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 45
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"Our friend, M. D. Coffeen, Esq., has just finished a new and com- modious building for the accommodation of his extensive business, which we admire very much on account of the convenience of its arrangement and the superior beauty of the workmanship. The carpenter work was done by Mr. Cyrus Hays and the painting, which is really elegant, by John Towner. Besides Mr. Coffeen's drygoods store, there are several others, and a drugstore by Judge John B. Thomas, all doing a fine business. A steam sawmill has, during the summer, been put in opera- tion, which is turning out a vast amount of ties for the Great Western Railroad."
THE CHURCHES
The locality of Old Homer, even before the village was platted, was
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visited by various missionaries or preachers, such as Rev. William I. Peters and Rev. Cyrus Strong, already mentioned, who probably con- formed to the tenets of the United Brethren and the Disciples of Christ. A little later Rev. James Homes formed a class in Methodism at Urbana, and in 1839 Urbana Mission was formed, with Rev. Arthur Bradshaw as its pastor in charge. In that year, as previously told in his own words, he organized a society at Old Homer, which was then very young. The locality was included in what afterward became the Urbana Circuit until 1853, when it was set off as a station.
The Methodist Church moved with everything else from Old Homer to the new town in 1855. Its early preachers, after the village was made a Methodist station, were Rev. William Sim, Rev. J. Cavett, Rev. J. C. Long, Rev. J. Shinn, Rev. Peter Wallace, Rev. Isaac Groves and Rev. G. W. Fairbanks. The present pastor is Rev. J. P. Edgar.
The Presbyterians of Homer organized in 1859 and have had as pastors Revs. McNaire, Jinkens, Knox, West, Hunter, McNutt, Steele, Shedd, Clymer, Briar, Williamson, Gherette, Barrows, Zeimer, Baker and McEwen (John A.). The original house of worship was erected in 1873 ; was remodeled in 1898 and rebuilt in 1909. The church member- ship is now 225.
THE CORPORATION
The records of the village of Homer do not extend farther back than 1880 and, through the courtesy of E. L. Bowen, who has held the position of village clerk from September 4, 1905 (his present term expires May 1, 1918) the following are given as the successive presidents of the Board of Trustees and the village clerks :
Presidents : Joseph Thomas, 1880-85; A. C. Woody, 1885-90; W. W. Mudge, 1890-94; J. W. Wallace, 1894-95; J. N. Gunder, 1895-96; W. W. Mudge, 1896-97; R. C. Wright, 1897-98 ; J. Bennett, 1898-99; W. A. Conkey, 1899-1900; J. Bennett, 1900-01; F. M. Smith, 1901-02; Hugh O'Neil, 1902-05; H. J. Wiggins, 1905-07; H. M. Smoot, 1907-11; R. A. Roloff, 1911-14; Fay R. Current, 1914-17.
Village Clerks: W. V. Zorns, 1880-84; J. E. Spraker, 1884-94; C. A. Conkey, 1894-95; C. J. Upp, 1895-96; L. L. Hamill, 1896-97; W. H. Brown, 1897, resigned; J. T. Palmer, 1897, resigned; J. E. Spraker, 1897-1901; F. O. Elliott, 1901-03; J. E. Spraker, 1903-05; Geo. W. Clark, 1905, resigned; E. L. Bowen, 1905-
VILLAGE OF TODAY
Homer has a good township and village hall, a substantial public schoolhouse (completed in 1892 and accommodating 270 pupils), and
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HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY
its electric light is furnished by a private plant, operated as the Homer Light and Power Company. Its police and fire protection are all that are necessary, and its two principal streets are well paved with brick. Through the persistent work and good management of the Community Club, of which H. M. Smoot is president, the township has fully twelve miles of substantial concrete roads, and is well advanced in the Good Roads Movement. Homer Park, one mile north of the village, is an attractive recreation ground owned by W. B. Mckinley and managed by Mr. and Mrs. C. B. Burkhardt.
Besides a number of handsome stores, the village has two banks -- the Citizens and that of Raynor & Babb-and two grain elevators, owned
BANK
..
HOMER'S MAIN STREET
and operated by Frederick Rose and J. M. Current. The Rose elevator was erected in 1908 and has a capacity of 100,000 bushels.
NEWSPAPERS OF HOMER
Homer has had a newspaper for nearly sixty years, the local press having a present-day representative in the Enterprise. The Homer Journal was the first newspaper, and was established in 1859 by George Knapp. Its editor went to the front at the outbreak of the Civil War and left the Journal to its fate. In November, 1865, it was revived under John W. Summers, but in 1870 was moved to Sidney. In February, 1897, J. M. Gray, who had previously published a paper at Gifford,
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issued the first number of the Pilot. Two years afterward it was moved to Allerton, Vermilion County.
The successful venture in local journalism is the Enterprise, founded in 1877 by John C. Cromer, and succeeded by I. A. Baker in 1880, Willard L. Sampson in 1885, J. B. Morgan in 1889, J. G. White in 1911 and Borgan F. Morgan in 1912.
THE WOMAN'S CLUB
In considering the elevating influences which have given Homer cultural standing in the county, both the public library under the direct supervision of Mrs. P. E. Wiggins and the Woman's Club-the latter organized and sustained by most of the intelligent ladies of the village- are entitled to special mention. The data for a complete notice of the latter organization has been courteously furnished.
The Homer Woman's Club is an outgrowth of the Tuesday Club, which was organized December 13, 1897, with the following officers: Mrs. E. T. Mudge, president ; Mrs. J. G. White, vice president ; Mrs. W. J. Elliott, secretary-treasurer. In the following January a constitution was adopted. The club opened with twenty-eight active members, the membership being limited to thirty. American history occupied the attention of the club during the first two years of its existence. Various literary features have since been added. The object of the club was also social, as well as literary culture, and it was therefore the custom to hold several open meetings each year, which included auction sales, guessing contests, ghost parties, valentine parties, musicales, six o'clock dinners, house picnics, railroad journeys, gypsy camps, negro weddings and lectures by University of Illinois professors. The history of the club would be incomplete without mention of the banquet which the husbands of the members gave on Thanksgiving evening of 1899. Parliamentary drills, in connection with literary and historic studies, and various socials at the houses of the members, preceded a visit of Mrs. C. B. Butler, Mrs. Stengle and Mrs. Lawson to the Decatur Woman's Club, and the consequent decision on the part of the Tuesday Club to join the Federation. In 1903 the name was therefore changed to the Woman's Club. Up to that time the successive presidents of the club had been Mesdames E. T. Mudge, A. L. Lyons, W. Lawson and J. G. White. The present officers of the Woman's Club are as follows: president, Mrs. F. Sickel ; vice-president, Miss Lillian Conkey ; secretary, Mrs. H. P. Morrison ; treasurer, Mrs. A. L. Vollborn ; historian, Mrs.
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W. S. Hess. It has a total membership of 60, divided thus : literary and travel section, 28; domestic science section, 32.
Homer has also a Chautauqua Circle of some strength.
LODGES
The leading lodges in the village are those of the Masonic order, Woodmen of America, Knights of Pythias and Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
The Odd Fellows of Homer were organized in February, 1858, with Albert Norton as Noble Grand; William M. Lummies, Vice Grand; John B. Thomas, secretary; John K. Leonard, treasurer. The local lodge has a present membership of 112, with the following in office: W. F. Barton, N. G .; Ralph O'Neil, V. G .; H. E. Hoffman, secretary; R. A. Rolloff, treasurer.
The first elective officers of the Modern Woodmen of America lodge at Homer were: N. O. Barnes, V. C .; J. B. Hendrickson, W. A .; W. H. Brown, clerk; J. G. White, banker. The membership is 175 and the officers as follows : A. J. Conkey, V. C .; W. T. Davis, W. A .; O. P. Dick- son, clerk; C. A. Fry, banker.
Brilliant Lodge No. 232, Knights of Pythias, was organized January 3, 1890, with the following chief elective officers: C. C., J. M. Ochel- tree; V. C., W. Q. Wallace; Prelate, J. A. Allison ; K. of R. S., H. B. Johnson. The present number of members is 41, and the following are serving : C. C., Fay R. Current ; V. C., Frank L. Sharp; Prelate, New- ton G. Foreman ; M. of W., Florin Sanks; K. of R. S., Carl A. Conkey.
CHAPTER XV
BROWN TOWNSHIP AND FISHER
EARLY SETTLERS IN THE TOWNSHIP-FOOSLAND PLATTED-VILLAGE OF FISHER-THE NEWSPAPERS-FISHER'S CHURCHES AND SOCIETIES.
The extreme southeastern part of Brown Township, in the north- west corner of the county, lies in the edge of the main Sangamon Tim- ber; otherwise, the country stretches away toward the northwest, into Ford and McLean counties, somewhat broken by the Sangamon, as a beautiful rolling prairie, fertile as well as charming. In the Sangamon Timber of the southeast skirting the river, and on the Rantoul branch of the Illinois Central, is the neat and growing village of Fisher, already verging toward its thousand people, while in the midst of the north- western prairie lands is the pretty little hamlet of Foosland, on the Wabash line.
EARLY SETTLERS IN THE TOWNSHIP
The first settler in Brown Township was William B. King who, in 1834, settled on the southeast quarter of Section 5, in the northwest corner of the township south of the Sangamon. He entered his claim in the following year, which was the first entry in the township. King located upon the old Danville and Fort Clark road, and for a number of years he squatted there alone, as far as permanent neighbors were con- cerned. But his place soon became a quite popular resort for travelers along that highway, like Prather's on the Salt Fork and Newcomb's at the ford of the Sangamon. Only two other entries of land, other than King's, were made in the township previous to 1840 and they did not become homesteads for some time. It was William Brown, an early settler on Section 3, in the northern timber belt, after whom the town- ship was named; which was not, however, set off from East Bend until 1869.
Thomas Stevens, a wealthy cattle dealer, settled in the north part of the township in 1855, and afterward moved to Gibson City, Ford County. Abont the same time Ithaman Maroney located in the extreme
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HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY
northwest corner, but in 1862 enlisted in the Union army and did not return to the county. William H. Groves came in 1854 and located on Section 34, about two miles west of the present village of Fisher; when he died there, some forty years afterward, he had long held the record as the oldest living settler of the township. Among other pioneers were Carl Dobson, C. C. Harris, William Peabody, David Cooter, John Strauss. Lyman Smith and Steven Brown and William Foos.
FOOSLAND PLATTED
Various members of the Foos family acquired large tracts of land in the northwestern portion of the township, and upon a portion of one of the farms was platted the station of Foosland on the Wabash Rail- road. The largest of the farms at that point was owned by F. W. Foos, a resident of New York City. At a comparatively late day it was thus described by the Champaign Times: "The Foos farm, at Foosland, con- sists of 3,800 acres. The owner, F. W. Foos, resides in New York City, but often comes to Foosland and is well known there. His resident manager is R. G. Ball, a good farmer and most competent man in every way. For the past fifteen years Mr. Ball has had the management of this big farm and seems to have given entire satisfaction, both to tenants and owner. The farm rents to tenants for $4 per acre, cash, for either grain or grass land, except that when as much as one hundred acres of grass are rented to one man, the price is but $3.75. This is much lower than neighboring land can be rented for and therefore it is much in demand. There are thirteen tenants in all. Of the 3,800 acres, there are 1,500 in grass, 700 in oats and 2,100 in corn-at least, that was the proportion last season, but the proportions differ yearly. An effort is made to keep changing from grain to grass, thus keeping the fertility of the soil. The farm is moderately well tiled, has fairly good fences around it, but the buildings are not very new or up to date. Last year there were raised on this farm-not including the 1,500 acres of grass- 105,000 bushels of corn and 2,100 bushels of oats."
The Foos farm has always been considered the best example of agri- cultural operations conducted on a large scale in Brown Township.
Howard, or Lotus, is a station on the Wabash, in the southwestern corner of the township.
VILLAGE OF FISHER
Fisher is the banking and trading center of a large area of country, which is primarily agricultural. It is a fine grain region and its two
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large elevators are controlled by the Farmers Grain and Coal Company and Vennum & Gilmore, and its two banks, the First State and the Farmers Exchange, furnish financial accommodations equal to any call of the farmers or business men.
Fisher is a good place in which to reside, being provided with good water, electric light, a well-managed graded school, churches and societies, and, as a climax two newspapers, not only to advertise such advantages, but to call attention, in behalf of its citizens, to the pressing needs of the community.
The Fisher Electric Light plant, owned and operated by the village corporation, was built in 1905-06. It became village property in 1908.
The number of pupils enrolled in the public school system of Fisher
HIGH I RADE CLOTHING
THIRD STREET LOOKING NORTH
is 172, and the handsome building now occupied was erected in the fall of 1914 at a cost of $25,000. F. L. Lowman is the superintendent.
THE NEWSPAPERS
In December, 1889, William Rodman commenced the publication of the Fisher Times, which he continued for about two years, when the office was sold to Naylor & Bill, who changed the name to the Fisher Reporter. A. J. Bill then became sole proprietor and thus remained for about a year, and was successively followed by R. M. Hall and George E. Hass. The latter, who was both a practical printer and a versatile editor, continued to manage it for six years, or until August,
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1902, when he sold the newspaper to Alva Gilmore, the present editor and proprietor.
The Fisher News was founded by Pearl M. Hollingsworth in May, 1913. He still owns and edits it.
FISHER'S CHURCHES AND SOCIETIES
The religious needs of Fisher are supplied by three churches-the United Brethren, the Methodist Episcopal and the Christian, mentioned and described in the order of their founding. The United Brethren Church was organized at the residence of Rev. David Naylor, two miles west of Fisher, in 1867, by Rev. William Ferguson, of the Central
PUBLIC SCHOOL, FISHER
Illinois Conference. In the year following a schoolhouse was built in the neighborhood and regular services were held in it until 1875, when the first house of worship was erected and dedicated by Lyman Chit- tendon, of Westfield, Illinois. On the site of Naylor cemetery services were held in the church named until the organization of a special society at Fisher. About 1890 both societies were merged, the town church building was sold, and the country meeting-house was moved into the village and repaired. It was then dedicated by Bishop Castle, and occupied by the society until 1914, when a modern structure was erected on the site of the old church. It was dedicated by Bishop H. H. Font under the pastorate of T. H. Decker. Following Rev. William Fer- guson, organizer of the Fisher Church, were these pastors: Revs. Blake, J. Robeson, J. Crowley, B. F. Rinehart, Yeagle, Samuel, Foulk,
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HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY
( Sister) Nella Niswanger, Luke, Welch, G. N. Arnold, W. G. Metsker, A. F. Brandenburg, Wilstead, J. G. Breeden, W. R. Muncie, (Sister) R. J. Nash, M. L. Watson, H. D. Hudson, T. H. Deeker and C. O. Myers. The church society now has a membership of about seventy.
The Methodist Episcopal Church of Fisher was organized in 1870 and a building for worship completed the same year. Its successive pastors have been Rev. J. T. Orr, Rev. Melchoir Auer, Rev. T. I. Coultas, Rev. C. E. MeClintock, Rev. D. P. Lyon, Rev. J. H. Austin, Rev. J. D. Botkin, Rev. Sampson Shinn, Rev. E. S. Wamsley, Rev. E. C. Harper, Rev. J. F. Horney, Rev. J. T. Pender, Rev. W. H. Schwartz, Rev. William Gooding, Rev. J. R. Reasoner, Rev. D. G. DuBoise, Rev. T. O. Baty, Rev. J. C. Eninger, Rev. E. K. Crews, Rev. J. F. Clearwaters, Rev. S. A. Maxey, Rev. D. H. Hartley, Rev. William Carter and Rev. J. W. Dundas. A second house of worship was built in 1874 and, with the continued growth of the society, a third, and a far more commodious building was erected in 1912. It is designed not only to accommodate a present membership of 225, but provision is even made for the future. The building, which is located on the first block south of the central part of town, is forty-six by sixty feet in dimensions, of the colonial style of architecture, brick veneered and slate roof; the auditorium, with domed ceiling, is finished in mission oak and is beauti- fully frescoed. The entire building is heated with steam, lighted with electricity, and modern in every way. It was completed at a cost of $11,000.
The Christian Church of Fisher was organized in October, 1885, and has also built and occupied three houses of worship-in 1886, 1903 and 1917. Its present home is an up-to-date handsome edifice, com- pleted under the pastorate of Rev. Andrew Scott, who ministers to the spiritual needs of more than 200 church members. The regular pastors of the Christian Church, besides Mr. Scott, have been Rev. H. C. Cassell, Rev. A. B. Hubbard, Rev. H. L. Stipp, Rev. J. W. Kilborn, Rev. S. E. Fisher, Rev. J. Frank Hollingsworth and Rev. A. L. West.
The standard orders represented by lodges in Fisher are the Masonic, with a chapter of the Eastern Star; the Odd Fellows, with the Rebekahs, and the Modern Woodmen of America. One of the oldest of these bodies is Fisher Lodge No. 204, I. O. O. F., which was instituted in March, 1882. W. H. Allison was its first Noble Grand, and Ed. Waddington is at present in office. The membership of the lodge is about sixty. The Masonic lodge (Sangamon, No. 801) was organized in December, 1891, with John Odell as Master. Oscar Zook is now in the chair and presides over a lodge of about sixty members.
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CHAPTER XVI
ST. JOSEPH TOWNSHIP AND VILLAGE
OLD ST. JOSEPH-PIONEER SETTLERS-THE BARTLEY AND STAYTON FAMILIES-HIRAM RANKIN AND THOMAS RICHARDS-DEVELOPMENT OF THE VILLAGE-ST. JOSEPH OF THE PRESENT.
St. Joseph is one of the thriving townships, comprising six square miles, southeast of the central part of the county, and lying in the western edge of the Salt Fork Timber region which stretches eastward into Vermilion County. With the denuding of much of the timber lands the old-time name has long since lost much of its former sig- nificance, although the second and third growths still make a fine showing in some localities. In St. Joseph Township the main body of timber is still on the east side of the main stream of Salt Fork, which runs from north to south through the central sections; still, the wooded lands in that belt are small in proportion to their extent in the early times. The West Branch, or Saline Creek, which unites with the main stream in Section 10, north of the central part of the township, was never thickly timbered. Thus drained and watered, St. Joseph Town- ship is well adapted to agricultural pursuits and stock raising.
This borderland between the Salt Fork Timber and the prairie lands farther westward received an accession of substantial residents at an early day, and was settled quite rapidly when the old-time prejudice against the comparatively unwooded tracts was dissipated. At a still later date, about 1866, came the railroad, now known as the Big Four, to add to the advantages of the township as a section in which to earn a livelihood and enjoy life.
OLD ST. JOSEPH
The flourishing village of St. Jospeh, near the crossing of the Cleve- land, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis and the Chicago & Eastern Illinois railroads-directly on the line of the Big Four, as well as on the Dan- ville, Urbana & Champaign electric-is known to have been the site of a favorite Indian camp, as well as a burial place for the red people; and,
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HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY
like the whites, they honored their dead by selecting beautiful locations for their last resting places. Several of their burial mounds were long traceable at and near Old St. Joe, which preceded the present village.
PIONEER SETTLERS
The original survey of St. Joseph Township was made in 1821 by Jacob Judy, then deputy surveyor general, and, although several entries of land were made in 1829, no permanent settlement is recorded before 1830. Nicholas Yount squatted on Section 26, about two miles south of the present village of St. Joseph, sometime during 1828, and two years afterward entered land in a regular way. He afterward resided in that locality for many years, and his children and their families after him.
The founders of the prolific Swearingen family, Bartley and John, made the first land entries in 1829 and 1830, their selections being in Sections 36 and 24, in the southeastern part of the township. In the latter year John Salisbury, the county's first sheriff, also entered land in Section 24; and the Peterses-William, Elisha, Samuel, Joseph, Robert and another William, the three last named sons of the first-in Sections 25 and 26, not far from the present station of Tipton, on the Eastern Illinois, in the southeastern part of the township. William I. Peters eame in 1833 and entered lands in Sections 22 and 23, a mile south of the village. David Swearingen came in 1831, and two years later entered a tract in Section 35, in the far southern part of the township, where he spent the rest of his life. The old homestead remained in his family until a comparatively recent date. As stated by Judge Cunningham: "The name of this family, so numerous in the eastern part of the county, appears in the abstracts of titles to the real estate of that section more frequently than that of any other family. Its holdings since 1830 have been very large."
THE BARTLEY AND STAYTON FAMILIES
Joseph Stayton came here from Kentucky October 10, 1830, and in the following year settled upon land in Seetion 26, where he raised a family of sons and daughters, who became prominent in the township.
George, Benjamin and Jacob Bartley arrived about 1831, and within the following two or three years entered lands in Sections 22 and 23. In 1833 Jacob Bartley was elected a member of the first Board of County Commissioners.
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HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY
The first person buried in St. Joseph Township was the mother of Nicholas Yount, and the first native child was that of Joseph Stayton, which died in infancy. John Ford taught the first school in 1833, the schoolhouse being Squire Peters' kitchen.
The Bartley and Stayton families were united in marriage, many years after they had settled in the township, by David B. Stayton, the son of Joseph, and Sarah Bartley, daughter of Jacob. Mr. Stayton was a lad of twelve when his father located on Section 26. His first play- mates were Indians, who used to camp during the winter on the east bank of Salt Fork, some five hundred strong, a short distance below Prather's ford. For many years after the organization of the township, in 1861, Mr. Stayton was supervisor and collector, and he was always consulted about township matters as long as he lived. He also became one of the most prosperous farmers of the county, his estate of six hundred acres being a permanent exhibit of intelligent and successful farming and stock-raising. For years before his death he was the undisputed "oldest settler of St. Joseph Township."
About the time that the Bartleys located, Cyrus Strong and his sons, Orange and Ambrose, also entered lands in Sections 22 and 23, as well as in Sections 13 and 15, farther north and near the present limits of the village of St. Joseph. Their property in the latter section lay along the Salt Fork and embraced a famous ford, first called Strong's ford and later, Kelley's. Joseph T. Kelley maintained a ferry at that cross- ing place. Cyrus Strong, the head of the original family, was elected a county commissioner in 1836, and, as the saying is, was "quite a man."
Samuel Mapes took up land in Section 13, as neighbors of the Strong family, and the homestead was inherited by his son, Daniel.
HIRAM RANKIN AND THOMAS RICHARDS
Hiram Rankin and Thomas Richards, friends, came in 1832, and jointly entered lands in Sections 18 and 24, in the western and eastern parts of the township, respectively. While a bachelor Mr. Rankin lived with the Richards family at Hickory Grove, Section 18, but after he married the daughter of Thomas Patterson established a home of his own in Section 24, on the State road, where he spent the remainder of ,his life. Mr. Richards and his descendants clung to the farm in Sec- tion 18.
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