USA > Illinois > Champaign County > Historical encyclopedia of Illinois, Volume II > Part 63
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Within this town are ten school districts, some of which embrace the territory of adjoin- ing towns as union districts, and all of which, under the educational system of this county, afford to the rising generation the best edu- cational facilities that can be offered to any rural community.
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827
HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY.
ST. JOSEPH.
St. Joseph is identical with Township 19, Range 10, and has within its borders thirty-six full sections. It was made a civil town by the action of the county authorities in 1861. The town has within it a large body of timber bor- dering upon the Salt Fork, which runs from the north to the south line, dividing the town into two nearly equal parts, with the West Fork coming in from the west and uniting with the main creek in Section 10. Along the latter branch there is very little timber, but along the main creek - especially on the east side and stretching toward the east-there was at one time a large body of very valuable timber, which did its part in bringing early settlers to the town ..
The story of the early settlement has been told in a former chapter of this history treat- ing upon the settlement of the Salt Fork neigh- borhood. In it the early pioneers who came and made way for those who came later are named; and, so far as is consistent with the purposes of this work, their acts were severally told. It will be unnecessary to repeat what has been there said touching these men.
The town is one of the oldest in point of settlement of any in the county, having at- tracted to its rich lands and valuable timber belts the first settlers who came to the county.
The building of the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad, thirty-five years since, was a very great advantage to this town, as it opened to good markets all of the lands which have greatly advanced in value since its coming. So the building of the branch of the Chicago & Eastern Illinois, which crosses the town from near the northeast corner in a southwesterly direction, leaving the town in Section 35, promises to be a valuable aid, as it gives a direct Chicago market. The village of St. Joseph, which really is the successor of what is known as "Old St. Joe," built up as a small village at the crossing of the Salt Fork by the Danville and Bloomington State road, has come to be one of the best trading points . and grain markets in the county. It has the benefit of a large trade froni the country both north and south of it, and has recently been greatly benefited by the completion of the Danville, Urbana & Champaign electric line, which runs through the village and puts it in
close connection with points both east and west.
The village of Mayview, near the west line of the town, is also a good grain market and large amounts of the products of this and neighboring towns find a shipment from that point. A station on the Chicago & Eastern Illinois Railroad has been established at the place where it crosses the Cleveland, Cincin- nati, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad, known as "Glover," and another like station further to the south, but within the town, has been located, both of which will be of very great convenience to those living near by. The latter has received the name of Tipton.
The village of St. Joseph has three churches, and the village of Mayview one church. St. Joseph has one newspaper, as elsewhere stated.
The town of St. Joseph is subdivided into ten school districts. The school kept at St. Joseph Village is, in all respects, the equal of any high school within the county, and the others average well with country schools any- where.
SCOTT.
This town is entirely embraced within Town- ship 19, Range 7. It was formerly organized as a part of the town of Mahomet, and so con- tinued for some years, when it received its separate existence and name, the name given it being in honor of a prominent citizen then residing in the town.
The first family to become permanent resl- dents within the limits of the town of Scott, was that of Isaac V. Williams, who came to the country in the year 1835 and settled in the timber at the northwest corner of the town where he lived many years. He was a neighbor to, and intimately associated with, the venerable B. F. Harris, who has been men- tioned as a prominent citizen of Mahomet. Mr. Williams was the first to bring blooded stock to the country, and as a breeder of fine stock exerted a very decided influence upon the neighborhood. The descendants of Mr. Wil- liams still reside in the town or near by it.
Among the first who became citizens of this town, and who has done, perhaps, more than any other one citizen to bring the town from its wild condition to its present high state of cultivation, may be named Samuel Koogler, now a citizen of Champaign. When he first
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828
HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY.
took up his residence in the town there.were no more than three or four farmers who had claimed it as a residence. Following him, and coming at an early day, were B. F. Cresap, Robert Johnson, A. S. Scott, John Lowney, T. N. Christie, Michael Kesler, F. G. Seymour, William Dawley and Thomas Mallory.
Within the town are the villages of Seymour and Bondville, both of which afford excellent grain markets and trading facilities.
The town, with the exception of a small piece of a section of the Sangamon timber in Section 6, of the northwest corner, is entirely a prairie town, and lies mostly within the valley of the Sangamon, and drained by Camp Creek, which finds an outlet through that river. Some por- tions of the eastern part of the town, however, drain into the Kaskaskia River.
The town is divided by the Havana branch of the Illinois Central Railroad, upon which are built the villages above named, and which affords excellent shipping advantages for all.
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The town is divided into seven school dis- tricts, so arranged as to best accommodate the settlements. The schools are of the best class and employ the highest order of talent as teachers.
SIDNEY.
This town has within its bounds a full com- plement of thirty-six sections, it being identical with Township 18, Range 10. Within the town there is, or was, a considerable body of tim- ber lying along both sides of the Salt Fork as it bends to the eastward. This timber has been very materially lessened in amount by the demands made upon it for fencing and building purposes, and now within what was once timber land are several good farms of considerable size.
It also has within its bounds what has been heretofore described as Linn Grove, situated in Section 31 of the town. The town is beau- tifully undulating, sloping from all directions toward the Salt Fork, into which most of the water which falls upon the surface of the town drains. A small portion of the south- east corner of the town drains into the creek known as the headwaters of the Little Ver- milion River, which flow thence across the town of Homer and on to the Wabash. The incline of the lands in the direction of the Salt Fork makes the entire surface easy of artificial
drainage, to effect which much less outlay has been found necessary than in any other town of the county.
Large space has been given in another chap- ter to the early settlements of this town, and perhaps there remains little or nothing to be told. From the statements there inade, it will be remembered that, as early as 1827 or 1828, the first settlers began to locate themselves along that part of the Salt Fork which lies within the town of Sidney. Indeed, the first entry of lands from the Government was made upon the east half of the northeast quarter of Section 12 of this town, in November, 1827, sc that, in point of early settlement, with the exception of one family in Urbana and one in Sadorus, Sidney ranks with the earliest. It is claimed that, about the time of the entry of land already alluded to as made by one Jesse Williams, came William Knox, Sr., and Adam Thomas, the father of several early settlers in the county, and settled soon after on the south side of the creek and near the location of the present village of Sidney.
Whether this settlement antedates the com- ing of the first settler who settled at Linn Grove is a matter of doubt, and no one, so far as is known, is able now to settle the priority of these two points in their claim as being the first settlements made in the town.
As early as 1843 it is said by Dr. Conkey, who then traveled the town as a physician, that there were but seventeen families within its bounds. This being the case, the rate of increase among the early settlers was very slow, which can not be wondered at when we consider the distance which intervened be- tween this point and the advantages which civilization afforded and which then lay mostly beyond the State line in Indiana.
As has been said elsewhere, the town of Sid- ney was platted in the year 1837 with thé view to becoming a point upon the Northern Cross Railroad, and with the highest hopes of its future. Had the railroad been built, as was then expected, and come into successful opera- tion, it is hard to tell now what might have been the present status of the village. Cer- tainly, had it become a point on the railroad as contemplated, it would have had advantages over all other points in the county and un- doubtedly would have outgrown all others. As it is, however, upon the building of the Great
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HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY.
Western now the Wabash Railroad, Sidney be- gan slowly to increase in population and busi- ness, and has had a steady, healthy growth from that time to this, and is now one of the best villages for business in the county, hav -. ing tributary to it some of the best agricultural lands in the county. What the effects of the building of the Chicago & Eastern Illinois Railroad, which crosses the Wabash a mile east of the village, will have upon its future cannot now be told. It can hardly be of any benefit to it, as it will likely build up grain markets both north and south of it.
It would not be out of place here to name some of those who came to the town about the time of the building of the Wabash Road, and who, both before and since then, have con- tributed by their presence and labors to make the town what it now is-one of the best in the county-and so in this connection we name some of those persons who have not been named elsewhere: Nelson Sampson, Luther Fisher, J. W. Bocock, Granville Reese, Charles N. Wrisk, J. J. Mumm, R. H. Schindler, R. O. Porterfield, J. W. Mitchell, A. Buddemeier, William Block, John Cannon, George Wilson, William Rogers, M. Hyatt, S. J. Boyd, T. L. Block, J. D. Mandeville, W. D. Clark, Edward Hayes and many other names might be men- tioned of equal merit. These, with many others, have reclaimed the town from its wild condition of a few years since and reduced it to the purposes of agricultural science.
Sidney has a school of high merit at its vil- lage, in which the branches ordinarily taught in high school are thoroughly imparted, and has also eight other schools within its bounds, all of high merit.
SOMER.
This town embraces Township 20, Range 9, and lies within the water shed of the Salt Fork, into which all of its surplus waters drain. The history of its early settlement has been so thoroughly written and referred to in the chapter on the Big Grove Settlement, that it will be unnecessary here again to refer to that period of its history, or to the nien who figured most conspicuously in planting settlements within the town.
To say that its lands are of the best quality for agricultural purposes, is but to repeat what would be upon the tongue of every per-
son acquainted with the town of Somer. It is among the first of the county as a food- producing district, and its lands command the highest market price. It only reached its high- est and best period as an agricultural country after the coming of the Illinois Central Rail- road, which event has been elsewhere de- scribed, with its effects upon the agricultural interests of the country.
The town of Somer has within it the village of Leverett, which affords a good grain market, but much of the grain of the town is hauled to other near-by railroad stations, and no part of the town lies at any great distance from good grain markets.
In its early settlement and in its later years, this town has been closely connected, in all of its business and social relations, with the set- tlements in Urbana; and much that will here- after be said touching the settlement and progress of Urbana and its outlying country, will apply with equal force to the town of Somer.
It will hardly be necessary to say that it owes its corporate name, "Somer," to the presence within its bounds of the large and influential Somers family, who, during the period of its early settlement and at the time of its establishment as a separate town of the county, exercised much influence among the inhabitants of the town. Why, in seeking a name for the town, every letter of this family name was not employed, is not understood by the writer; but in practice the town is spoken of among the people as the town of "Somers," as it properly should be.
Within this town, at one time, Mark Carley, who is elsewhere spoken of as a prominent and influential citizen of Champaign, was the owner of large tracts of land selected at an early day with reference to their value for agricult- ural purposes, these lands now being owned by Mr. Carley's descendants. Dr. H. A. Haley, of Champaign, is also the owner of a half- section of land, and was for many years a practicing physician from his home on that farm. He was the second resident physician of the town; for it will be remembered that, in earlier chapters, Dr. Fulkerson was spoken of as a physician for the first settlers of the county, and his residence was within what is now Somers town. Lewis R. Birely is now one of the largest land-owners within the town.
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HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY.
Among other large land-owners may be named Col. S. T. Busey, J. C. Sheldon, Daniel Morris- sey, James . H. Flatt, L. J. Plank, Thomas Brownfield, R. S. Wilber and Joseph Donelson. Col. Robert Stewart, and his sons, Samuel G., Coulter and John P., came from Ohio in 1855 and purchased farms in Sections 31 and 32, which the pioneers, Charles Busey, William Adams and Roderic Busey, had improved. The Stewarts are all now deceased except John, who lives in Chicago.
The southern part of the town, and follow- ing along the branch of the Salt Fork, was originally heavy timber land. Now few re- minders of that class of lands remain. All the residue and the north part of the town are very fine prairie lands, and have been thoroughly drained at very great expense to the owners.
Within the town are ten school districts most conveniently arranged for the accommo- dation of the rising generation.
SOUTH HOMER.
Perhaps all has been said touching the early settlement of this town and those who figured most prominently before the coming of the railroads that would be deemed necessary, and such need not be repeated here. In the chap- ter upon the early settlements of the Salt Fork, the settlement of the Homer country was given a prominent place and there are named the real pioneers of the town. Enough is there told to give the student of our local history a good idea of what it cost to be a pioneer in Champaign County. The career of the town since the dates there referred to, however, has been full of interest-more so, perhaps, to the student than were those of its earlier years; for, during the later years and since the com- ing of the great Wabash Railroad which divides the town and affords it the best of shipping facilities, the greatest advancements have been made in common with the advance all over the county.
South Homner embraces Township 18, in Ranges 11 and 14, and two and one-half miles of the south end of the townships north of it- or so much of these as lies within the county of Champaign. It follows, therefore, that in length it is eight and one-half miles from north to south, and three and three-quarter miles wide from east to west. It is drained
by the Salt Fork of the Vermilion River in the north and center, and in the south by the head- waters of the Little Vermilion River, which streams afford good natural drainage, but which have been aided by artificial dredging in the Little Vermilion.
It is unnecessary to say that these lands, except immediately along the Salt Fork, are of the highest and best quality. Those along the Salt Fork consist in places of abrupt bluffs, together with bottom lands which, in some cases, are subject to overflow. Although much of the land in the town of Homer has been in constant cultivation since early in the 'thirties, it cannot be said that it now gives any positive signs of deterioration, but affords splendid proofs of the lasting fertility and value of Champaign County soil.
Theorists tell us, perhaps truthfully, that our lands will eventually become of little value from exhaustion; but the proofs in the case of the Homer lands are absent. None will be found to say that they are not as productive now as they were sixty years ago.
The village of Homer, from the time of its establishment a mile north of its present location in the early 'forties, has been, and is now, the emporium of the eastern side of the county, and a large territory in all directions is tributary to its trade. The village has within it some of the best stores in Champaign County, second only to those which rank high- est in the city of Champaign. In this matter the village has always maintained its. prece- dence over neighboring villages. As has been elsewhere said, the first stores established in the village drew the trade from the west as far as Monticello and Sadorus, as it did from the north from the settlements on the Middle Fork, and from the south as far as the country was settled. The later traders there have not allowed the reputation of the town to suffer as being among the first.
At an early day the citizens voluntarily con- tributed to the building of a seminary building in which instruction was given, such
aš would prepare a student for his entry into the college courses of any college in the country. This Seminary has been merged into the high school, which is the equal of any to be found in the county.
The village of Homer is likewise noted for its excellent sidewalks. Many miles of walks
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HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY.
constructed of cement and concrete line the streets in every direction, and afford excellent facilities for avoiding the mud so common to our prairie soil.
As elsewhere told, at an early time the at- tention of the people of Homer was turned to religious subjects, and the seeds of morality then sown have borne abundant fruit in later years, so that Homer has always been free from the corrupting influence of the dram shop, and it seldom happens that the courts of the county are called upon to administer the criminal law to citizens of that village.
The village has three excellent churches, erected and conducted by the Methodist Epis- copal, the Presbyterian and the Disciples or- ganizations.
The town outside of the village is, in nowise, behind the village in its educational facilities; for, besides the high school in the village, it has six other school districts lying mostly within the town.
STANTON.
Stanton is one of those fortunate towns which embraces . one entire Congressional Township, that of Township 20, Range 10. It was originally organized in connection with the town of St. Joseph, forming a part of that town until, by the action of the Board of Super- visors in 1862, it was given a separate civil' existence and named in honor of the great Secretary of War, Edwin M. Stanton, who was then prominent as the right-hand man of Mr. Lincoln in putting down the rebellion. The selection indicates the leaning of a majority of the inhabitants at that date in favor of the preservation of the Federal Union.
Stanton is mostly a prairie town and would be entirely so but for a slight skirting of tim- ber along the eastern branch of the Salt Fork which divides the township. It is entirely within the water-shed of the Salt Fork, all of the surplus waters falling thereon finding out- let through that creek. The surface of the town is quite level and, barring a prominent natural mound on Section 19 in the western part of the town, is almost a perfect plain.
Artificial drainage, however, has done very much for the town and has, in a measure, re- deemed it from overflow. It need hardly be said that the soil is of great richness and, under the thorough cultivation which it is re-
ceiving, produces equal to any other town in the county.
Being remote from any of the larger groves of the county, it received none of the early pioneer settlements and, as late as 1850, and perhaps two or three years later than that, it had not a single resident within its bounds.
It is believed that James McGill was the first man to settle upon the lands of this town-he having occupied a portion of Section 19-and that he was the first to break the prairie sod, which he did about 1855. The following year Mr. William L. Scott came to the county and that fall bought and moved upon lands in the town. Mr. Berkshire became a resident of the town about the same time, settling on Section 17, which is still owned by his descendants. William F. Hardy, now of Champaign, became a resident there about 1857, and followed farm- ing for some years before entering upon his business career in Champaign. Mr. Ritten- house was also an early settler within the town. The first family to settle in the immedi- ate vicinity of the Salt Fork was that of Levi Crane, who came there in the spring of 1857 when it was very remote from neighbors. Not a single homestead could be seen from his cabin. There he raised a large family of sons and daughters, and there he died. Some of his descendants still reside in the neighbor- hood.
John J. Trimmel, who had entered a quarter- section in Section 26, in 1850, came there in 1857, and settled upon his land. He sold out some years thereafter and left the country. In 1858 Samuel Headen and William Sutton set- tled upon opposite sides of the Salt Fork. Both, however, sold out their improvements in a year or two and left the country. Lorenzo White, who was a pioneer in Ogden, near the Bur Oak Grove, as elsewhere detailed, sub- sequently settled upon the southeast quarter of Section 32, which he improved and con- - tinued to occupy for some years. He now lives with his son-in-law in the town. Aaron H. James was also an early settler upon the Salt Fork, upon a farm now owned by Captain T. J. Smith, of Champaign. Mr. James died some years afterwards. Mr. Frederick O. Franken- burg opened a farm in Section 31, where he lived and died. His children are still in the county. Elias Russell came in 1861 aud settled in the south part of the town.
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HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY.
Although no railroad touches the lands in this town, and it depends upon means of trans- portation lying entirely outside, yet its lands are in no manner inferior in price or quality to those of its fellow-towns in the neighbor- hood which boast the greater conveniences for the shipment of their products, and none of the more recently settled towns in the county can show better farm improvements or better school houses than can this town. It is oc- cupied by a population of unusually thrifty farmers, among whom no second-class farming will pass muster.
At the center of the town is a meeting house of the Quaker sect, and upon Section 32 is a church of the Christian denomination, but there is no village or postoffice within the town.
The town is divided into nine school dis- tricts, in most instances each having within its bounds four sections of land. In most cases the school houses occupy sites at or near the center of the respective districts. This admirable condition affords to all the children excellent opportunities for mental and moral improvement in the schools, which are of a high order.
TOLONO.
The town of Tolono is identical in area with Township 18, Range 8, and is fully six miles square. With the exception of the dividing ridge which separates the waters falling into the Okaw from those which flow into the Am- braw River, the town is very level, and the valleys of those streams which fall into the Okaw River are of exceeding fertility, as is the whole town, if we' except the summit of the ridge spoken of, which is moderately so. Owing to this physical condition large sums have been invested in artificial drainage, es- pecially in the west half of the town; but in all cases the investors in these enterprises have been more than repaid by the increased value of their lands.
The town is divided from north to south by the Illinois Central Railroad, and from east to west by the Wabash Railroad, the former running near the eastern boundary and the latter near the southern boundary of the town.
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