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Other early entries of lands, all near the northwest corner in the neighborhood of Pen- field, were made by Robert Wyatt, Anthony S. Morgan, C. P. Evertson, Patrick Donnell, Wilson Claypool, Hamilton Fairchild,. Joseph McCormick and Joseph Potter, some of whom became early residents upon their purchase,
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HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY.
and some of them will be remembered as prominent in the recollection of those yet living.
Among prominent citizens of a later date may be named John B. Lester, George W. Francis, Frank White, the Formans (Edwin and Edward), M. Swartz, C. A. Haines, Brown Matthewson, John B. Perry, H. E. Bullock, H. Busboom, Ezra Dickerson, R. M. Eystone, J. M. Morse and many others. The population of the southwest part of the town is largely made up of a very thriving and industrious German element, which, at an early period, took hold of the low lands which there pre- vail and were avoided by early buyers. Drainage and cultivation have reclaimed all, and no better lands are now found anywhere.
These people have two churches of the Lutheran persuasion for their accommodation. A postoffice in the neighborhood is called "Flatville," in recognition of physical char- acteristics, and accommodates a large section of country remote from railroads.
The Rantoul branch of the Illinois Central Railroad enters the town by a curve from the north and crosses to the eastern line of the county, affording convenient shipping facilities for the shipment of products. Upon this line have grown up the thriving villages, Gifford and Penfield, where are churches, schools, shops and stores, where the wants of the population for most supplies are met. This line of railroad was built more than thirty years since by subscriptions of the people along the line, to meet an urgent demand for shipping facilities of a country then remote from railroad accommodations, and finally was absorbed by the greater corporation and changed from a narrow to the standard gauge.
CONDIT.
The town of Condit embraces only the Con- gressional Township 21 North, Range 8 East of the Third Principal Meridian, and has had a separate existence as such since 1867, when, by the order of the Board of Supervisors, it was set off from the original town of New- comb, the two towns having been originally organized together under the latter name.
The town owes its name to the numerous Condit family, the sons of Wickliff Condit, a large land-owner in that town.
From 1853 to 1857 Mr. Condit, then a citi- zen of Ohio, entered land here more largely than any other investor, presumably for his children, as, within ten years, five of them had taken possession of these entries.
Matters connected with the earliest set- tlement of Condit have been quite fully set forth in the chapter concerning the settlement of the Sangamon timber, some of which is included within this town, and a repetition will be unnecessary here.
The town was crossed from near the south- east corner to the northwest corner by the Danville and Fort Clark road, which was prob- ably older than its name, as a traveled road, Newcom's Ford, the place of crossing the Sangamon River, being just beyond the north town line. So this region was known to the traveling public of that day before other sec- tions of the county, but does not seem to have attracted immigrants to locate there to any extene. Newcom came and, settling near its borders, left his name to a crossing place of the beautiful Sangamon, which meanders near by, and finally to one of the. near-by con- gressional townships; but if he had neighbors in what is now Condit, no one has left the history of them.
The final departure of the wild Indians from this country in 1832, seems to have been the signal to many people seeking homes to come and take possession; for we find that, during the 'thirties after that year, many did come as permanent citizens, and that the squatter period of our history ended near that time.
Fielding Lloyd, according to the best avail- able information, was the first to make his home here, having come, as it is said, in 1834, although he entered no land within the town until June, 1837, when he entered the north- west quarter of the southwest quarter of Sec- tion 32 (forty acres.) In February, 1836, he had entered the west half of the northwest quarter of Section 6 in the town, south of Con- dit and about a mile away. The former tract he conveyed to James Crosier and the latter to John Phillippe, in 1837. The latter tract is now owned by D. R. Phillippe.
The first entry of land in the town was made by J. W. S. Mitchel (heretofore mentioned), on April 19, 1835, and was the north half of the northwest quarter of Section 5, near by Newcom's Ford. These entries were separated
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HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY.
by six miles of space and were not made to be neighborly to each other, but with reference to other near-by entries.
The deeds made by Lloyd and Charity, his
. wife, spells his name "Feldren Loid," and are signed in both cases by the marks of the grantors.
Few entries of land were made before 1840, and, as late as 1854, probably not one-fourth of the land had passed to private ownership.
John Phillippe came in 1837 and, it would ap- pear, was about the first permanent settler, as he spent his life there and has been succeeded in ownership and occupancy by remote descend- ants. His purchase of the fractional eighty-acre tract from Fielding would seem, from the rec- ords, to have been his first investment.
Thomas Gile and William Taylor entered land in 1836, but the traditions of the town have no account of either. So with Samuel Reber, who entered land in Section 31, in 1836. Stephen and William R. Pusey entered lands in 1841 and '42, and their names remained connected with the town for years.
C. F. Columbia, in 1846, took up land and erected a home, but within a few years changed to lands now covered by a part of Champaign City.
Lewis Adkins, son of a pioneer of the Big Grove, and son-in-law of John Phillippe, took land in 1843, but early in the 'fifties went west to Iowa with his family.
William and David Hawk, John and Abraham Fisher, William Morain, Josiah Cramer, the Gulicks-Alfred, Zack, Richard, John and others of the name-were early settlers in the 'forties and 'fifties, subsequent to whom came the in- vaders of the prairie regions of which quality of country the town is mostly constituted. Among the earlier of these may be named F. B. Sale, R. B. and A. B. Condit, Victor Arnold, William Bennington, Hale A. Johnson, Newark Lax, John Odell, D. A. King, H. Putnam, M. E. Nelson and many others, few of whom remain in the town.
No railroad line impinges upon this town and it has no postoffice since the pioneer post- office of Newcom became Fisher, after the es- tablishment of that village upon near-by grounds.
The town was early invaded by ministers of different Protestant denominations, and, as a result of this and of the highly intelligent
and well disposed population, society there is of a high order in all the qualities of good citizenship.
A Presbyterian church was, many years since, established upon Section 28, and Metho- dist churches upon Sections 12 (known as Beulah Chapel) and 17. The latter was destroyed by fire a few years since.
Well conducted schools are in successful operation.
CRITTENDEN.
Congressional Township 17 North, of Range 9 East of the Third Principal Meridian, first organized into a town with Township 18 north of it, as the town of Philo, was, in 1863, launched upon a separate municipal existence and received its name of "Crittenden" at the suggestion of Woodson Morgan, then in life and one of the most prominent citizens of the new town. Mr. Morgan was a Kentuckian, had been a member of the legislative body of that State, and was a great admirer of Gov- ernor Crittenden, a former Kentucky Execu- tive. The suggestion was made that the town be named "Morgan" in honor of its pro- moter, but the good man modestly brushed aside the proffered honor and asked that the name of Kentucky's Governor-who was also nominated as the first Secretary of the Illi- nois Territory-be given to his home town. Mr. Morgan lived many years thereafter and was honored as the representative of his town upon the County Board several times, and as Chairman of that body.
This town is essentially a flat, level terri- tory, lying wholly in the valley of the Ambraw River, so it follows is of the richest black soil, and yields the best of crops.
Two branches of the Ambraw, one taking its rise near the south limits of Champaign City and breaking through the ridge to the south, and the other rising away to the south- east, perhaps in another county, meet in this town and form the river through which the water from much of the central part of the county drains.
Very little timber land is found, and that well to the middle south of the town and along the course of the stream.
Its early settlement has been written to some extent in an earlier chapter, by which it will be seen that Frederick Bouse became
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HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY.
the first resident and probably built the first white man's cabin within the town; which, tradition says, was located at the grove of natural timber on the east side of the river, which grove still bears his name, although more than sixty years has passed since he was seen here.
Bouse also lived at the Linn Grove, and it is believed his only tenure at both places was that of a squatter, as no entry of lands at either place appears to have been made by him.
George W. Myers, in later times, owned the location and, for some years and until his death, successfully carried on the business of raising stock.
Alfred Bocock, James M. Helm, W. R. Bar- rick and a few others were pioneers there before the era of railroads had directed the attention of the world to our rich lands, and were there to welcome the coming of the many who came to claim the prize. Until that era little attention had been paid to that location.
Prominent among those who came with the wave of immigration of later years, may be named D. H. Jessee, William and A. P. Me- harry, Cornelius Thompson, Wendell and An- thony Rinehart, Henry Kerker, R. P. Hanson, G. A. Frazier, W. R. Spencer, J. G. Schaeffer, J. V. Webster, Norman McLeod and Morgan Van Matre.
Crittenden, until lately, had no railroad and no village or postoffice within its territory, but has nine school districts of four sections each, the school house in each case at the geographical center of the district. The newly built Chicago & Eastern Illinois Rail- road across the county cuts off a small part of the southeastern part of the town; but no station has been established within its bounds. Its nearest shipping station is the new station called Bougard of this railroad on the east; also at Pesotum on the west, Philo on the north and Villa Grove on the south.
The town has two churches, the German Catholic, on Section 30, and Morris Chapel, on Section 20.
EAST BEND.
This town embraces Congressional Town- ship 22, Range, 8, and owes its name to a
graceful bend in the Sangamon River, where it changes its general course from a south- easterly to a southwesterly direction, which change of direction is made within the terri- tory of the town.
The town was organized with its present name at the adoption of township organiza- tion in 1861, when its neighboring town, Brown, was united with it under this name. The neighborhood was formerly called "Sod- om," from the name of the first postoffice es- tablished there about 1852.
The town owes its first settlement to the presence of the Sangamon timber, whose shelter was first sought within this town by Ethan Newcom, who has been elsewhere men- tioned in connection with the ford of the Sangamon River, which, in the early days, as now, bears his name, although its use as 3 crossing place was long since superseded by a near-by bridge, now an elegant structure as durable as stone and steel can make it. And the road, too, which, in the early history of the county, led to this crossing thousands of travelers and immigrants each year, has long been abandoned or made to square itself to the section lines over which it ran regard- less of directions, but with deference for dis- tances only. The lone pioneer and those whom he housed have long since passed away, none but the faintest memory of either remaining; but the noble river "flows on for- ever," and the adjacent prairies, then so radiant with Nature's own adorning, are under tribute to man.
The larger part of the surface of the town was an original prairie without a bush or tree to mark locations. Only the fringe of timber which grew up through the protection afforded by the Sangamon, formed an excep- tion. In and near this timber those who first came here to make their homes erected their rude cabins. It was of this class of men, such as Nicholas Devore who, with his sons, Isaac, John and Jack, came in 1840, and Franklin Dobson, who came in 1837, that the real pioneers of East Bend were composed. They were contemporaries of, or soon followed, Newcom. Until near the middle of the last century they were alone there, but were joined in the course of time, and before the awaken- ing of the country by the whistle of the loco- motive, by such pioneers as Harmon Hil-
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HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY.
berry, Alfred Houston, Richard Chism, Ben- jamin Dolph, C. M. Knapp, Thompson Dick- son, Harvey Taylor, Gardiner Sweet, Martin Stevenson, Joe Wrenn, William Heyer, J. L. Cosner, John McJilton, Harvey Taylor, Ben- jamin Huston, T. J. Chism, Noble Byers, Thomas Stephens and others, who continued to open up farms. The tide of immigration which followed the track of the iron horse did the rest, and the town is now a vast garden of food-producing lands.
In the matter of the improvement of the town the building of the narrow-gauge railroad, now a branch of the Illinois Central, through the southern tier of sections, was a very influen- tial agency. It opened up much territory, which was destitute of shipping facilities ex- cept at the end of a long haul, and encour- aged the growth of the villages of Fisher upon the margin of the town, and of Dewey within its territory. The citizens along the line con- tributed much money in aid of the construc- tion of the road and were well compensated in the returns which it gave.
East Bend has been greatly benefited by the artificial systems of drainage which had been constructed in what are known as the "Hilberry Slough" and the "Wild Cat Slough," . water-sheds which empty into the Sangamon River. Those who, in early times, crossed the town, well remember the immense tracts of land covered with water, all of which are now wholly reclaimed and in a high state of cultivation.
John Harnit, for many years a resident and Supervisor of this county; Ernest Lorenz, for four years Sheriff; Joshua Peckham, an early merchant; C. M. Knapp, an early teacher; Frederick Sperling, a Supervisor; Thompson Dickson, an early Postmaster-all deserve favorable notice for the parts borne by each in upbuilding the town.
At an early day in the settlement of the town, schools were established even before a school district was set off, or a school house erected, and this early beginning finds its fruition in nine full and two union school dis- tricts, where the children are being fitted for lives of usefulness.
HARWOOD.
This town received its name by the action , of the Board of Supervisors at the time that
the town-which was originally organized with Ludlow town as "Pera"-was established. It was named in honor of Hon. Abel Harwood, of Champaign, who was at the time a member of the Board of Supervisors and subsequently represented Champaign County in the Con- stitutional Convention which, in 1870, formed the present Constitution of the State of Illi- nois.
The town differs very materially from most of the other towns in the county, in that, with one exception, it is the highest land in the county-one point in Ludlow Township, and a point upon Section 17 of Harwood, being reported to be 820 feet above the sea level. The town has very little flat land in it except in the valleys between the high points which the geologist calls "moraines." In these val- leys were numerous shallow lakes which are shown upon the original United States sur- veys. By cultivation and drainage these lakes have now entirely disappeared and constitute the most valuable lands in the town.
The water which falls upon this town mostly finds its way into the Middle Fork, which runs through Ford County on the north and cuts the northeast corner of the town slightly, while from some portions of the southwest part of the town the water runs into the Salt Fork of the Vermilion.
The town is entirely made up of prairie lands, with the exception of one small point at the northeast corner of the township, where a small portion of the Middle Fork timber cov- ers the land of this town. Being a prairie town, it did not receive any considerable por- tion of the early settlements which found their way to this county, and not until after the coming of the Illinois Central Railroad did it attract settlers to any considerable ex- tent. It is said that one Jeremiah Delay was the first to make his home within the town, about the year 1852.
Jacob Huffman and Michael Huffman were early settlers upon these lands, and came as early as 1852, settling near the eastern part of the town and convenient to the timber of the Middle Fork. William and John LeNeve were also early settlers in the town and, in the northwest part of the town, James D. Lud- low was the first settler to come, about 1855, settling near what is now the village of Lud- low, then called Pera.
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HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY.
In the town are nine school districts of four sections each, which seem to have been arranged for the convenience of the people, the school house in each case being placed at the center of the district. It is said that the first school taught in the town was taught by one Augustus Crawford, in a log cabin then situated on Section 11, upon lands sub- sequently owned by Mr. John S. Webber. The town has, within its bounds, one Methodist Episcopal chapel but, aside from this, it has no other place of worship.
Until the building of the Rantoul Railroad through the southern tier of sections in the town, it had no shipping facilities within its bounds, but was entirely dependent upon the stations of Pera and Rantoul upon the Illinois Central. The completion of this narrow-gauge road encouraged the building up of the village of Dillsburg, which affords a convenient ship- ping place for farmers in its neighborhood. Besides this, Gifford, a station on the same road, is just over the line in Compromise.
The town is one of great natural beauty, the ground being beautifully undulating, affording excellent drainage, while its lands, where not situated upon the higher points, are very rich and productive.
HENSLEY.
Township 20, Range 8 East of the Third Principal Meridian, was, at the beginning of the township organization in Champaign County, organized with the township on the south (now the town of Champaign), as the town of West Urbana and continued under this dual organization until 1867, when, by the action of the county authorities, it was set off and erected into a separate civil town by itself under the name of Hensley, in honor of A. P. Hensley, one of the most prominent citizens of the town.
Physically considered, the town of Hensley is constituted of higher land than the towns either east, west or south of it, having within its bounds many high points. At the station of Rising, which is within this town, observa- tions show the land to be 731 feet above sea- level, which is perhaps one of the lowest points within the town. Other lands to the north of this point rise to a considerably greater height. The town occupies the divid- ing ridge from which the water flows east
to the Salt Fork and west to the Sangamon, ยท and so affords good natural drainage; yet con- siderable money has been expended in artificial drainage in order to bring about the best agricultural results.
Elsewhere, and in the chapter devoted to the settlements of the Sangamon country, the first entries and earliest settlers have been named by which it will be remembered that the earliest settlements were made in sec- tions bordering upon the western line of the town, for the reason that those were the most convenient to the Sangamon timber so much depended upon by the early comers to this country.
Following these there were a few settlers scattered along the road which crosses the southern part of the town, known as the Bloomington road, among whom may be named Aden Waterman in Section 34; Archa Campbell, who built an early cabin residence upon the ridge in Section 33; John Lindsey, who, in Section 29, established an early place of entertainment for travelers, known as the "Banqueting House," elsewhere spoken of; Daniel and Samuel Nicewander; David Wolfe, Robert Maxwell, a son of Jonathan Maxwell who, it will be remembered, was named as the first permanent resident along the Sanga- mon timber. Later came Samuel Hyde and Charles Miner, who settled in Section 19; A. J. Pippin, in Section 30; D. F. Brown, in Sec- tion 20; James M. Graham, in Section 28. Hezekiah Phillippe, a son of John Phillippe spoken of as an early settler in Condit town, made his home in the northwest corner of Hensley, and became an owner of a large amount of lands in both these towns.
James R. Scott came to this county from Kentucky about 1856, and became the owner of Section 35, which he reduced to an excellent state of cultivation, and upon which he erected valuable buildings. Mr. Scott was, for many years, a prominent citizen of this town, more recently of the City of Champaign, where he served one term as Mayor of the city. Mr, Scott upon this farm planted the first drain-tile used in the county. . His ex- ample was most beneficial.
Joshua Clevenger at one time became the owner of considerable land in Sections 33 and 34, which he eventually sold and removed to the State of Missouri.
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HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY.
Among early settlers, not already named, it will be proper to name Willis Scott, Samuel Shaw, Richard Waugh, Henry Dickerson, Wil- liam Morain, Fountain J. Busey, who subse- quently settled at Sidney, John and Isaac Hammer. Mr. Robert Dean, who has been elsewhere spoken of as prominent in the affairs of the county, with his family settled upon the farm afterwards occupied by Joshua Clevenger, and lived there until about 1860, when he removed to Indiana. In the northeast corner of the town among the largest of the early land owners was Henry ToAspern, who owned and, for a long time operated, Section 12; also Thomas Deakin, John Babb and John S. Busey.
The first entry of land in the town was that of Fielding Lloyd, referred to in the historical sketch of Condit Township.
The Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad runs across the southwest cor- ner of this town, and upon its line is the station called Rising, named in honor of John Rising, a successful farmer residing near by. This station affords postal and shipping facil- ities to the farms in its neighborhood, but Champaign is the trading point for most of the people.
The town is organized into six school dis- tricts, of above ordinary size. Within the town are the Mt. Vernon Methodist Episcopal church on Section 9, and a German Lutheran church on Section 11. Religious meetings were held in this town at an early day. Joseph Lane, who was a local preacher of the Meth- odist persuasion upon the Urbana Circuit, is named as having been foremost in giving to the people the religious opportunities they had. It is said that religious meetings were held at the house of Hezekiah Phillippe and Samuel Hyde, and, perhaps, at other places, before the building of the Mt. Vernon church ..
KERR.
This town occupies the extreme northeastern part of Champaign County, and embraces only the west half of Town 22, Range 14 West of the Second P. M., and fractional Township 22, Range 11. It was established by the com- missioners upon the division of the county into civil towns in 1861, and has so continued to this day without additions or subtractions, as some have suffered. It, with the town of
Ayers in the southeast corner, is distinguished as one of the smallest of the sisterhood of towns in the county, but neither is in any manner inferior in natural wealth to the larger towns.
The town received its name from Samuel Kerr, who has been named elsewhere as be- ing one of the earliest, if not the first, to establish a permanent home within the limits of the town. As elsewhere stated, the earliest settlers within this territory made their homes within the timber belts along the Mid- dle Fork and its confluents, which occupy about one-third of the area of the town, the balance of which is prairie similar in every respect to the prairies of Champaign County.
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