USA > Illinois > Champaign County > A Standard history of Champaign County Illinois : an authentic narrative of the past, with particular attention to the modern era in the commercial, industrial, civic and social development : a chronicle of the people, with family lineage and memoirs, Volume I > Part 3
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Ryan, Thomas, 397
Sabin, C. J., 373
Saddler, John G., 196
Saddler, John S., 209
Sadorus, 208, 348, 510
Sadorus, George W. B., 359
Sadorus Grove, 3, 104, 105
Sadorus, Henry, 3, 103, 104, 106, 134, 218
Sadorus homes, 107
Sadorus Township, 510-512
Sadorus, William, 21
St. Clair County, 67
St. John's Parish (Catholic), Champaign, 399 St. Joseph (see Old St. Joseph), 209, 349, 487
St. Joseph, Main Street (view), 485
St. Joseph Record, 487
St. Joseph Township and Village, 482- 487 St. Mary's Catholic Church, Champaign, 397 St. Patrick's Catholic Parish, Urbana, 448
INDEX
xxiii
St. Peter's Evangelical Church, Cham- paign, 397
Sale, Clarence S., 313 Sale, Frederick B., 359, 430, 494
Salem Baptist Church, Champaign, 401 Salisbury, 143
Salisbury, John, 139, 164, 483
Salisbury, S. S., 205, 209 Salisbury, T. M., 498 Salt Fork, 2
Salt Fork Timber, 119 Samples of Champaign County Farming (views), 506
Sampson, Willard L., 475
Sandwell, Lawrence, 498
Sangamon Country, 75
Sangamon Timber, 120
Sangamon & Morgan Railroad, 347
Savage, John H., 454 Savage, Manford, 389
Savoy, 347
Sawmill, Old Timer (view), 125
Sayers, James O., 980
Schantz, O. M., 14 Schell, Eva, 449
Schindler, Oscar W., 968 Schluter, Louis W., 623
Schoengerdt, W. E., 205
School of Ceramies, 282
School of Commerce, 281
School of Education, 281
School of Law and State Library School, 273
School of Military Aeronautics estab- lished, 301
School of Railway Engineering, 283
Schools, 124; territorial, 213; state pub- lic, 214; early, 215; Charles Fielder first teacher in county, 216; other pio- neer teachers, 216; pioneer of the town- ships, 219; inadequate revennes, 225; present county system, 226; commis- sioners, 226; present status of, in county, 230; state examining board, 231; standardization of rural, 234; High School Tuition Act, 235; state educational survey, 236; germs of the public school system, 241; early at- tempts to found state universities, 242; public in Champaign, 373-387; of Ur- bana, 423-426, 433-437
Schools of Pharmacy and Medicine, Chi- cago, 272
Schoon, Christian, 712
Schoon, George, 710 Schowengerdt, William E., 721
Schuett, R. H., 396 Schumacher, Henry T., 756
Schumacher, R. W., 206 Schumm, Julius, 397 Schwanderman, Herman, 553
Scott, Andrew, 481, 869 Scott, Fielding L., 130, 187, 491, 494
Scott, James R., 373, 393 Scott, John A., 164 Scott Park, 393
Scott, Thomas J., 164
Scovell, M., 387
Seroggs, George, 388, 420
Seroggs, John W., 210, 369, 415, 425
Seaver, N. L., 462
Selle, C. A. F., 396
Seltzer, John D., 724
Seltzer, John F., 725
Semple, A., 445 Seymour, 208, 347, 349, 521
Seymour, Arthur R., 304
Shade, Henry R., 1064
Shattuck, Samuel W., 259
Shaw, Aaron, 178
Shaw, J., 445 Shaw, Newton, 351
Shawhan, George R., 229, 414, 773
Shawhan, William M., 509
Sheffer, George J., 410
Sheldon Brick Company, 455
Sheldon, C. C., 455
Sheldon, George, 455
Sheldon, J. C., 444
Shelledy, Stephen B., 142
Shemauger, 90, 92
Shepherd, Paris, 226
Sherfy, Chalmers F., 164
Sheridan, Arthur, 596
Sherman, Edward S., 356
Sherman, Mrs. S. P., 404
Shields, Robert, 932
Shoemaker, R. W., 369
Shortridge, C. T., 508 Shreve, William O., 486
Shuck, John W., 164
Shuck, J. W., 454
Sickel, Mrs. F., 475
Sidney (see also Nox's Point), 208, 347, 348, 500-504 Sidney's Main Street (view), 502
Sidney Times, 503
Sidney Township, 499-500
Silkey, Abner, 454
Silver, David A., 944
Sim, Joseph W., 188, 431
Sim, William, 437, 473
Simmons, O. B., 206
Sims, W. B., 165
Singbusch, Arthur C., 572
Six, Harlan W., 970
Sizer, A. D., 492
Sizer, Lucius N., 787
Skinner, George, 649
Slavery issue (1822-24), 74
Smedley, F. R., 420 Smith, Arthur W., 361
Smith, C. B., 182, 373 Smith, Daniel F., 402
Smith, Frank, 305 Smith, F. M., 473
xxiv
Smith, Henry C., 497 Smith, Jacob W., 967 Smith, Joe, 105, 107 Smith, Lyman, 478 Smith, L. S., 370 Smith, Mrs. C. B., 382 Smith, Mrs. W. H., 407 Smith, Robert B., 370
Smith, Thomas E., 566
Smith, Thomas J., 318, 389, 665
Smith, William H., 782
Smith, William O., 658
Smith, W. A., 504
Smith, W. E., 370 Smithers, James, 463
Smoot, Herman M., 473, 474, 994
Smyres, Lewis A., 164
Snelling, Moses, 430
Snyder, Edward, 260, 319, 383
Snyder, John, 57
Snyder, Mrs. Edward, 408
Social Science Club of Champaign and Urbana, 408
Sodom, 5 Soil, 9
Somers, James A., 678
Somers, James W., 190
Somers, John C., 414, 603
Somers, John L., 165
Somers, W. H., 429
Somers, William D., 148, 188
Somers, Winston, 197, 203, 209
Souder, Luther B., 764
South Campus and South Farm Today . (view), 266
South Homer Township, 469
Southworth, Albert L., 1012
Spalding, Bert E., 766
Spalding, Mrs. Arthur, 405
Spalding, Wallace P., 413 Spanish-American War, 360
Spears, Charles H., 729 Sperry, H. T., 410
Sperry, James, 770
Spoehrle, Carl W., 675
Spoon River flats, 516 Sprague, Dallas, 596 Springsteen, John, 519
Spruill, W. F. T., 395, 445
Spurgin, William G., 188 Stage Coach (view), 130 Staley, 349 Staley, Calvin C., 188 Stamey, Elias, 353 Stanford, Philip, 143 Stanford, Philip M., 144
Stanley, O. O., 205 Stanner, J. Ray, 32 Starr, E., 96, 100 Starved Rock, 48
State Bank in liquidation, 77 State Bank of Sidney, 503 State entomologist's office, 313
State Geological and Water surveys, 282
State Geological Survey, 314 State Laboratory of Natural History, 313 State road, 130
State Water Survey, 314
Stayton, David B., 484
Stayton, John D., 1008
Stayton, Joseph, 483
Steam Tractor in Orchard (view), 33
Stedman, W. H., 401
Steel, W. M., 465
Steele, Daniel A. K., 303, 306
Steele, John A., 368, 446
Stern, Walter W., 414
Steurer, Charles, 399
Stevens, E. V., 447 Stevens, Harmon, 196, 206
Stevens, Thomas, 477
Stevenson, Andrew, 175, 218
Stevenson, A. H., 164
Stevenson, Lew E., 864
Steviek, D. W., 416, 685
Stewart, Arthur R., 567
Stewart, John R., 416, 1071
Stewart, Mrs. J. R., 407, 408
Stewart, William, 420
Stidham, Penrose, 164
Stiegmeyer, G., 396
Stiles, O. D., 493
Stipes, John W., 455, 916
Stipes, Mrs. John W., 406
Stoddard, William O., 415
Stoech, Mrs. H. H., 407
Stone, E. A., 401
Stonestreet, Mary E., 592
Stonestreet, William, 592
Stoughton, Jonathan, 249
Stoughton, Jonathan C., 425
Stout, Frank, 889
Stover, Martin O., 32, 912
Strahle, Paul J., 618
Strauss, John, 478
Strehlow, H., 397
Strode, Archie E., 643
Strong, Ambrose W., 1025
Strong, Cyrus, 473, 484
Strong's Ford, 5, 485
Stucker, Thomas D. B., 940
Students' government system, 254
Sturdyvin, William L., 638 Sturgeon, Robert A., 798
Sugar Grove, 3, 120 Sullivan, William, 662
Sullivant Estate, Avers Township, 505
Sullivant, Michael L., 505 Summers, Charles A., 356
Summers, John W., 415, 474
Sussmuth, W., 397 Sutton, Elsie B., 512
Sutton, Royal A., 431 Swain, John, 203 Swamp lands, 12 Swannell, D. G., 412, 420
INDEX
XXV
Swannell, H., 382, 388 Swannell, Mrs. Henry, 407 Swartz, B. F., 432 Swearingen, Alpheus C., 1035
Swearingen, Amanda M., 1049
Swearingen, Bartley, 483
Swearingen, David, 483 Swearingen, John, 483
Swearingen, John V., 165
Swearingen, John W., 164
Swearingen, Van B., 486, 1048
Sweet, E. L., 373
Sweet, T. B., 387, 388
Swick, Jacob, 832
Swift, Eben, 361
Swift, J. R., 496 Swigart, Edwin S., 373, 404, 409, 529 Switzer, Lottie, 385
Talbot, A. N., 371, 391, 431 Talbot, Mrs. A. N., 408
Talbott, James A., 533 Taxes (1916), 168
Taylor, C., 221
Taylor, C. B., 439
Taylor, Mary A., 1057
Taylor, Mary L., 700
Taylor, Shelby D., 700
Taylor, William, 163
Teachers, pioneer American in Illinois, 213; pioneer of the townships, 219
Tenbrook, John P., 159, 187, 496 Terry, George W., 459 Third Street, Fisher (view), 479
Thirty Club, Champaign, 407 Thoma, Theodore A., 512
Thomas, James Q., 129, 839
Thomas, John B., 185, 187, 226, 420, 472 Thomas, Joseph, 473
Thomas, Moses, 136, 139, 164, 174, 184, 226
Thomasboro, 347, 468 Thomasboro village, 170
Thompson, Ann, 937 Thompson, Charles A., 203, 360
Thompson, Charles D., 854
Thompson, Fred E., 361
Thompson, James, 96, 99, 937 Thompson, John F., 505 Thompson, Martin B., 164, 203, 356
Thompson, William H., 797 Thornburn, John H., 404, 454 Thrasher, Benjamin, 13, 165
Thrasher, John, 165, 221 Threshing Scene (view), 33 Timber lands, 2 Tinkham, Charles J., 357, 492 Tipton, 348 Tittle, Perey H., 361 Tobie, Willard N., 447 Toledo, Wabash & Western Railroad, 347, 501 Tolle, C. J. T., 445
Tolono, 209, 347, 496-499
Tolono, Busy Section of (view), 497
Tolono Herald, 498
Tolono High School (view), 498
Tomlinson, William, 624
Tompkins, Claudie, 217
Tompkins, William, 102, 122, 428
Toner, Patrick, 398 Tonti, 42, 44, 47, 50
Tornquist, Andrew, 759 Tourtellotte, Edward, 207
Tow-Head Grove, 4, 514
Towl, E. K., 447
Towle, Nathan, 164
Town Hall, Sidney (view), 500
Townsend, Mrs. W. K. D., 407
Township organization adopted, 159
Townships, value of property and taxes levied, 168; population (1833-1917), 169; schools, 220 Toy, Solomon J., 164, 430
Traction system, 330, 348
Tracy, James M., 165, 356
Treat, Samuel H., 178
Trees, William H., 858
Trevett, Henry, 373, 383, 391
Trevett, Jolm H., 411, 413
Trevett, John R., 412, 413
Trevett-Mattis Banking Company, 412
(Univer-
Trinity Methodist Episcopal sity) Church, Urbana, 447 Trost, Eli, 498
Trotter, John F., 836
Truman, Jeptha, 219
Tucker, S. C., 371, 373, 606
Tuesday Club, Homer, 475
Turner, George E., 361
Turner, Jonathan B., 226, 242, 243, 247
Turrell, G. A., 414
Turrell, Mrs. George A., 408
Typical Wheat Field (view), 522
Tyrell, Rodger, 431
Udell, E. J., 465 Umbanhowar, James H., 995 Uncle Tommy Butler (see Thomas L. Butler) Unitarian Church, Urbana, 448 United Brethren Church of Broadlands, 508
United Brethren Church, Fisher, 480 United Charities Association of Cham- paign and Urbana, 403 United Manufacturing Company, 349
United States in 1798 (map), 68 United States surveyors, 96, 99, 121 Universalist Church, Urbana, 446 University Auditorium (view), 300 University Baptist Church, Urbana, 446 University Hall (view), 248
University of Illinois, 239-328; presi- dents of, 238; main building com- pleted, 256; literary societies, 259;
INDEX
xxvi
INDEX
name legally adopted, 267; statistics, 287-291, 310, 311; fraternities, 287; sororities, 287; buildings, 289, 326, 327; growth (1867-1917), 290; annals, 291-299; first meeting of the board (1867), 291; opens, 292; registrar, office of, created, 297; auditorium dedicated, 298; new administration building occupied, 301; honors, 316; prizes and medals, 317; sebolarships and fellowships, 318; loan funds, 319; extension work, 320; finances, 324; a military center, 361; library, 715
University Reserve Officers' Training Corps, 363
University Place Christian Church, Champaign, 403
University Young Men's Christian Asso- ciation, 294, 298
University Young Women's Christian Association, 296, 298
Urbana, 209, 349; pioneer churches and school, 147; incorporated, 150; fire of October 9, 1871, 426; postoffice estab- lished, 429; city incorporated, 429; mayors, 431; public schools, 433; newspapers, 439; Sunday schools, 451, 452; societies, 455.
Urbana & Champaign Horse Railway Company, 349
Urbana and Champaign Institute, 425
Urbana & Champaign Railway, Gas & Electric Company, 349, 350
Urbana Banking Company, 454
Urbana Clarion, 439
Urbana Courier, 439
Urbana Courier-Herald, 439
Urbana Fortnightly Club, 455
Urbana Free Library, 437
Urbana High School, 435
Urbana House, 177
Urbana Male and Female Seminary, 423 Urbana Methodist Episcopal Mission, 440 Urbana Methodist Mission, 473 Urbana Postoffice (view), 453
Urbana Railroad, 425, 426
Urbana Township and City, 422-456 Urbana Union, 438
Vail, Albert R., 448 Valentine, T. J., 395
Valuation of university property, 325 Van Brunt, S., 410
Vance, John W., 137
Van Doren, C. L., 517
Vandyke, S. A., 395 Van Tuyl, A., 437
Van Vleck, Charles F., 1006
Van Wegen, Lee M., 771 Varney, Samuel B., 784 Vennum, E. M., 414 Vennum, F. B., 414
Vermilion County, 136
Vesper Chapter No. 128, O. E. S., 420
Vieregg, Charles A., 360
Villages, population (1833-1917), 169 Vincennes captured by Americans, 62 Voliva, W. G., 447
Vollborn, Mrs. A. L., 475
Wabash Railroad, 347, 515
Wabash, St. Louis & Pacific Railroad, 348
Waddington, Ed., 481
Wade, Isaac N., 762
Wade, Luther C., 968
Wade, Mrs. I. N., 408
Wagner, A. J., 398, 399
Wagner, Minnie, 879
Wagner, Peter J., 878
Walker, T. C., 205
Walkington, John, 395
Walkington, William, 420
Wall, A. S., 205
Wallace, Charles H., 454, 1052
Wallace, J. W., 473
Walls, Arthur T., 697
Wampler, William, 517
Wantwood, 5 Ware, James C., 164
Warlick, J. R., 508
Warner, Charles D., 493
Warner, Claude B., 681
Washington Park, 393
Water supply, 11
Water, W., 387 Watkins, J. R., 517
Watson, George L., 660
Watson, Mary E., 766
Watts, Charles H., 230, 688
Weaver, Bill, 161
Weaver-Hiltibran murder, 179
Webber, Charles M., 680
Webber, Charles W., 164
Webber, G. W., 454
Webber, Thomas R., 134, 136, 139, 143, 144, 164, 343, 367, 428, 429
Webber, William B., 194, 431
Webber, William T., 429
Webster, C. D., 437
Webster, W. H., 396, 445
Weeks, John B., 410
Weeks, S. E., 410
Wegeng, Jobn C., 998
Welles, Thomas B., 747
Wells, Albert E., 401
Wendling, Charles F., 986
Weston, Martha K., 571
Weston, Nathan A., 303, 305, 387
West Church Street, Champaign (view), 401 West Main Street, Urbana (view), 427
West Urbana (see Champaign), 370; founded, 343
INDEX
xxvii
West Urbana, First Schoolhouse (view), 424
Western Electric Light Company, 349 Western Star Lodge No. 240, A. F. & A. M., 416 Wheeler, A. M., 423 Whitaker, John, 136, 144
Whitcomb, A. L., 205
Whitcomb, E. T., 388
White, David B., 1002
Wolfe, John S., 194, 354, 355, 359, 420
Woman's Building, Present (view), 255
Woman's Club of Homer, 475
Women admitted to university, 254
Wood, Mary, 518
Woodin, Thomas J., 1009
Woodin, W. H., 997
Woodruff, Mrs. F. C., 449
Woods, William F., 389
Woody, A. C., 473
Woody, F. Way, 409, 414
Woody, Paul W., 164, 373, 383
Wrean, Howard, 720
Wright, David B., 420, 578
Wright, Francis M., 159, 182, 454
Wright, James S., 165, 217, 373, 470, 472
Wright, John B., 470
Wright, Mrs. F. M., 408
Wright, Randolph C., 164
Wright, Robert C., 165, 193, 473
Wylie, Laura F., 705
Wyne, John H., 756
Wilder, Mrs. C. N., 407 Wilkins, E. D., 396
Wilkinson, James E., 402
Yankee Ridge, 6, 514
Yankee Ridge schoolhouse, 222
Yeats, J. K. P., 877
Yeazel, Adam, 175
Yeazel, James P., 1037
Yeazel, Mathew L., 1044
Young, James, 495
Youngblood, Roy, 900
Young Women's Christian League, Cham- paign, 406
Yount, Nicholas, 483
Wilson, James A., 993
Wilson, John J., 446
Wilson, J. L., 388
Wilson, S. L., 229
Wilson, William. 173
Wilson, W. W., 499
Windsor, Phineas L., 305, 306, 715
Wingard, L. Forney, 592
Winston, Miller, 502, 504 Wisegarver, Howard, 988 Witt, Charles W., 954 Wohlfarth, J. F., 445 Wolf, Lewis, 752 Wolfe, J. B., 396
White, Jacob, 431
White, James M., 304
White, James P., 391
White, John P., 344, 368, 369, 378, 475 White, Joseph, 765
White, J. E., 205 White, J. G., 475
White, Mrs. J. G., 475
White Park, 344, 368, 391
White Park, General View in, 392
Whitmore, J. P., 514
Whitney, A. M., 417, 419, 430
Whitney, Henry C., 191, 370
Wicks, Alfred, 503 Wiese, Emil L., 509
Wiggins, Charles B., 746
Wiggins, H. J., 473
Wiggins, Mrs. P. E., 475
Wilcox, L. S., 203, 205, 210, 373
Wildeat banking, 74, 81
Wilder, C. N., 394
Yancey, William L., 907
Williams, Chester A., 838
Williams, Clarence L., 968
Williams, F. M., 401
Williams, George C., 810
Williams, Isaac V., 490
Williams, James, 437
Williams, Jesse, 119, 499, 500
Williams, Thomas D., 356
Williams, Mrs. G. C., 407, 409
Wills, Ella, 699 Wills, James R., 698 Wilson, David, 804
Zerby, Guy L., 488 Zilly, Charles, 782 Zombro, Roger E., 656 Zook, Oscar, 481 Zorger, William H_ 622
CHAPTER I
PHYSICAL FEATURES
TIMBER AND PRAIRIE LANDS-BEAUTIFUL AND HISTORIC GROVES-WHY "DEAD MAN'S GROVE"-FORDS-OLD "NEIGHBORHOODS"-ALTITUDE OF CITIES AND VILLAGES-ACTION OF GLACIERS-SOIL-ORIGIN OF THE PRAIRIES-WATER SUPPLY-SWAMP LANDS RECLAIMED- STANDARD CHAMPAIGN COUNTY CEREALS-DAIRY PRODUCTS AND LIVE STOCK-BIRDS AS INSECT DESTROYERS-CEREALS SUPPLANT FRUITS-HISTORY OF HORTICULTURE IN COUNTY-AGRICULTURAL AND HORTICULTURAL SOCIETIES-AGRICULTURAL, HORTICULTURAL AND MECHANICAL ASSOCIATION-THE FARMERS' CLUB AND FAIR ASSOCIATION-CHAMPAIGN COUNTY FARMERS' INSTITUTE-THE FARM BUREAU.
One of the richest, most prosperous and progressive counties in southern Illinois, Champaign also represents a nucleus of mental activity and culture, national, even international, in its scope. The cities of Champaign and Urbana, virtually one municipal community, although separately incorporated, are of unique character in that their prosperity has been largely stimulated by the activities of what has become a great university; that their material growth still is invigorated by its membership; that they are practically without industries, and yet that they thrive and expand and possess a vigorous and developing life seldom enjoyed by a university town, and certainly by no other like municipality in the United States.
Champaign County has two cities and seventeen incorporated villages within its limits. It is divided into twenty-eight townships, is bisected by the fortieth degree of north latitude, which crosses it about four miles south of the courthouse at Urbana, and is about thirty-six miles from north to south and twenty-eight east and west.
1-1
1
2
HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY
TIMBER AND PRAIRIE LANDS
There are no bold features of the landscape to be recorded, its contour being usually rolling and pleasing, and particularly conducive to the cultivation of the grains. Champaign is the banner corn county of the United States, and there is no farming community in the country which is more contented or prosperous. The county is situated entirely within what the early French explorers denominated the Grand Prairie of the West, which they described as extending from the headwaters of the Mississippi to the Wabash River. Originally the timber lands extended pretty generally along the courses of the streams, and embraced such groves as Linn, Mink, Sadorus, Hickory, Burr and Cherry. As the pioneers were disinclined to get far away from the timber strips, the more fertile easily cultivated prairie stretches were long neglected; as the wooded lands received the more attention, it is believed that their quantity was not as great as has been supposed and that the old estimate that one-fifth the surface of Champaign County was originally covered with native forests is too high.
There is a distinct watershed running through the western part of the county. The Kaskaskia, emptying into the Mississippi and the Sangamon, flowing into the Illinois, also a part of the system embraced by the Father of Waters, drain the western third, while the Salt Fork of the Vermilion, the Middle Fork of that stream and the Little Ver- milion, and the Embarrass, are portions of the Wabash system and drain the remainder of the county. Generally speaking, the Sangamon River and its branches, Wild Cat, Big and Tree Creek, Water Mahomet, Condit, Newcomb, East Bend and Brown townships, and the Kas- kaskia, with its tributaries, Scott, Champaign, Tolono, Colfax, Sadorus and Pesotum. The Embarrass rises south of Urbana on the University farm, and drains the southwestern part of Urbana Township, and Philo, Crittenden, Raymond and Ayers townships. North of the Embarrass, the Vermilion system spreads over such eastern townships as South Homer, Sidney, St. Joseph, Ogden, Stanton, Compromise, Rantoul, Kerr and Harwood.
BEAUTIFUL AND HISTORIC GROVES
Before the county was divided into townships, many of the localities outside the villages and other distinct centers of population were desig- nated by groves and fords and other natural features. "The Big Grove," says Judge J. O. Cunningham, "was the large grove of natural timber just north of the city of Urbana, lying partly in Town 19 and partly in Town 20. The Salt Fork was a general term used to designate not
3
HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY
only the lands covered by the timber along that stream, but the neigh- boring farms, from its northern extremity to the point where it leaves the county. Homer and Sidney were villages along the stream and the names were used to specialize neighborhoods. So, 'On the Sangamon' was understood to refer to the neighborhoods on both sides of the river
OLD SUGAR CAMP, SADORUS GROVE
from its headwaters to the Piatt County line. There were the Okaw and the Ambraw settlements, by which was understood the neighborhoods about and in the timber belts along those streams, so far as they lay in this county. Middle Fork (of Salt Fork) was understood to mean the timber sometimes called Sugar Grove in the northeast corner of the county. Sadorus Grove was the designation of the isolated grove of timber at the head of the Kaskaskia River in which Henry Sadorus and his family settled when they came to the county. Bowse's Grove referred to a small grove of natural timber on the east side of the Embarrass River. Linn Grove, as a name, early became attached to
4
HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY
the beautiful eminence crowned with trees of Nature's planting in the southwest corner of Sidney Township, which name it yet retains. Lost Grove, at the northwest corner of Ayers Township, is supposed to have received its name from its remoteness from everywhere else. Hickory Grove, in St. Joseph and Ogden townships; Burr Oak Grove, in Ogden; Mink Grove, in Rantoul, and Dead Man's Grove, in St. Joseph Town- ship, like those above named, had a definite meaning and referred to certain localities, though, like some of them, these names now mean nothing, having passed from use. The last name has not been in use for many years, the grove referred to having long been called Corray's, taking its later name from a nearby dweller. It received its first name from the circumstance of finding there the body of a man who had died alone.
WHY "DEAD MAN'S GROVE"
"The tradition is that many years since and before the settlement of the prairies, a band of regulators from an Indiana settlement, having found the trail of a horsethief, who had successfully carried his stolen animal as far as the Tow-Head, overtook the thief there, finding him fast asleep under the shade of this little grove. Without the form of a trial the offender was promptly executed by being hung by the neck to one of the trees until he was dead, where his body was found by the next passerby. This grove of timber was near the road which led from Salt Fork timber westward to Sadorus Grove and the Okaw.
"About one mile north of the village of Philo, in the early times, was a tuft or small patch of timber and brush-along the margin of a small pond, which protected it from the annual prairie fires-of less than one acre, which, from the earliest settlement of the country, was a noted landmark for travelers, and which was known far and wide as the Tow-Head from its supposed resemblance to something bearing that name. Its position upon a very high piece of prairie made it visible for many miles around. It has long since yielded to the march of improvement, and its foster guardian, the pond, has likewise given way to the same enemy of the picturesque, and now yields each year fine crops of corn.
"A little distance north of the village of Ivesdale is a grove of small timber, formerly known as Cherry Grove by early settlers. Its name, perhaps now obsolete, was probably derived from the kind of timber growing in the grove, or most prevalent, as was the case with other groves heretofore named. These groves and belts of timber served the early comers here as landmarks, so conspicuous were they on the horizon, and, in the absence of trails to guide the traveler, they served an excellent purpose as such.
5
HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY
"Adkins Point referred to a point of timber reaching to the north from the northwest corner of the Big Grove in Somer Township, and got its name from the residence there of the family of Lewis Adkins.
"Nox's Point meant the locality of the village of Sidney, and received its name from the first settler in the point made by the Salt Fork timber in its eastward trend. The settler was William Nox.
"Pancake's Point called to mind a point of timber reaching west- ward from the Sangamon timber in Newcomb Township, and owes its name to Jesse W. Pancake, who lived there more than fifty years since.
"There was Sodom, a neighborhood above the village of Fisher, which was afterward used as the name of a postoffice established there. Why the location got this name so suggestive of evil reputation is not known.
"So, Wantwood was applied to a treeless expanse of prairie reaching north from the head of Sangamon timber, the early settler knew not how far.
FORDS
"There were also fords across the streams where early roads, in default of bridges, led the traveler through deep waters. Of these there were Strong's Ford and Prather's Ford, both across the Salt Fork, one about a mile north and the other the same distance south of the village of St. Joseph. The former was where the iron bridge on the State road spans the stream, and was later called Kelley's Ford. Both fords received their distinctive names from nearby dwellers A ferry was maintained by Joseph T. Kelley at the former. The latter, or Prather's Ford, was at the crossing of the Salt Fork by the Danville and Fort Clark road.
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