I 
 
 
 ! 
 
 AMERICAN GUIDE SERIES 
 

Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2012 with funding from 
 
 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/princetonguidefeOOfede 
 
LIBRARY 
 
 OF THE 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 
 
 American Guide Series 
 
 PRINCETON GUIDE 
 
 FEDERAL WRITERS' PROJECT (ILLINOIS) 
 Works Progress Administration 
 
 Sponsored by 
 
 THE CITY OF PRINCETON 
 
 1939 
 
WORKS PROGRESS ADMINISTRATION 
 
 F. C. Harrington, Administrator 
 
 Florence S. Kerr, Assistant Administrator 
 
 Henry G. Alsberg, Director of Federal Writers' Project 
 
 COPYRIGHTED, 1939, BY 
 THE CITY OF PRINCETON 
 
?/7,7337 
 
 foreword 
 
 I first came to know the town of Princeton in the days when I 
 drove a Model T Ford on frequent journeys across Illinois, between 
 Michigan and Iowa. I learned to think of Princeton as a good place 
 to stay for a meal or a night — good because of the friendliness of its 
 people; good because of the spacious beauty of its residential streets. 
 Gradually, I learned to think of Princeton as my ideal of a middle- 
 western town. 
 
 For this reason I am particularly glad to have a hand in the 
 preparation of this historical and descriptive guide book, which will 
 present Princeton to interested readers throughout the state and nation, 
 and will, I hope, contribute to increased appreciation of the town, both 
 abroad and at home. 
 
 I wish to recognize the work of George V. Martin, who wrote 
 the text of this book, and of Catherine O'Brien of the Federal Art 
 project of Illinois, who made the drawings. I wish, also, to thank the 
 Princeton people who have helped in the preparation of the book, 
 particularly those who granted helpful interviews to Mr. Martin in 
 connection with his work. 
 
 John T. Frederick 
 Regional Director 
 Federal Writers' Project 
 
 I \ 004 i 8 
 
general information 
 
 Population: 4,762. 
 
 Railroad Station: Chicago, Burlington and Quincy R. R., main 
 line, passenger and ticket office N. Main St. ; 4 east-bound and 4 west- 
 bound trains stop daily. 
 
 Bus Station: Hotel Clark, N. Main St., for Santa Fe, and Burling- 
 ton Trailways. 
 
 Taxis: Standard rate to any point within city limits, 25c for each 
 passenger. 
 
 Traffic Regulations: Speed limits in residential and outlying dis- 
 tricts, 35 miles per hour. Parking time in business districts varies; 
 watch for signs. Traffic may move on green light only. Additional 
 traffic information is obtainable at police headquarters, City Hall. 
 
 Street Order and Numbering: Main St. is the principal thorough- 
 fare running N. and S. ; Central Ave., the chief E. and W. artery. 
 Houses are numbered from these two streets as a starting point. 
 
 Accommodations: Hotel Clark, S. Main St., 76 rooms; American 
 House, S. Main St., 50 rooms; Hotel Ray, E. Peru St., 20 rooms; 
 Northern Hotel, N. Main St., 40 rooms; rates in these hotels range 
 from $ .75 to $1.50, single; three well-equipped camps west of 
 Princeton on US 34. 
 
 Shopping District: Princeton has two separate shopping areas, 
 one on N., and one on S. Main St. 
 
 Theaters: Two motion picture theaters, both in south business 
 district. 
 
 Recreation: Indian Hills Golf Club, 3 blks. W. of N. Main St., 
 provides a 9-hole course at 50c for twice around; Bureau Valley 
 Country Club, 3 m. SE. of town on US 26, 9-hole, for members and 
 their guests. Municipal tennis courts are located at high school. 
 Alexander Park, at Princeton's W. limits, offers swimming and roller 
 skating facilities. Baseball is played at the Ball Park, W. of S. Main 
 St., and diamond is flooded for ice skating in winter. 
 
 Annual Events in Bureau County: Bureau County Fair, usually 
 last week in August. 
 
 [4] 
 
of primary and complementary color 
 
 Princeton is, and probably always will be, a town. The term 
 City of Princeton seems misapplied. This statement is made in no 
 derogatory sense. Chicago is a city in Illinois. Rockford, Elgin, 
 LaSalle, Springfield, and even communities smaller in population — 
 they are all cities. One dismisses with a shrug the existence in Prince- 
 ton of such urban services as modern fire-fighting equipment, muni- 
 cipally owned light and water plant, motor-driven street sweeper, 
 sewage disposal plant, and innumerable other advantages. They seem 
 but accessories after the fact. 
 
 Here is a town of merchants and retired farmers, where every- 
 body knows everybody else, and the title Mister is seldom heard. Even 
 the Mayor is called by his first name. A fine spirit of comradeship 
 exists between townsfolk and farmers, between the sexes, and 
 between young and old. Noticeable all day and every day, this 
 is especially obvious on Saturday nights, when Main Street is jam- 
 packed with movie-goers and shoppers, and on Sunday mornings. 
 Practically everybody attends church; churches, rather than taverns 
 provide stimulation for the average person, and they say that it is easy 
 to believe in God here. Satisfying, too, is the fact that older men do 
 not patronize those who are younger; young men are not abashed in 
 the presence of oldsters. People genuinely like each other, having 
 characteristics and philosophies and tastes pretty much in common. 
 Most of them are of the third or even the fourth generation in this 
 place, and each plays an important part in the life of his neighbor. 
 
 There is no section of Princeton which is dilapidated. Even the 
 homes of "Tatertown" — a small area of comparatively poor structures 
 — are cheerful. Nature has been as lavish here as in other parts of 
 town, and every man has trees and lawns and a garden which he can 
 call his own. The houses are smaller here, of course, and in some 
 cases in need of paint, but there is no instance where natural beauty 
 has not been preserved. No home is so lowly that it does not have 
 lawn-mower, garden tools, and pruning shears in shed or cellar. 
 
 Princeton is a rich town — rich in lands and houses, and rich in 
 ways of living. Her treasures are not locked in rooms and guarded. 
 Homes throughout the town, for the most part, are spacious, the 
 grounds generous and usually unfenced. When the town was platted, 
 many lots were one acre in size, and still so remain. Century-old elms 
 and maples line the streets and shade the lawns and houses. Boughs 
 
 [5] 
 
entwine in arches above the streets like folded hands. Everywhere 
 are evidences of the residents' love of things that grow upon the earth: 
 flowers, lawns, shrubs, trees. Splendid farms come up to the very 
 edge of town, and in some cases cross the town line. In several places, 
 sheep are kept not two blocks from South Main Street. 
 
 There are two separate and distinct business districts, which are 
 about a mile apart. Both are on Main Street: the North End, and 
 the South End, The South End was the nuclear beginning of the 
 town: the original spot chosen by the earliest settlers for stores and 
 shops and hotels, long before the coming of the railroad. The North 
 End business district was built up when the railroad was laid, as it was 
 thought that business activity would center about the railroad station. 
 This proved incorrect, however, and the South End still remains more 
 important than the district to the north. In the south district are the 
 two motion picture theaters, three of the town's four hotels, the two 
 newspapers, telephone and gas offices, the offices of all of Princeton's 
 nineteen attorneys, the two jewelry stores, the main library (the north 
 district has a branch) , nine of Princeton's ten physicians and surgeons, 
 the Bureau county court house. Here, too, are the banks of the town: 
 the First State Bank of Princeton, and the Citizens First National Bank 
 of Princeton, with combined assets of over five million dollars. 
 
 The North End has businesses which are more utilitarian in 
 nature. With the exception of the pool hall, there are no recreational 
 facilities. 
 
 It is more quiet here during the day, although on Saturday 
 evening when farmers come to shop, the business seems about equally 
 divided between the districts. The north district has four flour and 
 feed stores, the Farm Bureau, three grain elevators, the only store 
 offering hardware exclusively, three seed companies, the railroad 
 station, and the telegraph office. Here also are a welding works, head- 
 quarters of a well-drilling company, and a planing mill. Of course 
 the usual small city enterprises are in both districts. 
 
 Midway between the two business sections, are located the gas, 
 water, and light plants, and the city hall with its small park. 
 
 Many of the business buildings on Main Street have been renewed 
 with brick. This gives these structures the appearance of being about 
 a generation old. Many, if not most of those in the South End, how- 
 ever, were erected from sixty to seventy-five years ago. Those in the 
 north business district are, for most part, not so old. What is be- 
 lieved to be the oldest in the North End is the Northern Hotel, which 
 
 [6] 
 
was erected in 1854 or 1855. The building that now houses the 
 Farm Bureau was erected during the period of the Civil War. The 
 oldest building in the South End was originally the City Hotel, also 
 known as the Dayton Hotel, and is just north of the Hotel Clark. 
 This was erected prior to 1848. Its appearance, which is much as it 
 was, has been changed only by substituting plate glass for the original 
 small-paned windows. A restaurant and a haberdashery occupy the 
 ground floor. 
 
 of husbandry 
 
 The land surrounding Princeton is flat or gently rolling table 
 land. When viewed from some point of vantage, it is remindful of 
 a quiet sea. Early settlers called this land "God's Acres." Here, 
 indeed, is the Good Earth. The soil is brown silt loam. This is corn 
 country of the finest type. A top soil of loam from three to five feet 
 in depth is underlaid with clay, so that continuous capillary action 
 keeps the corn moist even during long dry spells. Agricultural wealth 
 is also based upon soil fertility, freedom from rocks, and upon the 
 exceptionally large number of acres which can be tilled by a single 
 man. Corn as a crop greatly predominates, followed (far to the rear 
 in acreage planted and in bushels harvested) by oats. 
 
 Hereford cattle, and hogs are raised almost exclusively in the area. 
 There is no large scale commercial dairying, but most farmers keep 
 enough milk cows to supply milk and cream for their own tables. 
 Butter is usually purchased in town. Poultry, asparagus, and straw- 
 berries are raised here and there, but most of the tilled land is planted 
 in stock feed. Crops are used for winter feeding and for the fatten- 
 ing of cattle for market. Luxuriant pasture affords summer feeding. 
 
 Huge and sturdy hay barns are the rule, suggesting the great 
 number of grass-eating animals. Few silos are to be seen. Hog pas- 
 tures along the road are even more common than pastures for beef 
 cattle. Fences are of hedge and barbed, woven, or electrically charged 
 wire. Approximately ninety-two per cent of the land is being culti- 
 vated — of this six per cent in rotation pasture, the remaining eighty- 
 six per cent in crops. Corn dominates, followed by oats. 
 
 Owing to the general flatness of the country, all streams meander. 
 Big Bureau almost "meets itself coming back" many times on its 
 march through the county. Usually lazy and shallow, it runs amuck 
 on occasion. Bridges have been damaged, or even washed away. 
 Most farmers respect its whims, and use the land closely bordering it 
 for pasture, having their fields well out of its reach. 
 
 [7] 
 
of overture and backdrop 
 
 Not much more than a century ago, the area now embraced by 
 the corporate boundaries of Princeton was the home of the deer herd 
 and the wolf pack; of lynx and wild cat and wild turkey. Bands of 
 Potawatomi hunters, whose village lay a few miles to the south and 
 west, and an occasional white hunter or trader, made up the only 
 human . element. The Indians numbered between 1,500 and 2,000, 
 and their village comprised three or four hundred lodges. 
 
 It was a good country which awaited the hand of the husband- 
 man. Here were fertile and gently rolling land, abundant rainfall, 
 and a growing season which lasted about six months. Fully a third 
 of the land of the county was in timber, and it was this which, when 
 cleared, would be turned into the first fields for the growing of crops. 
 Among trees, crab apple were plentiful. Then came wild plum, then 
 black jack, and white oak. There were persimmon trees often more 
 than forty feet high, with their sweet fruit; various haws, maples, 
 prickley ash, honey locust, Ohio buckeye, pawpaw, Kentucky coffee 
 trees, American red bud. Between the trunks were thick shrubs: 
 spice bush, button bush, hop tree, hydrangea; while climbing over 
 them were succulent growths of moonseed, wild bean, grapevine, and 
 passion flower. Scores of species of fish swam in river and stream. 
 Elk, bears, foxes, raccoons, deer, rabbits, and opossums were plentiful ; 
 also prairie chickens, wild turkeys, and quail. 
 
 [8] 
 
dramatis personae 
 
 Elijah Epperson was the first to settle in the place that is now the 
 township of Princeton, coming from Ohio in 1829. A few families 
 had preceded him to the region, but they had taken land along the 
 timber line of Bureau Creek. Then, following Epperson during the 
 years 1829 through 1833, came John M. Gay and family, John Mus- 
 grove and family, John and Curtiss Williams and their families, Robert 
 Clark and family, Joel Doolittle and family, Cyrus and John H. 
 Bryant, Alonzo Cook, Lucius Cutler, Nathaniel Chamberlain, Jr. and 
 family, Mrs. Flint and her two daughters, William O. Ebenezer, Lucy 
 Chamberlain, John L. Ament, Rev. Lucien Farnham, and Silas D. 
 Cartwright. 
 
 The Bryants figured so largely in the affairs of Bureau County, 
 and so interwoven are the stories of the family and the community, 
 that it would be impossible to write a history of one without the other. 
 
 John H. was born at Cummington, Mass., on July 22, 1807. He 
 was the seventh child, and the youngest of five sons born to his 
 parents; the second son was William Cullen Bryant, poet and 
 journalist. John was thirteen when his father died, and for a while 
 after this he assisted his brother, Cyrus, who managed the Bryant 
 farm. During 1826 and 1827 he attended a select school, and for 
 the following two years taught in an academy in East Cummington. 
 He was also a student at the Rensselaer School in Troy, N. Y., now 
 the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. During the winter of 1830-31, 
 he taught school at Plainfield for a salary of fourteen dollars per 
 month and "board around." 
 
 [9] 
 
In the early spring of 1831, John Bryant started for Illinois. His 
 possessions consisted of a few articles of clothing, a kit of carpenters' 
 tools, and a few books. From Albany, he went by boat on the Erie 
 Canal to Buffalo, at "an expense of four dollars and sixty cents," for 
 a full week's journey. So early was the season that ice made river 
 navigation impossible at Buffalo, and he was forced to proceed to 
 Pittsburg before he was able to board a steamer. After transferring 
 to another boat at Louisville, he arrived at St. Louis on May 24th. 
 From there he went by river packet to Naples, then walked the twenty- 
 three miles to Jacksonville, his objective. When the trip was done, he 
 was five weeks older and sixty dollars poorer. 
 
 About a year was spent clerking in Jacksonville, and farming 
 land owned by his brother, Arthur. Cyrus then came west, and he 
 and John made their way on horseback to Princeton. They arrived in 
 September of 1832, when John entered land, and built a cabin. He 
 married Miss Hattie Wiswall in June of 1833, and built a new cabin 
 the following spring. His farm comprised 320 acres. 
 
 A record of John Bryant's activities shows that for years in his 
 life there was never a dull moment. He was a member of the state 
 legislature from Bureau, Peoria, and Stark in 1842, and again in 1858. 
 He also was very prominent in the agricultural progress and general 
 development of the county. 
 
 In 1848 he was one of the early editors of the first newspaper 
 to be established in Bureau County; in I860 was a delegate to the 
 convention in Chicago which nominated Abraham Lincoln; was ap- 
 pointed Collector of Internal Revenue by Lincoln in 1862; was a 
 member of the Board of Supervisors that built the court house; took 
 an active part in the establishing of the high school, and was president 
 of the Board for several years. In addition to all these activities, he 
 wrote poems. 
 
 Only two of the seven children remained in the East. These were 
 William Cullen, and Sarah Snell. The other five, Arthur, Austin, 
 Cyrus, Howard, John, and a sister, Charity Louisa, came to the vicinity 
 of Princeton betwen the years 1830 and 1833. Col. Austin Bryant 
 was the last to arrive, and with him were his mother, sister, and his 
 wife and children. 
 
 Cyrus Bryant was of a scholastic turn of mind, and lent his 
 influence in that direction to the affairs of the city and county. He was 
 one of the owners of the first printing press and newspaper in Bureau 
 County, and also, for a time, acted as one of the paper's editors. He 
 
 [10] 
 
also took an active part in the formation of Bureau County; was its 
 first County and Circuit Clerk and Master in Chancery. 
 
 Arthur Bryant, the fourth son of the family, came to Jacksonville 
 in 1830, and returned to Massachusetts for his bride in 1832. The 
 couple then returned to Jacksonville. Here they lived until September 
 of 1833, when they came to Princeton and settled on a claim just south 
 of town. Arthur was a keen botanist and horticulturist, and very soon 
 became recognized as an authority, not only in the State, but through- 
 out the entire Nation. The nursery which he established in 1845 still 
 bears his name. It comprises 300 acres. 
 
 Cyrus died in 1865, Austin in 1866, Arthur in 1833, and John 
 in 1901. All are buried at Oakland Cemetery just west of town. A 
 history of the family reposes on the shelves of many libraries through- 
 out Illinois. 
 
 An area two miles north of Princeton was settled by a few mem- 
 bers of the Hampshire Colony Congregational Church in the summer 
 of 1831. These persons were Nathaniel Chamberlain, M. D. and his 
 son, Oscar, Elijah Smith and wife, Christopher G. Corss, and E. H. 
 Phelps. In March of 1831, they had gathered at Northampton, Mass., 
 to form what was to be the oldest Congregational church in the State 
 of Illinois. On May 17th of that same year they embarked on a 
 canal boat at Albany, bound for the new land. On July 6th, after 
 much hardship, they settled on the bank of the Bureau River, in Putnam 
 County. During the long journey they had not traveled on Sundays. 
 On Oct. 20, 1831, a religious meeting was held in the uncompleted 
 cabin of Elijah Smith. Smith, N. Chamberlain, and Deacon E. H. 
 Phelps were present, and Smith was elected church clerk. In closing, 
 each brother knelt and offered up a prayer. 
 
 Smith's cabin was near the old stage road between Peoria and 
 Galena, and became known as Old Yankee Tavern. It was built of 
 logs, and was similar to the five other stopping places for travelers 
 along the route. In it Smith not only acted as host, but, in those early 
 years, also kept school. He was also postmaster. Travelers were 
 charged the following prices: meals 25c, lodging 12l/ 2 c, stabling and 
 feed for horse 12l/ 2 c. The first money appropriated by Bureau County 
 was fifteen dollars for planking to build bridges across sloughs which 
 cut into the road to Smith's tavern. 
 
 Like the members of the Congregational Church, most of the 
 settlers were New Englanders. Some came by flatboat, floated down 
 the Ohio River for a thousand miles, then sold their boats at Shawnee- 
 
 en] 
 
town. "Spike teams" were usually employed: a horse and a yoke of 
 oxen; the oxen shod with cleats to insure footing on the steep hills. 
 Many of these pioneers had no definite objective in mind. Their goal 
 was, loosely, The West. Opportunities to settle lay all along the 
 route. Land in the vicinity of Edwardsville, for example, was procur- 
 able at from two dollars to four dollars per acre, less than half down. 
 Therefore, unless one had either Putnam County as a definite goal, or 
 some ready cash, there was the temptation to take up land before 
 Bureau Creek was reached. 
 
 Those who did arrive — especially the first — found much difficulty 
 and hardship. A great deal of the land through which they had 
 passed had been at least partially developed, but here there was nothing 
 but wilderness. They lived in tents and in covered wagons until 
 cabins could be erected. Hominy and frozen potatoes were, in many 
 cases, almost the only food through the first long winter. There was 
 no corn mill in the vicinity, and the nearest corn cracker, where a kind 
 of coarse meal was made from the kernels, was eight miles beyond 
 Hennepin. One early settler fell seriously ill and called another to 
 his bedside. "Says he, 'I want you to do one thing for me — take some 
 corn to mill and get it ground, and make me some knick-knacks or 
 I'll surely die'." Knick-knacks were a kind of johnny cake, or 
 corn pone. 
 
 There was no ax on Bureau Creek, and E. H. Phelps, who arrived 
 in 1831, had to ride eight miles to borrow one before he could begin 
 work on a cabin. Wheat parched and ground in a coffee grinder 
 served as a substitute for coffee. The nearest blacksmith shop was at 
 the mouth of the Vermilion River. The settlers' livestock suffered 
 often to the point of emaciation from the ravages of horse-flies, cattle 
 flies, and buffalo gnats. Their own health was continually endangered 
 by the lack of sanitary drainage, and by mosquitoes carrying malaria 
 germs. Quinine was as essential to keeping life in their bodies as was 
 food and drink, and "fever and ague" was a frequent visitor. 
 
 Early settlers agreed that the "hardest difficulty of all" was to 
 teach Yankees to drink sour milk and to use honey for butter. 
 
 One winter, Charles S. Boyd was obliged to attend court in 
 Hennepin without shoes, as there were none procurable west of the 
 Illinois River. History does not state whether Mr. Boyd wore stock- 
 ings at home, or whether he led a barefoot existence there, the 
 stockings at court being a concession to the occasion. Court was held 
 in a blacksmith shop, and an anvil served as a back-rest for the judge. 
 The jury room was spacious and well-ventilated — the prairie itself. 
 
 [12] 
 
That same winter Mr. Boyd's house was destroyed by fire, and 
 he saved only a bed, and his night clothes. "I had nothing on but 
 my shirt and drawers," he said. "The stage had stopped at my house 
 that night, leaving at eleven o'clock, when we went to bed, I found 
 the house enveloped in flames. One traveler had remained, who 
 saved his saddle-bags, but lost his overcoat and hat. I was very much 
 confused and could not at first tell whether my family were all out. 
 I had four or five loaded guns in the house and for the life of me I 
 could not tell in what direction they were placed. However, we all 
 escaped. I stood by the fire all night and it was very cold. We saved 
 a bed in which I placed my wife and children and that saved them. 
 The traveler gave me a pair of pants, and I let him have a horse with 
 which, the next morning, he went to the next settlement, about twenty 
 miles away. When the stage returned, Captain Dixon sent us a box 
 of goods and we made a camp and remained in the woods until 
 spring, when the neighbors built us a cabin." 
 
 Some of the emigrants chose routes remindful of the zig-zag 
 course of a befuddled gentleman tottering through a vast neighborhood 
 of identical and jerry-built homes in search of his own. The fault, of 
 course, did not lie with them, but in the lack of transportation facilities. 
 The itinerary of the party of which Frederick Mosley was a member is 
 typical of many others: "We first emigrated from Westfield, Mass., 
 in 1831. We went by wagons seventy-five or eighty miles to the 
 Hudson River at Albany. From Albany to Buffalo we went by Erie 
 Canal and thence by lake to Cleveland. From thence by canal again 
 to Dresden, where we took a side cut into Muskingdum River, which 
 we followed to the Ohio River, thence down the Ohio and up the 
 Illinois by steamboat to Naples. We stayed at Naples about a month. 
 Hearing that the Hampshire Colony was settled here, we were anxious 
 to move to this neighborhood, and procuring a keel boat, in company 
 with the Musgrove family, started up the Illinois River. We sailed 
 into Bureau Creek and landed our effects, and procuring a team from 
 the Spring Creek Mill, brought our goods to our place. Amos Leonard 
 of Spring Creek moved us up. We had only been here three days 
 when we were all taken sick. Dr. Chamberlain moved in the same 
 season and doctored us." 
 
 In the winter of 1830-31 occurred the worst snow storm that 
 the State had experienced to that time, according to the Indians. Level 
 ground was covered to a depth of three feet, with fifteen or twenty 
 feet in the sloughs. A prolonged spell of bitter cold followed the 
 storm, and a few men and many cattle perished. 
 
 [13] 
 
of Sac and Fox 
 
 The area about Princeton was as yet but sparsely settled when the 
 Black Hawk War began. It was stated that there were about twenty 
 Indians to one white. In the spring of 1832, Shabbona came and 
 warned the settlers to depart until the imminent hostilities had run 
 their course. Most of the whites departed from the neighborhood; 
 some to Hennepin, where they assisted in the building of a fort; some 
 to join the army. A few of the men sent their families to places of 
 comparative safety, and remained to raise a crop. The cattle, for the 
 most part, were turned loose to shift for themselves. Only one man 
 was killed in the vicinity. This was when a party of six came out 
 from Hennepin to see how the cattle were faring. They had gone 
 into a cabin, unaware of the fact that Indians were in the woods 
 nearby. A man named Phillips stepped out, was riddled by bullets, 
 then tomahawked. The men inside thrust their bayonets through the 
 open door, and the Indians, thinking that bayonets were carried only 
 by soldiers, retreated into the woods. One of the party then rode for 
 help, and forty or fifty men from the fort at Hennepin came and 
 rescued the remaining four men. Although this was the only casualty, 
 the settlers had to be "forted up" continually, and thus were compelled 
 to halt agricultural pursuits for a whole crop season. 
 
 of growing pains and progress 
 
 The original survey of Princeton was made by B. M. Hayes and 
 was plotted by John P. Blake in September of 1832. Lots were offered 
 for sale in May of 1833, and although the price per acre averaged only 
 two dollars and fifty cents, on credit, with six months interest payable 
 in advance, purchasers were few. Most of this property was not sold 
 until some years later. On "Main Street," in the "business district," 
 lots were one acre or more in size; others were laid out in five and 
 ten acre tracts, and in the east half of the section some of the lots 
 were as large as 37 acres. 
 
 The post-office for the new town was known as Greenfield, but 
 the site reminded some of the settlers of old Princeton in New Jersey, 
 
 [14] 
 
because of its "height and sightliness," and Princeton the town became. 
 Dr. N. Chamberlain was appointed postmaster in the spring of 1833. 
 His office was in his home, one and one-half miles south of what was 
 to be the town of Princeton. He made weekly trips to the Bureau 
 post-office for mail, using the pocket of his coat instead of a mail bag. 
 When Main Bureau Creek was high, he walked across a log that had 
 fallen from bank to bank. It was this log that people used for many 
 years in going to and from Princeton at times of high water. 
 
 The first building to be erected within the town was a log cabin 
 of small dimensions. It was built by S. D. Cartwright, in the autumn 
 of 1833, and was used by its builder as a blacksmith shop, the first in 
 the county. 
 
 In the autumn of 1833, also, efforts were made to change the 
 stage route (it then passed west of the Bureaus) , and head it through 
 Princeton. The stage company agreed, but stipulated that settlers 
 about Princeton must first construct a road across the Bureau cliffs. 
 Accordingly, Dr. N. Chamberlain and Cyrus and John H. Bryant took 
 up spades and hoes and performed the task. Immediately the route 
 was changed, and settlers then could receive mail three times each week. 
 
 John M. Gay built Princeton's second structure, and was ap- 
 pointed postmaster in 1834. This was a dwelling, twelve by twelve 
 feet. The third was a store of logs, erected by F. Haskill, which he 
 opened for business on June 7, 1834. This was the first store in the 
 county. In the fall, Stephen Triplett built a frame hotel, sixteen by 
 eighteen feet. In 1835, Elijah Wiswall built a one-story frame 
 dwelling house. 
 
 The Hampshire Colony Congregational Church was erected on 
 the public square in the autumn of 1835. This was a two-story struc- 
 ture; it was "raised high above the ground on wooden blocks and 
 made an imposing appearance." Its cost was $650. Only the shell 
 of the building was finished, and the inside work, such as furnishing 
 and plastering, was completed two years later. A pulpit of rough 
 boards was knocked together, and the worshippers sat on wooden slabs. 
 This building excited much curiosity among both Indians and white 
 travelers, as it was the only church between Peoria and Chicago. 
 In those early years it served many purposes. It was church, school, 
 court-room, town hall, and headquarters of abolition state conventions. 
 It was stated by a local wag that one was never in danger of having to 
 sit on a chilled seat. The M. E. Church built a small frame building 
 
 [15] 
 
in the fall of 1837, and the Baptists erected one in 1838. The 
 Protestant Methodists erected a brick church the same year. 
 
 Bureau County was not formed until Feb. 8, 1837. Previous to 
 this time this territory was part of Putnam County. All legal trans- 
 actions took place at Hennepin — Putnam's County seat, near the south- 
 east portion of the present county of Bureau. Men chosen for jury 
 duty were sometimes compelled to drive their horses for days, often 
 flank-deep through mud, before reaching their destination. The settlers 
 wanted a county and county seat of their own, and accordingly voted 
 to secede. All that was left of Putnam County after the severance was 
 173 square miles, while new-born Bureau's boundaries embraced 864 
 square miles. They had "cut off the dog's tail just behind the ears." 
 
 The Indian trouble in 1832 had greatly retarded the influx of 
 settlers into the area, but in 1835 all former Indian territory in 
 northern Illinois was thrown open to settlement. In 1836 the popula- 
 tion doubled. That year, those who had neglected to bring an adequate 
 supply of food, were obliged to pay high prices for it. There was not 
 enough to go around, and shipments had to be ordered from down 
 the river. Wheat rose to two and three dollars per bushel, corn one 
 dollar per bushel, and flour sixteen dollars a barrel. 
 
 Little of the prairie had been cultivated until 1837, when Flavel 
 Thurston of Wyanet invented and introduced a small two-horse plow 
 of steel. At first a cause for jesting, the plow was quickly accepted, 
 and by 1840, had come into general use. 
 
 The years 1837 and 1838 were bounteous ones for the county. 
 Huge crops were harvested, and there was a ready market to the many 
 new arrivals in the Rock River country. In 1842 and 1843, however, 
 the supply greatly exceeded the demand. Wheat sold at twenty- five 
 cents, and pork at a dollar and a half per hundred pounds, delivered 
 at the river. 
 
 Princeton's population did not keep pace with that of the county. 
 It failed to grow in any comparable degree because during the first 
 ten years of its corporate existence, neighboring folks passed it by, 
 preferring to choose their goods from the more heavily-stocked stores 
 of Hennepin. During the second decade, the Illinois and Michigan 
 Canal drew to LaSalle and Peru much of the trade which Princeton 
 merchants otherwise would have claimed as their own. Things looked 
 hopeful in 1850 when there was talk of building a railroad from Peru 
 to Rock Island by way of Princeton, but when the road was laid it 
 ran about six miles to the south of the town. 
 
 [16] 
 
of engine's chug and workman's song 
 
 It was not until 1854 that Princeton enjoyed railroad facilities. 
 This was the Central Military Tract Railroad, described as "connecting 
 at Mendota with the Chicago Aurora Extension R. R., running south- 
 west to Galesburg, there to connect with the Peoria and Oquawka 
 R. R., and pass on to Burlington, Iowa; also with the Northern 
 Cross R. R., the southern terminus of which is at Quincy." And now 
 Princeton had daily train service. 
 
 With the coming of the railroad, Princeton began to stride ahead, 
 experiencing a real estate and building boom. A local publication of 
 the day said: "Before the completion of the railroad, enterprise was 
 not wanting here, yet all hail with joy and gladness the iron horse as 
 he comes dashing into our midst, drawing the heavy laden passenger 
 and freight trains! Yes, the crowded bins of the warehouses, the 
 lively step of the merchant who is fast for closing a bargain, the 
 sound of the hammers of numerous mechanics, busily engaged in 
 erecting buildings throughout the town, the happy countenance of the 
 farmer, bearing his produce to market, and the busy hum of carriages, 
 prove that the cars are greeted with a happy welcome." 
 
 Property on Main Street in the new and old business sections, 
 sold at prices ranging from forty to sixty dollars per foot. Lots for 
 residences sold for one hundred to five hundred dollars, according to 
 size and location. Before the advent of the railroad, the population 
 was 2,238. Now it had become somewhere between the conservatives' 
 estimate of 2,500, and the enthusiasts' computation of 3,000. During 
 1854 and 1857, between 100 and 150 dwelling houses were erected, 
 
 [17] 
 
as well as a number of business buildings. Two "substantial brick 
 blocks" were built on Main Street. The first was the American House, 
 a four-story hotel containing more than fifty rooms; the main floor 
 contained seven stores. This building was erected at a cost of $32,000 
 by Stevens & McConihes, John H. Bryant, J. Allbright, A. Gosse, 
 William Carse, and Elijah Dee. 
 
 The second, known as the "Mercantile Block," was a two-story 
 brick structure built by R. T. Templeton, E. G. Jester, and George 
 Hughes. It contained three stores, with rooms for offices above, and 
 cost about $10,000. A large steam flour mill was erected by Robbins, 
 Lawson & Company at a cost of $12,000. In addition, a furniture 
 factory, stove foundry, planing mill, sash factory, and a tannery, were 
 built. All were of brick. 
 
 By the early part of 1857 there were: 
 
 6 dealers 
 
 in dry goods 
 
 1 saw mill 
 
 
 
 " groceries 
 
 4 dining saloons 
 
 3 " 
 
 ' hardware and 
 
 2 bakeries 
 
 
 stoves 
 
 5 boot and shoe shops 
 
 4 " 
 
 clothing 
 
 4 manufacturers of furniture 
 
 3 " 
 
 " drugs 
 
 (who sold direct to the re 
 
 3 " 
 
 jewelry 
 
 tail customer) 
 
 2 
 
 " meats 
 
 3 millinery and dress makers 
 
 9 " 
 
 produce 
 
 2 merchant tailors 
 
 3 brick yards 
 
 An ordinance was passed on July 13, 1858, which compelled all 
 owners of business property on Main Street to lay sidewalks, six feet 
 wide, in front of their establishments — "of brick or sound two-inch 
 planks, firmly set upon and spiked to suitable bearings." Now visitors' 
 trunks could be wheeled jauntily along to the hotels. 
 
 [18] 
 
23 WAHE- -W.i*w?fc '^ t/l «>\*jh^===-==z 
 
 of grief and gravel 
 
 Streets, however, remained unpaved for some time. The Bureau 
 County Republican cracked its editorial whip after each heavy rain. 
 Farmers and merchants howled mightily, but when the mud dried, 
 there were other things to discuss. Princeton Fathers were like the 
 man whose roof leaked: when it rained he could not repair it, and 
 when the weather was dry, repairs were not necessary. 
 
 Soil was such that any ordinary rain turned the streets into seas of 
 mud. Two strong horses were required to pull an empty wagon. It 
 was a mess, the Republican said, and continued to suggest "that our 
 citizens take into consideration the propriety of planking a portion of 
 Main Street, the present season." But the present season marched over 
 the horizon to the west to join all the seasons that had preceded it, and 
 the planks still grew serenely in the forest with leaves on top. 
 
 Creek gravel was applied for a block or two, but disappeared 
 when the first rain fell. Then came an unusually open winter, and 
 streets were impassable for weeks. Citizens gazed upon the powers that 
 were with baleful eye and much intensity, and the powers were forced 
 to appoint a committee to endeavor to remedy the condition. Instruc- 
 tions were indefinite and there was no appropriation of money made 
 for labor. More creek gravel was applied, also without result. Then, 
 one day, a teamster on his way for another futile load, saw a gravelly 
 
 [19] 
 
break in a bluff. This gravel was much closer to home, rain was fall- 
 ing, and gravel was gravel. He loaded his wagon with it and applied 
 it to a portion of Main Street. To his astonishent, the pebbles did not 
 dive below the surface like frightened clams. From then on, bank 
 gravel was used successfully until hard-surfaced streets were laid in 
 Princeton. 
 
 of trends, beliefs and statistics 
 
 "Anton Shulze can still be found at his fashionable Hair Cutting 
 and Shaving Saloon, in the rear of Mr. E. Wester's store. Hair, 
 Whiskers and Mustaches colored in the best style. Particular attention 
 paid to extracting Corns and Teeth; also cupping, bleeding, etc." 
 
 "Everything has its use. Were it not for flies, people in summer 
 would sleep two hours longer than they do, and thus lose the best part 
 of the day." 
 
 "Every child who makes a noise has a right to be turned out of 
 the room; and supposing you have not the right, you are perfectly 
 justified, if its parents are absent, in usurping it." 
 
 In 1855, Princeton's 396 families comprised the total population 
 of 2,238. The population of the entire county at this time was 19,260, 
 or 2,689 families. There were 4,223 men in the county militia. 
 Educational facilities had grown to 83 schools, accommodating 4,395 
 pupils. Livestock that year in the county was valued at $1,225,052; 
 products of manufacturing reached $272,780, and 20,007 pounds of 
 wool were marketed. 
 
 of larnin' 
 
 The first school had been established in Princeton in 1832 by 
 Elijah Smith. Classes were held in a part of his home; he, himself, 
 did the teaching. The pretentiously titled Princeton Academy began 
 its first term in a lower room of the Congregational Church in 1836. 
 Other schools came and went. They charged fees too high for people 
 to pay readily, and too low to make profitable operation feasible. 
 Smith's school survived, however, as did the Academy. The first 
 graded school — the South Union — was built in 1851, and private 
 schools ceased to be in Princeton. 
 
 [20] 
 
In 1852 the Illinois State Legislature passed an Act which gave 
 the swamp lands to the counties in which they lay. Bureau's boundaries 
 embraced about 40,000 acres of swamp lands. These lands were sold 
 for $115,000 in 1856, and the money was appropriated to the school 
 fund. This amount, with the regular school tax, made possible the 
 building of schools in most sections of the county. 
 
 of gloom and mis'ry 
 
 The depression, or recession, of 1857 — remembered as a panic — 
 wrought great hardship on the farmers of the vicinity. That hardy 
 perennial, confidence is being restored, was the brain-child of a news- 
 paper writer of the period. All through the year the restoration of 
 confidence continued; through 1858, and through most of 1859. 
 "Things" — editorially — were "looking up," while prices offered for 
 farm products, with the exception of pork and beef, descended to 
 new lows: 
 
 Oats (bushel) 20c Beef (100 lbs.) $3.50 
 
 Potatoes (bushel) 25c Pork (100 lbs.) $4.00-$4.25 
 
 Corn (60 lbs. bu.) 25c Lard (lb.) 12c 
 
 Eggs (doz.) 10c Hams lie 
 
 Sheriff's sales were numerous at the front door of the court house. 
 Many farms were sold at preposterously low prices, but many others 
 went begging because of the shortage of money to buy. 
 
 On Jan. 28, 1858, the Bureau County Republican stated: "The 
 signs of the times are propitious. For some time past it has been 
 impossible to get the attention of the public on any subject but the 
 panic. Now this is subsiding — that confidence is being restored, the 
 people seem willing to look after other matters. . . " 
 
 A few farmers had fruits to sell, and these managed to keep 
 their heads above water. Apples sold at 75c to $1.00 per bushel, 
 peaches brought $2.00, cherries $2.00, raspberries and strawberries 
 25c to 30c a quart. 
 
 Aug. 5, 1858, and hard times still continued: "Last week and the 
 week before our town was unusually dull. The merchants were all 
 seen lying on their counters, while the streets were almost entirely 
 vacated. This, of course, was owing to the fact that farmers were 
 
 [21] 
 
engaged in their harvest fields. Business this week, however, is a 
 little more lively, and the merchants appear less inclined to the 'blues'." 
 
 Many farmers failed at this time. The business man in town, 
 however, although he slept upon his counter, and was "inclined to the 
 blues," managed to survive. The erecting of business and dwelling 
 houses had continued unabated, in every block. Carpenters and masons 
 labored mightily, except when sub-zero temperatures made work im- 
 possible. A carriage factory measuring 32 by 52 feet was erected by 
 Merritt Richards on the South side of the public square. A new ware- 
 house was erected at the depot — "probably the largest and best struc- 
 ture of this kind on the line of our railroad — 20 by 120 — 2l/ 2 stories 
 high — 10 bins and one elevator — 13 bins and 2 elevators — 25,000 bu. 
 storage, 400 bu. per hour can be elevated with one horse. There are 
 two pairs of hopper scales. Basement brick-walled for storing salt 
 and groceries. First floor also can be used for storing dry goods, 
 machinery, etc." The old Triplett House "has been removed to a 
 more retired place and Messrs. Wadham & Crittenden have commenced 
 the erection of a new store house on the old site. This will be a 
 framed building, eighteen feet in width by thirty-two feet in length." 
 And so things went. 
 
 The Fair Association was formed in the year 1855, but had an 
 unpromising beginning. Not until farming was again on a paying 
 basis, after the panic, did farmers feel inclined to join in any social 
 function, no matter how educational. 
 
 of muskets and profits 
 
 On Saturday, April 14, 1861, the wires brought to Princeton the 
 news of the firing on Fort Sumter. Crowds milled about on Main 
 Street, while horses slept at hitching posts until long after midnight. 
 "War! Do your Hear? It's war!" And Sunday's crowd was much 
 larger than that of Saturday. Yes, some people said, it was war. 
 Although you could not go so far as to call it a real "honest-to-good- 
 ness" war. There would be a few battles and the thing would be over. 
 It was a shame to have to kill, but the South had to be chastised. A 
 month, perhaps; three at most, and the South would be blasted into 
 submission. 
 
 On Monday the news was confirmed. Flags were thrown to the 
 breeze as men cheered and women shed ready tears. The old church 
 bell was rung, fife and drum were heard, and there were patriotic 
 
 [22] 
 
speeches all day and evening. Enlistments were numerous, and before 
 many days, enough men had offered their services to form two com- 
 panies ; one under Dr. S. A. Paddock, and one under F. B. Ferris. 
 
 A few days later a large number of citizens of the county signed 
 a petition and sent it to President Lincoln. It urged "That he would 
 as commander in chief proclaim emancipation, as the speediest, wisest, 
 easiest, most economical, most humane, most righteous and probably 
 the only way of putting down the rebellion." This is believed to be 
 the first petition of this kind the President received. Afterwards at a 
 public meeting in Chicago a similar petition was prepared. It was 
 carried to Washington by two gentlemen who found that a petition 
 from Princeton had already been received. 
 
 In answer to Lincoln's call, Ferris and Paddock, with their com- 
 panies, were among the earliest in the State to report at Springfield. 
 Ferris' company became a part of the 12th Regiment. Before the next 
 summer, however, the remains of both Paddock and Ferris were 
 brought home for burial at Oakland Cemetery. 
 
 Two training camps were formed at the Fair Grounds; from one 
 came the 57th Regiment Infantry, from the other the 93 rd Regiment 
 Infantry. From April in 1861, until April, 1865, there was constant 
 excitement in Princeton: recruiting, drilling, relief and aid societies, 
 and war committees. Enlisted and conscripted men during those four 
 years numbered about 4,000. 
 
 The Civil War presented itself to the people of Princeton in the 
 terms of the headline stories of the Bureau County Republican. 
 
 Here are found accounts of the rewards of enlistment, warnings 
 to draft evaders, ways of securing exemption, importation of foreign 
 labor to take the place of native sons at the front, and millions of 
 dollars of mortgage debts paid during the progress of the war. 
 
 YOUR BLEEDING COUNTRY CALLS 
 
 One more united effort and this accursed 
 Rebellion will be crushed forever! 
 
 HO! FOR THE WAR 
 
 Rally, rally, from mountain and valley, 
 rally to the fight! 
 
 [23] 
 
WHAT A SOLDIER GETS 
 
 // there is any business where capital is 
 not employed, that pays better than 
 soldiering, we should like to know what 
 it is. Take for instance, the pay of those 
 who enlist to fill the quota of this county, 
 and it will stand as follows: 
 Regular Government Bounty. ...$ 100.00 
 Special Bounty from the County 400.00 
 Special Town Bounty (will 
 
 average) 175.00 
 
 Wages for one year 192.00 
 
 Clothing, not less than 150.00 
 
 Rations, lowest rates of 
 
 boarding 200.00 
 
 TOTAL $1,217.00 
 
 More than half of this sum is received by 
 the soldier before he leaves home, 
 sufficient in many instances to support his 
 family for twelve months. A more liberal 
 bounty was never offered, and, perhaps, 
 the like will never be offered again. 
 
 While the army has been drawing off 
 many of our young men, there has been 
 another class of persons settling up the 
 State — emigrants from the East and from 
 Europe, whose sturdy arms and energy 
 opens up vast fields for the growth of 
 grains, thus adding to our wealth very 
 materially . . . it is surprising to note the 
 progress of inventions in the adaptation 
 of machinery to the various operations of 
 the farm, and none more so than those 
 for the harvesting of grain . . . Now the 
 labor in the harvest field is reduced to a 
 pastime — the old, the lame, and the 
 ladies even, can do the labor of many 
 hands in the olden times. 
 
 [24] 
 
Some thirty-five volunteers from Peoria 
 stopped at Chenoa on Thursday night 
 and while waiting for the train going 
 south, they managed to remove the catch 
 from one of the doors of the station 
 house and some eight of them made good 
 their escape. There was a guard of five 
 men with them who fired three or four 
 shots but failed to arrest their flight. 
 
 The Rebellion is about played out; it is 
 barely possible that we may yet hear of a 
 few movements of the serpent's tail, but 
 its sun will soon go down never to rise 
 more forever. 
 
 LEE SURRENDERS AT APPOMATTOX 
 LINCOLN ASSASSINATED 
 
 Governor Milton has committed suicide 
 by shooting himself. Jeff Davis ought to 
 follow suit. 
 
 Draft skedaddlers will be pleased to 
 
 learn that they are liable to arrest and 
 
 trial by court martial, as soon as they 
 
 return home. 
 
 The soldier boys are now beginning to 
 make their appearance upon our streets 
 — having returned from the wars to go 
 
 back no more forever, it is hoped. 
 
 The empty sleeves, and the vacant chairs 
 
 are deeply to be regretted 
 
 It is estimated (fall of 1865) that since 
 the Rebellion broke out, the farmers of 
 Illinois alone have paid up not less than 
 a hundred millions of mortgage] debts. 
 
 [25] 
 
of harvest and hearth-stone 
 
 Before the Civil War, most agricultural Middle Western towns 
 greatly resembled one another. It was only after hostilities were over 
 that they began to differ and take on personalities of their own, each 
 according to its peculiar influences. Princeton was, and definitely is, 
 rooted in the soil. The record of her birth, growth, and contemporary 
 existence, is a tale of the plow. Any influences other than agricultural 
 extant through her formative years, were impotent, trivial. She, per- 
 haps fortunately, is all of seven miles from the Illinois River, has no 
 mineral wealth, and could never become a hub of transcontinental 
 traffic. Climatic conditions are such that there has never been a major 
 crop failure in the history of Bureau County. Markets, with the com- 
 ing of the railroad in 1854, became excellent. Added to these attributes 
 is the fact that the community was settled by men of higher than 
 average mental calibre. Princeton was destined to become — Princeton. 
 
 At the close of the Civil War, the more acute growing pains were 
 a thing of the past. Princeton was an established community, pros- 
 perous, sure of itself. The frontier lay far to the West. The more 
 shrewd of the stay-at-homes had accumulated fortunes which would be 
 handed down to future generations. Thoughts turned toward the 
 building of permanent homes. That some of these earlier homes 
 boasted little or no architectural precedent is beside the point. They 
 were built sturdily, with spacious porches, roomy attics, deep cellars 
 for storing food, and elbow room on every side. 
 
 Then, in the last half of the 19th century, came the Colonial, and 
 the Romanesque influences in architecture; also the indefinable styles 
 characterized as Victorian. 
 
 [26} 
 
of four-eleven alarm 
 
 A great fire swept away a large section of business buildings at 
 the Northern part of town on Oct. 18, 1867. Twenty-five buildings — 
 all that stood on the West Side of North Main Street — were destroyed. 
 The loss was estimated at $250,000. Only the valiant work of mem- 
 bers of the volunteer fire department (organized in 1861) prevented a 
 far greater loss. No dwelling houses were destroyed. The fire 
 started between 6 and 7 o'clock in the evening, and was not ex- 
 tinguished until 1 a. m. On November 21, the town council prescribed 
 certain limits within which no wooden structure might be erected. 
 One of these districts included the business district South of the 
 C. B. & Q. tracks. Construction of new business buildings began 
 almost at once, and by late spring, the street, as it had once looked had 
 become a memory. 
 
 of distillation and regulation 
 
 The liquor problem had been a perplexing one for many years in 
 Princeton. To tipple or not to tipple, that was the question. In those 
 early years, long before the invention of neuroses, chromium and red 
 leather bar-stools, and banana-flavored gin, a saloon was a saloon. It 
 was a two-fisted place where men came to become methodically in- 
 toxicated, and sometimes they remonstrated industriously with each 
 other. Such remonstrances took form in direct action rather than in 
 legislation, quart bottles being used to hit each other's heads. Surviv- 
 ing play-fellows kept irate prohibitionists awake, and since the noise 
 
 [27] 
 
of somebody else's party is always annoying, Princeton took steps to 
 pluck the saloon out of its own eye. The controversy was hot and of 
 long duration, but right triumphed. 
 
 Application for licenses to sell spiritous liquors were often 
 refused, for reasons unrecorded. Not until 1863, however, were 
 saloons prohibited in the village by law. In that year a dry council 
 was elected which prohibited the sale of intoxicants in any form. Much 
 trouble was encountered before the regulation could be enforced. 
 
 of milestones and urban amenities 
 
 When the headlines told about the sinking of the Maine in 1898, 
 Princeton's population was a little over 4,000. This was about a 
 thousand above the census figures at the close of the Civil War. The 
 village had been incorporated as a city in 1884, Justus Stevens having 
 been elected first Mayor. A water works was completed in 1890, and 
 in that same year the Matson Public Library was opened. Two privately 
 owned electric light plants and a gas company were in operation. 
 
 Full dress at social functions was the rule rather than the excep- 
 tion, and croquet was the favorite summer sport. The remains of 
 most of the early pioneers reposed in Oakland Cemetery, and their 
 sons were carrying on the work they had started. 
 
 The Spanish- American War had little lasting effect on Princeton. 
 As in the days of the Civil War, she gave of her wealth in men and 
 gold and stores of food, buried her dead, and shed her tears. Now, 
 however, she needed to suffer no qualms regarding her economic life. 
 Time and adversity had tested and tempered her, and she had become 
 firm-foundationed, permanent, and secure. 
 
 Many improvements were effected before the coming of the 
 World War era. Streets and homes and businesses were furnished 
 electricity by a municipally owned plant. Telephones came to the 
 community at the turn of the century. Also in 1900, rural mail 
 delivery was established, and two years later came city mail delivery. 
 A street railway was begun in 1907, completed a year later, and hourly 
 service to Spring Valley and LaSalle was established. (This service 
 was continued until 1931, when Bureau Creek and some of its name- 
 less branches, after a tremendous cloudburst, went on a rampage and 
 destroyed miles of track here and there between Princeton and LaSalle. 
 So great was the damage, and so small had become the revenue, that 
 repairing the right of way was deemed inadvisable, and the whole 
 project was abandoned.) 
 
 [28] 
 
of papers and people 
 
 The first newspaper in the County was the Bureau County 
 Advocate, edited and published in Princeton by Ebenezer Higgins. 
 This was a six-column folio selling for $1.50, and the first edition was 
 offered to the public on Dec. 2, 1847. A jousting field for the 
 politicians of that day, its editorial page was divided into three parts, 
 one each for Whig, Democrat, and Liberty parties. They were headed 
 Whig Advocate, Democrat Advocate, and Liberty Advocate. The best 
 writers in the country were engaged by the parties, and all arguments 
 for and against this and that were presented side by side to the reader. 
 
 Higgins remained editor until August of 1848, when he sold the 
 paper to B. F. Hammond and T. W. Welsh. John H. Bryant then 
 took the editorial chair, and its motto became Free Soil, Free Speech, 
 and Free Men. The paper had little financial success, however, and in 
 1851 it was sold to Justin Olds and J. M. Wilkinson. Olds became 
 proprietor, and Wilkinson the editor. Its name was changed to the 
 Princeton Post, and in 1858 it became known as the Bureau County 
 Republican, a title still employed. 
 
 Papers were not bought at newsstands on the cash and carry basis 
 in '58, and the Republican printed numerous scathing, but evidently 
 futile editorials, concerning delinquent subscribers. Then it grew 
 meek from possible hunger and on the front page of every issue in- 
 serted a weekly notice — where the modern paper tells you how many 
 days there are until Christmas: 
 
 WANTED— 
 
 Wood, coal, lard, tallow, flour, meal, potatoes, chickens, fat beef, 
 sorghum, syrup, et cetera, at the highest market prices, wanted in 
 payment for subscriptions to this paper. Money will do just as well. 
 
 John W. Bailey purchased the paper in 1863, and it has been in 
 the family ever since. Upon the passing of John W., his son, Harry 
 U. Bailey, took his father's vacated chair. No longer young, he will 
 some day relinquish the reins to his own son, John W. Bailey, who is 
 now business manager for the paper. 
 
 The Republican is today the largest county weekly newspaper in 
 the United States. Its policy is Republican. 
 
 [29] 
 
The Bureau County Tribune, published in Princeton each week, 
 was for a great many years (until the Democratic landslide in 1932) 
 the only Democratic newspaper published in the Sixteenth Con- 
 gressional District. Its present editors and publishers are Stanley B. 
 and Harlow A. Brown, sons of the owner, Harlow B. Brown. The 
 latter relinquished direct supervision of the newspaper upon being 
 appointed postmaster of Princeton in April of 1934. 
 
 Harlow B. Brown and Clifford R. Trimble acquired ownership 
 of the Tribune in 1918, operated as partners for one year. At the end 
 of this time Mr. Trimble sold out his interest to Mr. Brown and retired 
 from the business. 
 
 E. K. Mercer, a lifelong resident of Bureau County and a Civil 
 War veteran, owned and edited the publication from 1872 until 1918. 
 
 The Tribune for years has carried on the work undertaken by the 
 Bureau County Democrat, organized in 1856, and edited until 1863 by 
 C. N. Pine. Later the paper was edited by Eckles and Kyle, then by 
 Eckles and Gibons. In 1863 the name of the publication was changed 
 to Bureau County Patriot, and was under the direction of C. N. Smith. 
 In 1871, and preceding the establishment of the Bureau County Trib- 
 une, the paper was published under the name Bureau County Herald. 
 
 of asparagus culture 
 
 Mr. J. Edgar Fuller is "asparagus king" of Princeton. He and 
 his son own 50 acres of producing plants, contemplate the planting of 
 50 acres more, and are operating a canning factory in town. Another 
 40 acres — owned by other residents of the community who are growing 
 asparagus under Mr. Fuller's direction — will not come into production 
 until the year 1940. 
 
 Asparagus is not grown more extensively for the reason that a 
 crop cannot be harvested until the third year after planting. During 
 this time the plants must be fertilized and cultivated continuously. It is 
 estimated that about three thousand dollars' worth of fertilizer is 
 required for a 25 acre field in those three years. Both manures and 
 commercial fertilizers must be applied in prodigious amounts from the 
 time the plant is set until it dies, 15 or more years later. Plants are 
 set down into the ground six or eight inches. The roots of one full- 
 grown plant radiate out about 20 feet, and the plants seldom "kill out." 
 
 What is not generally known is that the same stalk is not cut 
 repeatedly during the harvest season. When a stalk is once cut it does 
 
 [30} 
 
not grow out again until the following year. Asparagus "crowns" 
 have as many as 50 buds, and each healthy bud produces a single stalk 
 during the season. Constant fertilizing is therefore necessary, as 
 cutting drains the strength of the plant, and that strength must be 
 renewed. Stalks grow as much as four inches in 24 hours. Cutting 
 usually takes place from May to July, although the season varies. By 
 July the cutting must stop, so as to permit new buds to form for the 
 following year, but fertilizing and cultivating must continue at least 
 until August. 
 
 The "butts" of the fresh asparagus stalk are as edible as the upper 
 parts. They will not be tough if the outside has been peeled off with 
 a knife before boiling. 
 
 The Fullers are preparing the ground for the building of a new 
 factory which will be 100 by 60 feet, of cement blocks. 
 
 [31] 
 
of cooperation and cooperatives 
 
 The Bureau County Farm Bureau is housed in an unimposing 
 structure of large dimensions, of the strictly utilitarian type found in 
 Illinois during the decade of the Civil War. It is on North Main 
 Street. The Bureau was organized as a Crop and Soil Improvement 
 Association in 1913, and took on its present title and status in that 
 same year. Its function is primarily educational, although many other 
 advantages are enjoyed by its 1,142 members, including cooperative 
 purchasing and marketing. Upon the payment of annual dues of 
 $15.00, any Bureau County resident may become a member of this 
 organization, and his membership automatically makes him a member 
 of the Illinois Agricultural Association, and of the American Farm 
 Bureau Federation. Community problems have the attention of all 
 three organizations. Farm advisers call personally at farms where 
 individual problems exist. Non-members, and even residents of other 
 States may obtain agricultural information free by applying at any of 
 the four Bureau offices in the county, and any visitor may help himself 
 to the hundreds of publications which are in huge racks along the 
 office walls. 
 
 The. Bureau County Farm Bureau is a parent organization whose 
 members are common stock holders in all subsidiaries organized by 
 the Bureau. As such they share in profits according to the patronage 
 they have given to each. These local subsidiaries (owned by the 
 Bureau) are an insurance company, a petroleum products company, 
 the Protective Association (to prosecute thieves who harrass farmers), 
 an organization for the dispensing of serums, biologies, spray materials, 
 etc., and many others. Members also share in any monetary benefits 
 accruing from the efforts of State and National organizations. Farm 
 women are advised on home topics by the Home Adviser, whose head- 
 quarters are in the Post Office Building. 
 
 Boys' and girls' 4-H Club work is one of the most important 
 projects of the Bureau. Under the Bureau's supervision in 1937, some 
 477 girls and boys were organized into eighteen boys' type clubs. 
 These youngsters fed 71 baby beef calves, 862 pigs, 82 sheep, 48 dairy 
 calves, 6,518 chickens; planted 138 acres of corn, 3 acres of potatoes, 
 5 acres of garden. About 53 per cent of the members enrolled com- 
 pleted their projects, raising crops and livestock valued at $47,075.04. 
 
 [32] 
 
points of interest 
 
 (1) PRINCETON HIGH SCHOOL, four blocks east of Main 
 Street, on Euclid Ave., was dedicated on Nov. 25, 1926, and cost 
 $350,000. Royer & Danley of Urbana were the architects. It is Tudor 
 Gothic in design and constructed of brick, with Bedford stone trim. 
 The decorative motif is confined to the entrances, the main part of 
 the building being adapted to use rather than to beauty. A battle- 
 mented tower flanks one entrance. 
 
 In addition to the usual high school curriculum, this school offers 
 various courses in agriculture. There is a large and well-equipped 
 gymnasium, and an auditorium seating 1,300. The large athletic field 
 was named Bryant Field in honor of the members of this family who 
 have served on the school board since the first high school was erected. 
 
 Princeton had a high school as early as 1867. Early that year a 
 charter was drawn up by prominent citizens of the community which 
 was accepted by the Illinois General Assembly on Jan. 7. A loan of 
 $25,000 was negotiated, and a tax of one per cent on all property was 
 levied to pay principal and interest. The school building was of five 
 stories, and cost $60,000. It was dedicated Aug. 27, 1867. Henry L. 
 Boltwood was the first principal, and it was his plan to offer education 
 to anyone desiring it. Irregular as well as regular pupils were welcome. 
 The school term was divided into three semesters. Work given during 
 the first two years was composed of elementary subjects because most 
 of the students were not ready for high school. 
 
 John Howard Bryant landscaped the grounds about the school, 
 and so fine an appearance had the building in its setting, that several 
 times it was chosen as one of the "Beauty Spots of Illinois" by Lorado 
 Taft and his committee. In 1892 the fifth story was condemned. This 
 
 [33] 
 
Map of 
 City of Princeton 
 
 [34] 
 
floor was used as a dressing room by the football team. Sometimes 
 the members would jump back and forth in unison, making the whole 
 building sway. Not until 1894 was the top story taken down, when 
 the remainder of the building was modernized. Electric lights, forced 
 ventilation, and drinking fountains were installed. While this work 
 was being done, classes were held in Apollo Hall. In 1908 the build- 
 ing was enlarged. A wing, a boys' and girls' gymnasium were added. 
 The building was again overhauled and enlarged in 1922. 
 
 Fire completely destroyed the school in December of 1924. 
 Nothing was saved. Records, furnishings, paintings, statues, some 
 1,800 books; all were lost; also a fine collection of birds, insects, and 
 other natural history specimens. Construction on the present high 
 school was begun almost immediately. 
 
 (2) The BUREAU COUNTY COURT HOUSE, Court House 
 Square, was formally dedicated on Sunday afternoon, June 6th, 1937. 
 This building, designed by Royer & Danley, stands on the same spot 
 where its two predecessors stood: on the old historic square about 
 which Princeton's first cabins were built. Of Bedford limestone, it 
 was erected as a PWA project at an approximate cost of $225,000. 
 Granite from Rockville, Minn., was used for ornamenting the outside 
 of the building. Doors are of glass and chromium. The building has 
 
 [35] 
 
three stories and a basement. No wood was used except in the doors 
 and casings and oak paneling. 
 
 The main or East entrance leads into a corridor fourteen feet 
 wide, which in turn leads into a lobby 29 by 40 feet. Walls of the 
 first floor are of light tan marble quarried at Kasota, Minn. Base- 
 boards and door trimmings are of Verde antique polished marble 
 brought from Vermont. Flanking the lobby are the offices of the 
 county clerk, county treasurer, circuit clerk, and county judge, as well 
 as vaults for county records. Here also is a court room large enough 
 for the average county hearing. The woodwork of the court room 
 is of oak. 
 
 At the West end of the building a stairway leads to the second 
 floor. On this floor are offices of state's attorney, sheriff, and circuit 
 judge, board room for county supervisors, petit jury and grand jury 
 rooms, several offices, and rest rooms for men, and women. Centrally 
 located is the huge circuit court room, two full stories high. 
 
 The third floor contains the upper part of the circuit court room, 
 and superintendent of schools' office and work rooms. 
 
 The basement contains several offices, county highway office, head- 
 quarters and exhibits of the Bureau County Historical Society, public 
 rest rooms, vaults, boiler and fuel rooms, Old Age Assistance offices, 
 and the county welfare society. Also in the basement are the head- 
 quarters of the Bureau County Tuberculosis Clinic. This organization, 
 supported by county funds, has consistently fought the disease for 
 18 years. 
 
 The circuit court room, with entrance on the second floor, is by 
 far the most impressive room in the building. The walls — two stories 
 high — are of smooth oak paneling, as are the clerk's desk, court bailiff's 
 box, and the judge's bench. The jury box is of this same clear-grained 
 light wood, but inside, the chairs for the twelve good men and true 
 are those of a generation ago, as are the six thoughtfully-placed 
 cuspidors. 
 
 Like those of the entire building, the lines of the room and the 
 appointments, are chaste and ultra-modern. Here is a typical example 
 of the new trend in public building design that is gradually seeping 
 through into our older communities — sometimes contrasting a little 
 painfully with the ordered beauty of another day. 
 
 The first jail and dwelling for the jailer had been erected in 1838. 
 Since there was no county court house, this building also housed some 
 
 [36] 
 
of the county officers, and served as a repository for county records. 
 Many claimed, however, that Cyrus Bryant kept these records in his 
 hat. He was then Clerk of the Court of County Commissioners, a 
 position analagous to that of a county clerk of today. 
 
 In September of 1842, Alvah Whitmarsh was awarded the con- 
 tract for the building of a courthouse, his plans having been approved 
 by the county fathers. The plans cost the county $52.40. Although 
 work was begun almost at once, the building was not completed and 
 accepted until June of 1845. The total cost was $8,764.63, and Mr. 
 Whitmarsh was paid in 483 separate payments ranging from $1.50 
 to $800.00. 
 
 The first court house had no protection against fire, and the 
 burning of several court houses in the Middle West, with subsequent 
 loss of records, began to cause uneasiness. A new building was sug- 
 gested, but since the county seat was not then considered a fixture in 
 Princeton, the expenditure of money for county buildings was strongly 
 opposed. In 1859, however, the old court house was in such a de- 
 plorable state of repair that it was obvious that something had to be 
 done. Accordingly and by a bare majority, the board of supervisors 
 appointed three commissioners and appropriated money for a so-called 
 court house "improvement." Had it been proposed to erect a new 
 building, the measure would have been hopelessly defeated, but the 
 word "improvement" won the day. In reality, however, it was prac- 
 tically a new building, as nothing remained of the old one but the 
 walls and floor timbers of the first story. Work was begun on March 
 1, I860, and the new building was completed and ready for occupany 
 on Nov. 1, of that same year. The opposition to Princeton as the 
 county seat had sufficient strength in several townships to relegate to 
 private life a number of the supervisors who voted for the "improve- 
 ment." 
 
 The court house was a two-story, brick structure, gabled, with 
 eight or ten chimneys, and a central tower. Its cost was a little less 
 than $25,000, and was paid for in a few years out of ordinary revenue. 
 This was a staggering amount in '59, but when the Civil War came on, 
 and people thought in terms of thousands of dollars rather than dimes, 
 it seemed almost laughable to think that anyone had been afraid of 
 such a paltry sum. 
 
 Early photographs of this old structure show most of the trees of 
 the Court House Square as little more than saplings. Some of these 
 trees today, towering above Princeton's new Bedford and chromium 
 edifice, have trunks three feet in diameter. 
 
 [37] 
 
(3) BUREAU COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY (9 to 4 
 Monday through Friday), County Court House, exhibits many inter- 
 esting objects, some of which are of the era of Princeton's founding. 
 At the foot of the stairway, opposite the entrance to the Society, is the 
 Old Court House Bell, resting in its weather-beaten cradle. It was 
 cast at the Menely Bell Foundry, West Troy, N. Y., and purchased 
 by the building committee on Feb. 12, 1873, weighs 818 pounds, 
 and cost $449. 
 
 Among the many objects displayed are pieces of pewterware; a 
 complete fireplace from the period of 1845 ; pantry, kitchen, and fire- 
 place equipment; Indian relics; weapons and flags; spinning wheels 
 and wool carders; pre-Civil War baby carriages (tasseled, ornate, and 
 high-wheeled) ; saddles; a grain cradle; oxen yokes; some fine old 
 furniture. 
 
 The Society's room was dedicated on March 17, 1938, 3,000 
 persons attending. A membership drive is now on, and additional 
 funds, it is hoped, will be secured to enlarge the collection. 
 
 (4) SOLDIERS AND SAILORS MONUMENT, on the court 
 house square, was erected in the year 1912 by Bureau County in the 
 memory of Civil War veterans. A huge granite base, with bronze 
 plaques bearing the veterans' names, is surmounted by four nine-foot 
 bronze figures of Union Soldiers and Sailors, which stand one on each 
 side of a four-sided column. Set upon the column is a robed, winged 
 female figure, also of bronze. She bears a sword and holds a torch 
 aloft. This is the largest monument in Bureau County. Its cost was 
 $25,295.42. At one corner of the square, near the monument, is a 
 World War naval cannon of heavy calibre, weighing more than five 
 and a half tons. Two smaller guns are placed in the city park. 
 
 (5) The MATSON PUBLIC LIBRARY (12 to 9 week days), 
 opposite the County Court House, contains 20,750 volumes. The 
 building which houses the Library is a gabled structure of red brick, 
 with overhanging eaves, and presents a snug and comfortable appear- 
 ance. Opened in 1890, the Library was made possible by the monetary 
 gift of Nehemia Matson. 
 
 Nehemia Matson was born July 19, 1816, at Jacobsburg, Ohio, 
 and had a common school education, supplemented by one year at 
 Franklin College in nearby Athens. In 1836 he came to Bureau 
 County, and farmed successfully in Dover Township. He entered land 
 for new-comers, and in this way learned much about local geography. 
 He also wrote letters for those of his neighbors who were unskilled 
 
 [38] 
 
in penmanship, and his services were greatly in demand. He married 
 Electra Mead in 1841. Together they lived on the Matson farm, about 
 two miles north of Princeton, and about a quarter mile east of the Red 
 Covered Bridge. In 1852 they moved to a home on East Peru St., in 
 Princeton, where they lived until they died. 
 
 To Mr. Matson goes much credit for the preservation of historical 
 facts concerning Bureau County. In 1857 he published the first map 
 of the County, which he made from personal surveys. In 1876 he 
 revised the original map and brought it up to date. He also wrote in 
 this volume sketches of the events of the past decade. In 1868 he 
 toured Europe for eleven months and wrote his experiences and im- 
 pressions in a book titled Beyond the Atlantic; published in 1870. 
 Reminiscences of Bureau County was published in 1872. In 1874 he 
 published two books: Memories of Shabbona, and Pioneers of Illinois. 
 Racounteur was published in 1882. Two manuscripts of books re- 
 mained unfinished at his death in Princeton on Oct. 3, 1883. Con- 
 sidering his scanty formal educational background, Mr. Matson's works 
 are indeed creditable. 
 
 The sum of $11,862 became available after the settlement of the 
 estate in 1886. This was to be used in founding the Matson Public 
 Library. A library board was appointed by the Mayor, and the H. A. 
 Clark insurance building was purchased for $1,600. Some hundreds 
 more were expended to repair the building and to prepare it to serve 
 its new functions. It contained two rooms and a vault. Only one 
 room was retained for library purposes, and the remaining room and 
 the vault were rented. 
 
 This first building was without city water, and had only stove 
 heat. A skylight admitted a little light and much rain. In 1892 water 
 pipes and a furnace were installed. The library was open several 
 afternoons and evenings each week. The present librarian, Miss Agnes 
 Robinson, was elected to the position on May 26, 1898. 
 
 As time passed, accessions of books necessitated a larger building. 
 Samuel P. Clark donated the site upon which the present library stands, 
 paid for landscaping, and in addition, presented securities amounting 
 to $7,700 to further improve the property. The library building was 
 completed in the spring of 1913 at a cost of $23,000. Many other 
 gifts were received, among which were notes and bonds amounting to 
 $60,000 from Selby Smith. The Woman's Club gave $3,400 on the 
 condition that they be permitted to have an upstairs room as their 
 headquarters. 
 
 [39} 
 
The library has two reading rooms: one for adults and one for 
 children. Princetonites borrow books without charge; non-residents 
 pay a dollar annually. The building is flood-lighted at night. 
 
 (6) WATER AND LIGHT PLANT, Main St. and Central 
 Ave., is housed in a building of meager dimensions. This plant has 
 for years been one of the main sources of revenue for Princeton. One 
 power system suffices for both water and electric supply. Pulverized 
 coal is burned to produce steam for driving pumps and generators. 
 The exhaust steam is piped underground and heats the City Hall, the 
 Mission, First Lutheran, and Catholic churches, and all business houses 
 on Main St. between the City Hall and the Post Office. Some resi- 
 dences on Vernon St. are heated in a like manner. 
 
 Prior to 1900, there were two privately owned electric plants in 
 Princeton. One was operated by a gasoline engine, and supplied a 
 few businesses on South Main St. during the day. The other, operated 
 by steam, functioned at night to furnish street lights in the business 
 district. Residential streets were illuminated by kerosene or gas, and 
 lamplighters made nightly rounds on horseback. 
 
 The City purchased the steam-operated plant in January of 1900 
 for $12,000. Members of the council gave personal notes amounting 
 to $8,000 to consumate the purchase. Early development in the 
 electrical department was slow. The city wired homes to induce the 
 use of the current produced. Home consumption, and the street lights 
 gave the generators plenty of work during the night, but it was difficult 
 to procure a load for operation in the daytime. The use of motors 
 was encouraged, and the city purchased and distributed fifty electric 
 irons, and in this way increased kilowatt consumption. 
 
 In 1907 the plant was offered for sale because it was unprofitable 
 to the city. As no buyers came forward, $16,000 were spent to re- 
 habilitate the system. The discarding of arc lights, which burned 
 carbon and which required constant attention, and the use of Tungsten 
 or incandescent lights put the department on a paying basis. By 1916 
 the bonds had been paid in full. Many improvements have since been 
 made, and so profitable has the department become, that the city was 
 offered $600,000 for the system in 1927. At present $135,000 is 
 being expended to make the plant modern in every respect. 
 
 Princeton's water is procured from two drilled wells 262 feet 
 deep. It is pumped through a filtration plant, at which time it is 
 filtered, softened, and chlorinated. Water goes to the distribution 
 system under sixty pounds pressure. In 1937 the wells supplied 
 160,331,400 gallons. 
 
 [40] 
 
Public ownership of the Water and Light Plant gives Princeton 
 about twice as much money per capita to spend as the average city. 
 
 (7) CITY HALL, southwest corner of Central and Main St., 
 sets in a small municipal park. The building is two stories high, and 
 is constructed of red brick, with an overhanging roof supported by 
 four massive cement columns. The two center columns support a 
 small balcony. On the first floor are offices of the city clerk, superin- 
 tendent of streets and sewage, superintendent of the water and light 
 department and the police department. In the rear is the fire station 
 with fire-fighting apparatus, and firemen's clubroom. There is a rest 
 room for men, and one for women. 
 
 The second floor contains Red Cross, WPA, Farm Security Ad- 
 ministration, and U. S. Department of Agriculture headquarters, as 
 well as a large council chamber, and the office of the city engineer. 
 
 In the basement is the city jail. Bankrupt tourists whose finger- 
 prints are not recorded with the Federal Bureau of Investigation are 
 urged to avail themselves of the facilities here: hot and cold showers, 
 laundry tubs, etc. 
 
 (8) PERRY MEMORIAL HOSPITAL, Park Avenue East, con- 
 sists of a central structure and two wings. Of brick, the institution is 
 set upon generous and splendidly landscaped grounds. 
 
 Julia Rackley Perry died in December of 1913, leaving $25,000 
 for the construction or endowment of a public hospital, the fund and 
 accrued interest to be available in five years. The remainder of the 
 estate she willed to her husband, to be used by him until his death, 
 and then added to the original endowment. When he died in 1917, 
 the total amount was augmented to $52,356. Most of this sum was 
 spent in purchasing an abandoned, privately owned hospital, and in 
 preparing it to receive patients. Medical equipment costs greatly 
 exceeded expectations, and citizens of Princeton were called upon to 
 make up the deficit. Voluntary contributions amounted to $3,306. 
 A tax of two mills on the dollar was levied for maintenance. 
 
 In 1931 a $45,000 wing was added to the east side of the build- 
 ing. This wing contains a solarium dedicated to veterans of the 
 World War. A second wing was built on the west side of the original 
 structure in 1938. Its cost was $65,000, equipped, 45 per cent of 
 which came from PWA funds. Upon completion of this west wing, 
 the institution became one of the finest small city hospitals in the 
 Middle West. Features include x-ray room, obstetrical room, room for 
 mothers, sound-proof nursery, nurses' quarters, doctors' recreation room. 
 
 [41] 
 
(9) The PADDOCK HOME, 832 S. Main St. is a little gabled 
 buff-colored, brick home, set upon a spacious lot. Built in the early 
 1850's, in what was then known as Boyd's Grove, it gave lodging to 
 Abraham Lincoln in 1856. 
 
 Princeton is indeed modest in that it points with pride to just one 
 home where the martyred President slept. As St. Augustine, Florida, 
 has at least a dozen placards in various homes inscribed: The oldest 
 house in the United States: so have many Middle- Western cities in- 
 numerable places where Lincoln is supposed to have slept. This latter 
 fact suggests a rhyme: 
 
 When Abe rode round on Circuit Eight, 
 Mere figgers could not estimate 
 The places where he stopped to plan 
 His quarrels with the Douglas man. 
 
 He stopped in every neighborhood 
 At all the places that he could, 
 O'er thresholds myriad he stepped 
 And in a million beds he slept. 
 
 Insomnia must have been his lot, 
 Else why his frame in every cot? 
 In a million spots he slept and ate 
 From Cairo to the Badger State. 
 
 Lincoln did, however, spend a night at the Paddock home. A 
 portrait taken by a local photographer proves the point (this statement 
 does not mean to imply that Honest Abe was pictured en deshabille). 
 The picture — the work of Robert Masters — has ever been the favorite 
 of local people. Lincoln's appearance in Princeton was occasioned by 
 a Republican Fourth of July celebration at which he spoke against 
 Douglas and all that Douglas championed. Others who made speeches 
 on that day were Ebenezer Peck, Joseph Knox, Owen Love joy, and 
 Governor William H. Bissell. Newspapers estimated the crowd at 
 about 10,000. 
 
 (10) The OWEN LOVE JOY HOME, a few rods east of the city 
 limits on E. Peru St. (also U. S. 6), was built about 1840. In appear- 
 ance, this is a very ordinary dwelling; a white frame, rambling 
 structure with green shutters and shingles, and red brick chimney. 
 There is a small veranda. 
 
 Owen Lovejoy was the younger brother of Elijah P. Love joy who 
 was murdered at Alton for his abolitionist work. Owen was associated 
 with him the last year of his life, and was with him when he died. 
 
 [42] 
 
Twenty-six years of age at this time, Owen vowed to give himself to 
 the cause, and ultimately became the recognized leader of anti-slavery 
 forces in Illinois. His home near Princeton was an important station 
 on the "underground railway," and was the scene of numerous inci- 
 dents. Feeling ran high many years before the Dred Scott decision, 
 and the community, although preponderantly abolitionist, was divided 
 in opinion regarding whether or not escaped slaves should be returned 
 to their "owners." So intense was this feeling that the congregation 
 of the Presbyterian Church was split asunder. Love joy did not 
 vacillate. As pastor of the Congregational Church, he openly declared 
 his views. Whenever any of his listeners departed from the church in 
 anger while he was in the midst of his sermon, he would follow him 
 out of doors and say: "I'll talk to you like this until you like it, and 
 then I'll talk this way because you like it." 
 
 One day an escaped Negro was captured and chained to a tree 
 just outside of the county court house. Love joy awaited his chance, 
 and when no one was in the immediate vicinity, he told the Negro 
 how he might escape, and the hour when it would be most nearly 
 possible. In some manner unexplained in the history of the case, the 
 Negro slipped out of his bonds and made a mad dash for the Love joy 
 home at the appointed hour. A mob immediately followed, demanded 
 the return of the former slave, and threatened violence. Lovejoy held 
 them at bay with a rifle, promising death to the first to enter the yard. 
 No man entered. That night the Negro was dressed in women's 
 clothes, given a horse, and directed to the next station of the Under- 
 
 [43] 
 
ground Railway. Scores of others were assisted to escape by Love joy, 
 but in a less spectacular manner. 
 
 Owen Lovejoy was sent to the State legislature in 1854. He was 
 a member of Congress from 1856 until his death in 1864. Repeatedly 
 he announced to all fellow Congressmen: "I live one mile east of 
 Princeton (of the court house) . My home is a refuge for any in- 
 dividual seeking freedom, and I'll help any Negro on his way to 
 Canada." This statement, of course, was in open defiance of the 
 ruling of the United States Supreme Court. 
 
 The home remains today very much as it appeared when Owen 
 Lovejoy died in 1864. Its present owner, Mr. J. L. Spaulding, pur- 
 chased it several years ago. Through his efforts, and through the 
 efforts of his daughter, Mrs. Sue Gross, the place is now being fur- 
 nished interiorly in the style of a century ago. 
 
 (11) PRINCETON-BUREAU COUNTY PARK, 4 miles north 
 of the Court House on 111. 89, contains about five acres, hemmed in by 
 split rail fences. Here are virgin trees, and surprisingly rugged 
 topography. Facilities include many fireplaces for picnickers, good 
 well water, lavatories, and shelters. A gravel all-weather road winds 
 through the park. 
 
 Big Bureau Creek flows past the park on two sides, its flood- 
 plain some seventy-five feet below the average level of the park. Here 
 are fine views of forests and fertile fields which extend for several 
 miles. A dam across the Creek is now being contemplated which, 
 when built, will form a lake seven miles long and one mile wide. This 
 lake, in addition to making the park a recreational center, will act as 
 a flood-control measure when meandering Big Bureau Creek becomes 
 swollen and tries to straighten out her course. 
 
 (12) RED COVERED BRIDGE, 3 8-10 miles north of the 
 Court House, is reached by following 111. 89 for 3 3-10 miles, then 
 turning left and following a gravel road for a half mile. Built in 
 1863 of 8- by 12-inch timbers and heavy planks, the bridge today is in 
 perfect condition. Spanning Big Bureau Creek, the bridge once tied 
 together the old Peoria-Galena Road (more popularly known as Dad 
 Joe Trail) at this point. The road now leading across it is nameless 
 and numberless, infrequently traveled save by farmers around this 
 place. 
 
 A point near the bridge was the site of the Old Yankee Inn, now 
 no more. 
 
 [44] 
 
The tourist is advised to heed the warning inscribed above each 
 entrance: Five dollars fine for driving more than twelve horses, mules 
 or cattle at any one time or for leading any beast faster than a walk 
 on or across this bridge. 
 
 (13) OAKLAND CEMETERY, just outside Princeton's west 
 limits, was laid out Oct. 26, 1842. The original plot covered two and 
 one-half acres, and was purchased by the Hampshire Colony Congre- 
 gational Church for one dollar per acre. As interments increased, 
 more and more land was added. At present the total acreage is 53. 
 The cemetery is owned and operated by the city of Princeton, and 
 everywhere are evidences of exceptionally good care. 
 
 It is impossible to ascertain the exact number of burials, as some 
 of the older records of interments were lost, but it is estimated that 
 the figure closely approaches 10,000. There are 234 soldiers' graves 
 which are marked. More than half of the interments recorded in the 
 last ten years are from outside of Princeton. Fine old American 
 names are inscribed upon the stones; some almost obliterated by time 
 and weather: Lovejoy, Wiswall, Bryant, Denham, Lathrop, Farnham, 
 Butler, Morse, Osborn, Halladay, Clark, Phelps 
 
 Here it is easy to dream of other days: the hearse is a covered 
 wagon coming slowly along this way, marking the trail for the 
 mourners and the dead of their own, and of future generations. Buck- 
 skins in those days and coonskin caps and a rifle handy. Calico and 
 homespun. Then later down this road — rutted now — and beneath 
 these same trees: poke bonnets, hoops, crinoline; top hats held in 
 deference against ornate vests. Farm wagons, buggies, sleighs, cutters, 
 pungs — all have passed this way. Dusty roads, or muddy; frozen in 
 flinty ruts, or snow-covered. 
 
 Today, familiar things: a motor hearse with a string of cars 
 behind ; gestures and clothing of the day in which we live ; a canopied 
 grave. 
 
 Cinder and gravel roads wind between well-kept graves, between 
 old elm and maple and pine. Here, perhaps more than in any part of 
 Princeton itself, the saga of past generations moves in a living picture 
 across one's consciousness. Unlike most age-old cemeteries, this is not 
 deserted and brooding. Past and present meet and are compatible, 
 and a whole history of the community is epitomized in this one place. 
 
 [45] 
 
chronology 
 
 1831 First general election held at the house of Elijah Epperson, 
 two miles north of Princeton, on the first Monday in August. 
 First death of a white person in the county, Daniel Smith. 
 
 1834 First store in Bureau County opened. First article sold, a 
 horse collar. 
 
 1835 Beginning of underground railroad in Bureau County; Princeton 
 an important station on the line. 
 
 1836 Princeton Academy begins its first term in the lower room of 
 the Congregational Church. 
 
 1837 Prairie broken with big plows on wheels, four yoke of oxen 
 being used. About this time Flavel Thurston of Wyanet 
 introduces the small two-horse plow. People laugh. 
 
 1838 Owen Lovejoy comes to Princeton, beginning his seventeen- 
 year pastorate of the Congregational Church. 
 
 1840 Steel plow comes into general use. 
 
 1850 Old plan for fencing with rails abandoned; wire, board, or 
 hedge fencing introduced. 
 
 1851 South Union School built — first graded school. 
 
 1852 Resolution passed appropriating $1,000 to purchase poor farm. 
 The Illinois State Legislature passes an act giving the swamp 
 lands to counties wherein they are situated. In Bureau County 
 there are about 40,000 acres, mostly lying on Green River. 
 In 1856 these lands sold for $115,000, and the money appro- 
 priated to the school fund. 
 
 1855 Meeting to organize the Bureau County Agricultural Society. 
 Permanent organization this same year. 
 
 1856 Lincoln delivers an address to citizens of Princeton. 
 
 1857 Arthur Bryant, Sr. begins a nursery on a small scale near town. 
 
 1861 Council votes to buy grounds for a cemetery. 
 
 1865 First National Bank of Princeton organized. 
 
 3,626 soldiers "furnished" by Bureau County; $650,000 paid 
 in "bounties." 
 
 [46} 
 
1866 The general plan for the establishment and support of the 
 proposed high school is formulated and given the public. 
 The contract for the high school building is let; to cost 
 $45,249.00. 
 
 1867 First Princeton high school dedicated. 
 
 1868 Artesian well under construction; later abandoned. 
 1872 Bureau County Tribune started. 
 
 1883 Election held to decide whether Princeton should be made a city. 
 
 1884 Princeton declared a city. 
 
 Justus Stevens, first mayor of Princeton, elected. 
 
 1889 Water works voted for City of Princeton. 
 
 1890 Water tower finished — well 2,512 feet deep. 
 Matson Public Library opened. 
 
 Princeton water works completed. 
 
 1892 Electric light plant in operation. 
 
 1900 Rural delivery established. 
 
 Bureau County Independent Telephone Company incorporated. 
 
 1902 State Bank organized. 
 
 1906 Work on street railway begins. 
 
 Interurban track between Princeton depot and Bureau completed. 
 
 1907 First street car comes into Princeton on Interurban. 
 Pupils enrolled at Princeton high school, 288. 
 
 Interurban inaugurates hourly schedule on the Princeton 
 extension. 
 
 [47] 
 
personal interviews 
 
 Floyd N. Avery, Mayor of Princeton, 22 E. Columbus Street. 
 
 Harry U. Bailey, Editor and Publisher, Bureau County Republican. 
 
 John W. Bailey, Business Manager, Bureau County Republican. 
 
 Miss Grace Bryant, South Main Street. 
 
 Paul V. Dean, Farm Adviser, Farm Bureau. 
 
 Miss Agnes Robinson, Librarian, Matson Library. 
 
 Miss Dorothy Busch, Assistant Librarian, Matson Library. 
 
 A. Clarence Anderson, City Clerk, City Hall. 
 
 Guy Sharp, Superintendent, Oakland Cemetery. 
 
 Theodore A. Duffield, City Editor, Bureau County Republican. 
 
 Harlow A. Brown, Stanley B. Brown, Editors and Publishers, Bureau 
 County Tribune. 
 
 J. Edgar Fuller, Fuller Canning Company. 
 
 James Fletcher, County Clerk, County Court House. 
 
 Miss Freada O. Nelson, County Court House. 
 
 Miss Edna B. Anderson, County Court House. 
 
 J. A. Omen, Funeral Director, North Main Street. 
 
 Eugene Finn, Assistant City Engineer, City Hall. 
 
 Robert Anderson, Proprietor Alexander Park. 
 
 Tony Fenoglio, Deputy Clerk, Bureau County Court House. 
 
 [48] 
 
Views of Princeton 
 
•v. 8 
 
 wr*» *.» • v. 
 
 
 ELM PLACE— PRINCETON'S CATHEDRAL OF TREES 
 
\ 
 
 THE OLD RED COVERED BRIDGE 
 
 LOVEJOY HOMESTEAD— SANCTUARY OF SLAVES 
 
 f§f^ ** 
 
 j»x,i 
 
 ML 1" 
 
 m 
 
HERE LINCOLN WAS ENTERTAINED JULY 4, 1856 
 
 THE HOME OF GRACE BRYANT— BUILT IN 1844-45 BY CYRUS BRYANT 
 
 
 .5® 
 
 
 11 
 
 •» _. ..lis 
 
 «i*?5 
 
THE PRINCETON TOWNSHIP HIGH SCHOOL 
 
 THE BUREAU COUNTY COURTHOUSE 
 
 II ■ R 'S5 
 
MAIN STREET— BUREAU COUNTY'S HUB OF COMMERCE 
 
 JULIA RACKLEY PERRY MEMORIAL HOSPITAL 
 
 

 ■ 
 
 
 IN MEMORY OF THOSE WHO FOUGHT IN THE "WAR BETWEEN THE STATES" 
 
THE LIBRARY— WHERE STUDENTS DO PONDER 
 
 THE ADELINE E. PROUTY OLD LADIES' HOME 
 
LIBRARY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 
 
 REPUBLICAN PRINTING COMPANY, 
 PRINCETON. ILLINOIS 
 
LJ 
 
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS-URBANA 
 
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 PRINCETON GUIDE PRINCETON 
 
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