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 42
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Toilet rooms for both sexes are located at opposite ends of the cor- ridor. Directly across the corridor opposite the main entrance on the first floor is the auditorium, seating 600 on the main floor and 200 in the balcony and is equipped with large stage and dressing rooms. At either side of the main entrance are the principal's office and Superin- tendent's office, the latter opening directly into the board meeting room. The remainder of the first floor is given over to the biological laboratory with demonstration and storage rooms, two recitation rooms, five class rooms, emergency room and boys' and girls' toilet rooms.
The second floor contains the commercial group, physical and chemical laboratories, demonstration rooms, three class rooms, two recitation rooms, study rooms, library, and men and women teachers' toilet rooms. The third floor occupies the tower over the central portion and is given over to the music and art departments.
All the walls of toilet rooms and cooking department are of white enameled brick, walls of locker rooms and laboratories are of brown glazed brick, and walls of gymnasium are of buff brick. Corridors are of promenade tile laid in pattern. The mechanical equipment is com-
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plete in every respect. Heating and ventilation are supplied by heated fresh air driven to all parts of the building by means of a fan blower. Each room is equipped with thermostats which automatically control the heat supplied to the room and keep the temperature constant.
A complete vacuum cleaning system is installed in this building so that all rooms and corridors may be thus cleaned without raising the usual dust by sweeping.
The gymnasium wing, under construction at the present time, is of similar construction and will accommodate swimming pool with proper means of water purification, gymnasium with running track, locker and shower rooms, laundry, team rooms and physical director's office and in addition will provide two regular classrooms.
THE URBANA FREE LIBRARY
The parent body of the Library Board was a Library Association organized in December, 1872, and on February 17 following, a reading room was opened in charge of James Williams. In June, 1874, the property was transferred to the city of Urbana, its Council agreeing to maintain the library, and in the following month the first Board of Directors was elected, viz: William Sim, J. M. McConney, Frank G. Jaques, C. D. Webster, J. W. Hays, S. M. Morton, H. M. Russell, A. Van Tuyl and J. W. Porter. At this meeting S. H. Hook was chosen librarian and the institution was christened the Urbana Free Library. On November 1, 1874, Ida B. Hanes was elected librarian to succeed Mr. Hook, and is still holding the position. At present there are over 23,000 volumes in the library.
In February, 1917, Mrs. S. T. Busey offered the Board $35,000 for a new library building. The gift was gratefully accepted and action at once taken to secure plans. Ground was broken early in the summer of 1917. The site for the new building cost over $12,000; cost of building and furnishings estimated at $55,000.
The plans of the Busey Memorial Library show the main front of the building on Race Street as both elegant and massive. The entrance is colonnaded, with fifteen-foot stone columns standing on either side and the doors are of massive bronze. The main floor will be several feet above the street level and the lower floor a few feet below. On the lower floor, at the southeast corner, is to be a room twenty-eight feet by thirty feet, called the English room, to be devoted to the Champaign County Historical Society. On the north side of the building will be a lecture room, seating 200 people, with stage, and equipment for giving
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illustrated lectures, or plays. In the west end of this floor there is a room for book stacks, and an unpacking room, storage room, etc.
The central feature of the upper floor as one may enter by the eastern entrance, is a large memorial room, finished with pink Tennessee marble floors and walls, with dome ceiling. Opening from this main room to the south will be a magazine room, children's reading room, and cataloging room. To the north will be general reading room, reference room, and reference library.
At the west end of the Memorial room is the entrance to and exit from the book stacks. The stack room is estimated to accommodate 80,000 volumes. The library at present numbers over 25,000 volumes.
The building is to be made as nearly fire proof as is possible. Around the outside on the east and north will be a concrete and Bed- ford stone terrace, with stone ballustrade. The dimensions of the building over all, will be 103 feet 6 inches north and south, by 97 feet east and west.
THE LOCAL PRESS
A county seat, wherever fixed, is usually prolific of newspapers ; and Urbana verified the rule. When the Illinois Central was projected through the county, and before the grading had even commenced, Champaign County was viewed as a legitimate, if not promising, experi- mental territory for the venturesome journalist. Colonel William N. Coler, a budding lawyer and Democrat, determined to blossom as the pioneer editor of the county, and formed a union with Henry K. Davis, a practical printer and newspaper man. They purchased a small stock of type in Cincinnati, with a little hand press, which was hauled from. the Wabash Canal on one wagon to the courthouse and there temporarily planted. From that plant, on September 25, 1852, was sent forth the first number of the Urbana Union, in support of Franklin Pierce, Demo- cratic candidate for president, by Coler and Davis, editors and pro- prietors. In two months less two days the firm was dissolved and Mr. Davis went on to Washington to accept office under the new administra- tion, leaving Colonel Coler to continue the Union through its thirty- sixth number, when he retired from editorial life. In July, 1853, Benjamin A. Roney, a practical printer, but inexperienced as an editor, assumed the proprietorship, but left suddenly in March of the follow- ing year. George N. Richards, George W. Flynn and J. O. Cunning- ham then entered the field. Messrs. Flynn and Cunningham estab- lished a branch office at West Urbana in October, 1857, and in August, 1858, severed their connection with the Union. David S. Crandall
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and his son, Charles E., talented newspaper men of Lockport, New York, bought the paper and continued its publication until early in 1861, when they sold to John Carrothers, of Urbana. The various shift- ings back and forth between Urbana and Champaign have already been described. Mr. Carrothers failed in 1863, the Union returned to the unwilling hands of the Crandalls, was turned over to Nicolet & Schoff, who made it a strong paper, and in 1882 was moved to another county.
"Our Constitution" was published from July, 1856, until the fall of 1859, when the office was moved from Urbana to Champaign; the Urbana Clarion, from October, 1859, to the spring of 1861, when it suspended, and in 1877 appeared the Champaign County Herald, the forerunner of the Courier-Herald of today. S. C. Harris and Company were its first publishers. Andrew Lewis then became the sole owner of the plant, selling in May, 1879, to M. W. Mathews and C. B. Taylor. Two years later, Mr. Mathews, one of the able lawyers and legislators of the state, became the sole proprietor and editor of the Herald and thus continued until his death in 1892. With L. A. McLean, an able financial manager, as well as a forceful writer, he made the publication a successful newspaper in every sense of the word. Under one of the provisions of Mr. Mathews' will Mr. McLean continued the publication of the Herald in behalf of the estate, but after three years he retired, leaving it in charge of John Gray.
The Courier was established in July, 1894, by T. M. Morgan, as a morning daily and weekly newspaper. Soon afterward S. W. Love bought the plant and added to its mechanical facilities, and in Sep- tember, 1901, sold the establishment to Joseph Ogden and Howe Brown. E. L. and John Wait and J. K. Groom became successively identified with it, the last named incorporating the business as the Urbana Courier Company. C. O. Carter then purchased an interest in the office, and the daily edition was changed from morning to evening. In 1904 F. E. Pinkerton, of Rantoul, became owner of the Courier, and in Septem- ber, 1905, sold a half interest in it to George W. Martin, who, in 1908, disposed of his share to Frank C. McElvain. Mr. Pinkerton disposed of his interest to A. T. Burrows in December, 1909, and in October, 1913, Mr. McElvain also sold to Mr. Burrows. Since that time the consolidated Courier-Herald has been a corporation controlled by the Burrows family.
EARLY PREACHERS IN THE URBANA NEIGHBORHOOD
From 1831 to 1839 preachers of various denominations held forth in the neighborhood of the Big Grove, but it was not until the latter
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year that any part of what is now Champaign County had a regular standing in the religious field. At that time it appears in the Con- ference minutes of the Methodist Episcopal Church as the Urbana Mission.
Probably the first sermon ever delivered in the county was by John Dunham, a United Brethren missionary, who, some time in 1831, preached at the house of Matthias Rhinehart in the Grove. He is said to have ridden an ox on his circuit, and it is further intimated that both were very noisy. Rev. William Peters, "Uncle Billy," lived in Salt Fork Timber, traveled his religious beat not long after Mr. Dun- ham, and as he had no land upon which to farm and help both ends meet, is reported to have helped pay his traveling expenses by buying whiskey on the Wabash at 20 cents a gallon and retailing it on his rounds at 50 cents. John G. Robertson was an early Baptist immigrant preacher from Kentucky and held meetings in the Big Grove and the Sangamon Timber.
The labors of Mr. Robertson resulted in the organization of the Baptist church, at the Brumley schoolhouse two miles east of Urbana, in September, 1838, and of the Mahomet church in March, 1839. Rev. J. D. Newell, then residing at Waynesville, DeWitt County, was the organizer of both churches.
REV. JAMES HOLMES, PIONEER METHODIST
Rev. James Holmes, who, in 1835, came to the Big Grove region to build a sawmill for John Brownfield, remained to organize a class in Methodism, probably in the winter of 1836. While not in Urbana, the class became the germ of the subsequently formed Urbana Mission, Urbana Circuit, Urbana Station, and the First Methodist Church of Urbana. Among its members were Walter Rhodes (leader), and Mary Ann, his wife; Lewis Adkins and his wife Nancy; Susan Trickle, sub- sequently the wife of James Kirby; Sarah and Ann Brownfield; Alex- ander Holbrook, and the preacher and his wife. A campmeeting held at Haptonstall's mill, a mile below Urbana, in 1839, under charge of Elder S. W. D. Chase, of the Bloomington district, so brought the locality into notice that from that time on, it was known officially to the Methodist Conference as the Urbana Mission. Its territory embraced the settlements in the Big Grove upon the Okaw, the Ambraw and the Salt Fork, nearly to Danville. Elder Chase moved from the Wabash country to Urbana in the autumn of 1839 and thus became its first settled pastor.
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COMING OF REV. S. W. D. CHASE
Many years afterward Mr. Chase tells the story of his coming: "My next appointment (1839) was Urbana Mission. This caused a move of one hundred and fifty miles. We were compelled to move in an ox-wagon, camp out about half the nights and take the weather as it came; so we had rain, mud and storm. When we arrived in Urbana our goods were all wet, a fierce wind blowing from the northwest and no empty house in town. We took up lodging for a few days with Simon Motes, in his cabin in the north part of the village. The little society and friends had put up the body of a hewed log cabin with rafters, but no roof, floor or chimney.
"I organized a society four miles north of Urbana at Esquire Rhodes'; another east of Rhodes' three miles at the house of John Gilli- land; another, down east of Urbana ten miles, at Widow Bartley's; and still another east of that on the main road leading to Danville at Pogue's. Then to old Homer.
"My first visit to Homer was on Sabbath morning, hunting a place to preach, but there was neither hall, schoolhouse, church nor empty house; so the prospect was gloomy. At last a gentleman remarked : 'Do you see that little white house in the north part of the village?' I said, 'Yes.' 'Well,' said he, they have dances there; maybe you might get in there.' So I went and stated my business. 'Well,' said the doctor (Dr. Harmon Stevens), 'we have dances twice a week here. I don't know how that would work. What do you think of it, wife?' 'Well,' said she, 'I don't know.' I said, 'You don't dance on the Sab- bath.' 'No,' said the doctor. 'Well, then,' I said, 'let me preach on Sunday ; we'll have no friction.' So they consented. Before the year was out the doctor and his wife professed religion and joined the Meth- odist Episcopal Church, and we organized a society. I never knew what became of those dancers.
"I then organized a church in Sidney. I went from Urbana to Sadorus Grove, fifteen miles, without a house to stop at, making it a cold ride in bad weather. Nine miles below, or south of, Sadorus, at John Haines', we had a small society. Five miles below on the Okaw was where William Brian lived in a small cabin. Here we organized a society. Continuing down the river five miles, we came to Old Father West's. Here we organized another society. Still con- tinuing south we came to Flat Branch, where we organized another society in the cabin of John and Sarah Poorman. We are now forty miles south of Urbana. This entire round was made every three weeks.
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"In 1840 we put up the frame of a small church, thirty by forty feet, in Urbana and inclosed it; and in the fall, as I was leaving for my next appointment, I was sued for the shingles that went on the church.
"It was at a campmeeting, one and one-half miles east of Urbana (at Haptonstall's), that Jake Heater, said to be the bully of the county, got under strong convictions. He was told to go to the altar and pray and he'd feel better. So Jake went and kneeled down, and his prayer was: 'Oh, Lord God, rim-rack and center shake the divil's kingdom.'"
It was in this manner, and with such a field and the material furnished by the rough pioneers, that this pioneer preacher laid the foundations for the Christian civilization we now enjoy.
FIRST METHODIST CLASS AND CHURCH
Among the names of those who joined the first class organized at Urbana are Jacob W. Slater and Rebecca, his wife; Samuel Motz and Sarah, his wife; Mrs. Benedict and Simeon Motz. The parsonage occu- pied by the new pastor and his family, already partly prepared, was finished with split-board roof and floors, mud and stick chimney, and not long afterward a little house of worship was commenced on the lot donated by the county commissioners, on the south side of Elm Street, between Market and Race.
Judge Cunningham continues: "So far as known no subscription paper figured in the transaction, perhaps for the reason that there was little money in those days with which to meet obligations. In Mrs. Nancy Webber's timber was plenty of material and the muscle neces- sary to transform it into a building was at hand. So pastor and people, alike muscular and zealous, turned out and, with axes, went to the woods, cut, scored and hewed out the timbers, studding and rafters from the standing trees. Logs for lumber for siding were likewise cut and hauled to Colonel Busey's saw-mill, then doing business upon the creek just above Crystal Lake Park, from the water power there fur- nished. The shingles were bought upon a promise to pay from a manu- facturer near by, and in a few weeks the structure was reared and enclosed, but neither floored nor plastered, except that the pulpit space and the "Amen corners" were floored.
"In this condition, with neither windows nor doors and with no other seats than those afforded by the uncovered sleepers of joists, hewn upon the upper side, was the structure occupied by a worshipping con- gregation for the first summer and perhaps for a longer period when
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the weather permitted. It was not until 1843 that the building was finally completed according to the original plan, being floored, plastered and seated with rude slab benches. This final work had been done by free contributions of labor and materials. It is said that Colonel Busey gave the flooring, Archa Campbell the glass and Matthias Carson, a skilled mechanic, the window sash and door. In its finished condi- tion it was unpainted, both inside and outside, until two zealous sisters, Harriet Harvey and Susan Cantner, with discriminating zeal for out- side appearance, unassisted by anyone, whitewashed the entire outside of the house as well as the rough plastering on the inside, using a preparation of lime and other ingredients, including among them salt. The building looked well in its coat of whitewash, but the town cows, then quite numerous, lost to all reverence for the sacred character of the structure, were tempted by the salt to lick the clapboards, which they persisted in doing so long as the saline taste remained. At times, owing to this practice of the cows, a worshipping congregation was disturbed and, to secure their legal rights, it became necessary to station a guard of boys upon the outside during service.
"This building, in the condition above described, was alternately used as a place of worship, as a schoolhouse and, in cases of great neces- sity, it housed homeless and destitute families until the stress of cir- cumstance passed, and they could be housed elsewhere. Mr. James Kerr, of Urbana, relates that when, in the autumn of 1851, he, with his father, A. M. Kerr (for a term of years coroner of Champaign County) came with a family of ten persons, immigrants from Tennessee to Urbana, they found no friendly door opened to them, and in their distressed condition-most of them being sick-were very glad to avail themselves of the permission given by those having this building in charge, to spread their beds upon its floor and remain until, somewhat recovered from their weariness and chills, they were enabled to find other accommodations.
"It is said that the first minister who occupied this, the first church building erected in the county, after its completion, was Rev. W. D. Gage, who was appointed to the Urbana circuit in 1843. This building continued the one church house of the county for some years, open, as occasion demanded, to the use of such other denominations as desired its use, until the year 1856, when a new building was erected and the old one was converted into a livery barn.
"The class formed in the neighborhood north of Urbana by Rev. James Holmes, subsequently built a small church building for their use which was erected near the center of Section 27, in Somer Town-
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ship, and was the first of the many country churches erected in the rural districts of the county.
"Rev. Arthur Bradshaw was followed at Urbana by others of the pioneer pastors. The theology and church discipline enforced by these early preachers were of the most stalwart character, and tolerated no failures to attend the 'means of grace' or other lapses from Wesley's rules."
DR. MCELROY'S STATEMENT
Following is the copy of a letter written to Judge Cunningham by Dr. W. M. McElroy :
"My Dear Bro. Cunningham: I think I can now clear up the story of Urbana Methodism. James McKean, then on the Eugene Circuit (later Danville Ct.), had an appointment and preached in Big Grove in 1829 and 1830. The conference year beginning in the autumn of 1829. Probably on the east side of the Grove. In the conference year beginning in the fall of 1836, Mr. Holmes organized the class four miles north of Urbana, as stated in my previous letter. During the conference year beginning in 1838, S. W. D. Chase held camp meet- ing at Haptonstall's Mill. The class you mention of which Simon Motz was leader, was organized before Bradshaw came, probably after the camp meeting,-maybe before. There was a class at John Gilli- land's, seven miles northeast of Urbana, another ten miles east, at Widow Bartley's, another at Pogue's, ten miles east on the Danville road. These classes were in existence before Bradshaw's term, in all probability, and were not organized by him."
LATER PROGRESS OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH
Early in the '50s, because of the continuous growth of the society, a movement was set on foot to provide a larger church building, and on July 27, 1855, the cornerstone of the new structure was laid. The following year it was inclosed and finally completed and dedicated in 1859, Rev. Peter Cartwright officiating.
About 1890 a movement was started to meet the growing demands of the society for better church facilities, which languished for many months, or until December 17, 1892, when J. C. Sheldon, president of the Board of Trustees, came to the rescue with an offer, which was gratefully accepted, to erect and enclose the walls, leaving the society and its friends to complete the building. Subscriptions were by this generous offer greatly stimulated, and the old building was turned over to the demolishers March 4, 1893, the last service being held there
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March 3d. The present structure was dedicated March 25, 1894, free from debt of any kind. It cost $21,150 exclusive of the pipe organ, which cost $3,500.
Successive pastors : 1839, A. Bradshaw; 1840, J. W. Parsons; 1841, A. Bradshaw (second term) ; 1842, L. Oliver; 1843, W. D. Gage; 1844, A. S. Goddard; 1845, J. Fox; 1846, W. Pitner; 1847, C. J. T. Tolle; 1848, W. G. Moore; 1849, J. C. Long; 1853-4, W. E. Johnson; 1855, W. F. T. Spruill ; 1856-7, W. H. H. Moore; 1858, M. Butler ; 1859, A. Semple; 1860-1, A. S. McCoy ; 1862-3, W. B. Anderson; 1864, B. Hun- gerford; 1865, W. H. Webster; 1866, A. S. McCoy (second term) ; 1867-8, J. G. Little; 1869, J. Shaw; 1870, W. H. H. Moore (second term) ; 1871-2-3, D. Gay; 1874-5-6, W. F. T. Spruill (second term) ; 1877, D. Gay (second term) ; 1878, P. C. Carroll; 1879, M. A. Hewes; 1880-1-2, J. Miller; 1883-4-5, A. C. Byerly ; 1886-7, R. McIntyre; 1888, R. G. Hobbs; 1889, F. Crane; 1890, F. C. Bruner; 1891-2, M. D. Hornbeck; 1893-4, U. Z. Gilmer; 1894-8, J. F. Wohlfarth; 1898-1904, J. W. Miller; 1904-1908, A. S. Flannigan; 1908-1909, H. C. Gibbs; 1909-1915, R. F. McDaniel; 1915-1916, A. C. Piersel; 1916-17, W. F. Pitner.
REV. WILLIAM MUNHALL
Among those identified with Methodism in the earlier days of the county was Rev. William Munhall, an eloquent and classical preacher, who often filled the pulpit of the Urbana church and others in the county. But he seems to have been too much a man of affairs to confine his activities to church matters alone. He served as county treasurer and assessor in the late '50s, and was editor and publisher of the Urbana Clarion and Champaign County Democrat during a portion of the Civil War period. He was intensely loyal, a stalwart Union man and, in every respect, a good citizen and Christian man. He died while visiting a sister in Cleveland, March 9, 1864, his remains being brought for interment to Mount Hope Cemetery, Urbana. William H. Mun- hall, a son, moved to Champaign in 1865, having mastered the printer's trade in Cleveland. He was identified with the Gazette printing office for twenty-eight years, afterward was the head of the Munhall Printing House, and died May 23, 1917.
THE FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH
The Baptist society which was organized at Brumley's schoolhouse, two miles east of Urbana, held its meeting therein for more than a
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decade, when its headquarters were changed to the county seat and it became the First Baptist Church of Urbana. In 1856 the church erected a house of worship on Cunningham Avenue, the second build- ing of the kind in the county, and the first in the county to have a bell. The "Urbana Union," of September 27, 1855, has the following real news item: "The bell for the new Baptist church has arrived, and will soon send forth its mellow peals to vibrate over the prairies as often reminding us of the persevering and noble-hearted efforts of the ladies of Urbana, through whose efforts alone the purchase has been made. The bell is one of beautiful tone and will tend much to enliven our place, especially on Sabbath mornings when we shall, henceforth, bc greeted by the welcome sounds of the 'church going bell.'" The edifice now occupied was erected in 1895 and stands upon the site of the little church of 1856. It has a present membership of more than ?00.
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