USA > Illinois > Stark County > History of Stark County, Illinois, and its people : a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Volume I > Part 11
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WEST JERSEY TOWNSHIP
This township is situated in the southwest corner of the county and inchides Congressional Township 12 north, range 5 east. The surface is gently undulating and the only stream of consequence is Walnut Creek, which flows in a southerly direction through the western half. Some coal and fire clay deposits have been found in the township. With the exception of a small traet of sandy land called the "Bar- rens." the entire township is well adapted to agriculture and produces fine erops of eorn, wheat, oats and other farm products suited to this section of the state. Fruit growing has received considerable atten- tion in recent years and West Jersey boasts some of the best orchards in the county.
For some reason the Walnut Creek Valley was not looked upon with favor by the veterans of the War of 1812 and comparatively few military "floats" were located in this section. Solomon Marshall en- tered by military land warrant the northeast quarter of section 1; Daniel Trash, seetion 4; Hezekiah Adeock, section 17; Charles Davis, section 20; Benjamin Sherman, section 21; Nicholas Walsh, section 22: George Dearborn, section 25; Sheldon Clark, section 28; Charles Iliggins, seetion 29; Charles Hoover, in the same section: Elijah Smith and Ebenezer Nichols, section 32; John Scott and Peleg Tup- per, seetion 33; Robert C. Jackson and Edward Stewart, section 34; Cromwell Bullock, Cato Bunnell and Henry S. Hunt, section 35; David Bowen and John Phillips, seetion 36.
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HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY
The first actual settler in the township was Jacob B. Smith, who came from Fulton County, Ill., in February, 1836, entered the southeast quarter of section 35, built his Tog eabin and began the work of building up a home in the wilderness. George Eekley eame soon afterward with his wife and five children from Seneca County, Ohio, and located in section 25. Before the close of the year 1836 Philip Keller, Michael Jones, Washington and Stephen Trickle, Ephraim Barnett, John Brown and a few others settled in various parts of the township. The year 1837 witnessed the arrival of William W. Web- ster, Nehemiah Wykoff, Newton Matthews, John Pratz and some others. Joseph Palmer came about this time and on July 4, 1838, a "celebration" was held at his house, near Walnut Creek. Forty-six persons took dinner with Mr. Palmer. Caleb North delivered the ora- tion, and the affair wound up with a dance. William Mason furnishing the music. George A. Clifford says Mr. Mason lived near the present City of Toulon and that he received nine dollars on this occasion. "the first money he ever took in for music."
Joseph Palmer, at whose house this celebration was given, was a native of Brattleboro, Vt., where he was born in 1802. When about twenty-five years of age he decided to "Go West and grow up with the country." and located in Ashland County, Ohio, where he mar- ried a Miss Mary Sloeum. In 1837 he came to Stark County and purchased 320 acres of land in what is now West Jersey Township. In 1844 he was elected a member of the old board of county commis- sioners and served one term. After the Civil war he removed to Gales- burg, Ill., where he passed the remaining years of his life.
Jacob B. Smith, the original pioneer of West Jersey, was born near Reading. Pa., in 1801. He afterward went to Ashland County, Ohio, where he married Mrs. Maria Murphy, nee Trickle, and in 1835 came to Stark County as above stated. Ilis first dwelling here was a log cabin sixteen feet square. After a residence of several years in Stark County, he removed to Galva, III., and died there in Septem- ber, 1884.
When Stark County was organized in 1839 the territory now com- prising the Township of West Jersey was included in justice's distriet No. 3, which afterward became known as Massillon Precinct. Be -. tween 1836 and 1850 several families from New Jersey settled in this part of the county. Among them were the Bodines, Boyds, Hazens, Wileys. Youngs and some others. When the township system was introduced in 1853 these people requested that their township be called West Jersey, which request was granted and in that way the town-
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ship was named. Some say the township was named after the village of West Jersey, but that is a mistake, as the village was not platted until three years after the townships of the county were organized and named.
Washington Smith, a son of Jacob Smith, was the first white child born in the township. The first frame house was built by Washington Trickle in 1838. The first school was taught by Miss Columbia A. Dunn, a sister of Rev. R. C. Dann, and the first schoolhouse was built in 1837 or 1838. In 1915 there were eight public schoolhouses in the township, valued at $8,200, and one teacher was employed in each distriet during the preceding school year.
West Jersey is one of the two townships of Stark County without a railroad. The people living in the northern half of the township find railroad accommodations at Tonlon or Lafayette, and those living in the southern part are within reach of the Atehison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad, which runs through the northern part of Peoria County.
In 1910 the population of West Jersey Township was 818 and in 1914 the property was assessed for taxation at $735,851.
CHAPTER VIII CITIES, TOWNS AND VILLAGES
SPECULATION IN EARLY DAYS-NUMEROUS TOWNS PROJECTED-LIST OF TOWNS AND VILLAGES IN STARK COUNTY-CITIES OF TOULON AND WYOMING-INCORPORATED VILLAGES OF BRADFORD AND LAFAYETTE -- MINOR VILLAGES-HISTORICAL SKETCH OF EACH-PRESENT DAY CONDITIONS-POSTOFFICES AND RURAL MAIL, ROUTES.
In the early settlement of the West there seems to have been a sort of mania for laying off towns. Companies were organized for the purpose of preempting the most available sites, employing surveyors to make plats, copies of which were sent to cities in the East to adver- tise the advantages of the coming metropolis of this or that loeality. In some of the counties there were more towns two or three years after the first settlements were made than there are today, if a paper plat constituted a town, and nearly every man or company that had a town-site had a map made to show that partieular town as being the best situated for the county seat.
Scarcely had the first settlements been made in what is now Stark County until the speculator and promoter were in the field laying off towns. Some of the towns thus projected have survived and grown into commercial centers of considerable importance; others are merely small railroad stations, neighborhood trading points, or postoffices for a rural community: and still others have passed out of existence. From a careful examination of the official plat books, old atlases and newspaper files, the following list of towns that are or have been in Stark County has been compiled: Bradford, Camp Grove, Castleton, Duncan, Elmira, Lafayette, Lombardville, Massillon, Modena, Morse, Moulton. Osceola, Pleasant Green, Puckerbrush, Slackwater, Speer, Stark. Starwano, Stringtown, Toulon, Wady Petra, Walden, West Jersey and Wyoming. A few of these places, such as Pucker- brush and Stringtown, were never officially platted, but, like Topsy in Uncle Tom's Cabin. they "jest growed."
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While the above list is arranged alphabetically, in giving their history, the towns will be considered in the order of their importance, beginning with
TOULON
Section 9 of the act of March 2. 1839, under which Stark County was organized, provided that the county seat should be called "Tou- lon," and in Chapter VI will be found an account of the manner in which the location was selected. At the time the site was chosen for the seat of justice in 1841, the only house upon the original plat of the town was a small cabin, which was occupied by John Miller and his family. This cabin had been erected by Minott Silliman in the spring of 1835 and sold, with the land, to John Miller. the place afterward becoming known as "Miller's Point." Leeson's History of Stark County says: "In 1832 Harris W. Miner erected a cabin not far from the Toulon depot; and it is further claimed for him and this section that here the beginnings of cultivation of lands in this town- ship were made. although Minott Silliman, who came later, does not state positively that any evidenees of such improvement were observed by him."
On July 28, 1841. John Miller and his wife executed a deed, con- veying to the commissioners of Stark County the tract selected for a county seat. The "ninety rods square" included in the deed was laid off into lots by Carson Berfield in August, 1841. The original plat shows sixteen blocks of ten lots each, with Miller, Franklin, Washington and Henderson streets running north and south, and Vine, Main and Jefferson streets running east and west. Between the north and south streets were three alleys, each twenty feet in width, named Plum, Cherry and Grape. Since that plat was filed in the office of the county recorder several additions have been made to the town, the most important of which is Henderson & Whitaker's addition, which consists of thirty blocks. Then there are Culbert- son's Eastern and Western additions, the Assessor's addition and Turner's addition. These additions have increased the area of the town more than three times that shown by the original plat.
'The first sale of lots in Toulon was held on September 14-15, 1841. Bidders were plentiful and 122 lots were sold. The highest price paid for any one lot was $86, which was paid for lot 10 in block 6. and the lowest price was $5, for lot 2, block 9, and lot 1. block 1. Among the purchasers were Oliver Whitaker. John W. Henderson, Jonathan Hodgson, Benjamin Turner, Cyril Ward, Minott Silliman, David
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PUBLIC SCHOOL, TOULON
PUBLIC LIBRARY, TOULON
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS URBANA
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HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY
Essex, Nero W. Mounts, John Miller, Henry Breese, Calvin Powell, Harris Miner and several others whose names figure prominently in carly Stark County history. In October following the sale Benjamin Turner built the first "real house" in the town. A postoffice was established a little later and Mr. Turner was appointed the first postmaster.
John Culbertson, who located just outside the town plat in 1841 and brought a stoek of goods, was probably the first merchant. Ile commanded a large trade in and around Toulon, built a flour mill and established a woolen factory, and was otherwise active in building up the new county seat. His investments in real estate were extensive and a neighbor once remarked: "Uncle John will not be satisfied until he owns all of this township and the one west of it." Another pioneer of 1841 was Dr. Thomas Hall, who was the first resident physician.
The first hotel was kept by Benjamin Turner, who also kept a small stock of goods in one of the front rooms. The building in which his hotel was kept was afterward removed to the northwest corner of the public square, where it was occupied by various persons as a mer- cantile establishment for a mimber of years. Other early hotel keepers were B. A. Hall and William Rose. Alexander Abel kept a tavern on the north side of Main Street, between Franklin and Miller. where the Virginia House was built by J. A. Cooley in 1849.
The first school in Tonlon was taught by Miss Elizabeth Buswell, in an upper room of the courthouse, in 1843. It was known as a common school, while Miss Susan Gill, daughter of Elder Elisha Gill. taught a "selcet" school in an adjoining room. The first schoolhouse, still referred to by old residents as the "old brick," was built on Jefferson Street, in the western part of town. It was but one story . high and was built by Ira Ward, Jr., at a cost of $600. T. J. Hen- derson taught the first school in the building after it was finished. The brick for the structure was burned especially for it by W. B. Sweet, and the humber was hauled from the Illinois River. That was the beginning of Toulon's public school system, which has developed into two magnificent modern buildings, in which seventeen teachers are employed.
A Methodist class was organized just south of the town in 1841. with Caleb B. Flint as class leader. This was the beginning of the Toulon Methodist Church, the first religions organization in the town. A more complete account of the churches of Toulon will be found in Chapter XV.
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HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY
In October, 1857, a movement was instituted for the incorpora- tion of Toulon. At a meeting of the citizens, held at the elerk's ofliee early in March, 1858, thirty-four votes were cast in favor of the proposition and only two were opposed. E. L. Emery, Oliver Whit- aker, Miles A. Fuller, William Lowman and Isaae C. Reed were elected as the first board of trustees. No record ean be found con- cerning this first corporate government of the town, but on February 11, 1859, the Legislature passed an aet defining the powers and duties of the trustees of Toulon.
A reorganization of the town government took place in the spring of 1868. At an election held on the first Monday of April in that year. Caleb M. S. Lyons, Davis Lowman, Amos P. Gill, Hugh Y. Godfrey and David Tinlin were chosen trustees. In the organization of the new board. Mr. Lyons was elected president : Mr. Tinlin, elerk: Mr. Gill, treasurer, and Miles A. Fuller was appointed attorney. On April 17, 1868, fourteen ordinances were passed and ordered printed in the Stark County News. The first related to public morality, health and poliee regulations; the second prohibited gaming houses; the third fixed a penalty for interfering with the town officers in the discharge of their duties; the fourth provided for the punishment of persons disturbing the peace; the fifth prohibited eertain animals from running at large; the sixth related to streets and alleys and prohibited fast driving within the corporate limits; the seventh altered certain streets and alleys: the eighth and ninth dealt with labor upon the streets and alleys: the tenth forbade the sale of intoxieating liquors; the eleventh licensed and regulated the keeping of billiard tables; the twelfth pro- vided for lieensing peddlers and auctioneers: the thirteenth related to legal proceedings, and the fourteenth to the election and appointment of officers.
The railroad was completed to Toulon in June, 1871, and during the next year there were a number of additions to the population. Consequently the board of trustees on March 5, 1873, issued a eall for an election to be held at the courthouse on April 7, 1873, "to submit to the voters of the said town the question whether the said town shall beeome incorporated as a city (village) under the general incorpora- tion laws of the State of Illinois."
A majority of the votes were east in favor of the change in municipal government and the following trustees were elected: Den- nis Mawbey, James Nowlan, II. Stauffer, Benjamin C. Follett and Warren Williams. The village government thus established eon- tined for thirty-six years. On April 20, 1909, an election was held
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to decide the question whether Toulon should incorporate as a city. A majority of the votes were cast in favor of the change and the charter bears date of April 22, 1909. The first city officers were: George Nowlan, mayor; Arthur Shinn, elerk; Harry B. Davis, treas- urer: Vietor G. Fuller, attorney; F. C. MeClenahan, Thomas J. Malone, William A. Newton, Orlando Brace, Amiel F. Lehman and E. H. Lloyd, aldermen. Mr. Nowlan served as mayor until the spring of 1915, when he was succeeded by J. HI. Baker.
ELECTRIC LIGHT
On June 6, 1892, the board of trustees granted to Miles A. Fuller a franchise to construct and maintain an eleetrie lighting plant, the life of said franchise to be twenty-five years. Mr. Fuller and his associates went to work almost immediately upon the plant and the result was that on the evening of December 25, 1892, the Town of Toulon was lighted for the first time by electricity. Some years later the business was incorporated under the name of the "Toulon Light and Power Company." The power-house, which is located on Frank- lin Street between Main and Vine, is equipped with modern electric machinery and the company besides furnishing light to the people of Toulon also furnishes power for pumping water for the municipal waterworks.
WATERWORKS
About the time the form of government was changed from village to eity, the question of establishing a system of waterworks was agi- tated by some of the progressive citizens. The movement gained headway and on June 6, 1910, the city council passed an ordinance calling a special election for the purpose of voting on the question of issuing bonds to the amount of $15,000 to establish waterworks. The proposition to issue the bonds was carried by a substantial majority at the election and the engineering firm of W. S. Shields & Company was given the contraet for the erection of the tower and reservoir and the installation of the pumping machinery.
Gray Brothers, well drillers, were employed to sink a deep well and during the summer of 1911 about four and a half miles of mains were laid. the mains being paid for by a special assessment against the property benefited. The well which furnishes the water supply is 1.448 feet in depth. A reservoir of 30,000 gallons and a steel tank mounted upon a tower also having a capacity of 50,000 gallons, hold
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HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY
a supply of water equal to any demand that is likely to arise. The ordinary pumping capacity is sufficient to furnish water for daily use, and in addition there is a reserve pump that ean be called into requisi- tion in case of fire, etc. The cost of the plant complete, including the special assessment for the mains, was about thirty thousand dollars. Few cities in the state. the size of Toulon, can boast a better system of waterworks or a more bountiful supply of pure, wholesome water.
PUBLIC BUILDINGS, ETC.
The City Hall, located on Franklin Street. adjoining the water tower and the electric light plant, was erected in 1910 at a cost of $6,000. It is two stories high, with walls of conerete block, steel eeil- ings, ete. In the lower story are kept the fire engine. hook and ladder truck and other property of the fire company, and the second story contains the offices of the mayor, eity clerk, council chamber, and in the rear a room for the members of the fire department. The building is heated by a furnace and well provided with toilet rooms and loekers for the municipal officials and employees.
On March 6, 1914, the eouneil passed an ordinance for the con- struction of a sewer system, to be paid for by special assessment. The contract was awarded to W. S. Shields & Company, the same firm that built the waterworks. This firm has made a special study of sewer problems in connection with eities, and at Toulon an oppor- tunity was given for the construction of a model system. A septic tank was built southeast of the eity and about four miles of sewer laid, the total cost being about twenty-five thousand dollars. So well has this system done its work that other cities about to install sewers have sent committees to Toulon to study the methods used, and all have gone away satisfied that the city "got its money's worth" in building the way it did.
A fire department was organized in the early '90s and Charles S. Me Kee was appointed chief a little later, a position he has held ever sinee. The first apparatus purchased for the use of the company was a second-hand hose reel, which was bought from the City of Galva. Then eame the hook and ladder truck. Later Mr. MeKee went to Indianapolis. Ind., and purchased a combined gas engine and hose cart from the Howe Manufacturing Company of that city. With this acquisition to the fire fighting equipment of the eity, Toulon is well prepared to combat any fire that is likely to break out. The company consists of twenty-five members and holds meetings for instruetion and drill on the third Monday evening in each month.
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The Toulon Civic Club was organized at the opera house on Thurs- day evening. August 5, 1913. The objects of the club, as stated in the articles of association, are "to develop, promote and enhance the civic, industrial, commercial and agricultural interests of Toulon and vicinity." C. D. MeClenahan was elected president of the club; W. U. Sickles, vice president; and M. D. Dewey, secretary and treasurer.
Mention has been made of the establishment of the postoffice at Toulon in 1841 and the appointment of Benjamin Turner as post- master. Mr. Turner continued in charge of the office until President Buchanan came into office in 1837, when he was succeeded by Oliver Whitaker. In 1915 the office employed two clerks, a man to carry mail from the office to the railroad station and return, five rural car- riers, and the total receipts for the fiscal year ending on June 30, 1915, amounted to nearly seven thousand dollars. At that time the postmaster was Otto Bacmeister.
From the single log cabin of John Miller in 1841, Toulon had grown to a eity of 1,208 inhabitants in 1910, with many modern homes. It has two fine public school buildings, a publie library, Bap- tist. Catholie, Christian, Congregational and Methodist Episcopal churches, two large grain elevators, two banks, stock yards, several miles of cement sidewalks, a telephone exchange, telegraph and ex- press serviee, a number of well appointed mercantile establishments, a weekly newspaper, a motion picture theater, an opera house, a base ball club, and on every hand are to be seen evidences of progress and prosperity.
CITY OF WYOMING
Wyoming, the largest city in Stark County, also claims the dis- tinetion of being the oldest town in the county. It was surveyed in Mareh, 1836, by B. M. Hayes, then surveyor of Putnam County, l'or Gen. Samnel Thomas, and the plat was filed the following May. The original town contains eighteen blocks or squares, one of which was set aside by General Thomas for a public square. William Street. the northern boundary, is the line between Essex and Toulon town- ships, the plat being entirely within Essex Township. The other streets running east and west are Main, Smith and Agard. Beginning at the west line of the plat the north and south streets are numbered from First to Seventh, inclusive. Since the original plat was filed additions have been made which increase the area of the corporation to more than four times that of the first town laid out by General
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Thomas. The most important additions are Thomas', Dana's, Scott & Wrigley's, and the two additions laid out by Dr. Alfred Castle, sometimes called "North Wyoming."
Gen. Samuel Thomas, the founder of Wyoming, was born in the State of Connecticut, February 2, 1787. When about nineteen or twenty years old he went to the Wyoming Valley, in Pennsylvania. At the beginning of the War of 1812, he was captain of a company of young men who were well drilled in artillery tactics. He offered the services of his company to the Government and the offer was accepted, the company being ordered to Erie, Pennsylvania, where Commodore Perry was engaged in building his fleet. Captain Thomas was placed in command of the post and several times thwarted the British in their attempts to burn Perry's ships before they were com- pleted. His company then joined the army under Gen. William H. Harrison and he was present at the battle of the Thames, where the celebrated Shawnee chief, Tecumseh, was killed. After the war he was appointed inspector of the Pennsylvania militia and in 1828 was commissioned brigadier-general. After serving two terms in the Legislature of Pennsylvania he decided to seek his fortunes in the West, and in October, 1834, he purehased the elaim of his brother-in- law, Sylvanus Moore, who had preceded him to Stark County, Ill. When he concluded to lay off a town, his recollections of the Wyoming Valley prompted him to confer that name upon his town. General Thomas was engaged in farming and keeping store until his death, on July 21, 1865. He was one of the leading members of the Methodist Church, a member of the Masonic fraternity, and took an active in- terest in political affairs as a democrat.
Concerning the early history and growth of Wyoming, Mrs. Shal- lenberger, in her "Stark County and its Pioneers," says: "For a long time it had little but a name. In a communication to the Laeon Herald in 1838, it is spoken of as having upon its site 'one second hand log smoke house, which serves the double purpose of store and postoffice.' Nevertheless, its name appears upon several maps of that time, and it was a prominent candidate for the county seat. It is said that some speculators interested in the sale of lots, had eirculars struck off and circulated in the eastern states, in which this town was represented in 1837 at the head of navigation on Spoon River, with fine warehouses towering aloft and boats lying at the wharf which negroes were load- ing and unloading, giving the appearance of a busy commercial mart. This may be but a story, still it serves to illustrate the speculating mania of those days; which disease has not yet ecased to affliet man- kind. but has only traveled a few degrees farther west."
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