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Until the coming of the age of railroads this town had no settlers whatever, if we except John P. Tenbrook, Isaac J. Miller, John Cook
and John Hamilton and his sons, who lived . near the main branch of the Okaw and in or near the timber belt. No more than two or three sections of the town had settlers thereon prior to that period. The coming of these rail- roads was signal enough to invite the inflow of population, which it did, and the lands were rapidly taken up and, in most cases, rapidly reduced to cultivation. The fertility of the soil, together with the apparent and real ad- vantages for shipment of products, may be given as the cause for this rapid settlement.
The crossing of the Illinois Central Railroad by the Wabash-which was built two years after the Illinois Central-so near the center of the county, gave indications of a future town of very considerable importance at this crossing, which was named Tolono. The first plat made of lots at this place was by two gen- tlemen, A. J. Galloway and John Condit Smith, neither of whom resided in the county, but attracted by the advantages which seemed real at this location, came here and, as a mat- ter of speculation, bought up the land then owned by the Illinois Central Railroad at this point, and at once laid out a large plat of lots.
The origin of the name "Tolono" is not very certain, nor have any very satisfactory reasons been suggested why this alliteral com- bination of letters was made use of. Its soft, flowing sounds, however, make for a town a very beautiful and attractive name. From the first, the village attracted to itself a consider- able inflow of population most largely of the Irish nationality. There were many, however, of other nationalities, some of whom, for a time, were very prominent in the affairs of this locality and of the county. It will be suf- ficient, perhaps, to name a few, among whom was Capt. J. R. Swift, who came here, it is believed, from the South, about 1855, received the agency for the sale of the lots in Tolono and lands in its neighborhood, and opened a land office.
Captain Swift was true to his name in the briskness with which he made known his busi- ness and insinuated himself into the good graces of the people who were his neighbors. He at once built for himself a residence and an office, and was supposed to be a man of con- siderable wealth. Seeing the necessity for a southwestern connection from his embryo metropolis, he planned the building of a rail-
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HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY.
road from Tolono to St. Louis, organized a company and became the President of it. His enthusiasm was imparted to his neighbors and, a few weeks only after the installation of his plans, showed a graded track from Tolono to the southwest in the direction of Shelbyville, which was intended to be the first important town to be reached. This grade extended several miles in a straight line, crossing the Okaw about the region of Parkville. His credit, however, did not extend beyond an early pay-day which had been promised. The pay did not materialize, and the laborers who had, with great alacrity, thrown up the grade point- ing to the southwest, at once abandoned their work and the whole plan fell to the ground. The disappointed and unpaid laborers, by their plottings and murmurings, gave a loud hint to Captain Swift that Tolono would probably. soon become a very unhealthy place of residence for himself, and, acting upon this impression, he left the town one night and, so far as the writer knows, was never afterwards heard from in that vicinity. Attachments by his creditors soon exhausted all the visible prop- erty which he owned, and he passed from memory. Since that time Tolono has been without its boom, the effects of this one not, in any manner, tending to aid its growth.
Dr. H. Chaffee, the first physician who set- tled at Tolono, was a man of usefulness in his day and much beloved by his neighbors. He lived there until his death a few years since. Mr. T. Purrington, who was long connected , with the departments of the Government in Washington, resigned his position there ard came to Tolono about 1857 and entered into the business of buying and selling land. He did not remain many years. Hon. Robert A. Bower came to Tolono from Ohio in 1865 and established himself as an attorney-at-law at that place, but in 1869 entered into the bank- ing business at that point, which he has most successfully prosecuted from that day to this. A. M. Christian and Nial McDonald also estab- lished themselves in the practice of the law at Tolono before 1860, neither of whom re- mained long at that place.
At one time there was built a three-story hotel of considerable dimensions at the south- east crossing of the two railroads, which was known as the "Marion House." It was a popular hotel for a considerable number of
years, but was finally destroyed by fire, since which time no buildings other than those nec- essary for the operation of the roads have been constructed near the crossing.
Mr. William Redhed came in 1857 and en- tered the lumber trade and subsequently en- gaged in merchandising. Mr. Redhed has met with great success as he deserved and is now the owner of valuable real estate holdings in that neighborhood.
P. Richards came to Tolono in 1862 and for more than a quarter of a century carried on the mercantile business. He afterwards re- moved to Urbana and became president of the First National Bank. He died there several years since.
Tolono has always been inhabited by a moral and thrifty population and great expectations were entertained at one time of its future, but its nearness to the thriving city of Champaign has kept it quite in the shade and its growth has not met the expectations of citizens of the county.
It has one Presbyterian Church, one Baptist Church, one Methodist Episcopal and one Cath- lic Church, besides having one of the best high schools in the county, it being the first town in the county to build and operate a dis- tinctively high school.
Tolono has within its bounds six school districts in which the territory is entirely within the town, and four union districts where the territory of other towns are in- cluded within the bounds of the district.
URBANA.
In earlier chapters of this history are given, in great detail, all the remembered and avail- able facts in reference to the settlement of the Big Grove, the erection of the county of Champaign, the location here of the seat of justice for the new county, of the early schools, of the early religious work carried on in the county, of the coming of the Illinois Cen- tral Railroad and its effects upon this local- ity, so far removed from the outside world, just then becoming very busy and progressive -and all this, while told as county history, which it is, makes up and supplies any wants any one may have for the same details in connection with a town history.
It is also told how, by the construction of the Illinois Central Railroad upon a line which
834
HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY.
made unavoidable the growth of a rival town, with adantages which far exceed the one ad- vantage of being the seat of justice, within a comparatively short period, the new town was placed far in advance of the old. These details, vital to the complete story of Urbana, need not be retold, the space being better em- ployed in placing in the record the facts and incidents connected with more recent years.
In most instances in the history of towns avoided in the building of railroad lines, the old town, as its new rivals have grown up, has gradually dwindled until nothing but pyra- midal chimneys and unfilled old cellars marked the place where was once a thriving village with cheerful homes. Urbana once stood in a position where such an ending of its history was entirely possible, and it was thought by many to be probable. Precedents upon which to base predictions of such an ending were abund- ant, and the prophets to foretell the event were not wanting. But the isolated little ham- let of cheap wooden stores and dwellings, de- clined to accept the proffered annihilation. Had its inhabitants of that period been of a more yielding type, and had they accepted the advice of friends and moved to the new town such of their homes as would have held to- gether under this process, the problem of two towns might have been settled fifty years since. In that case, instead of there being a Cham- paign City upon what was then a bare prairie, it would have been called "Urbana," as it was at first named by the railroad authorities, and the space now occupied by Urbana-or so much of it as had not been built upon in the outlying portions to the east of the city, which would necessarily have grown up around the station at the railroad-would have returned to the cornfield as it was in the hands of the Indian aborigines, but a few years before; or it might have become a very respectable pas- ture, with abundance of running water, when the dog-fennel had been well subdued. What else would have followed in the locality now occupied by the "Twin Cities," which many delight to call Champaign and Urbana, as an abbreviated name, rests in conjecture only. We can only ask ourselves, Would the one town, with the bit of contention which has come from local strife eliminated, have been a place larger, with greater wealth and greater privileges than the two combined now pos-
sess, or would it have been otherwise? No one knows. Some think they know, and, to avoid what they assume to be the injuries sustained by the mistake of a dual existence in the past, earnestly favor an early municipal union of the two cities. It is probable that, were the question now submitted to a popular vote under an arrangement which promised a fair deal to both cities, the proposed union would be carried by a respectable majority; for the legal voters in both towns are largely men who are of recent citizenship here, and, to a great extent, without the local prejudices of older citizens. Then what?
But looking backwards fifty years again, and to the story: Instead of yielding to the prophets of evil to the "Old Town," its citi- zens set about working out their own des- tinies. Within five years of the platting of the new town two new churches-then the best in the county-were built in Urbana, from the belfries of which pealed forth the only church bells of the county. A seminary build- ing was completed and manned by instructors fitted for places in the faculty of any respect- able college of that day. One three-story brick block, eighty feet in length for two stores, was built upon a vacant lot, and a whole row of primitive log and frame build- ings of one story on Main Street, were torn away and, in their places, were erected two- story business houses-one room for a bank and six rooms for stores-all of which were at once occupied. Two more hotels were added, so that the town had four hotels. A wagon and plow factory-that of Boyden and Osfield-was installed where, for some years, those products were turned out. Robinson & Park built and operated a foundry and ma- chine-shop which gave employment to many hands, and which turned out over one hun- dred reaping and mowing machines in one year. A sash and door factory, by Tobias & Mantz, and a woolen mill, by Cosat & Co., were added, where citizens invested their capital and helped the business and trade of the town. Sidewalks were constructed upon many of the streets, and the main business street was paved with plank. To make communication with the railroad easier, Urbana citizens bridged and graded approaches where Univer- sity Avenue crosses the Bone Yard Branch- then but a courseless slough, between Second
,
835
HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY.
and Third Streets, Champaign-thus, before that city had inhabitants, making its first street improvements, which work is now the foundation of the brick pavement there for many rods. (1)
The first public conveyance from Urbana to the Depot, aside from the one-horse dray for so many years operated by "Father" McCain, was an omnibus of the regulation pattern, put in service by H. M. Russell and John Gere about 1855. The fare, either way, was twenty- five cents. This ran to meet all trains and carried the mails, the old stage-lines being abandoned when railroad connections were es- tablished. In the unfinished condition of the Illinois Central Railroad up to near 1857, its trains from Chicago ran to Decatur over the unfinished Great Western Railroad, now the Wabash, and also some of the trains ran east to Homer.
From the time of the building of the Illi- nois Central, and even before its completion to this point, the people from Danville and be- yond, to Bloomington, and beyond that place, agitated the construction of an east and west line of road to connect the towns between the Illinois and Wabash Rivers. The old files of newspapers of those years are full of the pro- ceedings of railroad meetings at various towns along this line, and all was done that could be done, up to finding the money with which to build and equip the road. Project after project was set on foot, only to fail when the money was wanted. Surveys were made to secure the location of the Wabash road by way of Urbana, but to no purpose.
Into all these schemes the people of Urbana entered with a view to local advantages. All alike had failed up to 1859, when, as else- where told, the Urbana Railroad Company was chartered by law, with power to construct a road from Champaign to Urbana and eastward. The coming of the war period, with the ac- companying money crisis, put an end to the work of grading the line between the two towns when half done. Subsequent efforts completed the work and put in the bridges, when, in 1863, the unfinished road was com- pleted-all, however, with the donations of
labor, property and money from Urbana peo- ple. How much in dollars it cost the citizens is not known.
In 1867 came the University and, in 1870, the Indianapolis, Bloomington & Western Rail- road-the real east and west line- the specter of which had so long, by turns, encouraged and blasted the hopes of Urbana, then carry- ing on its struggle for existence. In interest and principal, this latter advantage cost the town of Orbana over $200,000. In common with other parts of the county, the town bore its part of the money cost of the University.
Who will say that the past generation of Urbana people, which met and overcame all these difficulties and paid the bills, in addi- tion to the burdens borne by their neighbors, were not deserving of a success no less than that which the present generation of its peo- ple enjoy ?
The local influence of the coming of the Uni- versity was but little until about 1890. Before then the territory lying west of Lincoln Avenue and from the south to the north line of the city la; open, with not a dozen houses thereon. The same may be said of territory west of the University and south of Spring- field Avenue. The institution was surrounded by an immense cordon of vacant lots, which had so long been carried by the owners with demands upon them by no one but the tax- collector, that prices were exceedingly low and they seemed a burden.
The growth of the institution then begat a demand for building lots which rapidly licked up the supply on hand and reached out for other territory, until the two cities now seem one to the passer-by, and the dividing line is a question of law rather than of fact.
The city has had to encounter several very destructive fires, most notable of which was that of October 9, 1871, simultaneous with the great fire at Chicago. It had its origin at the Whitcomb residence at the corner of Market and High Streets, and, under a high southerly wind, was driven northward, only two houses between that point and the rail- road escaping destruction. All the business houses on Main Street, east of the alley be- tween that and Race Street, were burned. But a few months elapsed, however, until the busi- ness district was fully restored with perma- nent structures.
(1)"The road to the Depot has lately been ma- terially improved by the grading and planking of a certain slough, which has been considered an extremely hard place."-Urbana Union,
March 29, 1855.
836
HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY.
It would be invidious to attempt to name those most influential in the work above de- tailed, further than has been done in other chapters; so the space may be saved.
Aside from its high school house, Urbana has three school houses within the city limits and seven in the rural districts. It has eight churches, four of which are supplied with pipe-organs and which, in all things, average well with those of other places of equal size and population.
The city has a complete sewer system reach- ing every lot, and nearly ten miles of paved streets. Its streams are well spanned by expensive bridges. While making little pre- tense to being a manufacturing city, it might be reckoned as measuring well up in this respect with other cities of its size. Of course, the manufacturing establishments, spoken of in the earlier part of this article, long since yielded, as did such everywhere, to the combinations of capital in larger places.
The largest private producer is the Sheldon Brick Company, manufacturers of brick, where, during the season, a large force is employed. The Big Four railroad and repair shops give employment to several hundred men and care for a large amount of the rolling stock in use by the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Company.
Urbana has a very creditable public library, which is the product of no one man's generos- ity but largely comes from a tax upon the peo- ple, which is cheerfully paid. It is well housed in its rooms in the City Hall, and a severe and exacting use of its volumes by the people at- tests their appreciation of it.
With all the burdens its people have borne, and the discouragements its business men have met from the near-by presence of a most ag- gressive and enterprising business community which saps their sources of trade, these men have gone steadily forward; and a comparison of the stores and shops of the city now with those of any former period, shows a most sat- isfactory progress. Every year shows a healthy growth in every department of busi- ness and the future may be looked to with the greatest confidence.
The completion, within recent years, of a Court House and Jail of the best and most convenient character, has had the effect to set wholly at rest any fear of the removal of the
county-seat, and with the growth which may well be anticipated from the University, whose continued expansion assures the people of a permanent and growing demand for homes here, the future of this locality, whether as a separate organization or as a part of a larger Central City for this great county, may well be considered as assured.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
CHAMPAIGN COUNTY PRESS.
NO NEWSPAPERS PUBLISHED IN CHAMPAIGN COUNTY BEFORE 1852-FIRST PAPERS CIRCULATED AMONG THE PEOPLE-URBANA UNION ESTABLISHED-SOME REMINISCENCES-URBANA CONSTITUTION-SPIRIT OF THE AGRICULTURAL PRESS-CENTRAL ILLINOIS GAZETTE-URBANA CLARION-CHAMPAIGN COUNTY JOURNAL - ILLINOIS DEMOCRAT - CHAMPAIGN COUNTY HERALD-CHAMPAIGN TIMES-URBANA
MESSENGER - URBANA COURIER - CHAMPAIGN COUNTY TRIBUNE-THE POLITICAL MAGAZINE- PAPERS OF TOLONO, HOMER, RANTOUL, ST. JOSEPH, GIFFORD, SIDNEY, PHILO, IVESDALE, FISHER AND MAHOMET - CONTRAST BETWEEN THE PAST AND THE PRESENT.
From the first settlement of Champaign County, up to the year 1852, no paper was pub- lished within its border, and, so far as the writer is advised, no attempt at the estab- lishment of a press was made. A few copies of the Danville papers were taken by the peo- ple, and a few from other counties; these, with John Wentworth's "Chicago Democrat" and a few religious weeklies, constituted the literary pabulum of the people. Legal no- tices, required by statute to be published in some newspaper, were inserted in the Danville papers, and among the records of the courts of this county, prior to that year, may be found the certificates of the Danville publishers to the fact that "the annexed notice," etc., had received the requisite number of insertions in his paper. .
(This chapter, to the point embracing the first paragraph, entitled "Urbana Tocsin," was written by the author of this history for "Loth- rop's Champaign County Directory" in 1870, and was published therein. It is made use of here as the best presentation and history of
837
HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY.
the printing business to that date available. Foot notes and other matter on the subse- quent pages bring the facts presented there down to date .- J. O. C.)
The Urbana Union.
In the year 1852, the line of the Chicago branch of the Illinois Central Railroad having been located through the center of the county, and its future growth thereby insured, the county presented a proper field for a news- paper. The political campaign of that year, in which Franklin Pierce and General Winfield Scott were opposing candidates of the Demo- cratic and Whig parties, for President, was at its height and much feeling enlisted on both sides. Col. William N. Coler, having just entered upon the practice of the law in Ur- bana, determined upon the establishment of a newspaper in Urbana.
Associating with him a printer by the name of Henry Kirk Davis, and purchasing a small stock of printing material in Cincinnati, which was shipped to the nearest Indiana town, via the Wabash Canal, and hauled to Urbana by teams, the first printing office in Champaign was established in the Court House in Urbana. The material of that office cost about $600, and scarcely made one wagon load. On Sep- tember 25, 1852, was sent forth to the people of the county No. 1, of Vol. I., of "The Urbana Union," W. N. Coler and H. K. Davis, editors and proprietors. The tone of the sheet left no doubt of its position upon the issues of the day, for it struck hard blows for Frank Pierce and the Democracy from this date until the success of General Pierce was secured at the ensuing November election. A written memo- randum of those parties, now in the possession of the writer, informs the world that the firm of "Coler &' Davis, this day (November 23, 1852) is dissolved, by mutual consent." Mr. Davis went on to Washington, and, upon the inauguration of the new administration, re- ceived, as a reward for political services, a position in one of the departments. He was a ready writer, well informed in the political literature of the day and expert in the art preservative.
The circulation of "The Union" was small, and, like all enterprises of its kind, attended with no profit and much loss of time to its editors and publishers. Colonel Coler con-
tinued its publication a few months longer, until its thirty-sixth number had been reached, then sold out and retired from editorial life. His friends will be glad to know that his financial success with "The Union" was no indication of his later success in life, but that he now lives in the enjoyment of an abundant fortune, in the prime of his manhood, with ample provision for the future. Colonel Coler possessed no mean talent for literary labors, and, had financial success lit up his editorial path, might, perhaps, eventually have achieved reputation in this field. (1)
On the 14th of July, 1853, Benjamin A. Roney, a practical printer of some experience, and the writer, with no experience, purchased the office of Colonel Coler, and continued the publication of "The Union" in a diminished form; not as. a political paper, but under the legend, "Independent in all things, neutral in nothing." Those who have made the attempt at starting a newspaper in a new county will readily appreciate the difficulties attending our enterprise. With scarcely 6,000 inhabitants in the county and only three postoffices (Homer, Urbana and Mahomet); with court business occupying less than six days of each year; remote from the center of trade and facilities of transportation; a frontier county in all but locality; a population not awakened to the importance of supporting a home newspaper, weak though it might be; surrounded by boundless prairies, from which little wealth had thus far been drawn; without capital and almost without experience-it seems incred- ible to the writer that the office was not swamped at once. If memory is not at fault, the total income of the first year was less than $700. All supplies were . hauled from the Wabash.
The writer remembers a trip with a one- horse wagon, to Covington, Ind., and a return to Urbana, with twenty reams of printing paper, the trip occupying four days, as among the least of the difficulties experienced by him. In looking over the difficulties in our way, the fact that the senior, B. A. Roney, packed his clothes one day in March, 1854, and left for parts unknown, without bidding his be-
(1) Col. Coler has since taken up his residence in Greater New York, where his ample wealth secures to him leisure for the indulgence of his high literary taste and for much travel.
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