USA > Illinois > Iroquois County > History of Iroquois County > Part 4
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In 1921, Beaverville Township was organized and a new government was set up to accommodate this new unit. It is interesting to note the way in which this was done. The Nourie schoolhouse had been used for elections and township meetings. This school was located one mile south and one and one-half miles east of Beaversville in section 5, which was a central location before Beaver Township was divided. About the only inventory recorded, (besides money), was road equipment. At the time the boundaries were changed, there were eight road commissioners and the equipment consisted of eight road drags, eight slip scrapers, and two wheel scrapers which were listed as good. The slip scrapers were listed as fair and the road drags as poor. On a give-and-take basis this equipment was divided to the satisfaction of all concerned and Beaverville Township started their new township with four road commissioners.
There was one grain elevator in Beaverville and one at North Hooper, located on the Walsh Railroad in section 4. In addition to a blacksmith shop and other businesses necessary to a farming community, Beaversville had a tile factory. This enterprise was started by H. L. Lambert, however, the exact time is unknown. The pit where the clay was mined is still in evidence in the northeast part of town. At one time the factory had six kilns where the clay products were dried and baked. Some of the field tile produced here were used locally. Bricks were also manufactured and some of the buildings on the west side of the main street were built with bricks from this factory. Also produced was terra cotta, a light building block used for wall partitions. It found a favorable market in Chicago.
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As time passed and more modern equipment became available, however, this factory was abandoned and the operation moved to St. Anne. This business in its most productive years furnished employment for about twenty-five men.
Since the time the first settlers came to the Beaverville area, the church has been the center of society. In 1856 a plot of ground was cleared on which was to be erected the first St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church of Beaverville. Two men cut down trees and joined them together so that they could be used as uprights and sills for the new church which was made of wood and stood just south and east of the present church. The parish was organized in 1856, and Mass was offered in different homes and a country store until 1857. The present church was completed in 1911 at which time the old building was moved to a farm northwest of town. This church is one of five buildings of this particular architectural design in the United States. The roof is self-supporting and the dome is ninety- five feet above the floor, and 63 feet in diameter. The original organ, which is still a part of the church, was donated by the Rockefeller family and was valued at $12,000. The total cost of this most unusual church building, including equipment, was in excess of $100,000. The Bedford stone, of which the building is made, came from Indiana and was shipped over the Big Four Railroad. The huge blocks were loaded onto heavy wagons by hand-operated winches and lifted into place at the church with a horse power arrangement. Much of the labor was donated by men of the parish.
The Holy Family Academy of Beaverville was for many years a co-ed- ucational elementary school and girls' high school. The school opened in 1895 and continued until 1966 when the elementary school was discon- tinued and the pupils were transferred to classes in Community Unit No. 3. The high school is still in operation with students from the township and surrounding area enrolled, and also students from distant places, even outside the United States. The Provincialate and the Novitiate of the Servants of the Holy Heart of Mary were for many years located at Beaver- ville but have been transferred in recent years to Kankakee and Batavia re- spectively. Beaverville Township had seven one-room public schools which were discontinued at the time of consolidation.
The northeast part of the township was thinly populated. The soil is sandy and in the early days was used mostly for pasture. The higher ground was covered with trees, and the old timers referred to this area as the big woods. In the late 1850's, in section 23, the Francis Besse family operated a general store. Groceries and other supplies were hauled by wagon from Kankakee. Cord wood provided a pay load on the return trip, and the Illinois Central Railroad bought the wood for fuel. As time passed and farmers learned new methods of drainage and good soil management this sandy soil is today most productive. Three sections of this area are owned by the State and used for hunting and recreation.
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Depot and Main Street in Beaverville. Note handcar in foreground. This building destroyed by fire in 1921.
Tile factory in Beaverville in 1912.
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Laying cornerstone for St. Marys church in 1909. The original church is in the background.
Completed St. Marys church in Beaverville in 1911.
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Belmont Township
Belmont Township, Iroquois County, Illinois, consists of congressional Township 26 North, Range 12 West of the 2nd Principal Meridian. The area is traversed from south to north by Sugar Creek with its tributaries, Coon Creek and Jefferson Creek, entering trom the east and west. The area along the creeks is timbered and the remainder is prairie. The land is gently rolling due to the intrusion of the Iroquois Moraine into the eastern part and an east-west line of sand ridges and dunes across the northern third. These are the remains of the ancient shoreline of the latter stages of glacial Lake Watseka. The soil varies from sand to sandy loam and prairie loams.
By the year 1900 Belmont Township had been settled for almost seventy years. The people came from southern Indiana and Ohio, from the middle- Atlantic states and a few from New England. They were mainly farmers and agriculture was and remains the chief industry of the township.
The city of Watseka, the county seat of Iroquois County, lies on the northern boundary, just west of center, of the township. That part of the city south of Mulberry Street being in Belmont Township. Just south and west of the center of the township lies the village of Woodland. Wat- seka was incorporated in 1867 and celebrated its centennial in 1967. Wood- land was platted in 1876 and incorporated about 1898. Four unincorporated areas have been platted in the township since the early 1950's. They are Breezy Acres, located on the Dixie Highway, Belmont Acres, located on the Watseka-Woodland slab, Oppyville, in the northwest corner of the town- ship, and an unnamed area a mile south of Belmont Acres. There has been a steady growth of the area of Watseka, south and east, into Belmont Township.
The Toledo, Peoria and Western Railroad erosses the northeastern corner of Belmont Township and traverses the area just above the northern boundary through Watseka and west across Iroquois County. Until the late 1920's the railroad operated both passenger and freight service across the state. Now only the freight service remains. The railroad was ac- quired, in the late 1950's, by the Santa Fe and Pennsylvania systems and used to route freight around Chicago.
The Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad crosses the township from north to south through Watseka and Woodland. About a mile south of Woodland is Woodland Junction where the line divides. The main line swings southeast through eastern Illinois and western Indiana to Evansville. The other line swings southwest to southern Illinois and to St. Louis. By 1967 passenger service had been reduced to two trains daily on the main line and was discontinued in the middle 1950's on the southern Illinois-St. Louis route. With the coming of diesel-electric locomotives the coaling station at Coaler, located about two miles south of Watseka, was abandoned and now stands a lonely monument to progress. In the early 1960's the double-track main line was converted to single-track from Woodland June-
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tion to Danville. The destruction of the Woodland depot by fire in the early 1900's resulted in the use of an old passenger coach as a station until the construction of a new depot about 1915.
In 1900 the roads of Belmont Township had no surfacing other than dirt. They were a quagmire of mud in wet weather and gave off clouds of dust when it was dry. With the coming of the automobile in 1910-1911 there was a demand for better roads. A gravel road was constructed from the city limits of Watseka to the County Farm. Later this road was extended as a concrete slab to the Sheldon town line. A slab was also built, east and west across the township, through Woodland and from the Body Cemetery north to Watseka at Second Street. Later a slab was extended south from a point west of the Body Cemetery to Bryce.
The State of Illinois embarked on an ambitious network of state highways in 1918. The first of these, the Dixie Highway or Illinois Route 1, was completed, north and south through the township, in 1921. The construction of U.S. 24, first known as Illinois Route S or the Cornbelt Route, was completed along the northern boundary of the township in 1924. In the early 1950's the Dixie Highway was widened, a new bridge built over Coon Creek, several sharp curves were eliminated and the grade raised.
In other highway improvements the early slabs were widened to accommodate 2-lane traffic. In 1965 a new bridge was built over Sugar Creek at Woodland. This structure replaced one built in the early 1900's which was the first steel-reinforced concrete bridge built in the United States. By 1967 all roads in the township had been surfaced with gravel, black-top, or concrete except for a short stretch north and east of the Belmont Cemetery and a few little-used strips along the east and west town lines.
Belmont Township, in 1900, contained six one-room rural schools. They were Oak Ridge, New Athens, Point Pleasant, New Victor, New Salem, and Longshore. There were also elementary schools at Watseka and Woodland as well as a high school at Watseka. In 1946, Oak Ridge, New Athens, Point Pleasant and parts of New Victor and Longshore united with the Woodland Elementary School to form the Woodland Community Consolidated Grade School district. The remainders of New Victor and Longshore and New Salem were added to the Watseka Ele- mentary School.
The Watseka High School was in operation in 1900 as a part of the Watseka Elementary School. In 1906 a new building was erected on South Third Street and the old building razed. This new building housed both the elementary and the high schools. The Watseka Community High School district was organized in 1920. An addition for the use of the high school was made in 1916 and in 1936 a gymnasium and several classrooms for the high school were added. A new high school building was constructed in 1949 on Belmont Avenue. To this building an addi- tion was made in 1961. Blake Field was given to the high school in 1937.
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In 1956 a wing of classrooms and an office area were added to the Watseka Elementary School building. The name "South Side School" was given to this building complex as the district also operated a school in the north part of Watseka. The 1906 building and the 1916 addition were razed in 1966 and a new wing of classrooms and a playroom were constructed. Also another elementary building, the Wanda Kendall School, was constructed east of the high school the same year.
In 1901 a new school building was erected in Woodland. Two years of high school were added to the elementary school and later increased to three years. In 1943 the high school was discontinued. A gymnasium was added to the building in 1936 and a lunchroom and several class- rooms in 1956. The 1901 building was razed in 1966 and new classrooms and a new gymnasium added to give the community a modern elementary school building.
Woodland had two churches in 1900, Christian and Methodist. The Belmont Methodist Church was located in the country about four miles northeast of Woodland. There were, at that time, no churches in the part of Watseka included in Belmont Township.
The Woodland Christian Church disbanded about 1914 and was later used for a short period by the Nazarenes. It was then converted to a chicken raising operation and was finally burned in the early 1940's. The Methodist Church in Woodland is unique in that it was built in con- junction with the Odd Fellows Lodge. The lodge still occupies the upper floor of the building. A community room was added to the church in 1937. For many years the same minister served both the Woodland and Belmont Methodist churches until the latter burned in 1946. The Woodland min- ister now serves the Methodist Church at Crescent City.
About 1951 St. Paulinus Episcopal Church was established in Watseka. Services were held in a house at the corner of South Sixth Street and Lincoln Avenue for a number of years. In 1961 a church was constructed on the County Farm Road. The Society of Friends had occupied a church on South Second Street near the old Court House. In 1953 they built a new church on South Third Street. The organization disbanded in 1966 and the building was purchased by the newly organized Cen- tennial Christian Church. In 1964 the Faith Lutheran Church, American Synod, was built on Lincoln Avenue.
In 1900 the Iroquois County court house and jail were located just outside the northern boundary of Belmont Township. Proceeds from a gift of land to the county were used in 1964 to construct a new court house and jail on a site just inside Belmont Township at the eastern edge of Watseka.
Other public improvements were the construction of a new building, in 1917, at the Iroquois County Farm to provide living quarters for the superintendent and the inmates. This was the third building constructed for such a purpose as the second building burned in 1915. The original building, erected in 1866, was razed in 1967. In 1946 a cemetery asso-
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ciation of the cemeteries in Belmont and Middleport Townships was or- ganized. This organization, by a tax levy, provided for the care of all cemeteries in both townships. A fire protection district that covered the south two-thirds of the township was organized at Woodland in 1950. The Iroquois Hospital was built in Watseka from proceeds of a gift in 1914. In 1951 an addition was made to the original building and in 1958 a residence home was constructed. At present another addition to the hospital is being planned. Improvements at Woodland include a new post office built in 1961 and a new village building erected in 1962.
The Legion Park in Watseka had its beginnings as Fowler's Park in the early 1920's. A swimming pool and a dance pavilion were constructed and furnished recreation for the area for a number of years. The pool was closed in the 1930's but the pavilion operated as a skating rink until it burned in the early 1940's. In 1955 the American Legion Post of Wat- seka acquired the Fowler property and with other land established one of the finest parks in this area.
Electricity came to Belmont Township at Watseka in 1891 and to Woodland in the early 1900's through local power plants in each com- munity. In 1914 the Watseka plant was taken over by the Central Illinois Public Service Company and about 1920 the same company brought service ot Woodland. The rural area received electricity through the Rural Electrification Association in the late 1930's.
One of the oldest industries in Belmont Township was the Woodland Clay Company. In the early days the prairies of the township were swampy and tile was needed for drainage. The company at Woodland supplied much of the tile used for this purpose. In the 1920's it began the manufacture of clay building block but the decreasing need for tile and the coming of concrete building block brought about the closing of the factory in 1934. A sawmill, operated by the same family since early days, is in operation in the Woodland area. At Watseka a fertilizer appli- cator equipment company is engaged in manufacturing at Oppyville and an electronic components company is located on West Mulberry Street.
Agriculture was and still is the chief industry of Belmont Township. Since 1900 farming has moved from four-legged horse-power to horse- power on wheels. The more or less self-contained farm which produced its own meat, milk, eggs, fruit and vegetables is gone. The farmer now buys these from the supermarket. From being satisfied with a corn yield of thirty-five bushels per acre they now grumble if it falls below one hundred. From stable manure to commercial fertilizer, from the dinner bell to intercoms on the tractors and from oats to soybeans the changes have been steady and immense. Farming is now specialized in such areas as grain production, livestock feeding, dairying and broiler or egg pro- duction. Today the production of grain is the chief type of farming in Belmont Township. With specialization and mechanization the size of farms have increased while rural population has dropped. The former hired-man now lives in town and works in a factory. The isolated farm
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house of the past is gone and the modern farm home stands in its place. Thanks to the automobile, good roads, the telephone, TV and modern schools the farmer lives as well and is as well educated as his city cousin.
Such has been the history of Belmont Township since 1900. He who reads can see the tremendous progress made in the past seventy years. We cannot foretell the future but with such a past the future cannot be but good.
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Woodland Bank in 1910, Woodland, Illinois
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ST: WOODLANDELLS
Main Street in Woodland around 1900 looking north to south.
Old South Side High School in Watseka, Illinois, 1908.
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Chebanse Township
Chebanse occupies a position on the northern border of Iroquois County, with Kankakee County to the north of it. The Iroquois River on the eastern boundary, Ashkum Township to the south, and Milk's Grove Township to the west, complete the Chebanse boundaries. The Illinois Central Railroad runs very nearly through the center of the township from north to south. Chebanse, sixty-four miles from Chicago, and Clifton, sixty-nine miles from Chicago, are both on this mainline of this most important railroad.
Langham Creek, early known as "White Woman's Creek," winds through the township from west to east. Early settlers were drawn to this land area by reports of the richness of the land and the obvious beauty of the landscape thereabouts.
Chebanse Township, a political township, is composed of portions of a number of congressional townships. The area includes the northern one-third of town 28, range 14, the northern third of all that is west of the river in range 13 west of the second principal meridian, and sections 6 and 7 of the fractional township, range 11 east of the third principal meridian, four sections of town 29, range 11, and the southern two-thirds of town 29, range 14, and is west of the river in the southern two-thirds of range 13, making in all some sixty-two sections of land. The rolling land which extends west almost to the Illinois River in Township 29 begin in Chebanse Township.
Long before railroads were built in this area much of the township was already under construction. The old "Butterfield Trail," which was the highway of travel from all the country around the upper Sangamon, the Okaw, the Embarass and the Big Grove passed through here. This latter was the route followed by the Illinois Central Railroad. Little is known about the settlers along this route or how it received its name, but it is known that this was one of the greatest hog and cattle routes in Illinois. This route commenced immediately after the Black Hawk War of 1832. The Funks and others, who ranged all over central Illinois, buying all the cattle and hogs that could be bought, started driving the stock to Chicago instead of Galena, the early market in extreme north- western Illinois. This change in traffic traversed through Chebanse Township.
In 1843, B. F. Brady, and his two brothers, Joseph and William, came from Attica, Indiana, to settle in sections 33 and 34 near the mouth of Langham Creek. Purchasing this land from the state, the Brady brothers built a log cabin on section 33 and, while living there, engaged in raising cattle and hogs which they drove to Chicago to be sold. B. F. Brady was one of the first justices of the peace in this part of the county, and was elected to the second board of supervisors.
In 1954 Adolph Poncelot, the Belgian consul in Chicago, purchased some land from William Farmer, an early settler. Mr. Poncelot put a Mr.
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Harbaville on the land he bought and began an attempt to get some of his countrymen to settle in this area. He was successful and a number of Belgian families came to the township in 1856. Ancestors of these people still reside in the township as well as Ashkum. These early settlers were Catholics and with the French of similar faith, founded the first Roman Catholic neighborhood in this county. Father Chiniquy came and began services in the home of Mr. LaBounty.
The names of many of the towns along the Illinois Central Railroad have Indian origins. Chebanse and Ashkum were not known in the Indian history of Iroquois County. Mr. R. B. Mason, the chief Engineer at the time the Illinois Central was built, authorized the use of these names. They probably originated in the Indian history of the eastern part of the United States.
The township of Chebanse was organized in 1856. Jesse Brown was elected the first supervisor. The village of Chebanse was laid out by the railroad company in the center of the northeast quarter of section 14, in 1854. Harrington and Spaulding were the first merchants in Che- banse. They built a store on the east side of the track in 1854, which was burned in 1858. Amos M. Fishburn built the next store on the same side of the tracks.
Chebanse was incorporated as a town in 1868. In the election later in the same year village officials were elected for the first time. The trustees elected were S. A. Robinson, H. Huckins, Robert Nation, R. S. Laughlin. In 1874 an election was held to reorganize the town under a village system, and by a close vote this change was made.
Milk's addition to Chebanse was laid out in 1868 and was located across the county line in Kankakee county.
Clifton is the other village in Chebanse township located about five miles southwest of Chebanse. The first settlers were principally from New England. In the summer of 1855 W. B. Young, L. A. White, J. C. and C. D. Howe came from Worcester, Massachusetts.
Mr. William Viets came to the area in 1857. A businessman from Chicago, he believed this area was a good place for a town. He took the name Clifton for the town from the name of the hotel in which he stayed, the Clifton House. He got title to the land and had it laid out in 1858.
An election was held June 17, 1867, in which it was approved to incorporate the town. The first trustees elected were C. O. Howe, S. B. Walton, L. J. Millspaugh, A. B. Cummings and F. Cozeau.
These early settlers from New England brought their religions and denominational preferences with them. A Congregational Church was started as early as 1859. In the same year the Methodists also organized themselves. The Roman Catholics began services in 1862 at L'Erable in the home of the resident priest, James McGovern. Their first Church was built in 1867.
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Peter Madsen house in Clifton, built in 1857.
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First depot in Clifton, built in 1860.
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Clifton House, Nels P. Jensen, proprietor at that time.
North on Main Street in Clifton, Illinois in the early 1900's.
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Concord Township
Concord Township formerly included Sheldon Township. The latter was separated and placed under township organization in 1868. Concord Township was surveyed by the United States Government in 1822, except range ten, which was surveyed in 1834. Although it had its definite boundary lines and was a definite political unit, it remained under the commission form of government until the year 1856.
Concord Township, although one of the first in the state to change its form of government, was not organized under township organization until the year 1856. For this purpose a meeting was held in April of that year by the resident voters.
The settlement of Concord Township during the succeeding period of a quarter century was not rapid. Chicago was the nearest market for the surplus products available. Pack horses or ox teams were the only transportation. No roads, no bridges, but swamps and sloughs and rivers, which were impassable except during the dry season.
To furnish education, public schools were established in the township in the year of 1835. The first public school was started and "kept" in a log cabin on the hill on the north side of the river in a settlement then known as Bunkum. The statement has been handed down by the old settlers that the first two schoolmasters to preside in this primitive seat of learning were Hugh Mewell and Benjamin Scott. The latter was also the first school treasurer and the second sheriff of the county. In 1840 the first school house was built in Concord Township.
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