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 48
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PESOTUM TOWNSHIP
Pesotum Township embraces only thirty-five sections in the southern part of the county, what would have been Section 6 being occupied by the village of Sadorus and the balance of that section which is attached to the town of Sadorus. Pesotum is the name of a treacherous and bloodthirsty Pottawattamie chief, who participated in the Fort Dear- born massacre of 1812, and it is somewhat a matter of conjecture why it should have been applied to the Illinois Central station of 1854, and thus descended to the township. The watershed between the Okaw and Ambraw rivers runs nearly parallel with that railroad through the township. The surface of the country is nearly level, and much of the town, especially that lying in the valley of the Okaw to the west, has been artificially drained. The largest and most important ditch in that region is the Two Mile Slough. That locality was the scene of the first settlement-that is, the timber belt of the main branch of the Okaw --- the German element having been, from the first, especially strong there. Among the early settlers may be mentioned, Squire Lee, Henry and William Nelson, Paul Holliday, S. L. Baldwin, John Meikle, Josiah Merritt, Charles Johnson, C. L. Batterman, S. D. Kelley and Benjamin F. Boggs.
PESOTUM VILLAGE
With the construction of the Illinois Central through the town from north to south, and the establishment of the station of Pesotum, the tide of settlement commenced to shift toward the east and the Ambraw valley. Within a few years after the Civil War every tract within the town had been taken up and most of them put in a state
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of cultivation. Year by year the village has steadily been affected by this general development, and has become the center of quite an ex- tensive trade. It has the proper facilities for handling grain, two banks (the Bank of Pesotum and the Farmers Bank), a modern school, churches and societies, and a newspaper-the Chief, founded in 1914, and published and edited by A. F. Alblinger & Company.
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CHAPTER XXI
PHILO AND OGDEN TOWNSHIPS AND VILLAGES
YANKEE RIDGE SETTLERS-CLARK R. GRIGGS-VILLAGE OF PHILO A RAILROAD STATION-THE PRESENT VILLAGE-OGDEN TOWNSHIP- PIONEER SETTLERS-OGDEN VILLAGE.
Philo, the only village in the township of that name, is on the line of the Wabash Railroad. It has a population of about six hundred people and its site is on one of the highest and most healthful points in tlie southern part of the county. One of the branches of the Ambraw rises about half a mile to the west, flowing from a pronounced ridge, which enters the town from the north and runs across it to the southeast and upon which the village is built.
YANKEE RIDGE SETTLERS
The first settlers of the neighborhood were from New England, the majority of them coming in 1856. Among them were David and Lucius Eaton, with their families; George and E. W. Parker, Asa Gooding, Dennis Chapin and J. P. Whitmore. Because of the personnel of this New England colony and their place of settlement, the locality was called Yankee Ridge, and the village and, to a large extent, the entire township, assumed a distinctive character, as if a small section of New England had been set down in that part of the West.
The location of the village was doubtless influenced also by the fact that the only grove in this portion of the Ambraw valley was in the northeast quarter of Section 15. It was called Towhead and was particularly noticeable because of the absence of trees in the surround- ing country. It was entered as early as 1837 by Philo Hale who figured that the Northern Cross Railroad would strike that landmark which could be plainly seen for many miles.
CLARK R. GRIGGS
Among the Yankees who came at a later date than the bulk of the New England colony was Clark R. Griggs, a Massachusetts boot and shoe
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manufacturer. In the spring of 1859 he purchased a farm on Yankee Ridge, a short distance north of Philo, but because of an accident by which his right hand was crushed in a corn sheller, he abandoned farming and moved to Urbana. Ile there became a merchant and land dealer, was elected to the Legislature in the late '60s, and, as told elsewhere, was influential in having the State University located at Urbana and in the projection of the Danville, Urbana, Bloomington & Pekin Rail- road, now a portion of the Big Four system.
VILLAGE OF PHILO A RAILROAD STATION
In 1858 the village of Philo was established as a station on the recently reorganized Great Western Railroad, which, after various changes, became a part of the eastern division of the Wabash, St. Louis & Pacific system, and in 1889 of the Wabash Railroad. Previous to the establishment of the Philo station, there had been no stopping place for trains between Sidney and Tolono, and the promoters of the village, who were the heirs of Philo Hale and named it accordingly, laid out a handsome park which became quite a feature of the place.
THE PRESENT VILLAGE
The present village has two grain elevators, of which the proprietors are J. C. Trost & Company and O'Neill & Plotner. It has also two sub- stantial banks. The older of these, the Philo Exchange Bank, was estab- lished by the late E. B. Hazen, who continued at its head till his death. The other, the Commercial Bank, was established in 1902, with the late Isaac S. Raymond as president. It began business as a national bank, but surrendered its charter in 1910, and continues as a private bank. Its president is C. A. Daly.
Philo has four churches, as follows: The Methodist, Rev. D. L. Jeffers, pastor ; Presbyterian, Rev. L. F. Cooper; Lutheran, Rev. A. J. Klindworth, and Catholic, Rev. D. K. Harrington. It has also lodges of the Masonic and Odd Fellows orders, and an auxiliary council of the Knights of Columbus.
Philo has also a well organized system of public schools, so that in respect to its agricultural surroundings and to its internal financial and commercial equipment, its educational, religious and social advantages, it enjoys exceptional attraction for lovers of a well-ordered and quiet community.
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HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY
OGDEN TOWNSHIP
Ogden is a narrow township, ten and a half miles from north to south and three and three-quarters, from east to west. Its surface is very level. The southern and central sections are watered by tributaries of the Salt Fork and Stoney creek, and the northwestern portion of the township lies in the valley of the Spoon River. The only natural timber lands were known as Bur Oak Grove toward the north end of the town, and Hickory Grove, a part of which lies on the western line.
PIONEER SETTLERS
The first settler was Hiram Rankin, who, about 1830, built a cabin in Hickory Grove, near the north side of the northeast quarter of Section 18. Mr. Rankin soon moved into St. Joseph Township and turned his crude improvements over to his friend, Thomas Richards, who estab- lished a pleasant and comfortable homestead for his large family, various members of which developed into leading men and women of the neigh- borhood.
Garrett Moore, the first surveyor of the county, improved a quarter section in Section 30, also along the western border, his property subse- quently passing to John Chester. John Bailey, kept a hotel on the Dan- ville road, and William G. Clark took up a farm in the southern part of the township, at a very early day, and Samuel McClngen and William Paris settled in the Bur Oak Grove, in the northern part. Milton Babb, Engene P. Frederick, the Miles brothers and William Cherry also settled in the northern half of the town, and in more recent years a large Ger- man population occupied the Spoon River flats in the northwest corner. They are Lutherans and, as is customary, stanchly support their church and school.
OGDEN VILLAGE
The station and village of Ogden owes its existence to the Indiana, Bloomington & Western Railroad, now a portion of the Big Four system, which was constructed through Champaign County in 1866. In 1905 the Chicago & Eastern Illinois cut across the western and northwestern sections of the township, and in Section 17, about a mile east of the German Lutheran settlement on the Spoon River flats, the railroad sta- tion of Royal was established. A grain elevator was built and other accommodations provided for the shipping of the produce raised in that section of the township.
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HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY
The village of Ogden, with its population of over four hundred peo- ple, is also a convenient banking center for a large area of the country around. The Ogden Bank and the First National provide such con- veniences. The latter was founded in April, 1900, with C. L. Van Doren as its president. A. H. Freese is now at its head. The capital of the First National is $30,000; surplus and undivided profits, $13,000; deposits, $170,000.
Ogden has Methodist and Christian churches, of which Rev. J. B. Martin and Rev. Cummins are the pastors respectively, and Masonic and Knights of Pythias lodges.
The village has had a newspaper almost continuously since 1885, when the Ogden Sun arose. J. B. Klegg soon changed its name to the Journal, and continued its publication until his death. It then passed to William Wampler, who conducted it until 1892, when he was suc- ceeded by Frank Osborn, who published and edited it for about a year, or until the destruction of the office by fire.
In December, 1894, J. R. Watkins started the paper which now represents the interests of Ogden and the neighborhood, the Courier. In December, 1902, he sold to J. C. Kirby, who, in May of the following year disposed of the Courier to Dale Brothers, of the St. Joseph Record. It is owned and edited at present by Mrs. Della McPherren.
CHAPTER XXII
OTHER TOWNSHIPS, VILLAGES AND STATIONS
LUDLOW VILLAGE AND TOWNSHIP-ORIGINALLY, PERA-ABEL HARWOOD AND THE TOWN-DILLSBURG- LEVERETT-SEYMOUR AND BOND- VILLE-COMPROMISE TOWNSHIP --- PENFIELD AND GIFFORD FLAT- VILLE-EAST BEND TOWNSHIP-ETHAN NEWCOM AND OTHER SETTLERS-DEWEY.
Ludlow, on the main line of the Illinois Central in the northeastern corner of the township by that name, is a village of about three hun- dred people, and is the largest center of population in the prosperous township by that name. Both the village and the township occupy some of the highest lands in Champaign County. The country is further note- worthy as being the watershed for the headwaters of various branches of the Sangamon and the Salt and Middle forks of the Vermillion River.
ORIGINALLY PERA
Little land was entered within the township and virtually no improvements had been made on the lands until after the building of the Illinois Central in 1854. Pera station was then established as the only stopping place on the line between Urbana to the south and Loda, Iroquois County, to the north. For a time it was simply a railroad station, but the town plat, after a few years, was sprinkled with a number of residences, stores and other evidences of growth, and at one time threatened to overreach Rantoul. It now has a good graded school, a bank, elevator, several churches at or near the village, and is destined for future growth. The township was originally called Pera, but when Ilarwood was taken away from the original territory, both town and village assumed the name by which they are now known.
The Illinois Central was completed to Pera in 1853, and a turntable built at that point, which was moved to Urbana in 1854. The first railroad agent was John Lucas, who died at Ludlow in 1870. The first school was taught in the railroad freight house by Miss Mary Wood in 1858. The first settlers, aside from the railroad men, were Dr. Emmons, James D. Ludlow, B. F. Dye, Isaiah Estep, L. L. Hicks,
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HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY
R. W. Claypool, A. IIunt and Seth Parsons. John W. Dodge, who afterward moved to Rantoul, and others who composed the Ohio Settle- ment, located in 1835-57. About the same time the Lewises, Walkers and other permanent settlers arrived. John Springsteen is recorded as the first blacksmith, John P. and Samuel Middlecoff as the pioneer merchants and M. Huffman as the first postmaster.
ABEL HARWOOD AND THE TOWN
The town of of Harwood to the east of Ludlow was named in honor
OLD-TIME RAIL FENCE
of Abel Harwood, one of the largest land owners in Champaign County, and a moneyed man who had foresight to improve all the land he pur- chased. His fine improvements in what is now the township of New- comb, near the Mahomet line, which included the clearing of hundreds of acres of land, its scientific cultivation and the growing of eleven
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HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY
miles of hedges to replace unsightly and falling fences-such develop- ments carried along by Mr. Harwood in the northwestern part of the county, aside from his standing as a legislator and a man, fully entitle him to the honor of naming a prosperous township.
Harwood, in its essential physical features, much resembles Ludlow. Settlers came slowly to its prairies and even after the building of the Illinois Central the people of the eastern part of Pera Township were not greatly accommodated, as they had to depend entirely upon either Rantoul or Pera station for the marketing of their products or trans- portation.
In the general order of their coming the following settled in Har- wood Township: Jeremiah Day, on Section 30, in 1852; Jacob Huffman, Section 1, 1852 ; Michael Huffman, 1853, Section 3; he being the first justice of the peace in Pera Township; James Custer, Section 1, 1854; A. N. and William Leneve, Section 12, 1855; J. D. Ludlow, Section 7, about the same year, and the Crawfords, the Sopers, Dr. J. C. Maxwell, James Marlatt and the Claypools, 1855-56, in various sections. The first school was taught on Section 11 in a log hut which had previously served as a pre-emption shanty, in the year 1860, by Augustus S. Crawford.
DILLSBURG
The settlement of the township was very slow until 1865, when immigration was rapid for a time, but the development was not con- sidered permanent until the Rantoul branch of the Illinois Central was pushed through four of its southern sections, in 1881, and Dillsburg was established as a station, as well as Gifford, just over the line in Compromise Township.
LEVERETT
Leverett is a station on the main line of the Illinois Central rail- road, a few miles north of Champaign, which has become quite a grain center. A. J. Flatt, who owns and operates an elevator and a store at that point, has been at the head of its development for a number of years past. In 1894 he purchased the elevator business of B. C. Beach, replaced the former building with a large one in 1897, which, in turn, gave way to the elevator now operated, which cost $15,000 and has a capacity of 50,000 bushels. In 1910 Mr. Flatt received his son, Ross A. Flatt, into partnership.
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HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY
SEYMOUR AND BONDVILLE
Seymour and Bondville are stations and grain centers on the Illinois Central in Scott Township, in the western part of the county. There are elevators in both places, and Bondville has a good bank; so that the farmers and residents of quite a section of the country look upon them as their most convenient trading, shipping and banking centers.
COMPROMISE TOWNSHIP
Compromise Township, in the northeastern part of the county, is, with Rantoul, its largest territorial division, comprising forty-eight see- tions or square miles. With the exception of a small wooded tract in the northeast corner known as Buck Grove, most of the lands are of the flat prairie variety. That seetion of the township is watered by Buck Creek of the Middle Fork. The exceptions to the general rule as to surface features of the township are in the extreme north and southeast, where there are several stretches of high and undulating lands.
As the lands of Compromise Township have been thoroughly drained, they are now admirably adapted to farming purposes, and the result is that there are few portions of the county where the homesteads pre- sent a more prosperous appearance, which are more generally rural and yet which are favored with better facilities for getting its products to market.
PENFIELD AND GIFFORD
Penfield and Gifford, stations on the Illinois Central in the northern part of the township, have banking and elevator facilities. The Morse State Bank at Gifford was established in 1885 and incorporated in 1912. It has a capital of $25,000 and J. D. Morse is its active head. It may be added that they are also the centers of considerable religious activity. There are Methodist organizations at both places, under the pastorate of Rev. E. B. Williams, who resides at Gifford. Rev. William O'Brien is in charge of St. Lawrence's Catholic Church at Penfield, and Rev. Blackwell, of the United Brethren Church at the same place. Besides the Methodist Church at Gifford, are the Baptist Church, Rev. E. B. Williams, pastor, and the German Lutheran, Rev. F. Mutschwann. It is needless to say that the young people of Gifford and Penfield are provided with good schools, as well as religious and moral instruction.
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HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY
FLATVILLE
Although entries of land and actual settlements in the vicinity of Buck Grove and Penfield were made seventy or eighty years ago, the northern part of the town did not develop until the Rantoul branch of the Central provided an outlet for the products of the farm, in 1881. Its building caused an increase of settlement throughout the township, and was especially encouraging to the large German colony in the south- western sections. The lands there were noticeably low and flat, but fertile, and the industrious German farmers, with thorough cultivation and persistent drainage, made the country a garden spot. They also
TYPICAL WHEAT FIELD
secured the post-office of Flatville, which, although on no railroad line, is in a rural route and a great accommodation. A number of Lutheran churches and several good schools, both parochial and district, have been established, which add to the advantages of this prosperous section of Compromise Township. Rev. Ernest Moehl has been pastor of the Ger- man Evangelical Church since 1895, and is widely known and honored. The fine edifice of the society was dedicated in January, 1915.
EAST BEND TOWNSHIP
East Bend Township, in the northern part of the county, derives its name from the abrupt bend in the Sangamon River near the center
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HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY
of the town, which there assumes the shape of a partial parallelogram and is sharply deflected from a southeasterly to a southwesterly direc- tion. Not far south of this remarkable bend of the river was the famous Newcom's Ford, at the crossing of the Sangamon by the old Danville and Fort Clark road.
ETHAN NEWCOM AND OTHER SETTLERS
It was named after Ethan Newcom, who came to the neighborhood in the early '30s and gave his name not only to the ford but to the township (plus the "b"). Newcom's Ford, which was also a favorite camping place for the old-time knights of the road, was almost midway between Fisher, which abuts into East Bend Township, and the station and settlement of Dewey.
It was in this neighborhood, in the timber fringe of the Sangamon, that Mr. Newcom, Franklin Dobson, the Devores and others first settled in 1837-40. Fifteen or twenty years afterward came such as Harmon Hilberry, Alfred Houston, Richard Chism, Benjamin Dolph, C. M. Knapp, Gardiner Sweet, Harvey Taylor and others, and, with the coming of the railroad, in the early '80s, the immigration was so large as to dis- courage the mention of individuals.
DEWEY
Dewey provides a large section of the eastern part of East Bend Township and of the western portion of Ludlow with elevator and bank accommodations, although Fisher to the west and Rantoul to the east are much larger centers and tend to circumscribe its activities. The two grain elevators at Dewey are owned by J. M. Jones Company and Hazen & Reuter. The Dewey Bank was founded in 1902. There is a good school, two churches-German Lutheran and Methodist-and quite a flourishing Odd Fellows Lodge.
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