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It will be unnecessary to repeat the names of those who are named in a previous chapter as the first settlers here; but it will be proper to name those who have come to the town since the older settlers passed away, and who have done so much to give character, stand- ing and wealth to the town.
Following the first settlers who are else- where named to some extent, may be men- tioned Hiram Driskell, Solomon Wilson and David Patton, Lewis Kuder, and Josephus Martin, all of whom, with others, came to the town before any thought of a railroad through the county had been entertained, and when Danville was the nearest market town and Chicago was frequently visited by the pio- neers, for the purpose of disposing of surplus products and providing themselves with the necessaries which could not be elsewhere obtained. These people, with other early set- tlers of the county, were compelled to go to Danville, and even to Indiana, for the purpose of getting their grain ground into flour and meal, and suffered the hardships and priva- tions of the pioneer life endured by those who lead civilization in any wild country.
Solomon Mercer, now a citizen of Paxton, has for many years been a large land-owner in the town and a very successful farmer. His home was in Section 16. Contemporary with him were James Martin, William Fowler, Lindley Corbley, Levi Wood, C. D. Patton, An- thony Coyle and Ed. Corbley.
The town of Kerr is divided from the north- west corner to nearly the southeast corner by the Middle Fork branch of the Vermilion River, along which there are some wet and
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HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY.
overflowed lands and some bluffs, which are not to be taken into account when reckoning with the capacities of the town for the pro- duction of crops. Aside from this, the prairies are of the first quality and bear the highest price in the markets when sold. The town, even after the building of the first railroad, was for many years remote from markets, and its inhabitants compelled to travel long distances to ship their grain; but the con- struction of the Rantoul Railroad, through the town next south, and near the south line of this town, caused to grow up the thrifty towns of Gifford and Penfield, which afford conve- niences, not only for shipment of products, but for the purchase of family supplies.
Fifty years ago Point Pleasant Postoffice, located in Middle Fork timber, was one of the only five postoffices within the county, and was the center of settlements before then, not only in Champaign County but in Vermil- ยท ion.
The town is divided into five school dis- tricts, which afford the rising generation ample opportunities for education.
LUDLOW.
As previously stated, the town now known as Ludlow, being Township 22, Range 9, with the exception of the half-section constituting the southeast quarter of Section 34, and the southwest one-fourth of Section 35, which are embraced in Rantoul, was at the first organ- ized with the township east of it, now the Town of Harwood, as one civil town, under the name of "Pera," and so continued until Harwood was set apart with its present name. Ludlow is a prairie town, no timber whatever having grown upon any of its lands, except a small portion of Mink Grove at Rantoul, which is now embraced within the town. Within its area are located the headwaters of branches of the Sangamon on the west, the Salt Fork on the east, and Middle Fork on the north, and it will thus be seen it includes some of the highest lands within the county of Champaign. One high point, as mentioned elsewhere, reaches an altitude of 820 feet. The altitude given as that of the Village of Lud- low is 770 feet-much higher than the majority of the towns of the county.
Those acquainted with the land within the county will also understand from this
description that, within the town, was orig- inally much wet and overflowed land, all of which, by artificial drainage, has been recov- ered, and the town now affords instances of the highest cultivation and productiveness of which Illinois lands are capable.
Up to the time of the location of the Illinois Central Railroad, which crosses the town from its northeast corner in the southwesterly direc- . tion, not half of the lands had been entered, if we except those lying near Mink Grove --- which furnishes another evidence of the attraction which natural groves had for early landseekers. And it is probably true that, up to that time, not a single human habitation was to be found within the town other than those erected along the line of the road, made necessary for the care of workmen engaged in its construction. The writer passed through the town along the graded line of the road in October, 1853, and can say, from personal observation, that no sign of improvement was visible in the town at that time. All of the lands were vacant and mostly subject to entry. Following the construction of the road and the coming of its trains, population flowed in rapidly and the country soon assumed the appearance of an old settled and well cul- tivated district. Buildings were erected in every direction. Orchards and artificial groves were planted, and, within a few years, the pas- senger upon the trains of the Illinois Central Railroad was charmed with one of the most attractive landscapes to be seen anywhere.
As an instance of the unsettled condition of the country at that time, the case of John Roughton may be cited. Finding the north- east quarter of Section 27 vacant government land, in the fall of 1855, Mr. Roughton, under the privileges granted by the Federal law, pre-empted the same and moved his family upon it, remaining there, as told in another chapter, until he had fully complied with the law and obtained his patent from the Govern- ment. The venerable pre-emptor may yet be seen in the enjoyment of his homestead so well earned, which is now one of the most productive, well cultivated and attractive farms within the county.
Pera Station-now the Village of Ludlow- was one of the first established in the north part of the county, and at one time was the only station between Urbana Station and Loda,
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HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY.
in Iroquois County, and the only stopping place between these towns. For some time the buildings erected by the railroad company were the only buildings upon the town plat. However, as the demands of the adjacent country advanced, it encouraged the establish- ment of shops and stores in the embryo vil- lage. For some time it surpassed Rantoul Station in point of business and population.
John Lucas was the first railroad agent in charge of company property at that point, and so continued for a number of years. When first located at that point his nearest neighbors were found to the east at Middle Fork and Sugar Grove, to the west on the Sangamon, to the south at the head of the Big Grove and to the north at Loda.
The village of Ludlow now has three churches, with a good graded school, there being within the town six school districts.
Besides Mr. Roughton, it may be proper to name, as early settlers, John W. Dodge, Isaiah Estep, Isaiah Ferris, Herbert Reed, Benjamin Dye, Dr. Emmons, L. L. Hicks, Elisha N. Genung and Isaac Cross. Dr. Hobart, an exceedingly eccentric character, was the first physician to settle in the village, having removed thither from a residence somewhere east of there near the Middle Fork.
The village of Rantoul is more than half within the limits of the township which makes up the town of Ludlow, and to it is tributary, in a business capacity, a large por- tion of the town. A station upon the Rantoul branch of the Illinois Central called Prospect is located in Section 31, and affords shipping facilities.
The nature of the soil of Ludlow is such that it must forever attract large attention from agriculturists, and its lands must com- mand in the real-estate markets the highest . prices.
MAHOMET.
It will be' unnecessary here to repeat what has been said, in another chapter, of the be- ginnings of this town; but much might be said in relation thereto, touching its early set- tlement and progress from a wilderness to a high place in the communities of Illinois. We bave seen the town as a thinly settled fron- tier settlement, where the wild game roamed at pleasure, and where the wild Indian came
as a foe to the white man; where the bound- less prairie all around echoed no friendly voice, and when no human habitation gave promise of a change from barbarism to civil- ization. We see this town, today, traversed by a great line of railroad bearing the com- merce of a continent, where every rood of the soil is made to contribute to the wants of man and where a highly intelligent, aggres- sive and prosperous population reside and prosper.
This change from the condition shown to exist in 1832, when the last red man passed across the town to join the savage horde of Black Hawk at Rock Island, was made by the white men who followed in his tracks, and set about subduing the wilds to the purpose of cultivation.
Mahomet is traversed by the Sangamon from near the northeast corner diagonally to near the southwest corner, where in Section 31 it leaves the county. As rivers go, it is a very rapid and beautiful stream, affording in its immediate vicinity much picturesque scen- ery. Little of the lands of the town are given over to sentimental purposes, however, the whole surface, a short distance from the river, being of the black, productive prairie soil, capable, as has been in practice shown, of the highest and most effective cultivation.
The town from its earliest history has been noted as a stock-raising country. Isaac V. Williams, an early comer to the town, brought the first improved stock to the town, and, through a long life, most of which was spent just over the line in Piatt County, his influ- ence upon the stock-growing industry of the county was felt.
Benjamin F. Harris, yet living and affection- ately called "Uncle Frank" by all, in a career reaching from 1835 to the present, a period of seventy years, has by all odds most effect- ively connected the name of the town with the great industry which, at the age of ninety- three years, he still directs and controls from his home in Champaign, with the same intel- ligence that has always characterized his suc- cessful career.
Elsewhere some of the details of the career of this wonderful life, especially in the begin- ning and before the coming of the railroads with shipping facilities for his products, are given. They reveal the genius of the man
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HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY.
more than would the history of later years, when he had but to produce and drive to the nearest station his herds. His life from 1835 to 1855, best illustrates what we are trying to tell. Then, Boston, New York and Philadel- phia-or, in some cases, distant cities this side of these destinations-were the markets for Champaign County products, and were only reached on foot.
In the great work of meeting these exigen- cies and in bridging the intervening time with success, this leader was ably seconded by such men as Fielding L. Scott, Hezekiah Phillippe, John J. Rea, George Boyer, Wil- liam Stearns, John Carter, William Herriott, James C. Ware, Wiley Davis, John G. Ray- burn, Joshua Smith, John Bryan, the David- sons-Thomas A. and James W .- J. V. Pitt- man, James C. Kilgore, John W. Park, J. D. Webb, J. Q. Thomas, Robert Davis and a host of others who, whether as proprietors of lands or as merchants and mechanics, have aided in making the town what it is, one among the most noted of the sisterhood.
The Sangamon water-shed embraces the entire town, Camp Creek, a considerable con- fluent, taking its rise therein. The natural drainage is excellent and very little artificial means of sending off the surplus waters has been resorted to in comparison with other towns.
The Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad, built in this section as the Indianapolis, Bloomington & Western, cuts the town diagonally into nearly equal parts, and has given to the village of Mahomet a great impetus, it now being one of the most thrifty in the county. In point of picturesque loca- tion and surroundings it excels all others, and is a beautiful place of residence.
The schools of the village and town, of which there are seven, do the town great honor.
NEWCOMB.
The Congressional Township 21, Range 7, with the Congressional Township east of it- now Condit-was originally organized into one town, and given the name of Newcomb, in honor of Ethan Newcom, who, as has been stated elsewhere, was the first pioneer in all that country. He settled at the Ford on the
Sangamon, which bears his name, known since the early settlement as "Newcomb's Ford." Since 1867 the two towns have had a separate existence.
Newcomb is fully six miles square, consist- ing largely of prairie land, the only timber being that which clusters around the Sanga- mon from the point in Section 12, where it enters the town, to the point where it leaves the same in Section 35, together with a small amount of timber along a confluent of the Sangamon which enters it in Section 23 from the west. The entire territory lies within the watershed of the Sangamon, and is drained by it. The early settlement of this town is briefly referred to in the chapter touching the settlement of the Sangamon country, and it may only be necessary here merely to refer to that feature.
As there stated, the first settler of the town was one James W. S. Mitchell, who, it is said, came to the country about 1835, from Lexing- ton, Ky., and settled in Section 22. Mr. Mitch- ell was a prominent man in the affairs of the county in his day, and was among the first to bring to the county an improved variety of cattle, which had its influence in the agri- culture of that day and of all succeeding years, as will be noticed in any case where an early settler introduces into the country a good variety of stock. So Mr. Mitchell well served his day by his enterprise in this direction.
William Pancake, an immigrant from Ohio, came about 1837 and settled in the timber west of the river at a place which has ever since been known as "Pancake's Point"-the name referring to a point of timber which projected to the west from the main body of the Sangamon timber. Mr. Pancake died about 1855, leaving a son, Jesse W. Pancake, who for many years was prominent in the town.
Samuel Houston, also a well known citizen of Champaign County, settled west of the river about 1849, and has been referred to in another chapter as having acted as Major of the One Hundred and Twenty-fifth Illinois Volunteer Infantry. Major Houston subse- quently removed to Urbana where he lived a number of years, removing thence to Kansas, where he died. Joseph T. Everett and John
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HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY.
H. Funston were early comers to the town and men of decided influence.
James Smith Hannah was also an influential early settler who served the town as one of its Justices of the Peace, and also as Super- visor for the township. Mr. Hannah has been dead several years, but is well remembered as a useful and honorable citizen.
Newcomb is not touched anywhere by a rail- road, but the Rantoul branch of the Illinois Central runs very near the north line and affords shipping facilities, both at the village of Fisher and at Howard Station further west. So the village of Mahomet, not far from the southern part of the town, affords facilities both for shipping and for trade.
At a point near where J. W. S. Mitchell set- tled in 1835, is a church called the "Shiloh". church, belonging to the Methodist denomina- tion, and also a postoffice called "Shiloh Cen- ter."
The township is divided into eight school districts conveniently arranged for the accom- modation of the children and is behind none of its fellows in the character of its schools. The people are of an intelligent, thrifty and law-abiding character and rank high in point of citizenship.
OGDEN.
This town is made up of the north four and one-half miles of Township 19, in Ranges 14 West and 11 East, and of Township 20, in Ranges 14 West and 11 East. As only one- half of Range 14 lies within Champaign County, it follows that the town of Ogden is but about three and three-quarter miles in width by ten and one-half miles in length. It was organized in the spring of 1873 by the action of the Board of Supervisors from ter- ritory previously embraced within the organ- ized towns of South Homer and Stanton. It owes its name to the Village of Ogden, sit- uated within its limits upon the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad. The name originally came from a family who lived near the village which bears their name.
The water falling upon the north part of this town finds its way into the larger water courses contiguous to it, being the Middle Fork on the northeast, and the Salt Fork on the west and south. Some of the water of the
central part of the township, however, flows into what is known as Stony Creek, in Ver- milion County. The surface of this township is very level; in fact, as much so as the lands in any township of the county. Owing to this fact large sums of money have been, from time to time, invested in constructing outlets for the water in order to bring the land under cultivation. The northwest part of the town lies partly in what is known as the Spoon River valley, which extends to the west from this town. All the lands of the town are of the first quality as agricultural lands, and, in the market, bring the highest price when offered for sale.
The only timber which naturally grew within the town is what is known as the Bur Oak Grove and a part of Hickory Grove, the for- mer situated towards the north end of the town and the latter on the western line. Both of these groves have been very much restricted in size by the clearing away of the timber, and yet enough remains to show where they originally grew.
As in the case of other towns of the county, the early settlements were made in and near the groves of timber. The first settler who made his home within the town is understood to have been Hiram Rankin, who built his cabin near the north side of the northeast quarter of Section 18, Township 19, Range 11, but this was soon thereafter surrendered to his friend Thomas Richards. The house was built about 1830, and was of the cabin variety, restricted in size. Richards continued to occupy it from that day until his death, about twenty years since, and the land is now occu- pied by his son, Alonzo Richards.
Mr. Thomas Richards raised here a large family of sons and daughters, who have since, and do now, form an important element in the population of the town. Besides Alonzo, who occupies the old homestead, may be men- tioned J: W. Richards, a farmer northwest of Ogden, and John Richards, a resident of the village of Ogden.
Michael Firebaugh came later and settled about half a mile north of the Richards home, and lived there until the time of his decease, some years since.
Garrett Moore, who was the first Surveyor of Champaign County, improved a quarter-
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HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY.
section in Section 30, Range 11, which subse- quently came to the hands of one John Cles- ter. John Bailey, who has been elsewhere spoken of as the keeper of a country tavern on the Danville road, came at an early day and settled in what is now the southern part of the town; as also did William G. Clark, who still lives and occupies a farm upon which he has resided for more than sixty years. Mr. Clark is the oldest settler of the southern part of the town. The name of Isaac Burris should not be here omitted, for he was a land- owner within the town of Ogden, and lies buried upon the lands which he owned. It will be remembered that, elsewhere, Mr. Bur- ris has been spoken of not only as an early settler, but as a blacksmith who served the settlements in that calling at the Salt Fork timber for many years. Mr. Burris died more than fifty years ago.
The Bur Oak Grove was the scene of the earliest settlement next after those spoken of here, and the family which located there was that of Mr. Samuel McClughen, whose coming in 1834 has been elsewhere noted.
William Paris was an early settler in the south end of Bur Oak Grove, and at one time owned a large body of land.
Following close on the Civil War, there was a considerable immigration to the vicinity of this town, which then consisted mostly of vacant and unoccupied land. The men who then came were those through whose agency these lands were occupied, reclaimed and made fruitful, and the names should not be omitted from any history of the town. We therefore proceed to name some of them, some of whom yet remain, while others are gone.
Milton Babb lived in Section 5 of the north township, and near the northern line of the town. Mr. Babb came before 1852, and settled far away from any neighbors. He became the owner of a large tract of land in this and the adjoining town next north of his.
Eugene P. Frederick, after service in the army, came home and made a farm in Sec- tion 19 of the north township, upon which he still lives, a very successful farmer. Lorenzo H. White was fortunate enough before the war to have entered eighty acres just west of the Bur Oak Grove under the graduation act, for which he paid but a few cents an acre. Mr. White occupied this land until about
1866, when he removed to a farm in Stanton Township. He is still a resident of Stanton.
Edwin V. Miles and his brother, J. S. Miles, became owners and occupants of Section 32 in the north town, and made valuable and lasting improvements thereon. Both now live elsewhere. William Cherry became owner of the northeast quarter of Section 31, in the north town and so improved the same as to make it one of the most valuable farms in the county. Mr. Cherry subsequently removed to Urbana, where he died in 1903.
J. S. Kilbury and his brother, M. Kilbury, were also owners of land within the town, which they successfully cultivated for some years. Both of them yet reside in the county.
Ephraim J. Hill was an early resident at the Bur Oak Grove, and, at one time, owned a considerable acreage of land. He died many years since.
In recent years the northwest corner of the town has become settled by a large German population, who, with their habits of industry, economy and frugal husbandry, have made out of the Spoon River flats-by which name this section is known-a most fruitful coun- try. They have their own Lutheran church situated upon Section 18 in the narrow town- ship, with their school around which have clustered a store and some shops necessary to the residents of the vicinity.
The north end of the town has recently been very highly benefitted by the building across it of the new short line of the Chicago & Eastern Illinois Railroad, which enters the town near the northeast corner and leaves it for the adjoining township, about midway on the west side. At a point in Section 17, a station called "Royal" has been established, so named from the postoffice in the German settlement a mile away. At Royal a grain ele- vator has been established, which will afford the residents in that neighborhood excellent accommodations for the shipping of their grain.
The village of Ogden, on the line of the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad, is a thrifty village having several grain elevators, two banks, with stores, shops of different kinds-a very great convenience to the farmers thereabout. The village has an excellent graded school, with two churches.
The town of Ogden has within it ten school
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HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY.
districts, parts of which are in union districts embracing lands in adjoining townships. Each district is provided with a school house well constructed and well situated for the con- venience of the people. The township is not excelled by any other in commercial and agricultural advantages, and is peopled by a thrifty and intelligent population.
PESOTUM.
This town comprises the entire area of Township 17, Range 8, except Section 6 of that township-which embraces most of the village of Sadorus, and, for the convenience of the inhabitants, was made a part of Sado- rus .Town. Consequently, Pesotum embraces only thirty-five sections in the town.
It owes its existence to an order of the Com- missioners, made at the time of the adoption of township organization by the county in 1861, and has had a continuous existence in that form ever since.
It derived its name from that given to the station established within its boundaries by the Illinois Central Railroad in 1854, when the line was first constructed to that place. The name "Pesotum" was that of an Indian Chief of the Pottawatomie tribe, who formerly roamed over these plains and made his home near Lake Michigan.` Pesotum became very notorious on account of his enmity to the whites in the early times, and on account of the part which he took in the bloody mas- sacre on the 15th of August, 1812, when, by the basest treachery on the part of the In- dians, of whom Pesotum was one, the larger part of the soldiers constituting the garrison of Fort Dearborn were ambushed and slain at a point on the lake shore opposite the foot of what is now Eighteenthi Street in the city of Chicago.
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