USA > Illinois > Iroquois County > History of Iroquois County > Part 2
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In 1858 the Peoria & Oquawka Railroad was building its line east from Peoria to the Indiana state line. The route was surveyed through Middleport but a dispute arose in regard to the town donating land for the depot grounds. A group of land owners to the southeast of Middle- port offered a proposition to the railroad. This offer was accepted and the route ran south of Middleport. A new town, called South Middleport, came into being about a mile southeast. The name was changed in 1865 to Watseka and upon incorporation of Watseka, Middleport became a part of that town. The old courthouse in Middleport was abandoned and a new one built in Watseka.
About the years of 1836-37 the people of the state lost their heads in a rash of speculation. A great system of public improvements had been drawn up by the state legislature. Railroads were to be built, canals were to be dug, and the rivers would be cleared for navigation. A rash of "paper" towns broke out. Plats were filed and lots sold and resold. Many sales were to investors in the East. Iroquois County did not escape this madness. The following towns were platted in 1836-37: Middleport, Milford, Concord, Iroquois, Burlington, Savanna, Plato, Point Pleasant, Texas, and Iroquois City. Of these ten towns only Middleport, Milford, Concord, and Burlington were developed. Of the rest nothing remains
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but some plats filed in the office of the county recorder. Burlington was platted just east of Milford and became part of that town. Savanna was located 2 miles north of Milford, Point Pleasant was located at the mouth of Spring Creek, and Iroquois City across the river from Texas. Plato and Texas remain as place names in the county and Iroquois has become the name of Concord.
After the establishment of the county seat at Middleport, the first county building to be erected was a jail. It was made of hewed logs and was 16 x 20 feet in size. It cost the county $159.30.
In 1843 it was decided to build a courthouse. This was to be a two- story brick structure, 40 x 40 feet square. The downstairs was to be the courtroom with offices for the county officials upstairs. To defray the cost of the new building the sum of $1506 was appropriated for county funds. To this was to be added the receipts from the sale of the remain- ing town lots given by Middleport for locating the county seat there. Still another source of funds was anticipated. The county owned some land along the Salt Fork River west of Danville. This land had salt springs on it and was part of some similar land given by the federal government to Vermilion County before Iroquois County was formed. It had been hoped that the salt springs would be developed commercially and the income was to be used to build a bridge over the Vermilion River at Danville and the Iroquois River at Montgomery. The land was never developed so Iroquois County retained a share of either 40 or 80 acres (the record is not clear). It was decided to sell this land and a represen- tative was sent to Danville to dispose of it. The best offer he could obtain was in trade for a horse. The trade was made and the horse taken to Chicago and sold. The records do not say how much this trans- action added to the court house building fund. The new building was completed in 1847.
In 1865 Middleport became a part of Watseka and it was decided to abandon the court house in Middleport and build a new one in Watseka. Until the new building was completed the county offices were located in a building just east of the present Concord Loan Co. On October 16, 1866 about 2 o'clock a.m. the building caught fire and many county records were destroyed. It was thought that the fire was set by disgruntled citi- zens of Middleport over the removal of the court house to Watseka. The new court house was completed in 1866. Additions were made to it in 1881 and 1927.
All that remains of the old court house is the square on which it stood. This is now a small park located one block west of the West Watseka School. A picture of the court house appears in the large painting on the north wall of the present circuit court room.
The new court house had the county jail in its basement. One of the original cell blocks can be seen there today. A new jail and sheriff's residence was built in 1893.
The 240-acre county farm was purchased in 1857 for $3100.
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In 1851, a movement was begun in Kankakee to form a new county out of the north part of Iroquois County and the south part of Will County. Most of the area proposed to be taken from Iroquois County wished to remain at it was. However, in an election held in 1853, the formation of the new county was approved. It was said that the votes of the laborers constructing the Illinois Central railroad carried the election. At this time the present boundaries of Iroquois County were set.
In 1856 a movement was begun to form a new county from that part of Vermilion County that extended around the southwest corner and along the west side of Iroquois County. This movement included a plan to detach the southwest part of Iroquois and include it in the new county. This scheme originated in Loda, which was to be the new county seat if the plan was successful. Great opposition developed in the remainder of Iroquois County and in Prospect City (Paxton). The move was de- feated and only the Vermilion County area became Ford County in 1860.
Before the building of railroads in Iroquois County the farmers had a difficult time marketing their livestock and grain. It had to be taken to either Lafayette or Chicago.
Gurdon Hubbard's pack trains had made a route from Vincennes through Danville to Chicago. This route was known as "Hubbard's Trail." Later a state road was surveyed from Danville to Chicago which followed, with a few slight changes, the old trail. Another route was laid out in 1830 by Ben . Butterfield of Danville. It left Hubbard's Trail just south of Hoopestown and went northwest across thes prairies to Spring Creek. It followed Spring Creek and then turned north to pass through Bour- bonnais Grove and Lockport to Chicago.
After the formation of the county roads were surveyed but they were few and bad. The thoughts of the people then turned to water transpor- tation. In 1847 the Kankakee and Iroquois Navigation and Manufacturing Company was organized. Its purpose was to promote the development of water transportation on the Kankakee and Iroquois Rivers. Sandbars and snags had to be removed and a way found to cross the limestone ledges that blocked the rivers at Wilmington, Rock Creek, and Momence on the Kankakee and at Sugar Island and L'Erable on the Iroquois. A lock was built at Wilmington that summer and fall but it washed out in the spring flood the following year. Before more work could be done the building of the railroads stopped all development of water transportation.
In 1851 the Illnois Central Railroad Company was chartered. It was to build a railroad from Cairo to Freeport, from Freeport to Chicago, and from Chicago to Centralia. To help defray the cost of construction the federal government granted the company the even-numbered sections of land for a distance of six miles wide and each side of the proposed route. By 1853 the line was completed from Chicago to Del Rey in Iroquois County. In 1856 it was completed to Centralia. Onarga was the first railroad station in Iroquois County.
In 1857 a railroad, called the Peoria & Oquawka Eastern Extension
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Railroad, was completed to Gilman. By 1859 it was completed to the Indiana State line. It was later called the Logansport, Peoria & Bur- lington; then the Toledo, Peora & Warsaw; and finally the Toledo, Peoria & Western. It stopped its passenger service about 1928 and is now a freight road. It runs from Burlington and Keokuk, Iowa, through Peoria. to Effner on the Indiana State line. At Effner it connects with the Penn- sylvania system.
In 1860 a railroad was projected across Iroquois County from La- favette, Indiana, LaSalle, Illinois. It entered the county about five miles southeast of Sheldon and passed through Watseka and Ashkum in a north- westerly direction. This railroad was never built.
In 1871 the Illinois Central built a line from Gilman to Springfield. Later this was extended to St. Louis.
The Chicago, Danville & Vincennes Railroad Company built a line from Danville to Chicago in 1871. The line was originally surveyed through Sheldon and Iroquois but due to vigorous action by the citizens of Watseka, its route was changed. In 1877 the name was changed to the Chicago & Eastern Illinois Railroad.
In 1872 the Cincinnati, Lafayette & Chicago Railroad Company built a line from Lafayette, Indiana, to Kankakee, Illinois. It was later pur- chased by the Chicago, Cleveland. Cincinnati & St. Louis Railroad Com- pany (better known as the Big Four). During the 1930's the line was purchased by the New York Central system. The road runs from Cin- cinnati to Kankakee and over the Illinois Central line from Kankakee to Chicago.
In 1882 the Strawn & Indiana State line Railroad Company constructed a line from the Chicago & Eastern Illinois Railroad just north of Welling- ton to Cissna Park. It was taken over by the Chicago & Eastern Illinois. In 1956 the tracks were removed from the junction north of Wellington to the Hickman Elevator.
In 1901 the Chicago & Eastern Illinois constructed a line from a mile south of Milford through Stockland to Freeland Park, Indiana. This line was removed a number of years ago.
In 1902 the Chicago & Eastern Illinois constructed a line from a mile south of Woodland to southern Illinois and to St. Louis.
The last railroad in Iroquois County to be built was the Chicago, Terre Haute and Southern. It was built to haul coal to Chicago from Brazil, Indiana. This railroad was built in 1905 and is now part of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul system.
For almost one hundred years after Hubbard's Trail was laid out the roads of Iroquois County were bogs of mud in wet weather, beds of dust in dry weather, and frozen ruts in winter. The coming of the Model-T Ford in 1912-13 and the increasing number of automobile owners led to a demand for all-weather roads. Three state highways were laid out across Iroquois County for future development. The first of these, Illinois Route 1, was called the Dixie Highway; the second, U. S. Route 45, was
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called the Egyptian Trail; and the third, U. S. Route 24, was called the Cornbelt Route. They were marked by symbols on fence posts and tele- phone poles. The symbol of the Dixie Highway was a bale of cotton on a red background with the word "Dixie" above and the word "Highway" below the cotton bale. The Egyptian Trail symbol was a black pyramid on a yellow background with the letter "E" on the left and the letter "T" on the right sides of the pyramid. The symbol of the Cornbelt Route was two ears of yellow corn standing on end on a white background. By following these symbols a traveler could get across country on fairly good roads.
Beginning in 1920 the State of Illinois embarked on a program of building concrete highways. The first one constructed in Iroquois County was the Dixie Highway followed by the Egyptian Trail and the Cornbelt Route. Later U. S. 52 aind Illinois 116, then Illinois 49, and finally U. S. 54 were built.
With the building of the state highways came improvement of the rural roads. Oil, gravel, crushed rock, and concrete pavement now en- able one to drive almost anywhere in the county in any kind of weather.
The early industries of Iroquois County were those of any pioneer area. There were grist mills at Milford and Texas, sawmills at Middleport and Texas, and every town had a blacksmith shop. Later there were dis- tilleries at Middleport and Loda, wagon factories at Watseka and Milford, flax seed processing mills at Buckley and Gilman, and many towns had creameries and cheese factories.
When the prairies were settled there was a need for tile to drain the sloughs and swamps. Since a good quality clay was easily obtainable in most places in the county, tile mills and brick yards sprang up in many towns. The last of these to suspend operation was the one at Wood- land. It closed down in the late 1920's.
There were at one time two canneries operating in the county, one at Milford and one at Onarga. The Onarga cannery closed in the 1930's leaving the one at Milford the only one in operation. It cans sweet corn and asparagus.
With the invention of the telephone and the electric light many towns had local telephone exchanges and power plants. Those are now mainly in the hands of large companies.
Following World War I, a number of small industries located in the county. Some of these soon faded out. Of these a dress factory remains in operation at Gilman. Later three companies located plants at Watseka. They are the TRW, Inc., Uarco, and the Electronic Components Co. The first manufactures radio condensers, the second business forms, and third fluorescent light ballasts and starters. There is a corn drying plant located at Gilman, hybrid seed corn plants at Gilman and Milford, and a poultry processing plant at Loda.
After building houses the next building usually erected by the early settlers was a schoolhouse. This building might also serve as a church on Sundays. The teacher might be the minister, the doctor, or anyone who
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had had some schooling. Occasionally the teacher might have attended an academy or a college. The typical school of the time was the "sub- scription school" with each family paying tuition for children who at- tended school.
Laws in regard to the establishment of school were enacted by the Illinois legislature in 1825, 1827, 1845, and 1870. There must have been a number of schools established in Iroquois County under the law of 1845, as a map of the county in 1860 shows six rural schools. The law of 1845 provided for the establishment of schools and for the levying of a tax to support them, if at least two-thirds of the voters of an area approved the action. The law of 1870 made the formation of school districts and the levying of taxes for their support mandatory. Compulsory school attendance also came into being. This was the beginning of the era of the one-room rural school. By 1914 there were 232 elementary school districts in Iroquois County and 209 were of the one-room type.
After 1870 a few of the elementary districts, of the larger towns, extended their schools upward to include two, three, or four years of high school. By 1914 this practice had spread to include about 20 towns of the county. In 1914 legislation was passed permitting the formation townships into township high school districts. This was the beginning of a dual system of schools in the county. Under this law township high schools were established at Milford, Stockland, Wellington, Donovan, Loda, and Onarga. In 1918 the legislature provided for the formation of areas that were not townships into community high school districts. Under this law community high schools were established at Gilman, Dan- forth, Ashkum-Clifton, Chebanse, Martinton, Iroquois, Sheldon, Watseka, Cissna Park, Buckley, Thawville, and Crescent City. Some of these schools were only two or three years schools.
In 1859 a law was enacted that permitted two or more school dis- tricts to consolidate if the voters so wished. No advantage was taken of this law in Iroquois County until about 1940. By that time decreasing enrollments and increasing costs had caused the closing of a number of rural schools. In these cases the district organization was retained and tuition paid for the pupils at a nearby school. After 1940 there were a number of consolidations of rural schools with a town elementary school to form community consolidated grade school districts. There was one consolidation of high school districts, Gilman and Danforth. One area. Stockland, consolidated its high school and elementary school districts to form a 12 grade community consolidated district.
In 1947 legislation permitting the formation of unit districts was passed. These districts included all 12 grades and might cover an area of more than one town. Eight such districts were organized in Iroquois County: Onarga, Gilman, Central, Donovan, Sheldon, Cissna Park, Well- ington and Buckley. The following are the towns they included:
Onarga-Onarga, Del Rey, and Ridgeville
Gilman-Gilman, Danforth and LaHogue
Central-Ashkum, Clifton, and Chebanse
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Donovan-Donovan, Iroquois, Martinton, and Beaverville.
Sheldon-Sheldon and Effner
Cissna Park-Cissna Park and Claytonville
Wellington-Wellington and Greer
Buckley-Buckley and Loda
At present there are 19 school districts in Iroquois County. Besides the eight unit districts they are:
Community Consolidated (8 grade)-Stockland
Community High School-Watseka and Crescent City
City Elementary-Watseka
.
Board of Director Districts-West Watseka
Township High School-Milford
Community Consolidated Grade School-Milford, Bryce-Ash Grove, Woodland, Crescent City, Middleport ( Pittwood ).
In 1863 the Methodist Church established an academy at Onarga calling it the Grand Prairie Seminary. This was a coeducational school of high school level. With the organization of public high schools it grad- ually declined until it was closed in 1916. In 1917 it was opened again as the Onarga Military School.
The Lutheran Church (Misouri Synod) had four elementary schools operating in Iroquois County. These were located at Buckley, Wood- worth, in rural Ash Grove Township, and at Chebanse. The Roman Catholic Church had a grade and high school at Beaverville. They were named as follows:
Buckley-St. John's Woodworth-St. Paul's Rural Ash Grove-St. John's
Chebanse-Zion
Beaverville-Holy Family Academy
The first church established in Iroquois County was a Friend's Church at Milford. Another Friend's Church was established at Mont- gomery and a Methodist Church in the Belmont Community. The first Presbyterian Church in the county was established in Middleport. With the coming of the French, Roman Catholic Churches were established at L'Erable and St. Mary ( Beaverville). The Germans and the Swedes brought the Lutheran Church. With the Apostolic Church (New Amish) to Cissna Park and Claytonville. The Dutch, at Danforth, established the Reformed Church. Other churches were established until today they number as follows:
Methodist-22 Roman Catholic-9 Lutheran ( Missouri Synod)-10 Lutheran ( American Synod)-5 Presbyterian-4 Friends-1 Christian-10 Church of God-1 Church of the Nazarene-5 Pilgrim Holiness-1 Baptist-2
Jehovah's Witnesses-1 Congregational-2
Episcopal-2
Evangelical United Brethren-3
Evangelical Lutheran-2 Evangelical and Reformed-2 Seventh day Adventists-1
Reformed-1 Apostolic Christian-2 Union (non-denominational )-2
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Every town in the county has at least one church and there are 10 rural churches.
The Iroquois Hospital at Watseka was built in 1914. An addition was made in 1950 and another addition is now being constructed. At one time there were hospitals in Milford and Gilman. There is also a hospital in Clifton.
Before the presidential campaign of 1856 the people of Iroquois County were mostly Jacksonian Democrats. There were very few Whigs. In 1856 the new Republican Party found many supporters for its first campaign in Iroquois County. A big rally was held at Middleport and delegations from all parts of the county paraded and listened to political speeches. The parade was led by the Momence Brass Band.
In 1873 a "farmers' and laborers'" party attempted to break off the regular Republicans but they were badly defeated at the polls. With the exceptions of the presidential elections of 1932 and 1936 the county has regularly gone Republican. Few Democrats have been elected to office in Iroquois County.
Politics and newspapers seem to go together. Many of the early papers published in the county had strong political coloring. The first newspaper published in the county was the IROQUOIS JOURNAL which began publication at Middleport in 1851. It was a weekly paper. Other papers soon appeared in other towns of the county. It seems that a paper was published in each town at some time or another.
At present a daily paper, THE IROQUOIS COUNTY TIMES, is pub- lished in Watseka. The following weeklies are published in the county at present :
Watseka-THE REPUBLICAN
Clifton-THE ADVOCATE
Milford-THE HERALD-NEWS Onarga-THE LEADER AND REVIEW
Cissna Park-THE NEWS
Sheldon-THE JOURNAL
Gilman-THE STAR Loda-THE TIMES
At the time of its organization Iroquois County was governed by three county commissioners. With the increase in population a demand for a more representative government arose. In the fall of 1855 an election was held at which time the people of the county voted to go under town- ship organization. A committee of three men was appointed to divide the county into townships. This was done and eleven townships were organized in 1856. They were as follows:
Ash Grove Chebanse
Beaver Crab Apple ( Stockland )
Belmont Loda
Middleport
Onarga
Wygant ( Papineau)
Concord Milford
The following is a table of township organization:
Artesia-1864 (from parts of Loda and Onarga) Ash Grove-1856
Ashkum-1861 ( from Chebanse)
Beaver-1856
Beaverville-1916 (from parts of Beaver and Papineau )
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Belmont-1856 Chebanse-1856 Concord-1856
Crescent-1877 (from Belmont and first called Grennard )
Danforth-1877 (from Douglas and Ashkum )
Douglas-1861 (from Onarga)
Fountain Creek-1869 (from Ash Grove)
Iroquois-1858 (from Middleport )
Loda-1856
Lovejoy-1868 (from Milford)
Martinton-1857 (from Papineau and first called Buchanan )
Middleport-1856 Milford-1856
Mills Grove-1872 ( first called Wygant )
Onarga-1856
Papineau-1856 (first called Wygant )
Pigeon Grove-1876 (from Loda and Fountain Creek)
Prairie Green-1858 (from Stockland )
Ridgeland-1878 (from Onarga)
Sheldon-1868 (from Concord )
Stockland-1856 (first called Crab Apple)
The people in Iroquois County are for the most part law-abiding citizens. However, the first murder trial and execution in the county was the trial and execution of a man for a murder committed near Chicago. His lawyers asked that the case be tried in some other county than Cook so it was held in Iroquois County at Montgomery. The man was found guilty and hanged from an oak tree on the north bank of the Iroquois River across from Montgomery. This was in 1836.
In 1862 John McDowell murdered James Hare in Ashkum and was tried and hung in the court room of the old court house in Middleport. In 1865 Francis Harper was tried for the murder of D. W. Nelson, near Gilman, and hung in the court house yard.
The county had one lynching. In 1871 a Martin Meara, who lived between Gilman and Onarga, beat his eleven year old son so badly that the boy died. Meara was arrested and taken to the county jail in Watseka. A mob took him from the jail on July 5, 1871 and hung him from a tree along Sugar Creek west of Watseka.
There is no record of any Iroquois County men serving in the Mexican War of 1846-48. However, in the Civil War the county furnished over 2,000 men for the Union army. Most of these served with the Western Army in the Mississippi campaigns. In the Spanish-American war of 1898 there were a few Iroquois County men in the service. In World Wars I and II, the county furnished many men and some women for the armed forces.
In 1833 Iroquois County had a population of 350, in 1860 a population of 16,000, and in 1950 a population of 32,348. Fifty-one per cent of the population is found in incorporated towns and forty-nine per cent in the unincorporated areas. Iroquois County ranks 41st among the 102 counties of the state in Illinois in population.
The following table gives a list of the towns platted in Iroquois County, their type of organization and population:
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Ashkum-platted 1855 village organization 1950 population 420-1960-601 Bairdton-platted 1863 became a part of Loda Bryce-platted 1904 never incorporated Buckley-platted 1862 village organization 1950 population 554-1960-690 Burlington-platted 1836 became part of Milford Chebanse-platted 1854 village organization 1950 population 739-1960-995 Cissna Park-Platted 1882 village organization 1950 population 660-1960-803 Claytonville-platted 1882 never incorporated Clifton-platted 1861 village organization 1950 population 734-1960-1,018
Crescent-(Crescent City p.o.) platted 1869 village organization 1950 population 324-1960-533
Danforth-platted 1872 village organization 1950 population 385-1960-394 Darrow-platted 1907 never incorporated Dawson Park-platted 1901 never incorporated Del Rey-platted 1856 never incorporated Donovan-platted 1873 village organization 1950 population 327-1960-320 Effner (platted as Haxby-platted 1868 never incorporated Fountain Creek-platted as Hopwood- platted 1905 never incorporated Gilman-platted 1858 city organization 1950 population 1602-1960-1704 Goodwine-platted 1882 never incorporated Iroquois-platted 1836 plat vacant Iroquois-(platted as Concord)-platted 1836
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