot races, ball games, horse races, military training 
 etc. There were no more capable men at caring for their af- 
 fairs than the first settlers. They met every emergency. They 
 fed, clothed, nursed and buried their neighbors with their own 
 hands. A common bond bound the various settlements to- 
 gether. The pioneers in the forties lived in substantial log 
 houses. About all the money they could spare was for door 
 latches and "trimming salt," which was scarce. Health failed 
 without it, and expeditions were planned to get it. 
 
 Many interesting things could be related concerning the 
 early pioneers. A. J. Streeter herded some cattle in the cen- 
 tral part of Rio township and watered them at the Collins 
 spring. Later he was nominated for President of the United 
 States on the National ticket. Quite a number of his planks 
 came to be beams and stringers in suggesting improvement of 
 the present national policy. 
 
 Frank Hickley and Peter McCartner, Jr., also herded cattle 
 and drove them to the same spring. The former one day 
 walked into a railroad auction sale, bid off an entire railroad, 
 and paid cash for it. The latter after quitting the cattle indus- 
 dustry engraved some fine greenbacks which the United States 
 treasury afterward unwittingly accepted as genuine. 
 
 In the early fifties Robson Bros, establish a cash corn 
 market of large proportions. It gave an outlet for more corn 
 and made it easier for the settlers to pay for land. During 
 the years when Rio had no railroad facilities this cash market 
 contributed greatly to the community's prosperity. 
 
 Before the Township Organization Act, citizens of Rio 
 and Ontario voted in Ontario. Later Rio Settlement was a part 
 of the political unit of Ontario. Squire Mosher of Ontario was 
 territorial judge while the two were one unit. Reuben Heflin, 
 Samuel Brown, John Robson, Samuel May, John Wycoff, Ro- 
 bert Deatherage and James Deatherage have all voted in the 
 territory^ of Ontario. 
 
 • The first Civil War Veteran was Abner Titus. 
 
 In 1870 the Rockford, Rock Island & St. Louis Railroad 
 came to the east township of Mercer county on the way to 
 Rock Island with no charter to enter Knox county. Pope Creek 
 is a deep stream and tributaries run northwest in east Mercer 
 county. Rio township had a better crossing. In Knox county, 
 it was then lawful to vote aids to railroads. The convention to 
 frame a new state constitution was in session. The railroad 
 wanted aid to build a right-of-way without condemnation. It
 
 167 
 
 was expected the new constitution would forbid voting aid to 
 railroads. The town was nearly evenly divided before voting 
 aid but the affirmative gained during the canvassing and Rio 
 bought its share of the improvements. This resulted in locat- 
 ing the road from Monmouth to Rio and on to Rock Island, and 
 later the connecting line from Galesburg to Rio was built, giv- 
 ing the township plenty of transportation. In getting the 
 right-of-way near Pope Creek the full value of the land for the 
 entire farm was paid to the owner and only one hundred feet 
 wide was taken. 
 
 Some of the more or less prominent men about this time 
 include the following: S. W. May, who invented and defended 
 his invention in court of the May windmill, now owned and 
 manufactured by his niece, Miss Duwaine Phymister, of Chi- 
 cago, at her factory in Galesburg; Robson Eros., William, John 
 and Robert, who handled most of the fat cattle raised just be- 
 fore and during the Civil War from Rio and New Boston ; Chas. 
 Bryant, kinsman of the noted poet by that name, and himself a 
 writer of poetry ; F. A. Landon, Sr:, adept in verbal squibs ; 
 David B. Woodman, the largest man in Knox county, who ran 
 fifty yards in record time, beating a sprinting stranger who 
 bantered him. 
 
 No less interested in the progress of the community and 
 active in all forward-looking enterprises was Heber Gillis, who, 
 with his brother, Theodore, came to Rio township on Christ- 
 mas, 1856. Their father, Dr. Geo. Gillis, followed them in the 
 fall of 1859. 
 
 Hall, Heflin, and Edw. Grain, together with the elder 
 Deatherage, sawed the lumber for the first frame house. 
 
 Benjamin Harvey was a pioneer thresher, going as far 
 as Rock Island in a fall and winter run. The grain was torn 
 from the straw. Men pitched it away and later separated the 
 grain from the chaff and cockle burrs with fanning mills. 
 Some boys left home for California after turning the mill one 
 season. 
 
 Samuel Brown , Harrison Shannon, Reuben Heflin and 
 Thomas Jones were among the early officers of the township, 
 both as supervisors and as justices of the peace. Robert 
 Deatherage, Gilbert Wetmore, Benjamin Harvey, James Mans- 
 field and F. M. Epperson have been justices of the peace for 
 long terms. B. E. Frankenberger now occupies that position 
 also. 
 
 The Black Hawk War, the Mexican War, the Civil War, 
 the Spanish War, and now the most uncalled for slaughter of 
 men ever known — all have called for many of our best men and 
 women, in some cases whole families responding. 
 
 The original prairie was called wet. The subsoil held water
 
 168 
 
 often too long during wet seasons. The ground often baked 
 before it could be cultivated. Tile drains are now used freely 
 and little trouble is experienced from the extremes of wet and 
 dry. Large sums of money are buried out of sight in tile, but 
 they are permanent improvements, being just as good as when 
 laid forty years ago. Progressive farmers still think that a 
 larger outlet would prevent a cold, slow growth of com as in 
 1917. Hog disease has been conquered largely. Tuberculosis 
 cattle are being weeded out. Horses are larger and better for 
 farming. Roads are better. The man power is much greater 
 than fifty years ago. Many plows have passed the experi- 
 mental stage. One man handles twice as many horses as then. 
 Planters approach perfection ; binders work like clocks. Grain 
 separators are wonders as compared with those of years ago. 
 Much money has been spent in improving stock and grain, and 
 the results are plain to be seen. 
 
 Rio township is the home of some fine thoroughbred stock, 
 especially cattle. That one herd of Shorthorns was selected 
 with intelligent care is revealed by the fact that they are des- 
 cendants of tribes originated and bred by such famed Aber- 
 deenshire breeders as Cuickshank, Duthie, Campbell and Lord 
 Lovat and the present generation is the product of sires and 
 dams of America's best. Four are daughters of the great sire 
 Lord Avondale, a bull which sold for five thousand dollars at 
 auction in 1916 and is now conceded to be one of the most suc- 
 cessful of the breed. Others are by Sultan Goods of the "Sul- 
 tan" tribe. Challenge Victor, the Dutchman, a grandson of the 
 St. Louis World's Fair champion, Choice Goods, White Gloster 
 by Fair Acres Sultan, Baron Kerr H, Lucky Pride H, a grand- 
 grandson of The Lad for Me, Glen View, Dale HI, by the fam- 
 ous sire, Avondale. Revealing as this does unusual strength 
 of blood through the sires, many of the dams too are equally 
 attractive and have a record as producers that stands high ; 
 for instance, the cow Lucky Clari produced a bull that was 
 purchased by Francisco Maissa for shipment to the Argentine 
 and a calf from Verbena Lass has found a home in the herd 
 owned by Dr. Rabey, Gatesville, Texas. Two well bred bulls, 
 Bud Avondale, by Lord Avondale; and Challenge Victor, by 
 Challenge Mysie, are samples of the high-bred stock to be 
 found in Rio township. Illinois is richer because of this select 
 collection of the breed for the reason that permanent agricul- 
 ture and soil improvement go hand in hand with live stock pro- 
 duction. 
 
 The schools of Rio township are of the district grade. 
 There are two churches in the community, the Methodist 
 and Congregational, Rev. Glen A. Rowles being the resident 
 pastor of the latter.
 
 169 
 
 Rio has a railroad junction with unusually good train 
 service, a fine bank building, and other improvements. In 
 1917 the road tax amounted to $19,000. Three hundred and 
 eighty-two autos assist transportation. The township as a 
 whole is prosperous and progressive in every Way.
 
 170 
 
 SALEM TOWNSHIP 
 From Sketch by L. A. Lawrence 
 
 Salem lies in the southeast corner of Knox County and is 
 bounded on the east by Peoria County and on the south by Ful- 
 ton county. There are only a few townships that have as fine 
 physical features or as marked beauty of outline as this. Com- 
 mencing at a point known as Kent's Mound, on Section 12, 
 which rises forty or fifty feet above the common level, a some- 
 what irregular ridge, sometimes called "divide," runs through 
 the entire township, from east to west, taking the name of 
 Pease Hill in its center and terminating at Uniontown, on Sec- 
 tion 13, at its extreme western edge. 
 
 Salem was organized under the general law relating to 
 townships on April 5, 1853, by an election held in a log school 
 house near Michael Egan's home, on Section 20. S. S. Buffum 
 was chosen Supervisor; William Gray, Clerk; J. E. Knable, As- 
 sessor; D. Waldo, Collector; T. A. Croy, G. W. Euke and J. 
 Jordan, Justices; M. B. Mason, A. Kent and J. E. Duel, High- 
 way Commissioners ; J. Taylor and D. Waldo, Constables, and 
 G. Christman, Overseer of the Poor. 
 
 John Sloan has been the supervisor most frequently re- 
 elected, having served eight terms of one year each, at different 
 periods, and others of from one year to three years. 
 
 The first settlement was made by Alexander Taylor, on 
 the northeast quarter of Section 6, in October, 1834. He was 
 soon followed by Felix and John Thurman, Henry and Avery 
 Dalton, Solomon Sherwood, Benoni Hawkins, William Kent, 
 John Darnell, John Haskins and Sala Blakesbee, most of whom 
 brought their families with them. 
 
 The first birth recorded was that of little Laura, daugh- 
 ter of Mr. and Mrs. John Haskins, in 1835, and the first to be 
 joined in wedlock were Avery and Delilah Dalton, cousins, who 
 were married in 1855, by Squire Mark Thurman. The same 
 year occurred the first death, that of Andrew Corbin. 
 
 The early settlers brought their religious faith and prac- 
 tice with them and held prayer meetings from time to time 
 at convenient places. Their pious devotion attracted the atten- 
 tion of Rev. Henry Somers, who visited the settlement in No- 
 vember, 1835 or 36, and preached the first sermon at the home 
 of William Kent, on Section 13. 
 
 The first saw mill was built by James Mason on Kickapoo 
 Creek, in Section 13, in 1835 or '36 ; another, a little later, by 
 Anderson Corbin, on the same stream, on Section 14. 
 
 The people of Salem have shown an enlightened public 
 spirit in the matter of good highways, and have provided a
 
 171 
 
 system of good, substantial, iron bridges, set upon firm stone 
 abutments, over all the principal streams with stone culverts 
 over most of the smaller ones. The question of constructing, 
 grading and repairing the highways, was many years ago, by 
 vote, left solely to the discretion of the highway commis- 
 sioners. The result has been a uniform system of grading, 
 which with thoroughly underdraining, affords the best roads 
 obtainable on prairie soil without resort to the Macadam pro- 
 cess. 
 
 Salem has an abundant supply of bituminous coal, which 
 has been mined for local use from an early date along the 
 banks of the streams skirting the north and south sides of 
 the township. The most productive mines are found along 
 the Kickapoo and Littler's Creeks. The first mining of which 
 any record had been preserved was successfully undertaken by 
 Pittman and Barlow, blacksmiths, of Farmington, Fulton 
 county, who, in 1832, took coal from the soil of Section 25, 
 for use in their own forges. Avery Dalton was the first to 
 mine to any appreciable extent for commercial pui^poses. He 
 began operations on the same section three years later. Sev- 
 eral drillings at Yates City have developed extensive and valu- 
 able veins, at depths varying from one hundred and twenty- 
 five feet upward. 
 
 Not the least important among the industries which have 
 helped to elevate Salem Township to its present position among 
 the foremost in the county is that of stock-growing. Many of 
 the most progressive farmers make the breeding of improved 
 varieties a special feature of their farm work. Among the 
 prominent stock raisers may be named: N. G. Daughmer and 
 Son, D. Corey and Son, J. M. Corey, H. A. and James Sloan, E. 
 H. Ware, Frank Runyon, A. D. Moore and R. J. McKeighan. 
 The efforts of these men and others who might be mentioned 
 have resulted in elevating the standard established for fine 
 stock to as high a point in Salem as will be found in the best 
 farming sections of the State. 
 
 There are ten school districts in Salem, numbered in order 
 to the ninth, the tenth being called Center, The last named is 
 located on School Section 16. Of the ten school buildings, two, 
 in Districts 3 and 4 are of brick, the others are frame. The 
 first school house was located on Section 13, in 1838, in what 
 is now District No. 1, and the first school was taught by Abiel 
 Drew. The second school was erected in either the same or the 
 succeeding year, on the southwest quarter of Section 6. It was 
 of logs, and had been originally put up by James Hogue for a 
 dwelling. Section 6 now forms a part of District No. 2. Of the 
 ten schools, only the one in Yates City is graded. 
 
 Every school in Salem has the benefit of a library of
 
 172 
 
 greater or lesser size and value, which owe their origin to W. 
 L. Steele and the history of their establishment may be told in 
 a few words. In September, 1878, Mr. Steele, then Principal 
 of a graded school in Yates City, proposed to the School Board, 
 composed of Dr. J. D. Holt, J. M. Taylor and L. A. Lawrence, 
 the orgnization of a school and public library, to be under the 
 control of the board, and open at all times to pupils of the 
 schools, and to the pupils upon payment of a membership fee. 
 The scheme also contemplated the solicitation of donations of 
 books and money. The plan was adopted. The movement com- 
 manded public support from the first, and the library has now 
 grown to large dimensions and is one of the best in the State 
 for a community of that size. 
 
 In the Civil War 182 served from this township. One hun- 
 dred and fifty-one served in various regiments of infantry, 
 numbered from the Seventh to the One Hundred and Thirty- 
 second. Forty-five were attached to the Eighty-third, and 
 Twenty-eight in the Seventy-seventh . Twenty-nine are cred- 
 ited as having served in the Seventh, Eleventh, Twelfth and 
 Fourteenth Cava !lry, and two in the Second Illinois Artillery. 
 In addition, several are known to have enlisted in regiments 
 from other states, notably in the Eighth Missouri Infantry, 
 viz.; William S. Kleckner, Frank Murphy, Frank and Fred 
 Hamilton, Henry Ledgerman, James Dundas, Chester Vickery, 
 George Frost, William Hull, William Taylor and William Reed, 
 besides, probably others, many of whom have never been cred- 
 ited, either to Knox County or to Salem Township. James H. 
 Walton was probably the first enlisted man from Salem, having 
 joined the Seventh Infantry from Yates City, which was the 
 first regiment organized in 1861. A draft was ordered to com- 
 plete Salem's quota under the last call for men in 1864, and 
 four names were drawn. 
 
 Salem's record in the war with Spain, 1898, is an extra- 
 ordinary one, the township having furnished fourteen men out 
 of a possible one hundred and fifty for the whole county, the 
 most of whom served in Company C, of the Sixth Infantry. 
 The Mexican War of 1846 had one representative here, in the 
 person of R. B. Corbin, who served in the Third United States 
 Dragoons. 
 
 In 1837 a postoffice was established, called Middle Grove, 
 near what was later Uniontown, Henry Merrell being placed 
 in charge. It is said that Thomas Morse offered a whole day's 
 labor to secure a letter on which the postage had not been paid, 
 money being then very scarce, but his offer was refused. 
 
 Sala Blakesbee is credited with erecting the first frame 
 building for a barn, in 1837, on Section 19, but it was destroyed 
 by fire the same year.
 
 173 
 
 The scales of justice were first held by William Davis in 
 1836. 
 
 The underground railroad had a well defined "route" 
 through Salem in ante-bellum days, and many a poor slave, 
 fleeing for life and liberty had occasion to thank the "officers" 
 thereof for their active vigilance in his behalf. 
 
 The moral and religious advancement of the people has 
 kept even pace with their material development, as is shown 
 by their work in the early churches and in kindred societies. 
 In early days, preaching services were held in School houses, 
 and all convenient places. 
 
 In Salem township are Uniontown, Douglas and Yates 
 City, and it is in the last named that the famous Harvest Home 
 festival, first held in 1886, is annually celebrated. 
 
 The township also made a notable record in the late World 
 War.
 
 174 
 
 SPARTA TOWNSHIP 
 From Sketch by E. H. Goldsmith 
 
 This township was organized April 5, 1853, at the home of 
 Thomas H. Taylor, on Section 14, and the following town offi- 
 cers were elected: T. H. Taylor, Supervisor; Asaph DeLong 
 Clerk; Stephen Smith, Assessor; Charles R. Rhodes, Collector; 
 D. Reed, Stephen Russell and Peter Davis, Highway Commis- 
 sioners; Moran Baker and Hugh Ferguson, Justices of the 
 Peace, and Marshall P. Belong, Constable. Mr. DeLong after- 
 wards served the town as Justice of the Peace for twenty-five 
 years. S. .G Dean served eight years, and John J. Sutor for a 
 number of years. William Robson served long continuously as 
 supervisor. 
 
 While Hezekiah Buford has the credit of being the first 
 settler by building on Section 23, in 1834, the Wilmots have a 
 record for longest continuous residence on the same land, for 
 Amos Wilmot built a log cabin in June, 1836, on Section 6, in 
 which he lived for fifteen years. He then built a house, where 
 he lived until his death in 1878. Very soon after his arrival 
 came Reuben, Cyrus and Edward Robbins, brothers, and Levi 
 Roberts, a cousin. The first of these was about the last of the 
 early settlers. To him we are indebted for some of the inform- 
 ation given in this sketch. From the fact that Levi Robbins 
 having raised a large orchard and other trees "Robbins' Grove" 
 was for many years a noted land-mark and people came long 
 distances for apples, as well as to hold picnics. In 1836, Asaph 
 DeLong (who built the first house between Knoxville and 
 Heath timber), Luman Field and William Heath settled on 
 Section 31. The latter was married at Knoxville to Lucinda 
 Field in 1837, and "hung up" housekeeping in their log cabin, a 
 picture of which is still preserved. In a northeast direction 
 they had but one neighbor nearer than Victoria. Mrs. Heath 
 was a member of the society of the Daughters of the American 
 Revolution, she being a granddaughter of Elisha Field, Jr., and 
 a great granddaughter of Elisha Field, Sr., both of whom 
 fought in the Revolutionary war. She possessed papers show- 
 ing the entire war history of her illustrious ancestors. Her 
 grandchildren presented her with the badge of the society, 
 which is an old-fashioned spinning wheel with beautiful sur- 
 roundings and inscriptions. 
 
 James Neely settled on Section 30 in 1838, and Abram 
 Neely on Section 5 a few years later. Other early settlers 
 were : B. Ely, Thomas and George W. Faulkner, Booker Pick- 
 rel and C. C. West. Among those who came subsequently and 
 who, with those already mentioned, as well as those who will 
 be noticed hereafter, have been influential in the political and
 
 175 
 
 religious prosperity of the township, are Solomon Lyon, J. V. 
 R. Carley, Schuyler Goldsmith, A. F. Adams, William E. Morse, 
 Henry Rommel, L. W. Olson, Oliver Stream, Joseph Masters, 
 J. H. Merrill, James Paddock, Edmund Kennedy, James Barry, 
 WilHam S. Patterson, William A. Lee, Jr., D. W. Nisley, R. W. 
 Hulse, Vickrey Nation, Ransom Babcock, F. Z. Wikoff, G. S. 
 Hawkins and John Taylor. The latter was assessor for over 
 30 years. 
 
 The Chicago, Burlington & Quincy passes through Sparta 
 in a diagonal line from near the northeast to the southwest 
 corner. In November 1894, the Galesburg, Etherely and Great 
 Eastern Railroad was opened, running twelve miles east, to 
 strike a great coal belt of some eighty-two sections, the center 
 of which is Etherely, where the company placed a shaft cost- 
 ing $30,000. This company suspended railroad operations 
 on September 7, 1895, but resumed December 7, 1897, under 
 the name of the Galesburg and Great Eastern, with Edward 
 J. Harms as manager. 
 
 Prairie fires in early days were beautiful to witness and 
 oftentimes to be dreaded. At one time a fire which is said 
 to have started at Red Oak in Henry county, threatened to de- 
 vastate the farms of the new settlers, but warning Vv'as given 
 those in the southwest part of the township by Maria, daugh- 
 ter of Luman Field, in time to avert the approaching catastro- 
 phe. 
 
 Sparta, both before and during the Civil War, contained 
 quite a number of abolitionists, among them was Abram Neely, 
 a conductor on the underground railroad. Some of the old 
 citizens still remember his hiding fugitive slaves at his home 
 and taking them a night's ride to the next station. 
 
 The population of Sparta township has been: 1840, 113; 
 1870, 1,950; 1800, 1,682; 1890, 1,293. For later figures see 
 elsewhere. 
 
 Wataga 
 
 Wataga was platted in the Spring of 1854 by J. M. Holy- 
 oke, Silas Willard and Clark M. Carr, and was incoi-porated by 
 a special act in 1863. The first village election was held Sep- 
 tember 19, 1863. In 1874 it was re-incorporated, under the 
 general law, with Section 16 as the village territory. J. M. 
 Holyoke was the first resident and postmaster, and also built 
 the first store in conjunction with A. P. Cassel. This was 
 operated by Willard and Babcock. The first bank in the place 
 was started in 1863 by H. P. Wood. The depot was built in 
 1856, and in the same year the Wataga House was erected and 
 operated by GaiTett Post for one year, when Loren Smith 
 bought and conducted it for one year, and for years it was the
 
 176 
 
 property of C. H. Norton. The Wataga mill was built by Wil- 
 liam Armstrong in 1856, and soon afterwards was damaged by 
 an explosion in which John Armstrong was seriously injured. 
 George F. and David P. Niles, now extensive farmers and fine 
 stock-raisers, bought the mill in May, 1867, and ran it very 
 successfully for eight years, patrons coming long distances 
 with their own wheat and receiving entire satisfaction. Among 
 those who have since owned the mill are: William and M. O. 
 Williamson, who introduced expensive modern machinery and 
 Frank Darst, who also put in improvements and did excellent 
 work. 
 
 The First Congregational Church was organized June 10, 
 1855, and the church society October 27, 1856. The church 
 organization was led by the Rev. S. G. Wright. The first meet- 
 ing was held in the depot, where the first sermon was preached. 
 Subsequent services were held in the newly completed school 
 house until 1860, when a substantial church, costing over 
 $3,000, was erected, to which in 1876, a parsonage was added 
 at a cost of $2,000. The original members were: A. P. Bab- 
 cock, William S. Farnham, Mrs. Maria S. Farnham, Mrs. C. F. 
 Farnsworth, Benjamin Gardner, Mrs. Abigail Gardner, Miss 
 Sarah Gardner, Mrs. Minerva Holyoke, Charles W. Rhodes and 
 Mrs. Jane Rhodes. Wm. S. Farnham served as deacon for 30 
 years. James Hastie also served as deacon until his demise in 
 1879 and was succeeded by Amos S. Fitch, the latter holding 
 the office until his death in 1882. Among the secretaries of 
 the society have been Hon. John Gray, of Jefferson Iowa; the 
 late J. M. Holyoke and E. H. Goldsmith, the latter of whom 
 held that office twenty-four years and was church clerk for 
 thirty years. This church has had many pastors. Among 
 those who have faithfully served in that capacity may be men- 
 tioned the Revs. Azariah Hyde, William W. Wetmore, Hiram 
 P. Roberts, Prof. Willis J. Beecher, of Auburn (New York) 
 Theological Seminary, and William R. Butcher, the last named 
 serving six years. The Sunday school records show that on 
 December 26, 1869, the membership was two hundred and 
 the average attendance one hundred and forty-eight. John 
 Hastie was the secretary and E. H. Goldsmith the superintend- 
 ent, the latter holding that office for twenty-five years. The 
 late George P. Holyoke and William M. Driggs, with their wives 
 rendered valuable assistance in former years. 
 
 The Methodist Episcopal church was organized in 1856 by 
 the Rev. William M. Clark, whose circuit consisted of Oneida, 
 Wesley Chapel and Wataga. He made his journeys on foot. 
 Mr. Clark gave the site of Gilson camp ground to this dis- 
 trict. Arnong the early members were S. F. Spaulding, John 
 Gaddis, B. W. Foster, Lucius Vail and S. G. Dean, with their 
 wives. Mr. Dean was the first Sunday school superintendent,
 
 177 
 
 serving four years, and he was succeeded by S. F. Spaulding 
 who, for nineteen years, gave his best services to the school. 
 Among the pastors were: G. W. Brown, N. T. Allen, William 
 Watson, D. Ayers, N. G. Clark, G. P. Snedaker and C. F. W. 
 Smith. The church was completed and dedicated in 1867 under 
 the pastorate of J. W. Coe, the presiding elder being W. H. 
 Hunter, 
 
 The Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Church was organized 
 in 1856, the first pastor being the Rev. T. N. Hasselquist. In 
 1860 the society commenced building a church, having former- 
 ly worshipped in private houses and school buildings. This 
 church was struck by lightning and burned in 1875, but in 
 the same year the present tasteful edifice was erected. The 
 Rev. N. Nordgren, served this people many years. 
 
 The Swedish Methodist Episcopal Church was organized 
 in 1857 with the Rev. V. Witting as the pastor. The keeping 
 up of regular services and of the Sunday School was largely 
 due to the untiring efforts of Oliver Stream. 
 
 The Wataga Christian church, costing $2,000, was erected 
 in 1875, but was torn down in 1896 and the church organiz- 
 ation no longer exists. 
 
 The Wataga Catholic Church was erected in 1877 at a cost 
 of $2,000. The. Rev. P. McGair was its first pastor. 
 
 Wataga lodge, No. 291, A. F. and A. M., was instituted 
 August 17, 1858. 
 
 The Order of the Eastern Star was organized February 22, 
 1888, and being the first chapter in the county it had many 
 members from the surrounding towns, there being at one time 
 seventy-four names on the roll. Other chapters were organ- 
 ized in every town from which this drew its followers. 
 
 Wataga Lodge, No. 509, I. 0. 0. F., was organized Janu- 
 ary 10, 1876, by A. W. Berggren. Its first officers were : W. 
 N. Thomas, N. G. ; J. E. Thomas, V. G. ; L. C. Whitcomb, Secre- 
 tary ; P. A. Smith, Treasurer. Other charter members were P. 
 A. Smith and John McConchie. 
 
 Rebecca Lodge, No. 48 was organized October 20, 1891. 
 The first officers were: John Deming; N. G. ; Mrs. Nancy 
 Deming, C. G. ; Oliver Stream, Secretary. 
 
 Wataga Camp, No. 3229, Modem Woodmen, was organized 
 September 24, 1895, with eighteen charter members.
 
 178 
 
 TRURO TOWNSHIP 
 By David Cation 
 
 Next to Persifer, this is the roughest township in Knox 
 County. Spoon River enters it in Section 12 and flows out 
 from Section 31, winding throught it for fifteen or sixteen 
 miles and touching sixteen sections. This river and its 
 branches, which liberally water Truro, pass through timber 
 land which formerly extended over half the township. 
 Of late years, however, almost all of this vast timber has 
 been gradually disappearing, the land on which it stood 
 having been converted into almost treeless pastures, which 
 have proved a source of greater profit. North of Spoon River, 
 the land is mostly rolling, on the south stretches a broad level, 
 fertile prairie. About one-sixth of the township is underlaid 
 with a good quality of coal which with the timber affords an 
 excellent supply of fuel. 
 
 The first settlement was made on Section 19, in 1832, by 
 John Dill. The first birth was that of Andrew Dill, in 1833. 
 During that year Rev. John Cummings performed the first 
 marriage ceremony, uniting Jake Ryan and Miss Stambaugh. 
 In 1832, within Section 30, Malon Winans, a United States 
 mail carrier, was drowned while attempting to swim Spoon 
 River with a mail bag strapped to his back. This was the 
 first death. Within this same section, in 1834, John Coleman 
 started a ferry across Spoon River, at a point which was long 
 known as Coleman's Ferry, but afterw^ards came to be called 
 Trenton. Here the first postoffice was established during the 
 same year. 
 
 On the northwest quarter of Section 31, the first white 
 settlers found a number of Indian graves. Logs had been 
 split into halves and hollowed out for coffins, and these were 
 placed in the forks of trees, where they rested, with their 
 ghastly human skeletons projecting above their tops. In 
 1836, pioneers took them down and gave them "white man's 
 burial." 
 
 In 1834, Rev. John Cummings preached the first sermon 
 at the home of Widow Lambert, on Section 31. The first 
 school house was built in 1848, on Section 33. 
 
 Rensselaer Johnson was the first Justice of the Peace. 
 
 April 5, 1853, the township was organized. The first 
 election of officers resulted in the choice of the following per- 
 sons: Augustus Lapham, Supervisor; J. P. Cadwell, Clerk; 
 Benjamin Sweat, Assessor; Levi Seward, Collector; Thomas 
 Ross, Overseer of the Poor; Thomas Crawford, Luther Rice 
 and Joseph Wilder, Highway Commissioners; Thomas Ross
 
 179 
 
 and Joseph Oberholtzer, Justices of the Peace. 
 
 The population in 1860 was seven hundred and thirteen, 
 in 1870, eight hundred and ninety-nine; in 1880, seven hun- 
 dred and seventeen; in 1890, eight hundred and sixty-five. 
 For present population, see the population table for county. 
 
 Truro township is inhabited by prosperous farmers. The 
 land is well tilled, and dotting the pastures are herds of well- 
 bred hogs, horses, sheep and cattle. The farms are well im- 
 proved, and the people contented and happy. 
 
 The population is composed chiefly of American born citi- 
 zens of English, Irish, Scotch and Swedish ancestry. The 
 hardy pioneers are fast passing away, but they have left ener- 
 getic and intelligent descendants. Although thus sprung from 
 various stocks, they are all intensely American in their pa- 
 triotism. Adorning the walls of their homes are to be found 
 not only the portraits of the heroes of their Fatherland, of 
 whom they are justly proud, but also those of Washington, 
 Lincoln and other eminent Americans, who hold no second 
 place in their affections. 
 
 Here also is found a generous religious tolerance, Protest- 
 ant and Catholic joining in advancing charitable and educa- 
 tional enterprises. In such perfect assimilation of different 
 nationalities, and in such broad charity in the matter of relig- 
 ious faith as are found here, lies one of the strongest guaran- 
 tees of the future grandeur and perpetuity of our country. 
 
 Williamsfield. 
 
 Until 1887, Truro was without a railway. In May of that 
 year ground was broken on the farm of Henry German in Sec- 
 tion 21 for the main line of the Santa Fe which was laid across 
 the township, and on April 24, 1888, Williamsfield was laid 
 out by E. B. Purcell, on Section 23. Later, Galesburg capital- 
 ists interested themselves in the project and promoted it with 
 so much vigor that within thirty-three years the town has 
 become one of the most prosperous in the county, and now 
 boasts of about five hundred inhabitants. There is a graded 
 school, employing from three to four teachers since the com- 
 pletion of the school building in 1890. 
 
 A Methodist church was erected early in 1890, under the 
 leadership of Rev. John Gunson, and dedicated on the first 
 day of June of that year. In 1906, the building was remodeled 
 under the leadership of Rev. Franklin Rist and the denomina- 
 tion has a good membership. Two years later the Catholics 
 erected an attractive house of worship. 
 
 The Williamsfield Times, an independent weekly, was 
 established in 1889. Its founder was C. D. Benfield. In Octo-
 
 180 
 
 ber, 1890, the building in which the Times was located was 
 burned and Mr. Benfield lost his entire outfit. The subscrip- 
 tion list of the paper was purchased by Momeny and Benson 
 and in a few months they were enabled to continue the public- 
 ation. Later they dissolved partnership and J. M. Momeny 
 assumed control of the paper. In the fall of 1892 S. E. Bog- 
 gess leased the plant from Mr. Momeny. In April, 1893, it 
 was purchased by M. Hugh Irish and in July, 1918, it passed 
 into the hands of W. G. Johnson the present owner. 
 
 On January 22, 1890, L. J. Baird and David Cation opened 
 a private bank under the title of Bank of Williamsfield and 
 so conducted it until April, 1908, when they with Earl T. Main 
 reorganized the Bank under a State Charter in the name of 
 First State Bank Company with a capital stock of $30,000.00 
 with L. J. Baird as first president. Earl T. Main was first 
 cashier. The first board of directors was L. J. Baird, David 
 Cation, Earl T. Main, G. W. Wallick, J. D. Doubet, Geo. W. 
 Elliott and H. J. Butts. The bank has had a steady growth 
 and a loyal patronage from the community. In addition to its 
 semi-annual dividends paid the stockholders the bank has 
 added $30,000 of surplus and profits to its capital. It has 
 also recently installed a new burglar proof safe and a burglar 
 proof vault that is said to be second to none in the county at 
 a cost of $7,500.00. The present officers and directors are: 
 David Cation, President; Jay Welsh, Vice President; William 
 Cation, Cashier; Miss Doris Pulver, Asst. Cashier, and Miss 
 Marita Smith, Asst. Cashier; J. J. Nelson, P. A. Sunwall, Burt 
 Hurlbutt and Richard Murphy. 
 
 Various linies of mercantile business are well represented 
 such as general stores, hardware store, meat market, lumber 
 yards, undertaking establishment, restaurant, barber shops, 
 blacksmith shop and dry goods and millinery stores, physi- 
 cians and veterinaries. It has also a grain elevator and has 
 always been a great center for the shipment of gi'ain and 
 live stock. Recently there was organized a Williamsfield Live 
 Stock Shipping Association with a membership of about one 
 hundred. Its officers and directors were A. L. Doubet, Presi- 
 dent; A, W. Gale, Vice President, B. L. Baird, Sec.-Treas.; 
 Taylor B. Johnston and Jas. L. Cation, Directors, and L. L. 
 Nelson, Manager. Under Mr. Nelson's leadership more than 
 120 cars the last year have been sent out from Williamsfield, 
 amounting in value to $292,000.00. This excels any other 
 point in the county. 
 
 In September, 1897, Williamsfield suffered a disastrous 
 fire in which a livery barn, two general stores, hardware 
 store, two blacksmith shops, lumber yard, paint and wall 
 paper store, harness shop, two doctor's offices, and one resi-
 
 181 
 
 dence were all swept out of existence. From this catastrophe 
 the village soon emerged with better business houses and bet- 
 ter equipped to provide for the wants of the community in the 
 several kinds of business represented. 
 
 Again in Sept. 1920, more than twenty business houses in 
 the heart of the business district were swept out by fire. But 
 the populace is not to be outdone for within a short time foun- 
 dations were laid for 3 new brick buildings and other brick 
 buildings are being contemplated. 
 
 World's War 
 
 The Hst of enlisted men in the army was: Glen Cole, 
 John O'Brien, Cecil Kimler, Roscoe Gibson, Dale Stemple, C. 
 W. German, Clyde Tucker, Ernest Hart, Bert Daniels, Isidore 
 Daub, Fred Shultz, Grover George, Clyde Huber, Eldred 
 Mackie, Julius Shaw, Harrison Cole, Patsy O'Hem, Wiley 
 Burch, Sidney Cook, James Mahar, Albert King, Vance Cham- 
 bers, Frank Stodgel, Vergil Dudley, Raymond Wall, Lloyd 
 Harmison, Edward Larsen, Harley Tucker, Harry Bennett, 
 Homer Larson, Harry L. Gibson, Arthur Carrigan, Edward D. 
 Parker, Harley Benjamin, Michael Phelan, Clarence Spencer, 
 David Tucker, James Larsen, Harry Harmison and James H. 
 German. • 
 
 Of these soldier boys, John O'Brien and Grover George 
 were gassed. 
 
 C. W. German, Lloyd Harmison and Homer Larson nar- 
 rowly escaped with their lives from the sinking vessel, 
 "Otranto," on the coast of Scotland. 
 
 All of our boys returned home. Vance Chambers re- 
 enlisted and returned to service in Germany where he was 
 shot and killed while on duty. 
 
 The Neighborhood Committee through whom most of the 
 war activities were carried forward were as follows: 
 
 Executive Committee — G. E. Morgan, Chairman; M. H. 
 Irish, Secretary; J. M. Baird, C. H. Pulver, S. R. Tucker, 
 David Cation. 
 
 District Committeemen — Fred Hurlbutt, T. Johnston, 
 John Mackie, C. D. Rice, A. W. Gales, W. — . Huber, E. D. 
 Johnston, R. W. Morgan, Jay Welsh, Geo. King, W. S. Potts, 
 W. H. Machin, G. L. Doubet, L. L. Nelson, P. A. Sunwall, E. S. 
 Willard. 
 
 Mrs. Nellie J. Tucker, Mrs. Rhoda Philbrook, Mrs. Celesta 
 C. Potts, E. S. Moon, C. A. Caldwell and C. H. Pulver made up 
 the registration board on the bond subscriptions. 
 
 While very many did much to assist in the war work, it 
 is fitting and proper that special mention should be made of
 
 182 
 
 the very tedious, very exacting and responsible work done by 
 Miss Marita Smith in accounting for the many hundreds of 
 pieces of bonds amounting to more than half a million dollars. 
 
 Truro township went over the top on eveiy quota asked 
 and in one case carried off the German helmet for being the 
 second township in the county to report. 
 
 Subscribers Totals 
 
 First Loan 1 $ 6,000.00 
 
 Second Loan 118 42,300.00 
 
 Third Loan 262 46,000.00 
 
 Fourth Loan 282 54,150.00 
 
 Victory Loan 82 52,050.00 
 
 War Savings Stamps 189 24,000.00 
 
 Grand Total $224,400.00 
 
 Red Cross Drives 
 
 First drive $1,079.43 
 
 Second— Sale 1,880.35 
 
 Third— Membership 397.00 
 
 Fourth — Memberships 358.50 
 
 Fifth- Membership 250.00 
 
 $4,075.28 
 Salvation Army 126.40 
 
 United War Workers Campaign $2,180.00 
 
 Grand Total $6,381.68 
 
 The Williamsfield Branch Red Cross Association was or- 
 ganized Sunday evening, April 22, 1917, as follows: 
 
 G. E. Morgan was elected General Chairman. 
 
 Rev. J. W. Pruen, Secretary. 
 
 David Cation, local Treasurer. 
 
 More than 250 members were secured. 
 
 Red Cross Shop 
 
 Mrs. Rev. Pruen was the first Chainnan and afterwards 
 resigned and Mrs. Dr. Cole was elected and carried the work 
 through to the end. 
 
 Mrs. Ida Willard had charge of the knitting department. 
 
 Mrs. Nellie Irish had charge of the surgical dressing/ 
 department. 
 
 Mrs. Eva Rice had charge of the Belgium Relief depart- 
 ment.
 
 183 
 
 Mrs. Lillie Wesner, Mrs. Kate Pulver and Mrs. Nettie 
 Caldwell had charge of the cutting department. 
 
 Mrs. Dr. Cole, Mrs. Nettie J. Tucker and Mrs. Eva Rice, 
 constituted the inspection committee. 
 
 In all these War Activities of Truro Township we have 
 mentioned only those who were officially connected, but there 
 were scores of privates, many of whom were well up in years, 
 and some of whom were very young as well as the intermed- 
 iates, all of whose names we dislike to omit, but desire to say 
 that the loyal assistance they gave the work created a force 
 that no enemy could successfully combat. 
 
 Community High School 
 
 A Community High School was organized in 1916, com- 
 prising 561/4 sections of land with an assessed valuation of 
 $1,553,000. The first Board of Education was as follows: 
 M. H. Irish, President; C. H. Pulver, Clerk; F. J. King, Jay 
 Welsh, Loren Trowbridge, Otto Grohs, Mrs. Nellie J. Tucker. 
 
 Early in the summer of 1920 ground was broken for a 
 new brick Community High School building now (1921) near- 
 ing completion at a cost when furnished of $75,000.00. The 
 building will accommodate 160 pupils and is splendidly located 
 on six acres of land. The intention is to add Domestic Science, 
 Manual Training and Agriculture and make it a High School 
 equal to the best. W. H. Brown, of Abingdon, is the con- 
 tractor. 
 
 The present Board of Education consists of: C. H. Pul- 
 ver, President; Mrs. Nellie J. Tucker, Clerk; Jay Welsh, Mrs. 
 Minette Baird, G. E. Morgan, Otto Grohs, F. J. King.
 
 184 
 
 TOWN OF VICTORIA 
 By Mrs. Mary Fifield Woolsey 
 
 The Town of Victoria is located in the northeast part of 
 Knox County, IlHnois. It is a political unit of the County and 
 comprises the same territory as Township Twelve North, 
 Range Four East. The larger part of the Village of Victoria 
 lies in, and along the west line of, the town of Victoria, about 
 two miles south of its intersection with Walnut Grove and 
 Lynn. The west part of the village lies in the Town of Copley. 
 It is interesting to note that, when Knox County was divided 
 into political towns, in 1850, Copley was first called Prince 
 Albert and Lynn was for many years known as Fraker's 
 Grove, while the first name given to the thirty-six sections 
 comprising the present Town of Victoria was Worcester. 
 However, in a year of two, the official name became Victoria, 
 the same as the village, and has so remained to this day. 
 
 In writing of the coming of the first white settlers, the 
 uncertain facts in regard to the Indians can be told but briefly. 
 And, in relating these matters concerning the natives, fact and 
 fiction necessarily blend. Roving bands of Indians crossed the 
 township even within the memory of some still living there, 
 and at one time as many as five hundred went that way when 
 they moved from near Peoria across into Iowa. But the recent 
 Black Hawk War, in 1832, had left Knox county no longer In- 
 dian country. The earliest settlers told of a small Indian vil- 
 lage, on the Southeast Quarter of Section Twenty, near what 
 came to be known as "Old Salem" and it was, no doubt, occu- 
 pied by Indians when the first white men came. Mr. John K. 
 Robinson, a son of Moody Robinson, still points out the spring 
 from which they used water and tells of the Indian relics he and 
 his father had found there. 
 
 The first to settle in the township was a Mr. Frazier, Ed- 
 ward Brown and John Essex. These men came, at least, as 
 early as 1834. Brown built his cabin a half mile south of what 
 is now the Lundeen place, southeast of Etherley. Mr. Fraz- 
 ier's cabin was just west of the Robinson place on Section 
 Twenty and he lived there for five or ten years. John Essex 
 soon moved up to Fraker's Grove. Edward Brown remained 
 for some time and Archibald Robinson moved into Brown's 
 cabin when he left. Next came Moses Robinson, Moody Rob- 
 inson, Pasons Alldredge, Coonrod Smith, John Smith, William 
 Overlander and John Arnold, The Smiths and Overlanders 
 came from Ohio, where they had first come from Little York, 
 Pennsylvania. The Robinsons and Alldredges came from Ten- 
 nessee. These came in 1835. All built permanent homes, and 
 a log-cabin for a school house, and called it Salem, the ''Old
 
 185 
 
 Salem" mentioned above. William Overlander settled on the 
 "Overlander place," John Smith where the Lundeen place 
 now is, the Alldredges where Ulysses Ives now owns, Moses 
 Robinson on the next next farm north, Moody Robinson on the 
 farm now owned by Ena Mosher, a descendant of his, and the 
 Arnolds south of the present Salem schoolhouse. Then came 
 George E. Rejmolds, Henry Shurtliff, Isaiah BeiTy, Silas 
 Locke and their families, twenty-one persons in all, from Bar- 
 rington and nearby points in New Hampshire, and settled on 
 or near the present site of the Village of Victoria. Mr. Rey- 
 nolds lived during the first winter in a cabin in Forman 
 Grove, northeast of Victoria. This cabin had been started by 
 a still earlier settler, who had abandoned it through fear of 
 the Indians. The first winter was, of course, full of hard- 
 ships. Mr. Alldredge and Moody Robinson were away from 
 home, for 18 days, searching for a little corn and for a place 
 to get it ground into meal. As they said, they were hunting 
 "a grist." But the next summer more comfortable cabins 
 were built and the people began the usual strenuous life of 
 early pioneers, beset with difficulties but determined to make 
 of this new country the comfortable land of their dreams. 
 
 For several years, the children of these New Englanders 
 went through the timber, more than three miles, to "Old 
 Salem" to school. Captain George W. Reynolds, lately de- 
 ceased, was then a school boy and has often told the writer of 
 these early paths to learning. Parts of the stone foundation 
 and the old fireplace still mark the place where the boys and 
 girls of those days studied the "three R's" and McGuffy's 
 Spelling Book, and, more studiously, evaded the watchful eye 
 of their teacher. This "Old Salem" is located about a mile 
 northwest of the site of the present Salem school house, on 
 the Pasons Alldredge place. This was also used as the first 
 church of that community and there one may still see the 
 graves of many of the oldest settlers. Some of the first 
 teachers were Hannah Olmsted, Charlotte Arnold, Vatch Met- 
 calf, Silas Locke, Henry Shurtliff and Mrs. Minard. One of 
 her pupils tells that Mrs. Minard brought her three small 
 children, including a wee baby, and taught the school, and also 
 cared for her own children at the same time; there was a 
 cradle in the school-room for the baby, and the girls helped 
 take care of it, thus taking the first course in Domestic Sci- 
 ence ever given in the county. And, when they "stood up and 
 spelled down," the baby was carried back and forth from side 
 to side as the girls were chosen. 
 
 The first white child to be born in the Township was 
 Sarah, daughter of Moody Robinson, November 16th, 1836. 
 She became the wife of Manford Mosher and is still remem- 
 bered by all the people of the community. The first death
 
 186 
 
 was that of Mrs. Frazier in 1837 and the first marriage was 
 that of Peter Sornberger to Phoebe Wilber in 1838. 
 
 Captain Allen built the first frame house, on Section Sev- 
 enteen ; it was always known as the "Old Victoria House." It 
 was built for a tavern and will be more fully described below. 
 The early conditions were naturally characterized by their 
 simplicity — log cabins in the woods, fireplaces and chimneys 
 made of stone, all chinked together with mud. These earliest 
 pioneers stayed close to the wooded lands and did not venture 
 out on the more fertile prairie, because they needed the tim- 
 ber for shelter and fuel. Each family took care of nearly all 
 its own wants; it did its own blacksmithing, spinning, etc. 
 Threshing was done with flails and every house was largely, 
 a law unto itself. The grinding was done in the rudest man- 
 ner, by rotating a round flat stone above another. A pair of 
 these stones can be seen at the home of a descendant of "Old 
 Billy McBride" in Lynn Township, and were once the property 
 of Michael Fraker, after whom that community was called 
 Fraker's Grove. The first grist mill of any importance was 
 built by Clark Stanton at Rochester on Spoon River, (Elmore) 
 in Peoria county, and the first saw mill by Coonrod Leek at 
 Centerville on Walnut Creek. The folks from Victoria would 
 drive down to Rochester with their grain and sometimes be 
 compelled to wait there several days for their grist. Much 
 later, in about 1856, Mons Olson and a Mr. Renstead built a 
 grist-mill in the south part of the Village of Victoria and this 
 was long a blessing to the community and a mill on that loca- 
 tion is still within the memoiy of most of our people. The 
 house of Frederick Becker is now about where this old mill 
 stood. Travel was usually by oxen and the people of those 
 days would not believe their eyes if they could now see their 
 descendants dashing madly about in automobiles and farming 
 with tractors. The roads followed the paths of least resist- 
 ance and were usually on the old Indian trails. Stone for 
 foundations and fireplaces was quarried, in many cases, from 
 the very land where the fann buildings were built. In spite 
 of the hardships and difficulties, these pioneers had many a 
 rollocking good time at their log-rollings, house-raisings, corn- 
 huskings, quilting parties and their spelling and singing 
 schools to say nothing of hunting deer and wolves. 
 
 The present village and, later, the Town of Victoria, was 
 named Victoria after the Queen of England, who was crowned 
 in 1837. Before there was ever any village on its present site, 
 Captain Allen had started the "Old Victoria House" and Mil- 
 ton Shurtliff, who owned about a thousand acres of land east 
 and south of the present village of Victoria, had platted a vil- 
 lage near the center of the north half of Section Seventeen, a 
 little more than a mile east and a little south of the present
 
 187 
 
 village. The survey for this earlier village, planned by Mil- 
 ton Shurtliff, was made August 30th, 1837, by George A. 
 Charles, Knox County Surveyor, and a record of same can be 
 found in Vol. 4, page 128, Deed Records of Knox County. 
 There was to be Public Square, Main Street, North Street, 
 South Street, Alton Street and Shurtliff Street, and there 
 were ten blocks. As a part of his plan, others had been in- 
 duced to build nearby and Captain Allen's tavern was, no 
 doubt, also prompted by Milton Shurtliff, who had given him 
 an agreement for a deed. Being operated by Allen and on 
 land that belonged, in a way, to Shurtliff, it was variously 
 known as Allen's Tavern, Allen & Shurtliff's Tavern, Shurt- 
 liff's Tavern and the "Old Victoria House." Captain Allen 
 died before the "Old Victoria House" was fully completed 
 and, there being an indebtedness of $200.00 in favor of Milton 
 Shurtliff, he caused the rights of "Aunt Allen," as Captain 
 Allen's wife was affectionately called, to be forfeited to him, 
 "Aunt Allen" thereafter lived with Dr. John Langdon Fifield 
 at Rochester until her death in 1848. The Fifields lived in the 
 "Old Victoria House" from 1848 to 1850. Dr. Fifield has told 
 of stopping at Captain Allen's Tavern as early as 1840, and 
 sleeping in an unfinished attic, on the floor, with sixteen 
 other men, who, like himself, had been travehng that way and 
 had been caught in a severe storm. Near at hand was a black- 
 smith shop and a large barn and a few cabins. The house of 
 Brazail White stood just east of the "Old Victoria House" and 
 was later moved to the Charles J. Carlson farm where it can 
 still be seen. There was a semi-official postoffice and a store 
 in the tavern. This "Old Victoria House" became the home of 
 "Uncle Alex" Sornberger in 1850, and remained such until his 
 death, he having lived in a cabin a half mile south of there 
 until 1850. The "Old Victoria House" stood a few feet south- 
 west of the house now occupied by Clifford Sornberger and 
 the old doorstone (6 ft. by 4 ft.) can still be seen on the 
 premises, at the end of the east walk. The house itself was 
 torn down in 1868. In Vol. 2 of the County Commissioners 
 Record at page 27, made during the March Term of 1838, is a 
 petition asking for a road to be marked, running from about 
 the present site of West Jersey to the center of Section Thirty 
 now in the Town of West Jersey, thence in a westerly direct- 
 tion by "the nearest and best route to Victoria in Township 12 
 North, Range 4 East." The Court appointed Wm. Overlander, 
 John Brown and William Webster (West Jersey) "to view, 
 mark and locate said road." And on page 81 of this Record 
 appears the report of these road-viewers and their field notes. 
 They described the road as beginning at the center of Main 
 Street at the east side of Victoria, "situated on the East or.c- 
 half of the Northwest Quarter and also the West one-half of 
 the Northeast Quarter of Section Seventeen, Township Twelve
 
 188 
 
 North, and Four East." On page 67 of this record (in 1838) 
 the voting place for the "Walnut Creek District" was changed 
 from Centerville to "Shurtliff's Tavern" and remained there 
 for about ten years. This same Record, at page 205, shows 
 that new voting districts were formed by the County Com- 
 missioners in March of 1839 and what are now Copley and 
 Victoria and the part of Truro, north of Spoon River, were put 
 together in the "Victoria District," the election still to be held 
 "at the House of Allen & Shurtliff in Victoria." Again in 
 1841, this Record (page 255) shows the location of a road 
 from about the present site of Arkansas (also known as Truro 
 and "Four-Corners") on a diagonal line, northwest, "to Vic- 
 toria on Section 17", still taking no notice of any other Vic- 
 toria. This road has now been put largely on section lines, but 
 still shows some of its slant lines in the present "timber road" 
 to Williamsfield, via East Truro. It ran on to Peoria on the 
 south and to Andover on the north. Again, in Vol. 3 of this 
 Record at page 81, is the description of a road from "Eugene," 
 southwest of what is now Williamsfield, "to the Public Square 
 of the Town of Victoria just north of the center of Section 
 Seventeen" (May 18, 1842). Isaiah Berry later kept this 
 Shurtliff's tavern and elections were held there until about 
 1848, when the voting place was moved to the schoolhouse in 
 what is now the Village of Victoria. So, too, the first survey 
 Vol. 4 of these Commissioner's Records, at page 257), of a 
 road showing the location of the present Village, was July 
 13th, 1848, being from "Trenton" (south of Dahinda) "to Vic- 
 toria, on the west side of Sections Seven and Eighteeen." As 
 late as 1845, a road was surveyed from the Mound Farm, just 
 over in Copley on Section Thirteen, right through the present 
 Village of Victoria to the Rock Island and Peoria Road run- 
 ning through Shurtliff's Victoria, but no notice was yet taken 
 of the site of the present village. So, whenever Victoria is 
 mentioned in the public records, up to the year 1848, "Old Vic- 
 toria" is meant, and for ten years it bid fair to be the metro- 
 polis of what even later (after 1850) became the Town (or 
 Township) of Victoria. 
 
 Meantime, George F. Reynolds, remembered even yet as 
 "Deacon Reynolds," and his neighbors, up on the west line of 
 the township, were not willing to let the village grow up 
 around the "Old Victoria House," without doing their utmost 
 to bring it to their own land. Mr. Reynolds had built a double 
 log cabin near the west side of what later became the east 
 village park, and his hospitality made his hostelry the stop- 
 ping place of many a traveler. The stage line from Chicago 
 to Burlington now passed the Reynolds hostelrys and aided in 
 bringing the village to the new site. Two large frame houses 
 were moved to Victoria on sleds, with oxen, from Centerville,
 
 189 
 
 which was situated just over the town line, in Lynn. One was 
 owned by Dr. John W. Spaulding and was used as his home 
 and office, in Victoria, and is now known as Carlson's shoe 
 store ; the other was owned by Alex Albro, a great uncle of the 
 wife of Judge George W. Thompson, and this house is now 
 known as the Youngs house. A room in the Albro house was 
 used temporarily, for school purposes. Both of these houses 
 are still in good repair. Mr. Reynolds deeded off lots and did all 
 he could to "steal the town" from Milton Shurtliff, who lived 
 in Tazewell county. Our county records show a deed to Jonas 
 J. Hedstrom in 1843, five acres at $3.00 per acre, and deeds to 
 John Becker, two acres at $5.00 per acre. Mr. Hedstrom had 
 the first blacksmith shop and Mr. Becker had the first general 
 store. Later "Dick" Whiting and Norton Kelsey started some 
 competition for Mr. Becker in the Albro house. Joseph Freed 
 bought a lot in the east part of the village and built the house 
 where Gus Stout now lives and there he conducted a shoeshop 
 for many years. The lot just east was purchased by John L 
 Knapp, a carpenter and cabinet maker, and he built the house 
 that stood there until about five years ago. In 1849, the Vill- 
 age of Victoria was platted, by John Becker, John W. Spauld- 
 ing, George F. Reynolds, Jonas J. Hedstrom, William L. Shurt- 
 liff, Joseph Freed and John L Knapp, as proprietors, and the 
 question as to where the village was to be was finally decided. 
 However, the Village of Victoria was not incorporated until 
 as late as 1886, with Charles S. Robinson, mentioned above, as 
 President, and Wm. McKendree Woolsey, R. B. Hodgeman, 
 Geo. Luther Hedstrom, Charles S. Clark and William Aten, as 
 trustees. The village has never voted "wet" and is proud of 
 the fact that it has never had saloons. Dr. Spaulding, the 
 Whitings, the Beckers, the Copleys, Dr. Fifield, Jonas J. 
 Hedstrom, George F. Reynolds, the Tabors, and the Olmsteds 
 were among the early chief promoters of the schools and other 
 helpful institutions of the village. Still others of the early 
 families were leaders in organizing the first churches in the 
 village and these will be mentioned below in a paragraph rela- 
 tive to the churches. George Sornberger should be mentioned 
 among the early pioneers. He was a Revolutionery soldier 
 and members of his family have had a large part in the life of 
 the community. Three sons, Alex, Peter and Anson, and sev- 
 en daughters settled in and near the village. His descendants 
 number over three hundred and many still reside there and 
 are among the best citizens. 
 
 As related above, the first schoolhouse was at "Old Sa- 
 lem," but in a few years the settlers up on the site of what 
 was later the Village of Victoria began to plan for a school of 
 their own. In March, 1838, the County Cimmissioners ap- 
 pointed George F. Reynolds, William Overlander and Archi-
 
 190 
 
 bald Robinson as school trustees for Township Twelve North, 
 Four East. The earliest known local record of school mat- 
 ters, there in Victoria, dates from August, 1847, the time 
 when the present village began to be at all important. There 
 can be found such items as the following in the minute-book 
 of its first school directors : "At a meeting, held according to 
 law for the puii^ose of locating and building a schoolhouse, on 
 the 31st day of August, 1847, John I. Knapp elected chairman, 
 Dr. J. W. Spaulding, secretary. Voted that the lot east of 
 William Shurtliff's house be purchased for $4.00, containing 
 one-half acre. Also voted to buy a log building for school pur- 
 poses." "Treasurer of Victoria School District pay ten dol- 
 lars on school house, eighty cents for interest and nine and 
 59-100 dollars to Mary Ann Stanley on schedule March 29th, 
 1848." Signed by Isaiah Berry and Hiram Andrews, School 
 Directors. "Sold G. F. Reynolds the roof of the old school 
 house for $4.00 which paid him for the school house lot." 
 Signed by J. W. Spaulding, Treasurer. This was at the time 
 when the school lot, just west of what is now known as Geo. 
 M. Nelson's residence and wagon shop was purchased, and 
 there was where the children of the Victoria district attended 
 •school for about forty-five years. Others of these early 
 teachers in the district were Mary Ann Leighton, Miss Max- 
 field, Miss Willmot, Harriet Foote, Miss Pratt, Byron Dorr, 
 Nancy Burt, Electa Strong, Mary Hauver, Olivia Martin and 
 many others. Salaries averaged around $3.50 per week and 
 "board around." During the early part of this period a so- 
 called "select-school" was also held in the basement of the 
 Methodist church just over the township line, in Copley; 
 among the teachers of the "select-school" were "Young & 
 Raymond," Miss Ellithorpe (Arnold), and Miss Julia Wilber 
 (Boardman). In about 1867 and for a few years thereafter 
 there was a combination of the two districts (Victoria and the 
 "West School," in Copley), and the higher grades and a few 
 high-school studies were taught in the basement of the Metho- 
 dist church. Mr. Lewis B. Aiken, Robert Arnld, Lizzie Gordon 
 (Robson), Emily Bristo (Robinson) and L. K. Byers were 
 some of the teachers in the "graded" school, as it was called. 
 In 1852, May 1st, a meeting was held in the Victoria School 
 District, for the purpose of levying a tax to build a new frame 
 school house, with John L. Fifield, chairman, and John Becker, 
 Secretary. There the list of taxable inhabitants of Victoria 
 School District are set out as follows: 
 
 Hiram Andrews Mons Olson 
 
 Anson Sornberger Walter Britton 
 
 Lewis Bissell Joseph Freed 
 
 Isaiah Berry John T. Smith 
 
 Samuel P. Whiting Charles Reynolds
 
 191 
 
 Norton Kelsey David Tripp 
 
 Elam A. Pease John Becker 
 
 Sanford Rodgers Jonas Hedstrom 
 
 Josiah D. Bodley Peter Challman 
 
 Alexander Soraberger Erick Skogland 
 
 John L. Fifield Mathew Challman 
 
 George F. Reynolds George Challman 
 
 Richard H. Whiting Gustavus Janson 
 
 Theodore D. Case John I. Knapp 
 
 Needham Rodgers Jonas Helstrum 
 
 Thomas Force John Spaulding 
 
 William Burgess Albert Arnold 
 
 George W. Reynolds George Cadwell 
 
 The building referred to above was later known as the 
 "big room" of the old school building, vacated in about 1892, 
 and in its last days was presided over by A. W. Ryan, M. E. 
 Barnes, and P. C. Hankins, as principals. For about the last 
 twenty-seven years, school has been held in a four-room frame 
 school house on the north side of the village. Lately, the Vic- 
 toria school has become a consolidated district school, merg- 
 ing the "West School" and the "North School" with the old 
 Victoria district. The other district schools in the township 
 are: Union, Sixteen, Fairview, Cravens, Stump Valley, Cen- 
 ter Prairie, Salem and Etherley. 
 
 The Early Roads 
 
 The early roads of the Town and community were very 
 often utterly impassable. The prairies were full of bog holes. 
 Tiling and ditching and building bridges have combined to 
 make the town very different with respect to the roads and 
 now hard roads are being advocated. When the Albro and 
 Spaulding houses were moved from Centei^alle, it was neces- 
 sary to leave them on the open prairie until the roads dried up 
 in the spring. Even the road from the village to the nearby 
 cemetery was impassable for weeks at a time, almost within a 
 stone's throw from the houses of Joseph Freed and John I. 
 Knapp. Almost everything was regulated by the condition of 
 the roads, in those early days. A map of the roads of Knox 
 county as they were in 1841 (back part Vol. 3, Commrs. Rec.) 
 shows important roads coming together at Centerville and 
 many at Shurtliff's Victoria, but only one or two passing 
 through the present Victoria. The roads ran at all angles, 
 much as the crow flies, and the map referred to looks like a 
 number of spider webs all connected with each other. An im- 
 portant State Road ran from Enterprise in La Salle county 
 to Knoxville and was the regular road to Chicago, over which 
 the produce was sometimes taken by the Victoria farmers to 
 Chicago itself. This road missed the present Village of Vic-
 
 192 
 
 toria nearly two miles to the northeast. Another important 
 State Road was the one from Peoria to Rock Island and to 
 Hennepin, by way of Andover ; this road ran through Shurt- 
 liff's Victoria, but not through the present village. A part 
 of it still exists where the road runs on a slant from the Good- 
 speed to the Carlson farm. Still another important road was 
 the one from Henderson to Victoria and on to the east. This 
 passed through both the old and the new Victoria. When the 
 road from Burlington to Chicago was laid out to pass through 
 the present site of the village, it was the controlling feature 
 in the question as to where the Village should be and it was 
 moved to the west line of the town, much the same as the com- 
 ing of railroads later changed the location of other villages. 
 William Overlander, in March of 1838, was appointed super- 
 visor of roads in the Victoria vicinity. The records of the 
 county show that he was allowed the munificent sum of $10.00 
 for building a bridge over Walnut Creek near Centerville. At 
 page 160 of Vol. 2 of the County Commrs. Rec. is as follows: 
 
 "We, Pasons Aldredge and Barzilia Shurtliff, have 
 
 viewed, marked and located a road by blazing the trees in the 
 timber and sticking stakes on the prairie on the nearest and 
 best route commencing about 80 rods east of the southeast 
 comer, Sec. 31, in Tp. 5 N., R. 5 E., thence running west to 
 the H. McClanihan ford, thence to Victoria and thence to the 
 big mound west of Geo. F. Reynold's, where it intersects the 
 State Road, heading from Enterprise (in La Salle Co.) to 
 Knoxville, and we consider said road to be of public utility on 
 account of being the nearest and best route to Hennepin and 
 
 Chicago, . Dated, February 27, 1839." This report 
 
 was approved and the treasurer of the county was ordered to 
 pay each of the road viewers $1.25 for his services. Pasons 
 Aldredge and Coonrod Smith had much to do with the open- 
 ing of roads in the Town. 
 
 Churches 
 
 The early inhabitants of the Town of Victoria were more 
 than ordinarily religious. As soon as Old Salem school house 
 was built, it became the place of holding divine services. Rev. 
 Charles Bostic and others preached there and in the various 
 homes and a Methodist church was organized by them there 
 at Old Salem in 1836, and they afterwards built a frame 
 church in the Village of Victoria, just over the line in Copley, 
 in 1854. The first church building to be erected in the vil- 
 lage was built in 1851, by the Congregational Society which 
 had been organized April 30th, 1841. The meeting to or- 
 ganize was held at the home of George Foster. He and his 
 family, Columbia Dunn, and Henrietta Olmsted Gaines, 
 George F. Reynolds and wife, and others were the organizers.
 
 193 
 
 The Rev. S. G. Wright was its first pastor and he was 
 followed by Rev. Daniel Todd, Rev. Wm. Beardsley, B. F. Ras- 
 kins and others. Among the many "supplies" who preached 
 there were Jonathan Blanchard, president of Knox College, 
 and Rev. Jenny, the father of the much esteemed church- 
 visitor of the Central Congregational Church of Galesburg. 
 A religious class for Swedish people was organized December 
 15th, 1846, in a log house in the Village, by Rev. Jonas J. 
 Hedstrom, and, in 1853, the Swedish people erected the second 
 church in the village, over in the Town of Copley. It is the 
 first Swedish Methodist Church in the world; the building is 
 still standing, and being used by the same society. The Cen- 
 ter Prairie Swedish Church is a branch of the above and 
 was built in 1869. The third church building was erected as 
 related above by the Methodists whose organization com- 
 menced at Old Salem in 1836. It was a two-story frame build- 
 ing, the upper room to be used for church purposes and the 
 lower room for school puiT)0ses. The building was constructed 
 by Sanford Tabor, as contractor. It was commenced in the 
 fall of 1854 and in September, 1855, it was dedicated. The 
 upper part was paid for by the Methodists and the lower part 
 by popular subscription. Some of the pastors the writer re- 
 calls were D. A. Falkenbury, "Uncle Billie" Smith, W. P. 
 Graves, U. J. Giddings, Jacob Mathews, J. D. Smith and many 
 others. The old church building was sold in 1909, and torn 
 down. A new brick building was erected in its place and dedi- 
 cated June 5th, 1910, the fourth church building to be built in 
 the village. Some years later a fine new parsonage was 
 erected. 
 
 Mail Delivery 
 
 Mail was delivered for a long time at the "Old Victoria 
 House" and Captain Allen and Isaiah Berry took care of the 
 mail in an unofficial sort of a way . But George F. Reynolds 
 was the first postmaster to be appointed by the government, 
 in about 1848. His successors in order, were Isaiah Berry, 
 E. A. Pease, Ephriam Russell, H. K. Olmsted, Lew Emery, Lee 
 Shannon, Samuel Jarvis, Cass Sornberger, Samuel Jarvis 
 (again), Ralph B. Woolsey, Arthur Van Buren, Grace Van 
 Buren and Miles Sloan, the present incumbent. After many 
 migrations the office is now located in a good brick building 
 constructed for the purpose by J. E. Welin. For many years, 
 mail came to Victoria, by the lumbering stage-coach on its 
 way from Chicago to Burlington. After the C. B. &. Q. R. R. 
 came through, a "hack" was driven from Victoria to Altona 
 and return every day, carrying the mail. Some of those who 
 drove this mail-hack were John I. Knapp, Henry Olmsted, 
 Seneca Mosher, Jacob McGrew, Joe Moore, John Mahnesmith, 
 and Aaron Olmsted. After the C. B. & Q. came, Centerville
 
 194 
 
 was for the time a sub-station of Victoria. The postoffice 
 began to be of more importance in 1898 when rural service 
 was established at Victoria. The first rural service estab- 
 lished by the Department anywhere in the United States was 
 authorized as effective October 1st, 1896, at Charlestown, 
 Halltown and Uvilla, all in West Virginia. The first in Illi- 
 nois were three routes, established at Auburn on December 
 10th, 1896. The service at Victoria was established June 1st, 
 1898. The carriers, John Dale and Clark Herrold, have been 
 continuously in the service ever since the date of its inaugur- 
 ation at Victoria, and no complaints or charges of irregularity 
 have ever been made against them. In 1899, the Galesburg, 
 Etherley and Eastern R. R. was extended to Victoria and 
 this greatly facilitates the mail service, giving the office two 
 mails a day. 
 
 The Political Side 
 
 Politically, the people of the Town of Victoria have al- 
 ways taken an active interest in all elections from President 
 of the United States down to the lowest office. It was not or- 
 ganized as a political Town until 1850 and was not called the 
 Town of Victoria until about 1852. Until 1849, the county 
 was the smallest political unit and it was divided into such 
 voting precincts as the three County Commissioners chose to 
 make. The people of what is now the Town of Victoria voted 
 at first up on Walnut Creek in the "Fraker's Grove Precinct." 
 In Vol. 2 of the Commr's. Record at page 11, (Dec. Term, 
 1837), appears the following: "Coonrod Leek presented a 
 petition from sundry citizens of Fraker's Grove, praying for a 
 removal of the place of holding elections to the house of Caleb 
 B. Harley, living on the N. W. M Sec. 4, Tp. 12 N., R. 4 E. 
 Order that the election be hereafter held at the house of said 
 Harley, in said Fraker's Grove Precinct, until otherwise or- 
 dered by this Court." The two townships of Stark county in 
 which West Jersey and Lafayette are now situated were then 
 in Knox county and on page 27 of the above Record appears 
 the petition of sundry citizens of 12 N., 5 E, (West Jersey), 
 presented by Newton Mathews, a resident of that township, 
 asking for a road to be laid out from West Jersey to Vic- 
 toria. On page 55 of this Record, the "Fraker's Grove Pre- 
 cinct" was divided and the later Towns of Copley, Victoria, 
 West Jersey and the south tier of sections of the next town- 
 ship north were constituted a Justices and Constables Dis- 
 trict, by the name of the "Walnut Creek District." (March 
 Term, 1838). It was also "ordered that Henry McClanihan, 
 Silas Locke and Barzel Shurtliff be and they are hereby ap- 
 pointed Judges of Election for Walnut Creek District" page 
 58). About this time the voting place was changed to the 
 "Old Victoria House," as related above. Peter Van Buren
 
 195 
 
 was for many terms a Justice of the Peace. Silas Locke was 
 appointed, by the County Commissioners, as the first assessor 
 for what are now Copley, Walnut Grove, Victoria and Lynn. 
 Then came a new districting of the County and what is now 
 the Town of Victoria was grouped with Copley and that part 
 of Truro north of Spoon River as related above, and called 
 the "Victoria District." When the State Legislature passed 
 the law adopting "Township Organization," George C. Lan- 
 phere became the County Judge in place of the Commission- 
 er's Court composed formerly of the three County Commis- 
 sioners, and a Supervisor was to be elected from each Town 
 to do the work formerly done by the three commissioners. At 
 the December Term in 1849, Judge Lanphere appointed a 
 committee of three, of whom John Arnold of Victoria was 
 one, to divide the County into Towns. The committee de- 
 cided to let each congressional township be a political Town 
 and issued a call for an election of all the voters in each town- 
 ship to determine the name of its Town. Township 12 north 
 range 4 (Victoria) chose the name of Worcester, but in a 
 couple of years it adopted the more suitable name of Victoria. 
 The first Town meeting chose George F. Reynolds as Moder- 
 ator and M. D. Minard as temporary clerk. The election re- 
 sulted as follows : 
 
 John L. Jarnagin — Supervisor. 
 
 J. F.' Hubble— Town Clerk. 
 
 M. D. Minard — Assessor. 
 
 Charles Shurtliff— Collector. 
 
 John Smith, Moses Robinson — Justices of the Peace. 
 
 A. B. Codding, Peter Van Buren, Joe W. Moshier — Com- 
 missioners of Highways. 
 
 Alex Sornberger, Seneca Mashier — Overseers of Poor. 
 
 From the date of this first election the records of the 
 Town are readily available in the hands of the Town Clerk and 
 the County Clerk, to show what has transpired politically 
 since the Town of Victoria was first constituted. Its Super- 
 visors, in order, are: 
 
 J. L. Jarnagin C. P. Sansbury 
 
 M. C. Hubell Alex Ingles 
 
 J. L. Jarnagin C. P. Sansbury 
 
 Thomas Whiting C. S. Clark 
 
 Samuel Coleman John McCrea 
 
 J. H. Copley Charles Sayre 
 
 Wash Lynes W. B. Elliott 
 
 Henry Vaughn Jesse Mcllravy 
 
 M. B. Ogden Will Sandquist 
 
 Henry Vaughn Frank Peterson 
 Homer Gaines
 
 196 
 
 The Town of Victoria has, especially on Center Prairie 
 and near the Village, some of the most fertile farm lands in 
 the county or anywhere. Most of the land is underlaid with 
 coal. Some of the unimproved land is worth as high as $300 
 per acre and some moderately improved land has sold as high 
 as $375 per acre, but most of the owners will not put any price 
 on their land. The railroad, now the Galesburg & Great East- 
 ern, runs from Wataga to Galesburg, and is owned by the peo- 
 ple who do not seem to require outside capital to finance their 
 institutions. There are many new brick buildings in the vill- 
 age and business is particularly good in all lines. The Town 
 is, and may well be, proud of its history and of the substan- 
 tial development of its people. 
 
 Respectfully submitted, this 1st day of June, 1919. 
 
 MARY FIFIELD WOOLSEY.
 
 197 
 
 WALNUT GROVE TOWNSHIP 
 By Mrs. Fannie H. Sheahan 
 
 Walnut Grove Township is located in what is known as 
 the "Military Tract," a section of the state selected as bounty 
 land for soldiers, because of its fine soil and undulating surface. 
 It is well watered by Walnut Creek and its sixty-seven tribu- 
 taries and is a Spoon River auxiliary. It soil is unsurpassed in 
 fertility and fine farms with substantial buildings are to be 
 found everywhere within its borders. 
 
 The township derived its name from the extensive groves 
 of walnut timber which formerly grew near its center and on 
 the northwest quarter of section 26. These two groves include 
 all its timber with the exception of a small tract in its southern 
 end. An attempt was made toward the settlement of the town- 
 ship as early as the spring of 1832 by Messrs. Jones and De- 
 Hart who made claims and built a cabin on Section 21 but 
 became alarmed at the hostility of the Indians and left at 
 the time of the Black Hawk War and never returned. They 
 had pushed away out on the frontier and become accustomed 
 to roughing it. DeHart, nevertheless was greatly frightened 
 one day when no danger was near. They had broken ten acres 
 of prairie land in Walnut Grove Township on what was after- 
 ward the farm of Amos Ward. While DeHart was plowing 
 with a yoke of oxen, an old Indian squaw came out of the 
 woods and waved a red blanket. This, he surmised, was a 
 signal for him to move quickly for his life. Accordingly, he 
 started immediately leaving his oxen in the furrow. On hear- 
 ing it was only a scare, he returned the following day for his 
 team and effects ; but left the country and never returned. 
 Several times during the Black Hawk War the settlers fled 
 to the forts. The ruins of their cabin was still standing in 
 1838. 
 
 In 1836, John Thompson, the first permanent settler, 
 moved here from Pennsylvania with his wife Catherine, and 
 settled on Section 16. Mr. Thompson planted the first crop, a 
 field of sod corn, in 1837, fencing it in with the first rails 
 split in the township. The only near neighbors, the Thomp- 
 sons had were a band of some thirty Indians who camped 
 for a short time near Mr. Thompson's residence which was 
 located where the Kufus Grade School now stands. The near- 
 est white neighbors were at Fraker's Grove, eleven miles dis- 
 tant. Mr. Thompson and Mr. Capps, two of the first settlers 
 had been soldiers of the war of 1812 and the father of Mr. Allen 
 one of the pioneers of the township, served in the Revolution- 
 ary War. 
 
 Elder M. Smith of the Mormon church built the first frame
 
 198 
 
 house in 1840 on section 15 on what was originally called the 
 Snow and afterward the Wisegar\^er farm. In 1842 several 
 hundred of the Mormons had located here and designed build- 
 ing a temple on Section 15, but before carrying out their plans 
 Joseph Smith, the leader, had a new revelation (caused by the 
 hostility of the settlers) commanding them to leave here and 
 go to Nauvoo, Hancock county, which they promptly obeyed at 
 great personal sacrifice to many of them. As they had entered 
 and possessed themselves of nearly all the timber land and 
 designed building up a community of their own faith, the other 
 settlers were not sorry to see them depart. The only trace 
 they left is a row of giant cottonwood trees which they planted 
 and which still stand in the center of the road east of the village 
 of Altona. 
 
 The first boy born in the township was John Thompson, 
 Jr. The first girl, Helen Maria Ward, was born February 3, 
 1839. She was the daughter of Amos and Maria Ward and 
 married A. P. Stephens, died in Russell, Kansas, Januaiy 3, 
 1912, and was brought here for burial. After Mr. John Thomp- 
 son came other early settlers, Levi Stephens, Abram Piatt, 
 Simeon L. Collinson, Amos Ward. Mr. Ward is said to have 
 made the first wagon tracks between Altona and Victoria in 
 1838. In 1839 he was elected the first Justice of the Peace. 
 The first couple married were Austin Frederick and Elizabeth 
 Finney. The first death was that of Mrs. Hinsdale, a sister 
 of Amos Ward, who died in August, 1838, at the residence of 
 Abram Piatt, on Section 15, where she was also buried. In 
 1844 John W. Clarke was appointed the first postmaster, 
 succeeded in 1845 by S. Ellis and he by Amos Ward in 1846 who 
 then held the office for a long term of years when it was much 
 more troublesome than remunerative. A little drawer in a 
 bookcase served as a deposit for all the mail for ten years. 
 
 The first school-house was built on the southwest quarter 
 of Section 16 in 1840 and Miss Robey Tabor, a Quakeress from 
 Massachusetts was the first teacher. She married afterward, 
 moved to Henry county and died in 1896. Another early 
 teacher was Eugene L. Gross who afterward distinguished him- 
 self in the legislative halls of the state at Springfield. His 
 school was taught in a small log building, 16x16, built about the 
 year 1841. In 1899 there were eleven schools in the township, 
 costing ten thousand dollars. Elder Samuel Shaw organized 
 the first church (after the Mormons). It was known as the 
 Baptist church and had eight members with a place of wor- 
 ship on Walnut Creek. The first township officers elected 
 April 5, 1853, were Amos Ward, Supervisor ; A. F. Ward, Clerk ; 
 H. L. Sage, Assessor; Jas. Livingstone, Collector; H. L. Collin- 
 son, Daniel Allen and C. Capps, Highway Commissioners ; Reu- 
 ben Cochran, Overseer of the Poor; Amos Ward and David
 
 199 
 
 Livingstone, Justices of the Peace. The population of Walnut 
 Grove in 1860 was 1,120 ; 1870 was 1,960 ; 1880 was 1,781 ; 1890 
 was 1,350; 1900 was 1,280. 
 
 Endured Privations 
 
 The old settlers endured many hardships and the present 
 generation would be very uncomfortable if they had to live in 
 the old log houses with their fireplaces, very few of which re- 
 main. One was standing a few years ago on the H, K. Whit- 
 ing farm now owned by Mrs. Amenoff. The names and deeds 
 of the old settlers who endured hardship and trials in a new 
 and wild country to lay the foundation for future greatness and 
 make a more beautiful and cultivated country and their memor- 
 ies should be peipetuated and handed down to posterity so that 
 future generations should know and appreciate those who be- 
 gan the work of settling and changing a wild unsettled country 
 as Knox once was to what it is now. Without a road or guide 
 the pioneers roamed the prairies and timber with their slow 
 but faithful oxen. At this time there was but one traveled road 
 in the county running from Peoria to Galena, through Victoria 
 and Walnut Grove Townships, known as the Galena Trail. 
 Streams were forded, hogs butchered and frozen, then taken 
 to Rock Island or Peoria, some taking their grain and hogs to 
 Chicago, Jonathan Gibbs in 1842 receiving 47c a bushel for 
 his wheat, one party received 15c a bushel for wheat and were 
 1114 days making the trip. They received $19.50 for the wheat, 
 bought three barrels of salt at $1.50 a barrel, the price at home 
 being $3.00. In the winter of 1841 Judge Hanneman drove 
 1,300 head of hogs from Knoxville to Chicago for which he 
 had paid $2 a hundred pounds net. He had them slaughtered 
 and packed in Chicago and shipped to New York and Boston. 
 In this transaction he lost $5,000. He hired sixteen boys to 
 drive them, the trip consuming sixteen days. At that time 
 Chicago was a small town situated in the middle of miry 
 swamps. 
 
 In 1842 Jonathan Gibbs went to Peoria to sell his pork, the 
 highest offer was ly^c per pound for dressed hogs, SV^c cash 
 or 4c in trade for green hams and lard. Over a fireplace in 
 Mr. Gibbs' cabin sixteen barrels of lard were tried out that 
 fall. Such a stupendous job of work would scarcely be under- 
 taken by any family at the present time. Money was an article 
 little known and seldom seen among the early settlers, nearly 
 all business was transacted by trading or barter. Taxes and 
 postage required cash and often letters remained a long time in 
 the postoffice for want of twenty-five cents. The mail was 
 carried every week by a lone horseman with a mail bag or if 
 the village was on a stage route the old stage coach would make 
 its appearance about once a week with the mail. One or two
 
 200 
 
 letters a month was considered a large mail nor did three 
 cents pay the postage. It took twenty-five cents which some- 
 times took five or six weeks to earn, fifty dollars being consid- 
 ered ample compensation for one year's labor. The amount 
 of taxes on $1,100 worth of property in 1836 was $1,371/2- 
 
 Bee hunting was one of the early pastimes of the settlers 
 the strained honey was sent in barrels to St. Louis and the 
 price 37V2C a gallon. The first crops of the settlers, however 
 abundant, gave only partial relief, there being no mills to gi'ind 
 the grain. Hence the necessity of grinding by hand power or 
 grating. A grater was made from a piece of tin sometimes 
 taken from an old worn out tin bucket. This was thickly per- 
 forated with nail holes bent into a semi-circular form and 
 nailed, rough side up, to a board. The corn was taken in the 
 ear and grated before it was quite dry and hard. 
 
 The first year after Mr. Amos Ward arrived in the county, 
 he took a bag of corn on his horse and went to Andover Mills. 
 On arriving there he found they had stopped running during 
 the dry weather. He returned home and the following day 
 went to Centerville. There the miller was grinding a little 
 when he could so he left his grist and in a few days returned 
 for it, but it was not ground, so he went home and finally 
 traveled one hundred miles back and forth before he got his 
 bag of corn ;in the meantime grating corn on the primitive 
 grater described and making the meal thus obtained into batter 
 cakes, Johnny cakes, corn dodgers, and pone, which was a 
 common diet at that time, 
 
 A. W. Miller came to the county in a pioneer wagon, 
 (prairie schooner). It was all made of wood, there being no 
 iron about it. The wheels were about ten inches thick and two 
 and a half feet in diameter. The wagon was quite low. These 
 wheels were sawed from the end of a log and were solid. A 
 plank was pinned on the side to prevent season cracking. The 
 axles were about six inches square rounded at the ends for a 
 six mch hole in the wheel. Four or five oxen were hitched 
 to a wagon and it was slowly dragged over the prairie. When 
 in use it would be heard for miles squeaking even when well 
 greased with soft soap. One load of wood such as this wagon 
 was capable of hauling would last a family all summer. 
 
 Spinning wool and flax by means of the spinning wheel 
 was one of the common household duties. The loom was also 
 necessary. A common article woven on the loom was linsey 
 woolsey, the chain being linen and the filling woolen. This 
 cloth was used for dresses for the girls and their mothers. 
 Nearly all the clothes worn by the men were homespun. The 
 cooking was done in large kettles hung over the fire suspended 
 on trammels which were held by strong poles. A long handled
 
 201 
 
 frying pan was used for meat which was furnished in abund- 
 ance. Wild game, quail, prairie chicken, and turkey, deer and 
 bear meat, were plentiful, pork and poultry were soon raised in 
 abundance. The pleasures of the early settlers took the form 
 of amusements such as the "quilting bee," "corn husking," 
 "apple paring," and in timbered sections "log rolling," and 
 "house raising," and they would come for miles around to en- 
 joy these gatherings. Wolf hunts were enjoyed by the men. 
 
 The census of 1870 gives the population of the township 
 1,962; voters, 375. Number of farms, 170; dwellings, 393; 
 horses, 1,042; mules, 29; sheep, 458; hogs, 2,405; bushels of 
 wheat, 17,607; rye, 3,300; corn, 210,220; oats, 66,733. 
 
 Census of 1910 — Population, 1,209. Township officers, 
 1918, are: Supervisor, J. A. Johnson; Town Clerk, S. H. John- 
 son; Assessor, N. H. Nelson; Collector, G. N. Larson; Commis- 
 sioner of Highways, C. L. Youngdahl ; Justice of the Peace (re- 
 signed) ; Constable, O. W. Peterson; School Trustees, J. P. 
 Walgren, Alfred Nelson, W. C. Stuckey ; Library Board, C. C. 
 Sawyer; Clerk, A. C. Keener. 
 
 Altona 
 
 Coming from the west, the traveler sees a picturesque lit- 
 tle village, its streets embowered in trees, crowning a slight 
 elevation in an otherwise level tract of farming land. This 
 town, Altona, is situated on the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy 
 railroad about sixteen miles east of Galesburg. Around it lies 
 as rich a farming country as can be found in Illinois, and the 
 village itself is one of the most prosperous in the county, hav- 
 ing electric lights, cement wailks, a public library, bank, and 
 all modern improvements. 
 
 Altona was laid out and platted in 1854 by John Piatt for 
 the heirs of John Thompson. Later E. B. Main and Daniel Al- 
 len laid out an addition, just northeast of the first location. 
 The place was then called La Pier. While the Central Military 
 Tract, now the C, B. & Q. R. R. was being built in 1853 many 
 laborers employed on the road came and camped in the edge 
 of the wood, near the railroad line. To supply their wants, 
 Cyrus Willard and J. S. Chambers built a store, 18x36 feet in 
 size near the center of Section 16 on the northeast quarter 
 of that section of land then owned by Daniel Allen. This was 
 the first store building erected in Altona, and was the pride 
 of the community, as it was the only store between Galesburg 
 and Kewanee. Samuel P. Whiting built the second store, Niles 
 & Gay later. In 1854 Mr. Erickson, of Moline, built a flouring 
 mill. The mill continued in successful operation for ten years, 
 Nels P. Peterson and Thos. Taylor operated it later. Ambrose 
 Foster had a broom factory. There were several wagon makers,
 
 202 
 
 Darius Pierce operated a cooperage, later Mr. Tornquist had 
 a carriage factory. None of them employed much extra help. 
 In 1855 an elevator was built. Cline's elevator and Tamblyn's 
 were burned. The farmers now own an elevator on the site of 
 the Tamblyn elevator. 
 
 The first hotel was built back of Willard & Chambers 
 store (which was located where E. F. Swanson's store now 
 stands) was operated by a Mr. Hahn and later burned down, 
 never rebuilt. The Walnut Grove Hotel was built in 1854, 
 operated by Needham Rogers, Matthew Wiley and Mrs. Acker- 
 man in turn, is now demolished and a nice modern residence 
 built on the site by W. C. Stuckey whose father, S. S. Stuckey 
 came here in 1854 and built the first house in the northeast 
 part of the township. The Altona House, facing the depot, was 
 constructed by Mrs. McKie, H. G. 0. Wales, J. A. Negus, J. B. 
 McCalmont and Mr. Hopkins were successive proprietors. The 
 Brown Hotel was built later by B. H. Brown and operated by 
 him, later by G. F. Edwards, Robert Wilson and Mr. Hopkins, 
 is now a private residence occupied by S. M. Whiting, whose 
 father built the second store building in town. He was later 
 editor of the Altona Journal from 1877 to 1884, succeeded by 
 0. B. Kail. The Altona Record was first published March 1, 
 1888, by C. F. McDonough. Later editors were Sam W. West, 
 Arthur Austin and F. C. Krans, its present proprietor, who is 
 also mayor of the town. 
 
 The village of Altona was incorporated under special char- 
 ter in 1856 under the general law in 1862 and again in 1874. 
 
 Altona has always been noted for the excellence of its 
 schools. There has been a good graded school here since 1858. 
 The first school election was held October 9, 1858, at which 
 M. B. Waldo, E. B. Main and Jas. T. Bliss were elected directors, 
 and a graded school established with a primary, intermediate, 
 and grammer ccourse. The grammar course as follows : Prac- 
 tical and intellectual arithmetic, geography and map drawing 
 continued, Sander's New Fifth Reader, Analysis of words ; 2. 
 Single entry bookkeeping, U. S. History, English Grammar, 
 Analysis and Punctuation, Elocution and Composition; 3, 
 Harkness first and second Latin book, Caesar, Cicero and Vir- 
 gil, First Greek Book, Xenophon's Anabasis, Higher Arithme- 
 tic, Algebra, Geometry, Surveying, Rhetoric, Natural Philoso- 
 phy, How Plants Grow, Political Economy and History. The 
 first principal, Wm. A. Jones, a Yale graduate, received $600 a 
 year ; Nancy Johnson, Intermediate, $240 ; Miss Marsden, Pri- 
 mary, $4.50 a week. A new school building and location was 
 voted for at an election held May 2, 1863, at which thirteen 
 votes were cast, O. T. Johnson receiving ten for director. 
 August 15, 1864, it was voted to sell the old building and site
 
 203 
 
 for $1,500. An additional $1,500 was borrowed of Geo. W. 
 Ransom for building purposes. Matthew Wiley was the con- 
 tractor and the High School building was completed in 1864. 
 The new Kufus Grade School was erected in its place and occu- 
 pied for school purposes September, 1917, Mrs. Mary I. Riner 
 Kufus donating $8,000 toward its erection. It was completed 
 and dedicated August 28, 1918, Rev. Brink, M. E. minister; S. J. 
 S. Moore, Presbyterian minister; A. R. Keeler, Mayor of Al- 
 tona; Hon. Francis G. Blair, State Superintendent of Public 
 Instruction; Walter F. Boyes, County Superintendent of 
 Schools; W. L. Steele, Galesburg, City Superintendent of 
 Schools, and Mrs. Thos. Sheahan, (a former teacher and grad- 
 uate of the old school and daughter of Wm. Hillerby, an old 
 settler,) being on the program. A short time before, in 1916, 
 the Walnut Grove Township High School in the north part of 
 town had been dedicated with appropriate ceremonies. Judge 
 J. D. Welch, Co. Supt. Boyes of Galesburg and State Supt. of 
 Public Instruction Francis G. Blair were speakers on the pro- 
 gram. Mr. and Mrs. J. M. McKie donated a fine new piano for 
 the use of the school and handsomely furnished a rest room for 
 the teachers. 
 
 The Ransom Public Library was erected and dedicated 
 March 28, 1890. Hon. E. A. Bancroft of Galesburg and Dr. 
 G. S. Chalmers were speakers. Geo. W. Ransom left his entire 
 estate, some $8,000, (with the exception of a bequest to the 
 Masons and Walnut Grove cemetery), to establish a Public 
 LibraiT in the town, if the township would built a suitable 
 building. 
 
 The Churches 
 
 The Methodist Episcopal church was organized in August, 
 1853, with a membership of thirteen, under charge of Rev. 
 Jas. Quimby. In 1857 a church was erected and later a par- 
 sonage, the two costing $5,000. The church has been remod- 
 eled and rededicated twice. Rev. Brink is the present pastor, 
 members 128. The Congregational church was founded Feb. 
 21, 1857, with nine members under charge of Rev. A. Root. A 
 church costing $4,000 was dedicated November 9, 1866. The 
 present members worship with the Presbyterians, Geo. A. 
 Ward, clerk. Rev. I. N. Candee, D. D., T. S. Vaill and J. T. Bliss 
 organized the Presbyterian church (O. S.) April 25, 1857, 
 there being twenty-one members. The old building was re- 
 modeled and burned, a new brick structure was erected and 
 dedicated December 2, 1917, members, 133. The formation of 
 the Lutheran church took place in 1869, the congregation erect- 
 ed a church building costing $4,000 and later a parsonage. The 
 first pastor was Rev. Philip Direll. The denomination has 
 steadily grown in numbers, membership at present about 350. 
 The Swedish Baptist Mission was opened in 1876 by J. W.
 
 204 
 
 Stromberg but only holds occasional services being without a 
 regular pastor. 
 
 The Banks 
 
 The first bank in the village was an outgrowth of the gen- 
 eral mercantile business of A, P. Johnson & Co., which was 
 startedin 1854. Until 1890 when Mr. Johnson left the place 
 his was the only bank in Altona. Then the Bank of Altona in- 
 corporated under the State Banking Law was organized with 
 A. M. Craig, President; C. S. Clarke, Vice President; Geo. 
 Craig, Cashier; J. M. McKie, Assistant Cashier. In January, 
 1896, J. M. McKie was elected to the position made vacant by 
 Geo. Craig's death. The present officers are J. M. McKie, 
 President ; C. C. Craig, Vice President ; G. N. Larson, Cashier, 
 and C. E. Eckstedt, Assistant Cashier. The capital stock is 
 $50,000 and surplus $100,000. 
 
 Fraternal Life 
 
 Among the societies can be mentioned the Masonic, the 
 L 0. 0. F., Maccabees, Modern Woodmen of America, Eastern 
 Stars, Rebekahs, Royal Neighbors, Altona-Oneida Branch of 
 the Free Kindergarten and Red Cross. The Masonic Lodge 
 was organized October 1, 1860, and now owns its own Masonic 
 Hall, a gift being left toward its purchase by Geo. W. Ransom. 
 The first officers were Hiram Hall, W. M. ; A. P. Stephens, S. 
 W. ; G. D. Slanker, J. W.; J. N. Bush, Sec; J. S. Chambers, 
 Treas. ; B. H. Scott, S. D. ; Geo. McKown, J. D. ; S. Lawrence, 
 T. An order of Eastern Stars was organized in 1892 with 
 forty-six members. In the 60's a lodge of Good Templars or 
 W. C. T. U. was organized and during its career the members 
 demolished a saloon which stood where the garage is now 
 located. I. O. 0. F., No. 511, was organized Oct. 14, 1873, 
 charter members, Matthew Wiley, P. G. ; John A. Stuckey, 
 Edward Nelson, Richard J. Burneson, Harry E. Wheeler, Jas. 
 A. Griffith, G. A. Hall. M. W. A. Camp, 3737, organized April 
 3, 1896, charter members, Alfred Anderson, Carl Elion, Nels 
 H. Nelson, Harry Austin, W. B. Elliott, E. W. Norene, August 
 Bowman, P. Englund, F. Parker, G. L. Brown, G. Harling, 0. 
 W. Peterson, H. S. Brown, G. Johnson, R. C. Sellon, Thos. Shea- 
 han, S. B. Brown, Frank Krans, A. Swanson, S. L. Collinson, 
 Wm. Lady, W. H. Van Scoyk, J. H. Cummings, Nels Lundahl, 
 H. L. Weaver, Wm. Doak, and Alf Nelson. K. O. T. M. organ- 
 ized August 14, 1894, charter members G. C. Ecklev, C. W. 
 Miller, Arthur Shade, C. Gates, A. C. Peterson, G. W. Pierce, 
 Reuben Cox, C. A. Clifford, J. S. Swanson, C. A. Ackerman, 
 Ben Davenport, W. B. Gray. 
 
 Of the old settlers verj^ few are left (none of 1850) . B. H. 
 Scott, A. J. Anderson, Mrs. L. B. Cummings, Mrs. R. C. Stuc- 
 key still reside here. D. Pierce, Knoxville; Mrs. Helen Lind- 
 wall, California; Ed Wales, Colorado, and Mrs. Tamblyn, Ne-
 
 205 
 braska are some of the pioneers still living. 
 
 Fires and Floods 
 
 Disastrous fires have occurred at various times. B. H. 
 Scott's store and the buildings south of it having been de- 
 stroyed by fire three different times. January 2, 1899, the 
 main street was completely wiped out but was replaced the 
 next year by the substantial brick buildings which are now 
 there, two of which were erected by Judge A. M. Craig and 
 two by John McMaster. In 1900 the electric light plant and 
 Tornquist carriage factory was burned, electric light plant 
 rebuilt. 
 
 Several floods have caused Walnut Creek to go on a ram- 
 page. One, June 25, 1898, resulted in the death of J. F. Hub- 
 bell, and washed out the large railroad bridge and arches west 
 of town, causing erection of a new iron road bridge and a sum- 
 mer's work by the C. B. & Q. R. R. when new foundations were 
 sunk deeper to hold the large new arches. Last year the rail- 
 road built a large reservoir at their pumphouse east of town, 
 800 feet long, 150 feet wide and 15 feet deep. This reservoir 
 was completed July, 1918, after eight month's work. A fine 
 place for a factory location. August, 1907, a disastrous hail- 
 storm destroyed the crops in the township, a strip six miles 
 wide and fifty long being devastated. The year 1859 is noted as 
 having a frost eveiy month in the year, was also very wet. 
 The winter of the deep snow was 1830. Cold winds, dark 
 skies, and gusty winds made the days preceding Christmas of 
 1830 dismal, streams were swollen and snow fell in big wet 
 flakes, later the weather grew bitterly cold and a wind of 
 huiTicane force whipped snow hard as sand into the faces of 
 men and beast and piled it in drifts many feet deep covering 
 all fences and cabins. Scores of men perished on the prairies 
 and many of the bodies were not found until spring had melted 
 away the snow. For sixty days there was no sun. Snow four 
 feeet deep on the level, lasted until late in spring. In 1891 
 there was a great deal of snow and roads could not be used 
 until shoveled as they filled up with every fresh storai. Snow 
 still remained in fence corners in June. 1917 was another 
 snowy year with bitter cold weather, drifts eighteen feet deep 
 in the railroad cuts, trains stalled from Friday until Sunday, 
 January 17, 1918, between Galva and Kewanee. Each new 
 snowstorm filled the roads from fence to fence, making roads 
 impassable even at this late day ; so the days passed shoveling 
 coal and snow but no such hardships as the pioneers endured 
 in that winter of 1830 when the domestic and wild animals 
 and game perished by the thousand, and the settlers them- 
 selves by the score. 
 
 The population of Altona in 1870 was 902 ; 1880, 806 ; 1890, 
 654; 1900, 633, and 1910, 528.
 
 206 
 
 INDIAN TRAILS 
 
 The following map, prepared by Eva Chapin Maple, of Maquon, 
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 207 
 
 THE INDIANS 
 
 In the foregoing township annals, there is frequent refer- 
 ence to the Indians. The following citations are here used 
 to throw further light on the tribes that once lived in this 
 county and their methods of gaining a livelihood: 
 
 According to Major Thomas McKee, a pioneer resident 
 of the county: "The Indians most frequently seen in this lo- 
 cality were Foxes, Sacs, Kickapoos and Pottawatomies. They 
 were alike in many particulars. The Kickapoos and Foxes 
 were often in the vicinity of Henderson Grove, which was a 
 favorite sugar camp. They were as kind a people as you ever 
 saw. They were considerate. For instance if you were in 
 a wigwam talking, the rest would keep respectful attention. 
 They did not interrupt you. They made their children act 
 with deference in the presence of strangers. They did not 
 hunt perhaps as extensively as some other tribes. They 
 lived on corn and beans, on berries and other fruits gathered 
 in the woods, while a favorite dish was the wild potato or 
 penyon, as it was called. This they found in the bottom lands. 
 It was formerly quite abundant but of late I have not noted it. 
 They speared and caught fish and now and then secured a 
 deer. The squaws did the work and it was not until they 
 were aroused by injustice and unkindness that they became 
 cruel and warlike. The Pottawatomies retained their identity 
 better than the others. 
 
 "The language of these Illinois Indians was simple, con- 
 sisting of but few words, made plain by the most significant 
 of gestures. Their names were long and full of vowels. The 
 following are some of the words used by the Pottawatomies: 
 
 Horse Nan-ka-toka-shaw Cow Na-noose 
 
 Dog _ Co-co-sh Hog Ne-moose 
 
 Gun Pos-ka-soogan Tomahawk Quimesockin 
 
 Knife Co-mone Water Bish 
 
 Fire Sco-ti Whiskey Sco-ti-o-pe 
 
 Drink Tela-ma-cool Food Wau-a-net 
 
 Mean Mean-net White men Che-mo-ko-man 
 
 The future Mon-a-to Small Pe-tete 
 
 Baby Pap-poose Potato Pen-yon 
 
 Nothing left Cho-ca-co You are a liar Kiwa-lis-ki 
 
 Pumpkin Wam-pa-cum Beans Ko-Kees 
 
 Corn Ta-min Melons Esh-kos-si-min 
 
 Hominy Do-min-a-bo 
 
 Major McKee was one of those who organized a company 
 and served at the time of the Black Hawk War. 
 
 Eva Chapin Maple, of Maquon, gives in Perry's County 
 History a map of the Indian trails of the county.
 
 208 
 
 About Their Villages 
 
 The following facts are gleaned from a paper read before 
 the Knox County Historical Society several years ago: 
 
 As to the Indian inhabitants of Knox county probably the 
 largest Indian village in the county was on the Spoon river 
 bottom, near the site of the present village of Maquon. At 
 different times this village numbered several lodges and possi- 
 bly several hundred inhabitants. They raised corn on the 
 second bottom and for many years after they were driven 
 from this country they returned at intervals to plant and raise 
 their crops. It was also the custom to place the bodies of 
 their dead in the forks and tops of trees, but after the advent 
 of the white people they commenced burying them in the 
 ground. Another village was at the mouth of Court Creek on 
 Spoon River near the present village of Dahinda. Mr. Morgan 
 Reece, who came there in the 30's, relates that the lodge poles 
 of the abandoned village were still standing when he came 
 there and a few families of Indians lived in that vicinity on 
 Sugar Creek for many years afterwards. The latest family to 
 live in that section had their wigwams on the northeast quar- 
 ter of Section 14 of Persifer township on land now owned by 
 Mr. William Sargent. 
 
 Another Old Village 
 
 Another old village was situated just southeast of the 
 present village of Henderson and another in Lynn township 
 at what was called Fraker's Grove. Persifer township is es- 
 pecially rich in Indian lore and traditions. For many years 
 the inhabitants of that township have dug in various places 
 for treasure that is supposed to have been buried somewhere 
 in the township by the Indians. One legend is to the effect 
 that the Indians were paid a large sum of money for their land 
 and that they quarreled over the division of this money and 
 finally fought for it, until, like the fabled Kilkenny cats, there 
 was none left who knew where it had been hidden, but this 
 was improbable. Another story as related in Chapman's his- 
 tory of Knox County of 1878 was as follows: "A tribe of 
 Indians settled or located on Court Creek, Persifer township, 
 whose custom it was to make sugar from the maple trees. 
 They used brass kettles in which to boil the sap. It seems one 
 spring, after they had made considerable sugar, they were 
 compelled to leave. Among the Indians was a squaw and her 
 son called 'Bil." This woman had accumulated great wealth. 
 Not being able to cany all her money, she filled one of her 
 kettles with gold and silver and buried it on the bank of the 
 creek. She was afraid of the whites ; so after reaching her 
 destination in the West she sent her son back after her money. 
 Bill made extensive searches up and down the creek, but failed
 
 209 
 
 to find it, and the treasure is supposed to be still buried some- 
 where on Court creek. On the Taylor farm, in 1841, a cellar 
 was being dug, when at a depth of about four feet three bars 
 of copper were found. These had been forged out by hand. 
 A well was sunk, when down about 22 feet the remains of a 
 camp-fire were found. Charcoal and rubbish were discovered 
 which plainly proved that at one time, within the life of man 
 here, that was the surface." An Indian Doctor visited that 
 vicinity a few years ago, claiming to be a descendant of Black 
 Hawk and pointed out many places to the inhabitants of Da- 
 hinda which had been described to him by his ancestors who 
 had formerly lived there and in such a way that those who 
 became acquainted with him were impressed with the truth 
 of his representations. 
 
 Claims Made for Village 
 
 Mr. Morgan Reece who collected a great many Indian 
 relics claims that the village at the mouth of Court Creek 
 was a village of the Sacs and Fox tribes, and that Black Hawk 
 who was of that tribe had visited that locality. Relics have 
 been found in that locality that were different from any 
 others found in this part of the state, but were similar to arti- 
 cles used by the Indians of the Southern states and on exhibit 
 at the St. Louis Exposition of 1904 and were possibly brought 
 to this locality after being captured in war or given as a pres- 
 ent by some Southern tribe. One relic was made from a black 
 hard stone. It was about 3 inches long and 2 inches wide and 
 nearly an inch thick at the broadest part, in shape like the 
 roof of a cabin with a hole through it lengthwise about where 
 the ridge pole would be. This was picked up on the banks 
 of Court Creek many years ago. 
 
 When Avery Dalton first came to the county, in 1830, 
 there was a Pottawatomie village at what is now Maquon and 
 near the present bridge across the Spoon River, they also had 
 a burying ground near Maquon and large settlements up 
 Spoon River. The Indian cemetery was just east of Spoon 
 River and about on the present right of way of the Burling- 
 ton railroad. Until 1832 there were more or less Indians in 
 what is known as Kickapoo Grove near Elmwood. All of the 
 Indians in that vicinity were of the Pottawatomie tribe. One 
 of their chiefs who resided at Kickapoo Grove was a very old 
 man at that time and was known as Captain Hill. He always 
 wore a large silver cross suspended from his neck by a buck- 
 skin thong; many of the Indians wore silver rings in their 
 noses and heavy ear-rings. They were friendly and great 
 beggars. They were in the habit of going to Shabbona Grove 
 in the spring to raise corn, returning in August and Septem- 
 ber. Mr. Dalton enlisted for the Black Hawk War shortly
 
 210 
 
 after the battle of Stillman's Run and his company with 
 others formed a battalion of 200 mounted men who ranged 
 over Knox, Warren and Henderson counties to keep back the 
 Indians from the Rock River country. During the time they 
 were out the Indians got through the lines but once and on 
 that occasion murdered a settler in Henderson county. The 
 company had no fights with the Indians. Most of the mem- 
 bers of his company were from Fulton county. 
 
 Many Other Tales 
 
 David Dalton, a brother of Avery, was one of the first 
 settlers of Persifer township and in his day was also a hunter 
 and Indian fighter. There is one locality in the county which 
 should be mentioned and a thorough examination of all that 
 pertains to the earliest explorations of the state might throw 
 some light upon the relics that have been found there. On 
 the northeast quarter of Section 14, in Persifer township, 
 about two miles north and west from the mouth of Court 
 Creek where the latter empties into Spoon River, is a place 
 where in past years many evidences of a battle between large 
 numbers or of long duration have been found. The place is 
 on the bank of Sugar Creek, and within an area of a few 
 acres bullets have been plowed up and found lying on the 
 ground by handfuls. Some few of them were once in posses- 
 sion of farmers who reside in the neighborhood and they 
 were of the large, old-fashioned kind, such as were used in 
 the smooth-bore Queen Anne muskets of two centuries ago. 
 
 I had often heard of this so-called old battle field from 
 those who lived in that vicinity. What called my attention 
 to this particular locality was a map of the old French trails 
 first traversed in this State. In looking for information on 
 the subject of this articlest I had occasion to consult among 
 other books the very excellent book written by Mr. Randall 
 Parrish entitled "Historic Illinois." In this book is a map 
 of the old French and Indian trails and one of them leads from 
 the bend of the Illinois river where it forms the southwestern 
 boundary of Bureau county and about where the principal 
 town of the Illinois Indians was situated, almost in a straight 
 line to a point on the Mississippi opposite the mouth of the 
 Des Moines River. This trail entered Knox county at about 
 the north line of Truro township and traversed the county in 
 a southwesterly direction passing near the present city of 
 Abingdon and through what are now Truro, Persifer, Orange 
 and Cedar townships and crossed Sugar Creek according to 
 the map at the exact locality of this battle field on Section 14. 
 No other relics have been found as far as I have been in- 
 formed, but the large number of bullets would amply justify 
 the belief that a considerable battle was once waged at this
 
 211 
 
 place. The absence of other evidences, however, is not sur- 
 prising. 
 
 Many other interesting facts about the Aborigines can be 
 found in the Eva Chapin Maple sketch in Perry's History of 
 Knox county; in the Major McKee interview and the Judge C. 
 C. Craig paper, on file in the Public Library in Galesburg ; and 
 in Chapman's History of Knox County. Valuable collections 
 of relics were made by Hon. Rufus Miles, Robert Mathews, Dr. 
 Bedford and others and many of these indicate a high degree 
 of skill and workmanship. They are mute evidence of the 
 existence here once of another people who had to give way to 
 the onward advance of a superior race.
 
 212 
 
 OUT ON THE PRAIRIE 
 By. W. B. Elliott 
 
 During a week of September in 1919 the Swedish Metho- 
 dist church of Center Prairie of this county celebrated the 
 fiftieth anniversary of the dedication of its edifice. The cele- 
 bration was very well attended at each meeting and a fine 
 time was enjoyed by all. The former ministers who were 
 present during the services were Rev. Bendix ,of Chicago; 
 Rev. H. W. Willing, of Cleveland, Ohio; Rev. N. W. Bard, of 
 McKeesport, Pa. ; Rev. A. J. Strandell, of Donovan ; Mr. and 
 Mrs. John P. Miller, of Chicago. 
 
 One of the features was the following interesting histor- 
 ical address by W. B. Elliott. 
 
 When the first people came to Center Prairie, the land 
 was densely covered with prairie grass and blue stem which 
 grew in many places as high almost as a man's head when on 
 a horse. This had been going on for ages so that the soil 
 was covered and filled with vegetable matter and there were 
 no ditches and small water courses to carry off the water as 
 now and the land was very wet and untillable, there beinj; 
 many large ponds which are still remembered by people now 
 living. The result was that Center Prairie was not the first 
 part of Victoria township to be settled up. The first settlers 
 who came settled in the timber surrounding the prairie They 
 did this far many reasons. They had generally come from the 
 hilly regions of New England states and New York, Pennsyl- 
 vania and Ohio and had been used to timber as wind breaks. 
 In fact on the prairie where the sweep of the wind was un- 
 hindered with the buildings that they were able to put up in 
 those days, man and beast would surely have frozen to death. 
 The writer of this article in his youth had the experience when 
 sleeping in the loft of a log house of awakening in the morning 
 with a thick covering of snow upon the bed covers and which 
 had come in between the logs where the chinks had fallen out 
 and under the clapboards. They did not know they could 
 dig wells here in those days, and so the first settlers settled 
 near springs. Neither did they know that the land was un- 
 derlaid with coal and so they burned wood and had to be near 
 it, for the fire-places with which they used to heat their 
 homes and cook their simple food, took lots of fuel. All their 
 building material must be near at hand in growing timber. 
 It was the only material they had to fence with also. 
 
 The Prairie Fire 
 
 It was very dangerous to live on the prairie on account of 
 the frequent prairie fires. I very well remember hearing my
 
 213 
 
 father tell how, when he was was a small boy, his father, 
 Thomas Elliott, tried to plow around the house and stable and 
 also burn the grass for a distance about the building which 
 was known as back firing. When he had seen a fire in the 
 distance he told how the onrush of the wall of flame was so 
 great that it made all his efforts unavailing and jumped to 
 the house and stable so that grandfather had difficulty in 
 saving even his family and beasts. Being burned out in those 
 days was no funny experience, with nothing to rebuild with 
 except growing trees, and with no neighbors for miles around 
 and winter coming on, for these terrible fires always came 
 near winter when the grass had died and was dry. On this 
 occasion my grandfather cut poles and built two pens, one in- 
 side the other while grandmother gathered leaves and filled 
 the space between them and in this they lived until they could 
 erect a log cabin. 
 
 Were Hardy Pioneers 
 
 The early settlers who thus settled in the timber around 
 Center Prairie and who later themselves or their descendants 
 helped to make Center Prairie what it is were hardy pioneers, 
 who came overland with their families in wagons from the 
 older states. I shall only attempt to enumerate a few. 
 
 Thomas Elliott first settled in Persifer township in 1837 
 where the writer's father. Burgess Elliott, was born. He 
 moved later to Victoria township near the present home of 
 James Cook and it was while he was living here that he under- 
 took and got out and delivered on the ground the long hewn 
 timbers for the Methodist church which was built in Victoria 
 in 1854. It was here he lived when he had a contract to de- 
 liver railroad ties between Altona and Galva for the C. B. and 
 Q. R. R. 
 
 The Wilburs settled just west of Delbert Patty's place in 
 the thirty's and a daughter, Phoebe, married Peter Sornber- 
 ger and they were the first couple married in Victoria town- 
 ship in 1838, on Easter Sunday. 
 
 Luther Rice settled in the timber about two miles south 
 from the Center Prairie church, about 1842, and was the pro- 
 genetor of a numerous family, among whom was Foster Rice, 
 who built a log house where Charley Larson now lives about 
 1857, and Cyrus Rice, who built the Robert Young house in 
 1857, where J. L. Huber now lives, which was another of the 
 first frame houses on Center Prairie. Alvin Rice still owns a 
 part of his grandfather's land. Perhaps the earliest settler on 
 Center Prairie proper was Thomas G. Stuart, who patented 
 the N. E. Quarter of Section 27 in 1838, which old patent the 
 writer recently saw at the Exchange Bank at Victoria.
 
 214 
 
 Burned To Death 
 
 He died about 1845 and left his estate by will to his wife, 
 Catherine. In 1850 Catherine burned a brush pile near the 
 house to prepare ground to sow tobacco seed and the house 
 caught fire and Mrs. Stuart was burned until she died trying 
 to save money in the house and was buried just west of the 
 creek on the S. E. Quarter of the old homestead. She was the 
 mother of four boys : Tom, who kept the homestead ; married 
 Eliza Gladfelter, was crippled in the war, died at the old home 
 and was buried in Thomas' grave yard, now the Center Prairie 
 Cemetery. Elija, Peter, William and one girl, Katie, who 
 married Van Winkle and was the mother of Henry Van Win- 
 kle, who lived for many years north of Four Corners. 
 
 Perhaps the next settler in line who settled on Center 
 Prairie was Josiah Patty and Beka Patty his wife, who built 
 a log house on the southeast quarter of Section 27, where 
 Phillip Gibbs now lives, he having purchased the land from 
 Richard J. Barret in 1839. Mr. Gibbs still has the old patent. 
 Their children were James, William, Sarah, Nancy, Robert, 
 George and Josiah. 
 
 John Arnold, a blacksmith, first came in Knox County 
 and Victoria township in 1836, but did not buy the old Arnold 
 place where Gust Swanson now lives until 1840. He did black- 
 smithing there until 1853, when he moved to Victoria. John 
 Arnold and his wife had ten children. In fact in those days 
 the hardy pioneer family that did not consist of ten was 
 the exception and not the rule. Thomas Elliott and his wife 
 were the parents of fourteen children. 
 
 Perhaps the first family who settled on the flat prairie to 
 the north was that of Thomas Durand, for whom Jonas Hed- 
 strom, the tailor and preacher, made a wedding suit, who 
 owned the Conley place where Martin Gibbs afterwards set- 
 tled in 1850, and the two eighty-acre pieces that now belong to 
 Alex Ingles and Wm. England. This land he bought in 1841 
 and as there was no timber near he fenced the half section 
 with a sod fence, the remains of which may still be seen 
 after a lapse of nearly eighty years. He was the grandfather 
 of John McNaught and Mrs. Cornelius Stephenson of later 
 times. These were the N. W. Quarter Section 13 and the S. E. 
 Quarter Section 12. 
 
 Arrival of Swedes 
 
 From this time on settlers came in increasing numbers. 
 Especially about 1850 the Swedes began to arrive in large 
 numbers. Among the early settlers were J. L. Jarnagin, 1845; 
 Dalgren, 1846; Adolphus Anderson, 1847, and John Saline, 
 1854 . Then came in 1855 Peter Anderson, Lars Ostrom, John 
 Chalman, Sam Coleman; in 1857, Peter Skoglund, step-father
 
 215 
 
 to Mrs. Catherine Larson, who is still with us, and Sievert 
 Larson, to be quickly followed by Noah Swickard, Lars John- 
 son, William Hammerlund, John P. Anderson, father of Frank 
 Anderson, who still lives on the old homestead, and who 
 shipped the first car load of frozen beef to Chicago and the 
 man who invented the refrigerator cars that make it possible 
 to ship fresh meat almost all over the world, as also Eli and 
 Shid Johnson, Theodore Hammond, Joseph Cain, James 
 Thomas, Jonas Olson and many others. 
 
 Poor Facilities 
 
 These were a hardy race who willingly bore the hardships 
 of a pioneer life and bravely withstood the rigorous winters 
 of the bleak and open prairies for the sake of founding their 
 new homes and establishing their families in a new country. 
 They early felt the need of education, as most of them had had 
 very limited opportunities for securing an education, so that 
 almost with their coming they set up log school houses, cov- 
 ered with clapboards and floored with puncheon, which was 
 poles split and the split side hewn and laid up as a floor. 
 There was a fireplace in one end of the room and seats around 
 the wall, made of slabs or split logs with four sticks in for 
 legs upon which the children sat with their feet dangling 
 from the floor as they studied the old Webster's spelling book, 
 before the time of the far-famed McGuffey's speller. It was 
 in such an institution of learning that Burgess Elliott, who 
 was born in Knox county in 1837, as well as others of that 
 time, secured the rudiments of an education. Not long after 
 the first settlers came here. Old Salem, which was started in 
 1836, became too crowded and the settlers were so far away 
 that they built a small square house on the corner near Tom 
 Stuart's. 
 
 William Robinson, a cousin of John K. Robinson, was one 
 of the early teacher's here. This school house soon became 
 too small and it was proposed to build a new one and there 
 was great rivalry as to where it should be built, but as this 
 was near where Salem school now is, and most of the patrons 
 lived east on the prairie, it was finally determined to put it 
 where it now stands, and so the school house was built here 
 in 1856. The sawed lumber was hauled overland from Rock 
 Island and Peoria and the framing timber was got out by 
 John Saline and Charles Appell. John Saline did the the build- 
 ing of it. There was much discussion as to what it should be 
 called. Some wanted to call it Stuart's Prairie and others 
 Anderson's Prairie, but a compromise was made and it was 
 named Center Prairie and Center Prairie it still is. The first 
 teacher was one John Fleeharty, from Galesburg, who taught 
 in 1856. The next winter, John Van Buren, a brother of
 
 216 
 
 George Van Buren, who still lives in Victoria, taught, and 'tis 
 said of him to this day that he was one of the best teachers 
 Center Prairie ever had. The next year, 1858, Miss Mary 
 Garrett, a daughter of old Captain Garrett, who later became 
 Mrs. Mcllravy, and still lives in Victoria, taught the school, as 
 she did for several terms thereafter. She, like all teachers of 
 that day, boarded at Thomas Elliott's, and with other families 
 who had children. 
 
 The Big Storm 
 
 She was staying a week at Moody Robinson's when they 
 had the big storm. May 14, 1858, about five o'clock in the af- 
 ternoon. It came from the north and blew Robinson's new 
 frame house off the foundation and lodged it against the well. 
 It lifted the roof off of Foster Rice's house and blew a log out 
 over the door so that Mrs. Rice had to put a blanket over 
 Foster, who was holding the door to keep him from drowning. 
 It blew the windows out of Peter Anderson's house; in fact, 
 the double log house of Thomas Elliott, made of the logs of 
 Old Salem school house, was the only one in all this region 
 that withstood the storm and all the neighbors stayed that 
 night at Thomas Elliott's as it was the only dry place in the 
 neighborhood. They lay about two deep all over the floor 
 and 'tis said that none who were old enough to remember 
 ever forgot that storm. Mrs. Robinson's geese were blown 
 away till she never found them. Wagons were picked up and 
 carried to the creek and washed away. Noah Swickard's new 
 frame house, where Alvira Johnson now lives, was blown 
 off the foundation, and at Rochester a house was blown in 
 the river and carried away. The young men of the neighbor- 
 hood went the next day to Walnut creek and swam around in 
 the tops of the trees among the limbs which were twenty or 
 thirty feet from the ground when the waters receded. 
 
 To these schools came the boys and girls that were to 
 make this wilderness a teeming land of plenty. Such men as 
 young Arnold, son of John Arnold, who afterwards became a 
 notable lawyer of Peoria, and Jonas Olson, the crippled orphan 
 boy who afterwards became Galva's most famous attorney 
 and member of the Illinois Legislature and above all a life- 
 long friend of all who knew him. 'Tis said that although he 
 had to walk two miles to school with a crutch, he was one of 
 the most happy pupils, as well as one of the most industrious. 
 It is handed down in school lore that he was a mischievous 
 boy and while studying the old M. C. Guffey's spelling book 
 one day he ran onto what he thought was a bad word and 
 spelled ut in a loud whisper so that the whole school could 
 hear, d-a-m dam, n-a na, t-i-o-n shun, damnation, and he still 
 asserts that what the teacher, Mary Garrett gave him, fitted
 
 217 
 
 the word. At these school houses were held many famous ex- 
 hibitions, singing schools and spelling schools. Thomas Stu- 
 art who was said to be a very poor reader was the most fam- 
 ous speller of all this region, always standing up till all the 
 teachers even were spelled down. 
 
 Center of Patriotism 
 
 So it was at this school house that the patriots of '61 met 
 to encourage the boys to enlist in their country's cause. One 
 of the most famous songs and one that always aroused the 
 boys to the highest pitch of enthusiasm and which fitted the 
 great leader, Abraham Lincoln, was "We are Coming, Father 
 Abraham, Fifty Thousand Strong." 
 
 Center Prairie and the immediate neighborhood did not 
 lack any in patriotism, as evidenced by the list of boys who 
 wore the blue. Among them were August Carlson, Robert 
 Young, Tom Stuart, Oliver Willy, Bill Larson, George Elliott, 
 George Newberg, Adolphus Anderson, John P. Anderson, 
 Nehemiah Coleman, Aaron Bothwell, Sam Cain, Jimmy Topp, 
 Jonas Empstrom, Lee Shannon, Bill Thomas, Jonas Johnson, 
 John Case, James Alderman, John Labar, Noah Swickard, 
 James Jamigan, Spencer Jarnagin, John P. Peterson, Ward 
 Todd, Wm. Linday and Nat White. Of these famous sons of 
 Center Prairie and surrounding territory who fought in the 
 army blue, only three, George Newberg, August Carlton and 
 George Elliott are now living. 
 
 In the World War 
 
 A history of the patriotic activities would be incomplete 
 in this year of grace did it not include a list of the boys of 
 the World War who wore the khaki of the army and the blue 
 of the U. S. navy. The honor roll that stands out in front of 
 this church contains a list of men, who risked their lives that 
 democracy might live. They are : 
 
 Glen Ostrom, Raymond Wall, Arthur Swanson, Roy 
 Gibbs, Lew Gibbs, Charles Carlson, Sgt. Harold Elliott, Ray- 
 mond Elliott, Charles Warrensford, Forest Cain, Machinist's 
 Mate 2nd, Edward Elliott, Paul Mustain, Clem Cravens, Ralph 
 Mustain, George Todd, Ervin Moshier, Earnest Brown, Ber- 
 tas Mackey, Clarence Spencer, Fred Steinman, Robert Kneer, 
 Earl Brown. 
 
 The Religious Side 
 
 The early settlers were not satisfied to rest at mere phy- 
 sical and intellectual betterment, but above all they were relig- 
 ious. At first they met at the homes to hold worship and as 
 soon as school houses were built they took the place of 
 churches until churches could be built, so that when old Salem 
 school house was built they began to hold meetings there and
 
 218 
 
 camp meetings in the grove, just north, and later the Swedish 
 people held camp meetings on the opposite side of the hollow 
 from the American. Then when the Center Prairie school 
 house was built they used it for a meeting house, both the 
 Swedes and the English speaking people. Louisa Anderson, 
 now Mrs. William Seward, tells me that she was baptized at 
 the school house. Many of the inhabitants of the prairie had 
 helped to build both Methodist churches in Victoria, but were 
 so far away and had only oxen to drive, that they early began 
 to feel the need of a church on Center Prairie and when Peter 
 Newberg and Exstrand started the movement to build a 
 church on Center Prairie they found willing hearts and hands 
 to help. "Exstrand was a very bright young man," says 
 Jonas Olson. "Perhaps I am partial to him because he was a 
 cripple like myself. He walked with a crutch." They were 
 ably assisted by the English people and Swedes alike, one of 
 the most earnest workers being Peter Skoglund. The land 
 where the church now stands was purchased by Adolphus 
 Anderson in 1855 and he broke it up. In 1857 he sold it to 
 Lars Johnson and he in turn sold it to Wm. Hammerlund in 
 1858. 
 
 For a consideration of fifty dollars, Hammerlund sold a 
 piece of land eight and one-half rods north and south and 
 seven rods east and west to the Swedish Methodist Episcopal 
 church of the United States to be for and under the control of 
 the Swedish Methodist church in Victoria township, Knox 
 county, Illinois. The money to build it was contributed by 
 popular subscription. Many volunteered to haul a load of 
 lumber back from Galva when they went up with grain and 
 produce. The mason work was done by Swenson from Knox- 
 ville and the carpenter work was done by Peterson Herdine, 
 who lived in Galva for so many years. But the building of 
 this church in 1869 was not without some opposition. Peter 
 Chalman, who had formerly been presiding elder of the Swed- 
 ish M. E. church of this district, assisted by John Wilson, a 
 cabinet maker, and full of gab, as Andrew Hartman expresses 
 it, and who came to be a real free shouting Methodist and who, 
 wearing no suspenders, in the heat of his discourse, is said to 
 have shed his raiment, organized about three quarters of a 
 mile south of the school house a Free Methodist church. The 
 money was raised by popular subscription, but not enough was 
 raised to pay the debt and so the trustees paid the debt and 
 tore down the church after some fifteen or twenty years. In 
 this church the English Sunday school was held for many 
 years. Thus Center Prairie has been supplied since a very 
 early day with ample church facilities and I hope that future 
 historians of the county will take cognizance of this fact in 
 writing the early church history of Knox county.
 
 219 
 
 The Cemetery 
 
 One of the things neglected here, as in all newly settled 
 districts, was the early setting apart of a plot of ground for 
 a public cemetery. The early settlers buried on their own 
 premises. The Tabors buried on what is now the John Saline 
 place, the Stuarts on the Stuart place, the Arnolds on the 
 Arnold place, the Cliffords on the Dr. Craven's place where 
 old "Bobby" Armstrong's first wife, who was a Clifford, is 
 buried. It was not until about 1858 that the family of Jim 
 Thomas who owned the farm where the Center Prairie ceme- 
 tery is located, lost several children with diphtheria and buried 
 them there and when he sold the place to Olof Bowman he re- 
 served the present plot for a burial ground and later, at the 
 suggestion of William Messmore, deeded it to Knox county for 
 a public cemetery. Center Prairie owes a debt of gratitude 
 to John Thomas for this generous gift and can best repay it 
 by seeing that it is always properly kept up. The present neat 
 appearance is due largely to the good work of William Eng- 
 land, Charley Larson and Victor Larson, who were selected 
 by their neighbors to solicit funds and have it taken care of. 
 
 As To Utensils 
 The early settlers had very few of the comforts of life as 
 we view them now. There were few simple cooking utensils. 
 The writer has an old kettle that his grandmother has baked 
 many a corn pone in by placing coals under the kettle on 
 the hearth of the fire place and putting coals on top. All the 
 clothes were made of wool or flax raised in the neighborhood 
 and spun and woven into cloth. Much of the caiTDet woven 
 in this locality by Aunt Margaret Larson, Adolphus Ander- 
 son's first wife, was made on the old loom of Mrs. Thomas 
 Elliott, that she used to weave the woolen and Lindsey-Wool- 
 sey out of which she made the clothes and blankets to keep her 
 family warm. It is only within the last few years that this 
 loom has been destroyed. 
 
 Practically all this whole prairie was broken up with 
 oxen. Burgess Elliott, Lars Ostrom, Martin England and 
 Adolphus Anderson did much of this work. For this work 
 they used a 28 or 32 inch breaking plow drawn by from four 
 to six yoke of oxen. Some of the back furrows can still be 
 see on the Martin England farm where Mr. England now lives. 
 
 At first the ground was very wet but within a few years 
 a ditching machine which pressed a round hole about three 
 feet under the ground and about the size of a six inch tile was 
 used. This took the place of tile which came later and did 
 very well in an early day, but the hole was gradually enlarged 
 by the water until the top caved in and started large ditches. 
 Well does the writer remember when his folks moved south of
 
 220 
 
 the school house, of crawHng, as a boy, for rods in these blind 
 ditches as they were called. As people in the present day go 
 to tractor demonstrations, so in those days would the people 
 come long distances to see new and improved machinery. 
 
 The sickle and scythe were not much used here to cut 
 grain, but the cradle was although it was soon succeeded by 
 the McCormick reaper on which one man sat and drove and 
 another stood and raked the grain off in sheaves for the bind- 
 ers to gather up and bind. The first self-raking reaper used 
 here was owned by Adolphus Anderson and his nephew, Frank 
 Anderson, tells of its first use. It was used a quarter of a 
 mile north of where the church now is about 1857 to cut 
 wheat. They used oxen on the tongue and horses in the lead. 
 Frank says he rode the horses. Among the men binding were 
 J. K. Robinson and Manford Mosher. Frank says thev had 
 molasses, ginger and water in a pail and a long black bottle. 
 Charles Clark and many others came to see the new reaper 
 work. Robinson says Frank carried the water and bottle and 
 took toll for carrying it to the others. Thus does the historian 
 find himself in a maze of uncertainty as to the true facts. 
 
 In those early days all the corn ground had to be marked 
 out both ways and planted by hand. The tools they used to 
 tend it with were the hoe, single shovel, double shovel and bar 
 share plow. It would look funny nowadays to see one plowing 
 corn with oxen as Ben Nelson did about 1860 on the place 
 where Fred Holstrum now lives. 
 
 Old Conveyances 
 
 Your historian has had much pleasure looking over the 
 old conveyances of the Patty place, the Arnold, the Stuart, the 
 Peter Anderson, Louis Osstrum, Eli Johnson and others. He 
 has seen more patents by the government to land in the last 
 week than in his whole life time before. Cliff Gibbs has the 
 original patent to Tom Stuart from the government signed 
 with the president's name. That is what is known as a sheep- 
 skin. Besides a patent which is in effect a government deed, 
 there were issued to the soldiers of 1776 and 1812 land war- 
 rants. This was a privilege to locate a quarter-section of land 
 in this military district, enter the land at the land office, sur- 
 render the warrant and get a deed in the form of a patent. 
 Eric Ostrom has such a patent issued in 1817 to Cornelius 
 Riorden, sergeant in Nelson's company of infantry of the U. 
 S. after he had deposited a land warrant in the land office that 
 was issued on the soldier's bounty land of the territory of Illi- 
 nois in 1817. On the same day Riorden deeded the land to 
 Alexander Cooper and the deed is written on the back of the 
 patent. It is sure a curious document. In those days land 
 titles were not so carefully recorded and there was more or
 
 221 
 
 less counterfeiting of land transfers and the country was in- 
 fested with swindlers known as land sharps. It is said that 
 Pete Skoglund paid for his land two or three times rather 
 than go to law about the title. 
 
 But we must not think that all the life of these ancestors 
 of ours was bereft of enjoyment. They lived in a land of milk 
 and honey and had much to be thankful for. One of these was 
 a famous peach orchard owned by Tom Stuart. They were 
 real peaches, says Jonas Olson, and I can readily believe him 
 for you can always trust a boy to know where there's a water- 
 melon patch or a real peach orchard. With an ancestry such 
 as this it behooves us, their descendants, to follow the advice of 
 the poet who says : 
 
 "Let us then be up and doing. 
 With a heart for any fate, 
 
 Still achieving and pursuing. 
 
 Learn to labor and to wait,"
 
 222 
 TOPOGRAPHICAL MAP OF KNOX COUNTY 
 
 This map of Knox County shows the stream and water- 
 shed system of the county ; its valleys ; the elevation of prin- 
 cipal points above the sea level ; and the number and location 
 of the coal veins. These veins are numbered from the bottom 
 up, the lowest vein in the county being No. 1, and highest No. 
 6, The forested areas are as a rule contiguous to the streams.
 
 223 
 
 MAP OF KNOX COUNTY 
 
 The following map shows the townships and railroads and 
 the older municipalities of the county, along with several 
 neighborhood centers. Williamsfield in Truro township, and 
 East Galesburg in Knox township are later towns on the Sante 
 Fe. Hermon in Chestnut township is on the Fulton county 
 branch of the Burlington, formerly the Narrow Gauge. Sum- 
 mit on the Peoria Branch is better known as Douglas.
 
 224 
 
 MUNICIPAL NOTES 
 Yates City 
 
 In Salem township are Yates City, Douglas and Union- 
 town. The last was surveyed and platted in 1839. It was in 
 the earlier days a point of much importance. Luther Carey 
 opened the first store there and Jacob Booth and Moses Shinn 
 a blacksmith shop, and they made plows and wagons. Thomas 
 Griggsby began brick burning in 1845. The first school 
 opened in 1843. The building of the railroad elsewhere killed 
 its prospects. 
 
 Douglas, sometimes called Summit, was laid out October 
 17, 1856, and it developed from the building of the Peoria line 
 of the Burlington. It has been a lively trading point and 
 has maintained a number of stores, and had excellent facili- 
 ties for handling grain. It maintains a good school. 
 
 Yates City is the principal municipality of the southeast 
 part of the county, and is at one of the Burlington junctions. 
 It was laid out in 1837 by William and A. C. Babcock, Thomas 
 Maple, Rufus H. Bishop, Bostwick Kent and James Burson. 
 James Burson erected the first business house; John Donne- 
 maker opened the first hotel, and Isaac West erected the first 
 dwelling. Buffum and Enable established a grain warehouse. 
 A good flouring mill was built in 1868. Brick and tile were 
 formerly manufactured in large quantity. 
 
 The Harvest Home Association, which has made Yates City 
 famous for its annual celebrations, was established in 1886, 
 largely through the efforts of Editor McKeighan of the Ban- 
 ner. 
 
 The saloon which from 1857 had fastened itself on the 
 city was wiped out in 1875 and with the exception of 1888 and 
 1895 was kept out. Good banks have for years furnished ex- 
 cellent financial facilities. The city has a first class line of 
 business houses. 
 
 The first postoffice was opened in February, 1859, with 
 J. M. Corey as postmaster. 
 
 Yates City was chartered on March 4, 1869. 
 
 For many years Yates City has maintained a high stand- 
 ard of schools. Among those who were its principals were 
 the late W. L. Steele, so long superintendent of the city schools 
 of Galesburg, and W. F. Boyes, present county superintendent 
 of schools. 
 
 Of the Yates City churches, the First Presbyterian was 
 organized November 16, 1866, and the Methodists completed 
 an edifice in 1868.
 
 225 
 
 Also fraternally Yates City is strong and it has witnessed 
 the organization of Masonic, Odd Fellow and Modern Wood- 
 men lodges, and a Grand Army Post. 
 
 Yates City has for many years maintained a strong poli- 
 tical influence in the county, and one of its best known young 
 men, Frank L. Adams, has for years served efficiently as 
 county clerk. 
 
 Maquon 
 
 The village of Maquon is situated on or near the site of 
 the old Indian village at the north line of the township and 
 was surveyed by Parnach Owen in 1836, who assisted by sev- 
 eral others laid out the village. For several years it had 
 neither religious or educational institutions, but was the site 
 of a distillery and race track, according to Gale's history of 
 the county. Both these long since disappeared and years ago 
 Maquon took its place as one of the model communities of 
 Knox. The village was incorporated March 4, 1857, and its 
 population by 1880 had reached 548. The first building in the 
 village was Cox's tavern, built by Benjamin Cox, and for 
 twenty years used as barracks, kept by Nathan Barbero. John 
 Hippie conducted the first store in a building erected by Mat- 
 thew Maddox in 1839. For forty years there has been no sa- 
 loon in Maquon. The business interests are well represented 
 by well conducted stores and banks. 
 
 The business portion of Maquon has experienced six dis- 
 astrous fires all of them of doubtful origin. 
 
 Prior to 1848 Maquon schools were held in rooms furnished 
 by Nathan and Calister Barbero, but in that year a substan- 
 tial brick building was erected. The initial attendance was 
 175 pupils. The Maquon school for many years has been con- 
 sidered one of the best in the county. 
 
 Maquon has responded nobly to all patriotic demands. In 
 the Civil War a full quota of 250 came from the village and 
 township. 
 
 The village is well supplied with fraternal organizations, 
 which provide a congenial social life. 
 
 Rapatee, also in Maquon township, was founded in 1883, 
 with the building of the Iowa Central in 1883. It was laid out 
 by Benjamin Adams and A. B. Stewart was its first mer- 
 chant. 
 
 Rio 
 
 Rio, in Rio township, was platted in 1871 by William Rob- 
 inson, and was first called Coburg. The pioneer store was 
 built by Messrs. Schroeder and Owens. Nelson Coe was the 
 first postmaster. Rio has always had enterprising merchants, 
 and has been a good trading center. Since its founding, there
 
 226 
 
 have been organized there Masonic, Odd Fellow, Modern 
 Woodmen, Eastern Star and Home Forum lodges. The place 
 also maintains religious worship. 
 
 An Early Inventor 
 
 Some mention has been made elsewhere of the inventors 
 of the county who contributed to its agricultural development. 
 Mention should be made of Riley Root, who seemed to be the 
 inventive genius of the colonists. Among other things he pro- 
 duced the rotary snow plow, a device for clarifying cane or 
 corn syrups, and a surveyor's level. 
 
 Ambassador to China 
 
 A Galesburg and Knox County boy, Edwin Hurd Conger, 
 rose to high distinction after graduating from Lombard col- 
 lege in 1832 and serving through the war, where he was brev- 
 eted as major for gallant service. In 1880 he was elected State 
 treasurer of Iowa. In 1886 he was elected to Congress and was 
 twice re-elected. President Harrison appointed him minister 
 to Brazil serving until 1893. In 1897 he was reappointed to 
 the Brazil post but in 1898 was transferred to China, where 
 he served with distinction for a number of years and where 
 during the Boxer uprising he was a conspicuous international 
 figure.
 
 227 
 
 ILLINOIS 
 By W. F. Boyes 
 
 Such gratitude as is due the pioneers of Knox County 
 is likewise due those who had made IlHnois a commonwealth 
 of the Union before this county was settled. One of the b't- 
 terest and most significant political contests ever wa<?ed made 
 Illinois a free state in 1824, and before our county history be- 
 gins the boundaries had been established and forces set at 
 work that were to make this state a most important factor in 
 the preservation of the Union. 
 
 The territory, now Illinois, was claimed by the French 
 from the days of Marquette to the Treaty of Paris in 1763. 
 From 1763 to the conquest of George Rogers Clark it was 
 British territory. The Treaty of 1783 confirmed Clark's con- 
 quest and gave Illinois to the United States. But one of the 
 great difficulties of the early government of the nation was 
 the territorial claims of the different states. Massachusetts, 
 Connecticut and Virginia all claimed territory lying within 
 the present State of Illinois. The cession of Virginia was 
 made in 1783. 
 
 Kaskaskia, just below the mouth of the Kaskaskia river, 
 and Cahokia, a few miles below East St. Louis, were the earl- 
 iest permanent settlements. This state was settled by people 
 from the north, east and south. Each of these directions 
 brought its own peculiar characteristics and customs. Two 
 groups of families directly from England settled in Edwards 
 county in 1816 and 1817. It is said that no other district 
 created such wide-spread interest in Europe as the Illinois 
 country. 
 
 Upon the British occupation of the territory, many of 
 the French emigrated. Development in Illinois was at a 
 stand for years. The white population within the present 
 state was probably not more than 1,000 in 1800. The most 
 marked development of the country began upon the organiza- 
 tion of Illinois as a separate territory. In 1818 the popula- 
 tion was about 40,000. 
 
 Slavery was introduced into the territory by the French 
 in 1721. Nothing was said in the treaty of cession to Great 
 Britain about slaverj% but such chattels were held in Illinois 
 as British territory, just as when it was French. The United 
 States in turn agreed to guarantee to the people security in 
 person and effects. So, notwithstanding the ordinance of 
 1787, slavery was for years a fact. Under the early state gov- 
 ernment, what was called the Black code recognized the insti- 
 tution and then came the great campaign of 1824, under Gov-
 
 228 
 
 ernor Coles which made it clear that Illinois was to be a free 
 state. 
 
 The Indians within the state caused much trouble at dif- 
 ferent times. The Ft. Dearborn and Wood River massacres 
 were the most serious. But many lives were taken by Indians 
 during the War of 1812 and later. 
 
 At first there were two counties in the present Illinois 
 territory — St. Clair on the west, where most of the inhabitants 
 were, and Knox on the east. Later Randolph was organized 
 from the south part of St. Clair. Then came Clark, Edwards, 
 White, Monroe, Crawford and Jackson. There were fifteen 
 counties when the state was admitted in 1818. 
 
 The population of the new state was exceedingly mixed, 
 there were few towns of any importance, the roads were paths 
 through the woods, there were practically no schools and al- 
 most nothing in the way of public worship. But the climate, 
 the soil, the natural resources, the great waterways, were here. 
 The progress of the people has been commensurate with the 
 development of the state, and it is to commemorate Knox 
 County's part in this wonderful progress of a hundred years 
 that this book is published. The committee of Knox County 
 Board of Supervisors in charge of the publication is: C. H. 
 Pulver, chairman; Milton Deatherage, and Clarence R. Lacy.
 
 I \ D K X 
 
 In this work, the townships are alphabetically arrang^ed. The following 
 index refers to the more important points of the worli, the numbers indi- 
 cating the pages on which reference to each item may be found: 
 
 — A — 
 
 Abingdon — 4S-60, 118. 
 Abingdon College — 4S. 
 Agricultural Development — 22. 
 98, 156, 167, 168, 171, 21U, 220. 
 Altona — 201-202. 
 Ambassadors — 20, 226. 
 Amusements — 160, 166. 
 Appleton — 154. 
 
 122, 132, 
 
 107. 
 
 Banking — 21. 
 
 Bee Hunting — 200. 
 
 Births, Early — 64. 100, 107. 
 
 142. 149. 170, 185. 198. 
 Black Hawk War — 10, 42. 
 
 108. 124. 132. 141. 
 Bridges. First — 133. 
 Brimfield — 67. 
 
 Cedar Township — 34-61. 
 
 Center Prairie 212-221. 
 
 Cemeteries — 62, 149. 219. 
 
 Cherry Grove Seminary — 46. 
 
 Chestnut Township — 61. 
 
 Child lost — 70. 
 
 Churches, Early — 50, 63. 68, 89, 90, 
 
 101. 
 Circuit Bench — 21. 
 Coal — 68, 146. 171. 
 Company C, I. N. G. — 93-96. 
 Congressmen — 1 7. 
 Conveyances — 220. 
 Copley Township — 64. 
 County Business, Growth of — 9. 
 County Home — 9. 
 Court Houses — 9. 107, 131. 
 County Seat Contest — 8, 9. 97. 
 
 — D — 
 
 Dahinda — 154. 
 Deaths. First — 107. 149. 
 De Long — 144. 
 Douglas — 67. 
 
 Early Settlements, Knox County — 
 
 27. 33. 
 IClba Township — 6C. 
 Elm wood — 67. 
 Emigration — 57. 
 Etherly — 65. 
 Eugene — 67. 
 
 — F — 
 
 Farm Bureau — 22, 23. 
 
 Farming — 69. 
 
 Farmington — 67. 
 
 Farm Products and Prices — 67, 77. 
 
 114, 199. 
 Fires— 117, 175. 180. 181, 202, 205, 
 
 214, 217. 218. 
 Flood — 205. 
 Forts — 85. 109. 
 
 — G — 
 
 Galesburg — Academy. 86; Annals, 7;!; 
 
 Colony. 109; Knox College. 86; 
 
 Lombard College, 87; Plan of 
 founders, 73, 77; Schools. 81. 
 Game — 147. 201. 
 Gilson — 102. 
 Glenwood — 67. 
 Golden Circle — 153. 
 Government — Commission. 6; Judges, 
 
 6; Supervisors, 7. 
 
 — H — 
 
 Harrisonville and Hermon — 63. 
 
 Harvest Home — 173. 
 
 Haw Creek Township — 100, 104. 
 
 Hedding College — 48. 
 
 Henderson Township — 105-112. 
 
 Henderson Village — 111. 
 
 Hermon — 63. 
 
 Historical Association, Centennial — 
 
 3, 4. 
 Hospitals — 91. 
 Houses, First — 62, 66, SO. 103, 106. 
 
 109, 123. 142, 159, 160, 167, 172, 197, 
 
 198. 
 
 Illinois— 227. 
 
 Indians- 42. 66, 64. 100, 113. 122. 127. 
 
 131, 140. 148, 184, 197. article on 
 
 207-211. 
 Indian Trail map — 208. 
 Indian Point Township — 113 120. 
 Industries — 54. 141. 143. 178, 200. 
 Inventor, Early — 226. 
 
 — K— 
 
 Knox College— 86-87. 
 
 Knox County Annals — 5-27: Agricul- 
 tural Development. 22-23; Agri- 
 cultural Board, 123; Banking, 21; 
 Growth of Knox County Home 
 9; Court House Erection, 9; County 
 Officers, 23: County Seat Contest, 
 8-9; Government, 6: by Judges, 6-7; 
 Townshij) organization, 7; Growth
 
 1 \ 1) K X 
 
 — K — 
 
 (Clint ill iii'<l ) 
 
 cf I'opulation, 10-12; Municipali- 
 ties, 11; Political History, in Con- 
 gress, 17; in Legislature, 18-21; 
 Railroads, 14-15; Religious growth, 
 lo-14: School Development, 14-15; 
 Statistics of Population, 13; Town- 
 ship officers, 24-27. 
 
 Knoxville — 33, 67-124. 
 
 Knox Township — 121, 12G. 
 
 — L — 
 
 Land Prices — 33, 38. 
 
 Legislature — 18, 21. 
 
 Library — 170, 203. 
 
 Liberty Loan — IS, 60. 
 
 Lincoln — 43. 
 
 Lincoln-Douglas Debate — 92. 
 
 Log Cabins and Furnishings — 43, 44. 
 
 71, 78, 110. 124, 125, 215, 218. 
 Log City — 78. 
 
 Lombard College — 87, 88, 89. 
 Lynn Township — 127-130. 
 
 — M — 
 
 Maquon — 225. 
 
 Maquon Township — 131-132. 
 Markets — 44. 130, 144, 199. 
 Marriages, First — 36, 61, 66, 83, 109, 
 
 123, 132, 142, 149, 186, 198. 
 Medical Aid — 45. 
 Middle Grove — 172. 
 Mills — 62 64, 68, SO, 102 108, 111. 117, 
 
 141, 145, 150, 152, 154, 170, 1S6, 200. 
 Mormon;? — 197-198. 
 Municipalities — 11. 
 
 Newburg — 67. 
 Newspaiiers — 118, 170. 
 
 — O— 
 
 Old Settlers' Association — 123. 
 Ontario Township — 134, 140. 
 Orange Township — 140-144. 
 
 — V — 
 
 Pastimes — 102. 
 
 Persifer Township — 145-163. 
 
 Pioneers — 35, 85. 
 
 F'ioneer Schools — 32. 
 
 Population — 10, 12, 13. 
 
 Postal Facilities — 63, 68, 103, 109, 
 
 111, 123, 150. 193, 199. 200. 
 Prairie State Oil Co. — 155. 
 
 Raili'oads- 
 175, 201. 
 P.apatee — 225 
 
 — R — 
 
 16, 65, 92, 
 
 11. IM, 166. 
 
 Religious Growth; First Churches 
 —13-14, SI, 89, 90, 91, 107, 115, 130, 
 137, 138, 139, 142, 143, 155, 176, 177, 
 178, 179, 192, 193, 203, 217, 218. 
 
 Rio — 225. 
 
 Rio Township — 163-169. 
 
 Roads, First — 109, 191, 192. 
 
 — S — 
 Salem Township — 170-173. 
 Saloons — 118, 224. 225. 
 Sparta Township — 174-177. 
 Schools — 14, 15, 45. 
 Schools, First — 62, 64, 66, 81, 101. 
 
 109, 115. 129, 132, 136, 142, 150. 171, 
 
 182. 185, 189, 198, 215. 
 Settlers, First — 64, 66. 106, 111, 113, 
 
 131, 140, 163, 164, 170. 174, 178, 
 
 1S4, 197. 
 Settlers. Where From — 34, 37, 64, 
 
 73, 100, 105, 114, 127, 128, 131, 134, 
 
 140, 141, 142, 147, 163, 164, 179, 212. 
 
 214. 
 St. Augustine — 117. 
 State Commissions — 21. 
 Stores, First — 67, 85, 101. 
 Storms — 35. 70, 120, 158, 216. 
 Stoves — 44. 
 
 Sunday Schools — 39, 116. 
 Supreme Bench — 21. 
 
 -T- 
 
 123 
 
 Taverns — 63. 
 
 186, 202. 
 Teachers! Early — 81. 
 Townshi]) Officers — 24-27. 
 Township Organization — 7, 
 
 68, 102, 143. 170. 174. 178, 
 Travel, Methods of — 67. 84, 
 
 150. 
 Trenton — 152. 
 Truro Township — 178-181. 
 
 129, 145. 161, 174, 
 
 63, 65, 
 194. 
 101, 128. 
 
 — U — 
 
 Underground Railroad- 
 Uniontown — 172. 
 
 !0, 173. 175. 
 
 Victoria, Village — 186, 187. 
 Victoria Township — 184-196. 
 
 — AV — 
 
 Walnut Grove — 197. 
 
 War — 16, 17, 63, 124, 132, 144. 165. 172. 
 
 181, 217. 
 War Record — 58. 72, 92. 
 Wataga — 175. 
 West. Mary Allt-n — 32. 
 Williamsfield — 67. 179. 
 
 -Y — 
 
 Yates City — 224.
 
 r^