USA > Illinois > Knox County > Annals of Knox County : commemorating centennial of admission of Illinois as a state of the Union in 1818 > Part 19
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Meantime, George F. Reynolds, remembered even yet as "Deacon Reynolds," and his neighbors, up on the west line of the township, were not willing to let the village grow up around the "Old Victoria House," without doing their utmost to bring it to their own land. Mr. Reynolds had built a double log cabin near the west side of what later became the east village park, and his hospitality made his hostelry the stop- ping place of many a traveler. The stage line from Chicago to Burlington now passed the Reynolds hostelry and aided in bringing the village to the new site. Two large frame houses were moved to Victoria on sleds, with oxen, from Centerville,
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which was situated just over the town line, in Lynn. One was owned by Dr. John W. Spaulding and was used as his home and office, in Victoria, and is now known as Carlson's shoe store; the other was owned by Alex Albro, a great uncle of the wife of Judge George W. Thompson, and this house is now known as the Youngs house. A room in the Albro house was used temporarily, for school purposes. Both of these houses are still in good repair. Mr. Reynolds deeded off lots and did all he could to "steal the town" from Milton Shurtliff, who lived in Tazewell county. Our county records show a deed to Jonas J. Hedstrom in 1843, five acres at $3.00 per acre, and deeds to John Becker, two acres at $5.00 per acre. Mr. Hedstrom had the first blacksmith shop and Mr. Becker had the first general store. Later "Dick" Whiting and Norton Kelsey started some competition for Mr. Becker in the Albro house. Joseph Freed bought a lot in the east part of the village and built the house where Gus Stout now lives and there he conducted a shoeshop for many years. The lot just east was purchased by John I. Knapp, a carpenter and cabinet maker, and he built the house that stood there until about five years ago. In 1849, the Vill- age of Victoria was platted, by John Becker, John W. Spauld- ing, George F. Reynolds, Jonas J. Hedstrom, William L. Shurt- liff, Joseph Freed and John I. Knapp, as proprietors, and the question as to where the village was to be was finally decided. However, the Village of Victoria was not incorporated until as late as 1886, with Charles S. Robinson, mentioned above, as President, and Wm. McKendree Woolsey, R. B. Hodgeman, Geo. Luther Hedstrom, Charles S. Clark and William Aten, as trustees. The village has never voted "wet" and is proud of the fact that it has never had saloons. Dr. Spaulding, the Whitings, the Beckers, the Copleys, Dr. Fifield, Jonas J. Hedstrom, George F. Reynolds, the Tabors, and the Olmsteds were among the early chief promoters of the schools and other helpful institutions of the village. Still others of the early families were leaders in organizing the first churches in the village and these will be mentioned below in a paragraph rela- tive to the churches. George Sornberger should be mentioned among the early pioneers. He was a Revolutionery soldier and members of his family have had a large part in the life of the community. Three sons, Alex, Peter and Anson, and sev- en daughters settled in and near the village. His descendants number over three hundred and many still reside there and are among the best citizens.
As related above, the first schoolhouse was at "Old Sa- lem," but in a few years the settlers up on the site of what was later the Village of Victoria began to plan for a school of their own. In March, 1838, the County Cimmissioners ap- pointed George F. Reynolds, William Overlander and Archi-
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bald Robinson as school trustees for Township Twelve North, Four East. The earliest known local record of school mat- ters, there in Victoria, dates from August, 1847, the time when the present village began to be at all important. There can be found such items as the following in the minute-book of its first school directors: "At a meeting, held according to law for the purpose of locating and building a schoolhouse, on the 31st day of August, 1847, John I. Knapp elected chairman, Dr. J. W. Spaulding, secretary. Voted that the lot east of William Shurtliff's house be purchased for $4.00, containing one-half acre. Also voted to buy a log building for school pur- poses." "Treasurer of Victoria School District pay ten dol- lars on school house, eighty cents for interest and nine and 59-100 dollars to Mary Ann Stanley on schedule March 29th, 1848." Signed by Isaiah Berry and Hiram Andrews, School Directors. "Sold G. F. Reynolds the roof of the old school house for $4.00 which paid him for the school house lot." Signed by J. W. Spaulding, Treasurer. This was at the time when the school lot, just west of what is now known as Geo. M. Nelson's residence and wagon shop was purchased, and there was where the children of the Victoria district attended school for about forty-five years. Others of these early teachers in the district were Mary Ann Leighton, Miss Max- field, Miss Willmot, Harriet Foote, Miss Pratt, Byron Dorr, Nancy Burt, Electa Strong, Mary Hauver, Olivia Martin and many others. Salaries averaged around $3.50 per week and "board around." During the early part of this period a so- called "select-school" was also held in the basement of the Methodist church just over the township line, in Copley ; among the teachers of the "select-school" were "Young & Raymond," Miss Ellithorpe (Arnold), and Miss Julia Wilber (Boardman). In about 1867 and for a few years thereafter there was a combination of the two districts (Victoria and the "West School," in Copley), and the higher grades and a few high-school studies were taught in the basement of the Metho- dist church. Mr. Lewis B. Aiken, Robert Arnld, Lizzie Gordon (Robson), Emily Bristo (Robinson) and L. K. Byers were some of the teachers in the "graded" school, as it was called. In 1852, May 1st, a meeting was held in the Victoria School District, for the purpose of levying a tax to build a new frame school house, with John L. Fifield, chairman, and John Becker, Secretary. There the list of taxable inhabitants of Victoria School District are set out as follows :
Hiram Andrews Anson Sornberger Lewis Bissell Isaiah Berry
Samuel P. Whiting
Mons Olson Walter Britton Joseph Freed John T. Smith
Charles Reynolds
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Norton Kelsey
Elam A. Pease Sanford Rodgers
David Tripp John Becker Jonas Hedstrom
Josiah D. Bodley Alexander Sornberger
John L. Fifield George F. Reynolds
Richard H. Whiting
Theodore D. Case
Peter Challman Erick Skogland Mathew Challman George Challman Gustavus Janson John I. Knapp Jonas Helstrum
Needham Rodgers
Thomas Force
John Spaulding
William Burgess
Albert Arnold
George W. Reynolds
George Cadwell
The building referred to above was later known as the "big room" of the old school building, vacated in about 1892, and in its last days was presided over by A. W. Ryan, M. E. Barnes, and P. C. Hankins, as principals. For about the last twenty-seven years, school has been held in a four-room frame school house on the north side of the village. Lately, the Vic- toria school has become a consolidated district school, merg- ing the "West School" and the "North School" with the old Victoria district. The other district schools in the township are: Union, Sixteen, Fairview, Cravens, Stump Valley, Cen- ter Prairie, Salem and Etherley.
The Early Roads
The early roads of the Town and community were very often utterly impassable. The prairies were full of bog holes. Tiling and ditching and building bridges have combined to make the town very different with respect to the roads and now hard roads are being advocated. When the Albro and Spaulding houses were moved from Centerville, it was neces- sary to leave them on the open prairie until the roads dried up in the spring. Even the road from the village to the nearby cemetery was impassable for weeks at a time, almost within a stone's throw from the houses of Joseph Freed and John I. Knapp. Almost everything was regulated by the condition of the roads, in those early days. A map of the roads of Knox county as they were in 1841 (back part Vol. 3, Commrs. Rec.) shows important roads coming together at Centerville and many at Shurtliff's Victoria, but only one or two passing through the present Victoria. The roads ran at all angles, much as the crow flies, and the map referred to looks like a number of spider webs all connected with each other. An im- portant State Road ran from Enterprise in La Salle county to Knoxville and was the regular road to Chicago, over which the produce was sometimes taken by the Victoria farmers to Chicago itself. This road missed the present Village of Vic-
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toria nearly two miles to the northeast. Another important State Road was the one from Peoria to Rock Island and to Hennepin, by way of Andover; this road ran through Shurt- liff's Victoria, but not through the present village. A part of it still exists where the road runs on a slant from the Good- speed to the Carlson farm. Still another important road was the one from Henderson to Victoria and on to the east. This passed through both the old and the new Victoria. When the road from Burlington to Chicago was laid out to pass through the present site of the village, it was the controlling feature in the question as to where the Village should be and it was moved to the west line of the town, much the same as the com- ing of railroads later changed the location of other villages. William Overlander, in March of 1838, was appointed super- visor of roads in the Victoria vicinity. The records of the county show that he was allowed the munificent sum of $10.00 for building a bridge over Walnut Creek near Centerville. At page 160 of Vol. 2 of the County Commrs. Rec. is as follows : "We, Pasons Aldredge and Barzilia Shurtliff, have viewed, marked and located a road by blazing the trees in the timber and sticking stakes on the prairie on the nearest and best route commencing about 80 rods east of the southeast corner, Sec. 31, in Tp. 5 N., R. 5 E., thence running west to the H. McClanihan ford, thence to Victoria and thence to the big mound west of Geo. F. Reynold's, where it intersects the State Road, heading from Enterprise (in La Salle Co.) to Knoxville, and we consider said road to be of public utility on account of being the nearest and best route to Hennepin and Chicago, Dated, February 27, 1839." This report was approved and the treasurer of the county was ordered to pay each of the road viewers $1.25 for his services. Pasons Aldredge and Coonrod Smith had much to do with the open- ing of roads in the Town.
Churches
The early inhabitants of the Town of Victoria were more than ordinarily religious. As soon as Old Salem school house was built, it became the place of holding divine services. Rev. Charles Bostic and others preached there and in the various homes and a Methodist church was organized by them there at Old Salem in 1836, and they afterwards built a frame church in the Village of Victoria, just over the line in Copley, in 1854. The first church building to be erected in the vil- lage was built in 1851, by the Congregational Society which had been organized April 30th, 1841. The meeting to or- ganize was held at the home of George Foster. He and his family, Columbia Dunn, and Henrietta Olmsted Gaines, George F. Reynolds and wife, and others were the organizers.
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The Rev. S. G. Wright was its first pastor and he was followed by Rev. Daniel Todd, Rev. Wm. Beardsley, B. F. Has- kins and others. Among the many "supplies" who preached there were Jonathan Blanchard, president of Knox College, and Rev. Jenny, the father of the much esteemed church- visitor of the Central Congregational Church of Galesburg. A religious class for Swedish people was organized December 15th, 1846, in a log house in the Village, by Rev. Jonas J. Hedstrom, and, in 1853, the Swedish people erected the second church in the village, over in the Town of Copley. It is the first Swedish Methodist Church in the world; the building is still standing, and being used by the same society. The Cen- ter Prairie Swedish Church is a branch of the above and was built in 1869. The third church building was erected as related above by the Methodists whose organization com- menced at Old Salem in 1836. It was a two-story frame build- ing, the upper room to be used for church purposes and the lower room for school purposes. The building was constructed by Sanford Tabor, as contractor. It was commenced in the fall of 1854 and in September, 1855, it was dedicated. The upper part was paid for by the Methodists and the lower part by popular subscription. Some of the pastors the writer re- calls were D. A. Falkenbury, "Uncle Billie" Smith, W. P. Graves, U. J. Giddings, Jacob Mathews, J. D. Smith and many others. The old church building was sold in 1909, and torn down. A new brick building was erected in its place and dedi- cated June 5th, 1910, the fourth church building to be built in the village. Some years later a fine new parsonage was erected.
Mail Delivery
Mail was delivered for a long time at the "Old Victoria House" and Captain Allen and Isaiah Berry took care of the mail in an unofficial sort of a way . But George F. Reynolds was the first postmaster to be appointed by the government, in about 1848. His successors in order, were Isaiah Berry, E. A. Pease, Ephriam Russell, H. K. Olmsted, Lew Emery, Lee Shannon, Samuel Jarvis, Cass Sornberger, Samuel Jarvis (again), Ralph B. Woolsey, Arthur Van Buren, Grace Van Buren and Miles Sloan, the present incumbent. After many migrations the office is now located in a good brick building constructed for the purpose by J. E. Welin. For many years, mail came to Victoria, by the lumbering stage-coach on its way from Chicago to Burlington. After the C. B. &. Q. R. R. came through, a "hack" was driven from Victoria to Altona and return every day, carrying the mail. Some of those who drove this mail-hack were John I. Knapp, Henry Olmsted, Seneca Mosher, Jacob McGrew, Joe Moore, John Mahnesmith, and Aaron Olmsted. After the C. B. & Q. came, Centerville
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was for the time a sub-station of Victoria. The postoffice began to be of more importance in 1898 when rural service was established at Victoria. The first rural service estab- lished by the Department anywhere in the United States was authorized as effective October 1st, 1896, at Charlestown, Halltown and Uvilla, all in West Virginia. The first in Illi- nois were three routes, established at Auburn on December 10th, 1896. The service at Victoria was established June 1st, 1898. The carriers, John Dale and Clark Herrold, have been continuously in the service ever since the date of its inaugur- ation at Victoria, and no complaints or charges of irregularity have ever been made against them. In 1899, the Galesburg, Etherley and Eastern R. R. was extended to Victoria and this greatly facilitates the mail service, giving the office two mails a day.
The Political Side
Politically, the people of the Town of Victoria have al- ways taken an active interest in all elections from President of the United States down to the lowest office. It was not or- ganized as a political Town until 1850 and was not called the Town of Victoria until about 1852. Until 1849, the county was the smallest political unit and it was divided into such voting precincts as the three County Commissioners chose to make. The people of what is now the Town of Victoria voted at first up on Walnut Creek in the "Fraker's Grove Precinct." In Vol. 2 of the Commr's. Record at page 11, (Dec. Term, 1837), appears the following: "Coonrod Leek presented a
petition from sundry citizens of Fraker's Grove, praying for a removal of the place of holding elections to the house of Caleb B. Harley, living on the N. W. 14 Sec. 4, Tp. 12 N., R. 4 E. Order that the election be hereafter held at the house of said Harley, in said Fraker's Grove Precinct, until otherwise or- dered by this Court." The two townships of Stark county in which West Jersey and Lafayette are now situated were then in Knox county and on page 27 of the above Record appears the petition of sundry citizens of 12 N., 5 E. (West Jersey), presented by Newton Mathews, a resident of that township, asking for a road to be laid out from West Jersey to Vic- toria. On page 55 of this Record, the "Fraker's Grove Pre- cinct" was divided and the later Towns of Copley, Victoria, West Jersey and the south tier of sections of the next town- ship north were constituted a Justices and Constables Dis- trict, by the name of the "Walnut Creek District." (March Term, 1838). It was also "ordered that Henry McClanihan, Silas Locke and Barzel Shurtliff be and they are hereby ap- pointed Judges of Election for Walnut Creek District" page 58). About this time the voting place was changed to the "Old Victoria House," as related above. Peter Van Buren
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was for many terms a Justice of the Peace. Silas Locke was appointed, by the County Commissioners, as the first assessor for what are now Copley, Walnut Grove, Victoria and Lynn. Then came a new districting of the County and what is now the Town of Victoria was grouped with Copley and that part of Truro north of Spoon River as related above, and called the "Victoria District." When the State Legislature passed the law adopting "Township Organization," George C. Lan- phere became the County Judge in place of the Commission- er's Court composed formerly of the three County Commis- sioners, and a Supervisor was to be elected from each Town to do the work formerly done by the three commissioners. At the December Term in 1849, Judge Lanphere appointed a committee of three, of whom John Arnold of Victoria was one, to divide the County into Towns. The committee de- cided to let each congressional township be a political Town and issued a call for an election of all the voters in each town- ship to determine the name of its Town. Township 12 north range 4 (Victoria) chose the name of Worcester, but in a couple of years it adopted the more suitable name of Victoria. The first Town meeting chose George F. Reynolds as Moder- ator and M. D. Minard as temporary clerk. The election re- sulted as follows :
John L. Jarnagin-Supervisor.
J. F. Hubble-Town Clerk.
M. D. Minard-Assessor.
Charles Shurtliff-Collector.
John Smith, Moses Robinson-Justices of the Peace.
A. B. Codding, Peter Van Buren, Joe W. Moshier-Com- missioners of Highways.
Alex Sornberger, Seneca Mashier-Overseers of Poor.
From the date of this first election the records of the Town are readily available in the hands of the Town Clerk and the County Clerk, to show what has transpired politically since the Town of Victoria was first constituted. Its Super- visors, in order, are:
J. L. Jarnagin
C. P. Sansbury
M. C. Hubell
Alex Ingles
J. L. Jarnagin
C. P. Sansbury
Thomas Whiting
C. S. Clark
Samuel Coleman
John McCrea
J. H. Copley Wash Lynes
Charles Sayre
W. B. Elliott
Henry Vaughn
Jesse McIlravy
M. B. Ogden Henry Vaughn
Will Sandquist
Frank Peterson
Homer Gaines
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The Town of Victoria has, especially on Center Prairie and near the Village, some of the most fertile farm lands in the county or anywhere. Most of the land is underlaid with coal. Some of the unimproved land is worth as high as $300 per acre and some moderately improved land has sold as high as $375 per acre, but most of the owners will not put any price on their land. The railroad, now the Galesburg & Great East- ern, runs from Wataga to Galesburg, and is owned by the peo- ple who do not seem to require outside capital to finance their institutions. There are many new brick buildings in the vill- age and business is particularly good in all lines. The Town is, and may well be, proud of its history and of the substan- tial development of its people.
Respectfully submitted, this 1st day of June, 1919.
MARY FIFIELD WOOLSEY.
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WALNUT GROVE TOWNSHIP By Mrs. Fannie H. Sheahan
Walnut Grove Township is located in what is known as the "Military Tract," a section of the state selected as bounty land for soldiers, because of its fine soil and undulating surface. It is well watered by Walnut Creek and its sixty-seven tribu- taries and is a Spoon River auxiliary. It soil is unsurpassed in fertility and fine farms with substantial buildings are to be found everywhere within its borders.
The township derived its name from the extensive groves of walnut timber which formerly grew near its center and on the northwest quarter of section 26. These two groves include all its timber with the exception of a small tract in its southern end. An attempt was made toward the settlement of the town- ship as early as the spring of 1832 by Messrs. Jones and De- Hart who made claims and built a cabin on Section 21 but became alarmed at the hostility of the Indians and left at the time of the Black Hawk War and never returned. They had pushed away out on the frontier and become accustomed to roughing it. DeHart, nevertheless was greatly frightened one day when no danger was near. They had broken ten acres of prairie land in Walnut Grove Township on what was after- ward the farm of Amos Ward. While DeHart was plowing with a yoke of oxen, an old Indian squaw came out of the woods and waved a red blanket. This, he surmised, was a signal for him to move quickly for his life. Accordingly, he started immediately leaving his oxen in the furrow. On hear- ing it was only a scare, he returned the following day for his team and effects; but left the country and never returned. Several times during the Black Hawk War the settlers fled to the forts. The ruins of their cabin was still standing in 1838.
In 1836, John Thompson, the first permanent settler, moved here from Pennsylvania with his wife Catherine, and settled on Section 16. Mr. Thompson planted the first crop, a field of sod corn, in 1837, fencing it in with the first rails split in the township. The only near neighbors, the Thomp- sons had were a band of some thirty Indians who camped for a short time near Mr. Thompson's residence which was located where the Kufus Grade School now stands. The near- est white neighbors were at Fraker's Grove, eleven miles dis- tant. Mr. Thompson and Mr. Capps, two of the first settlers had been soldiers of the war of 1812 and the father of Mr. Allen one of the pioneers of the township, served in the Revolution- ary War.
Elder M. Smith of the Mormon church built the first frame
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house in 1840 on section 15 on what was originally called the Snow and afterward the Wisegarver farm. In 1842 several hundred of the Mormons had located here and designed build- ing a temple on Section 15, but before carrying out their plans Joseph Smith, the leader, had a new revelation (caused by the hostility of the settlers) commanding them to leave here and go to Nauvoo, Hancock county, which they promptly obeyed at great personal sacrifice to many of them. As they had entered and possessed themselves of nearly all the timber land and designed building up a community of their own faith, the other settlers were not sorry to see them depart. The only trace they left is a row of giant cottonwood trees which they planted and which still stand in the center of the road east of the village of Altona.
The first boy born in the township was John Thompson, Jr. The first girl, Helen Maria Ward, was born February 3, 1839. She was the daughter of Amos and Maria Ward and married A. P. Stephens, died in Russell, Kansas, January 3, 1912, and was brought here for burial. After Mr. John Thomp- son came other early settlers, Levi Stephens, Abram Piatt, Simeon L. Collinson, Amos Ward. Mr. Ward is said to have made the first wagon tracks between Altona and Victoria in 1838. In 1839 he was elected the first Justice of the Peace. The first couple married were Austin Frederick and Elizabeth Finney. The first death was that of Mrs. Hinsdale, a sister of Amos Ward, who died in August, 1838, at the residence of Abram Piatt, on Section 15, where she was also buried. In 1844 John W. Clarke was appointed the first postmaster, succeeded in 1845 by S. Ellis and he by Amos Ward in 1846 who then held the office for a long term of years when it was much more troublesome than remunerative. A little drawer in a bookcase served as a deposit for all the mail for ten years.
The first school-house was built on the southwest quarter of Section 16 in 1840 and Miss Robey Tabor, a Quakeress from Massachusetts was the first teacher. She married afterward, moved to Henry county and died in 1896. Another early teacher was Eugene L. Gross who afterward distinguished him- self in the legislative halls of the state at Springfield. His school was taught in a small log building, 16x16, built about the year 1841. In 1899 there were eleven schools in the township, costing ten thousand dollars. Elder Samuel Shaw organized the first church (after the Mormons). It was known as the Baptist church and had eight members with a place of wor- ship on Walnut Creek. The first township officers elected April 5, 1853, were Amos Ward, Supervisor ; A. F. Ward, Clerk ; H. L. Sage, Assessor; Jas. Livingstone, Collector; H. L. Collin- son, Daniel Allen and C. Capps, Highway Commissioners ; Reu- ben Cochran, Overseer of the Poor; Amos Ward and David
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