USA > Illinois > Vermilion County > History of Vermilion County, Illinois, Volume One > Part 24
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HISTORY OF VERMILION COUNTY
adopted. Cards were printed showing pictures of good and bad roads. Fifty thousand maps of the county were printed showing the location of the proposed bond roads.
The expense of getting out and distributing these pamphlets was borne by the Good Roads Association and donations from public spirited citizens, among whom, Gen. A. G. P. Dodge should be mentioned as giving financial assistance and help in other ways. O. M. Jones, who was the originator of the plans for good roads in Vermilion County, devoted a great deal of time to this work. After some time spent on the concrete roads in California, he returned to the mud roads of Vermilion County, and after an investigation as to money spent on roads in this county for dirt roads, during a period of ten years, decided that the same amount spent on permanent roads would be a saving to the community, better and more permanent roads.
A. R. Hall, of Danville, gathered the statistics and aided in various ways. These efforts finally culminated in the voting on November 3, 1914, of one million five hun- dred thousand dollars bonds by the people of Vermilion County for the purpose of building permanent roads. The vote for bonds was ten thousand four hundred and fifty- nine, and against bonds, eight thousand, nine hundred and seventy-eight, a majority of one thousand four hundred and eighty-one. The first state aid road allotment to Ver- milion County under the Tice law was available in 1914, and together with the county's portion, amounted to sixty thousand dollars.
The field surveys for the first state aid road in Ver- milion County was made in two weeks in February, 1914, and extended from the north limits of the city of Danville north sixteen thousand one hundred feet to a point where
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the old Hubbard Trace turned to the east, about one-half mile south of the bridge over the North Fork River at Riverside Park.
In making this survey the state furnished one man, the county furnished three men, the county superintendent of highways and the transportation.
The contract was let for brick at Springfield on July 22, 1914. The cost of this section of road was $54,865.82. The man furnished by the state on this survey is now one of the bureau chiefs at Springfield in the Department of Public Works and Buildings. The inspector on construc- tion for this work, is now one of the district engineers for the state. The state man who first located this route has since been state highway engineer for the state of Mis- souri. The county superintendent of highways then is still the county superintendent of highways. This first state aid road was continued during 1916 until 9.43 miles were finally completed on the Dixie Highway to a point near Rayville, where the Dixie crosses the Illinois Central west of Alvin.
The completion of this stretch of road used up the state aid allotments to Vermilion County, amounting to one hun- dred and thirteen thousand, five hundred and eighty-five dollars. There has been no state aid allotment since 1918, although the county has received refunds on roads built by the county and taken over by the state as state bond roads.
On May 18 to 20, 1914, several members of the county board of supervisors made a trip to Detroit, Michigan, and inspected the concrete roads that had been built there at that time. From Detroit the party went on to Cleveland, Ohio, and inspected the brick roads there. Upon their re- turn from this trip they made a report to the county board, which determined the policy of the board as to the amount
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and type of road to be built by the county under the bond issue.
The fame of Vermilion County as a pioneer in roads, was spreading and on May 22, 1914, a delegation headed by the county superintendent of highways of Ogle County and composed of various county officials made an inspec- tion tour of the paved roads in Danville Township.
From this time on, improvements of roads in the county grew to large proportions. Georgetown Township voted a, bond issue in 1915 for $65,000 and on February 26, 1916, bids were opened for the building of roads east and west and north and south through Georgetown and north and south through Westville. Contracts were let and in a short time, construction work started. The work in George- town was mostly completed in 1916, in Westville in 1917. These roads were of concrete twenty feet wide. The por- tion in Georgetown Township was the first concrete road laid in Vermilion County. At that time, very little was known about concrete construction for roads. The Asso- ciation of Portland Cement Manufacturers furnished, free, two inspectors on the Georgetown work. The duty of these inspectors was to show the contractor the proper methods to carry on the work. They were of great service to the township and paved the way for a great many more con- crete roads in Vermilion County.
About the same time that Georgetown Township voted their sixty-five thousand dollar bond issue, in 1916, the following townships voted bond issues as follows: Elwood, thirty-eight thousand dollars; Vance, thirty-five thousand dollars; Catlin, twenty-two thousand dollars; Sidell, twenty thousand dollars; Grant, five thousand dollars.
In 1919, the following townships voted bond issues as follows: Danville, fifty thousand dollars; Oakwood, sixty
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thousand dollars; Middlefork, sixty thousand dollars; Georgetown, thirty thousand dollars.
These bond issues were all voted for the purpose of building pavements through the towns to connect with the pavements of the bond issue system.
For the building of stone and gravel roads, the follow- ing townships voted as follows :
Carroll, twenty thousand dollars, in 1917.
Jamaica, thirty-eight thousand dollars, in 1917.
Love, twenty thousand dollars, in 1919.
Butler, seventy-five thousand dollars, in 1919.
Elwood, twenty-five thousand dollars, in 1920.
Carroll, forty thousand dollars, in 1920.
Middlefork, ten thousand dollars, in 1920.
Jamaica, twenty-five thousand dollars, in 1920.
McKendree, twenty-two thousand five hundred dollars in 1921.
Sidell, sixty-five thousand dollars, in 1921.
Grant, one hundred thousand dollars, in 1921.
McKendree, seven thousand five hundred dollars, In 1922.
Jamaica, twenty-six thousand dollars, in 1923.
Sidell, thirty thousand dollars, in 1924.
Carroll, fifty thousand dollars, in 1924.
Jamaica, twenty-seven thousand nine hundred dollars, in 1926.
You might almost say that there was an epidemic of hard roads in Vermilion County during this period. Georgetown Township, also voted forty thousand dollars in 1922 for paved roads in the township.
In the fall and summer of 1914, after the county bond issue had been passed, the county superintendent of high- ways surveyed two hundred and thirty miles of road in
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the county and prepared plans and specifications for the construction of the bond issue system.
The work was ready for a letting on May 1, 1915. About this time, suit was filed against the legality of the bond issue. On December 22, 1915, the Supreme Court in the case of John Goodwine, et al. vs. the County of Ver- milion, handed down an opinion upholding the validity and legality of these bonds in every particular.
The Vermilion County road bonds of one million five hundred thousand dollars were advertised to be sold on January 20, 1916. The bonds were to be paid in twenty installments of seventy-five thousand dollars a year begin- ning June 1, 1916. One-third of the bonds were dated June 1, 1915, one-third June 1, 1916, and one-third June 1, 1917. The average payments on these bonds plus the interest was estimated at twenty-eight and one-half cents per one hundred dollars of 1913 assessed valuation, and to date the tax has run very close to that figure and the last bond will be paid in 1935.
As soon as the bond issue cases were settled, the en- gineering department for the county advertised for bids, and on March 14, 15 and 16 these bids were opened and read before the county board. The county board then awarded twenty-one and twenty-five hundredths miles of brick roads and one hundred and forty-four and nine- tenths miles of concrete, for a total sum of one million one hundred and forty-eight thousand five hundred and forty- three dollars and thirty-two cents. These roads were a slab ten feet wide with gravel shoulders, three feet wide on each side of the slab and a shoulder of earth seven feet wide, making a roadway thirty feet wide from shoulder to shoulder. The cost of the Portland cement for these roads was three hundred sixty seven thousand, five hundred and
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thirty-four dollars and forty-five cents, making a grand total of one million five hundred and sixteen thousand sev- enty-seven dollars and seventy-seven cents. Work started on the bond issue system about the middle of May, 1916.
There were nine different contractors who laid ap- proximately fifty miles of road in 1917 and eleven miles in 1918, leaving sixty-two miles of the system incompleted. Shortly after these contracts were let, the World War came on, prices of labor and material advanced and as time went on, it was almost impossible for the contractors to proceed with their work. They had contracted to do this work in two years and at the end of three years they still had sixty-two miles to build. The contractors should have been compelled to have completed their contracts within the time limit. By a little aid from the county, they could have done so, and would have saved themselves from a great loss and the county would also have saved themselves from considerable loss. Only one contractor of the nine finished his work. The others all failed. Some of the surety companies finished their contracts with their own contractors, and some of them made a cash settlement with the county. The county also relet on May 5, 1919, portions of the unfinished work totaling three hundred and seventy- two thousand four hundred and thirty-eight dollars and sixteen cents, and again on June 14, 1921, contracts were let, amounting to three hundred and twenty-seven thou- sand five hundred nine dollars and eighty-four cents.
The county bought fifty thousand dollars worth of road building machinery and went into the contracting business themselves. They built seven or eight miles of road on Route Nine, east of Hoopeston and between Rankin and East Lynn. After about one year, the county sold this ma- chinery for ten thousand dollars. For some time after this,
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on account of these failures, it was almost impossible to get contractors to bid on work in Vermilion County. Finally the one hundred and sixty-six miles were all com- pleted at a cost of approximately two million dollars.
Shortly after this the state refunded to the county the cost of all state bond roads which the county had built. The county received approximately five hundred thousand dollars. The county superintendent of highways then pre- pared plans for about twenty-two miles of road which were completed in 1922, at a cost of two hundred and thirty- four thousand dollars to the county. A friendly suit in the name of the county was brought against the state for a refund of nineteen thousand on the bridge south of George- town. The county won the suit and this money was used in 1927 to build a connection from East Lynn north to the pavement in Iroquois County, costing the county twenty- two thousand eight hundred sixty-eight dollars and eighty- five cents.
In 1924 the county let contracts for the building of bridges and fills across Lake Vermilion. This work was completed in 1925 at a cost of one hundred and five thou- sand five hundred and five dollars and twenty-five cents. During 1925, the State Highway Department came into the county to widen Routes One, Nine and Ten. The de- partment spent six hundred and fifty thousand dollars in the county at that time. In 1927, the state located State Bond Route Forty-Nine from the southwest corner of Ver- milion County north along the west county line to Allerton ; thence west one mile north to Ogden; east into Vermilion to the first road west of Fithian; thence north through Hope, east three-fourths of a mile; thence north passing Armstrong to the west and on through Rankin to the
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county line. The county secured the right of way for this route mostly through donations and some condemnations.
This route was completed in 1929 at a cost of approxi- mately six hundred thousand dollars to the state. The Kistler Hill cut-off was built in 1927 and 1928 at a cost of seventy-seven thousand and fifty-three dollars and fifty- three cents to the state. One of the biggest improvements to Danville was the western entrance to the city, bringing the old route from the Batestown school east into Warring- ton Avenue, which was paved by the state as Route Ten in 1924. The board in 1928 authorized the building of seven and one-half miles of pavement at Rossville, two and one-half miles at Westville, connecting Cheneyville to Route Nine and the connecting of Allerton and Route Forty-nine to the county pavement to Danville. These con- tracts cost the county two hundred and forty thousand dol- lars, one hundred and forty thousand dollars being fur- nished by Ross and Georgetown townships through bond issues.
It seemed as though another epidemic of bond issues had struck the townships in 1928 and in 1929. The fol- lowing townships voted bonds, the proceeds to be turned over to the county for the paving of state aid roads :
Ross, one hundred thousand dollars, in 1928.
Georgetown, thirty-eight thousand dollars, in 1928.
Newell, one hundred thousand dollars, in 1929.
Blount, forty-five thousand dollars, in 1929.
Love, twenty-five thousand dollars, in 1929.
Butler, one hundred thousand dollars, in 1929 (seventy thousand dollars to be turned over).
Middlefork, seventy-five thousand dollars, in 1929.
The following townships voted bonds, the proceeds to be used in building gravel or stone roads :
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Carroll, thirty thousand dollars, in 1929.
Vance, sixty thousand dollars, in 1928.
Catlin, sixty-five thousand dollars, in 1929. Oakwood, one hundred thousand dollars in 1929.
In 1927, Danville Township voted forty thousand dol- lars for the paving of Fourteenth Street from Greenwood cemetery to Tilton, and in 1928, sixty thousand dollars to pave from Brewer south two miles to the pavement of the Rileysburg Road.
This article would not be complete without mentioning' the sixty million dollar bond issue voted by the state in 1918 and the one hundred million dollar bond issue voted by the state in November, 1924; also the motor fuel gas tax voted by the Legislature in 1929. Vermilion County was in all these fights and a great many citizens gave a great deal of time and effort to put these issues over. All of the state bond issues in Vermilion County have been completed with the exception of Route One Hundred and Nineteen, from Armstrong in an easterly direction to the state line east of Bismarck, and possibly the widening and additional improvements on Route Ten. It is impossible on account of time and space to go into detail in regard to all the road activities in Vermilion County. Most that has been written has been in regard to the bond issues of the townships, county and state.
Few people in the county realize that, with completion of State Bond Route One Hundred and Nineteen, the state to date, will have spent considerable more money in the im- proving of roads in Vermilion County, than the county has spent; and that all the money spent in the county by the state comes from auto license fees.
When the motor fuel law gets under way, the county will soon go ahead of the state in the amount of money
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spent on the roads in Vermilion County. There will be available to the county from the motor fuel fund approxi- mately one hundred and twenty-five thousand a year. This, with other funds available to the county, will make it possible for the county to carry on a program of from ten to fifteen miles of paved roads a year such as are now be- ing built.
The program for 1930 is about ready for awarding con- tracts and consists of thirteen miles in Butler and Middle- fork townships, two and one-half miles in Blount, five miles in Newell, and two and three-fourths miles in Love, mak- ing twenty-three and one-fourth miles all together.
The members of the Hard Road Committee of the Ver- milion County Board of Supervisors since the beginning of the hard road system to date, are as follows :
John W. Dale, O. M. Jones, Scott Johnston, W. S. Dil- lon, Mike Plaut, Thomas Atwood, W. I. Baird, George M. Wright, Gardy Woodburn, Charles Nelson, J. A. Green, Dr. F. P. Johnson, John Olmstead, William Topham, J. F. Van Allen, John A. Cathcart, Walter C. Lindley, J. C. Pur- nell, H. F. Espenscheid, John Holden, John W. Telling, L. W. Coe, Frank Johnson, Hugh M. Luckey, Fred Lloyd, W. F. Sheets, Fred Davis, George W. Stormer, A. W. Ha- worth, Henry Hulce, Fred Endicott, Bert Nicoson, Buell Snyder, Walter V. Dysert, William Moyer, W. F. Baum, W. H. Stephens, Percy Stephens, Robert Pettigrew, John Twomey, Elmer Wise, Charles E. Cox, Thomas Cossey, W. B. Reilly, Luther Alkire, J. A. McMillan, Perry Snyder, A. W. Cast, James Young, C. M. Brown.
These men have given liberally and freely of their time. They have had great responsibilities and many problems to solve. They have solved them to the best of their ability and have left "their footprints on the sands of time." They should have the thanks of all lovers of good roads.
CHAPTER XXI
THE CLAY PRODUCTS INDUSTRY
DANVILLE AS THE CERAMIC CITY-THE BRICK INDUSTRY-WESTERN BRICK COMPANY-CLAY PRODUCTS-A PROMISING FUTURE.
Danville may well be called the ceramic city. It is not only the home of the largest brick plant in the world, but contains five industries which depend upon clay as a raw material, either directly or indirectly.
Four of these industries have their plants here and the fifth operates a plant at Cayuga, Indiana, but maintains its headquarters in this city and does its part along with the rest in advertising the name of "Danville" to the world.
Danville-made products, of the ceramic variety, are shipped to all parts of the world, even faraway Chili and Japan, while one concern recently opened sales offices in London, England, and Beunos Aires, South America.
These five plants employ more than nine hundred men, not including the sales forces. They are among the most dependable industries of the city. The payrolls will run well over a million dollars a year.
The five industries are: Western Brick Company, Danville Brick Company, Acme Brick Company (plant at Cayuga, Indiana), General Refractories Company and the Advance Industrial Supply Company.
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HISTORY OF VERMILION COUNTY
With the exception of the General Refractories Com- pany and the Advance Industrial Supply Company, these companies all use low grade clay, which is found in abundance in this section. The General Refractories Com- pany use a high grade clay for fire brick, which is shipped to the plant at Tilton from the clay beds in Missouri. The Advance Industrial Supply Company uses brick bats and tile, waste products of brick and tile works, which are shipped from all over the middle west, although substantial sources of this raw material are the Western Brick Com- pany and the Danville Brick Company.
These companies promise Danville a brilliant industrial future. Four of the concerns have been here for years. The Advance Industrial Supply Company has only been in operation a little more than a year.
The Western Brick Company came to Danville in 1900. Frank W. Butterworth, president and general manager during business hours and a humanitarian at all hours, was attracted to Danville because of the excellent clay deposits here.
Mr. Butterworth is a practical brick man. He was reared in the industry and was connected with the Marion Brick Works in Indiana before coming to Danville.
The Western Brick Company owns three hundred and fifty acres of land underlaid with coal and shale. Electri- fication of the brick plant has curtailed the production of coal. The supply of shale may be said to be almost inex- haustible.
Shipping facilities, coal and shale were the three fac- tors that drew Mr. Butterworth to Danville. The first two are available to all industries and have been important items in the development of the city.
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The Western Brick Company established plants one and three, the first of which is near the western entrance to the city in Vermilion Heights and the latter south of Danville. Plant two was bought from the Selley Brick Company. This located just north of the west end of the Mill Street bridge and is now being used in the manufac- ture of haydite.
Haydite was placed on the market about three years ago by the company. It is a light weight aggregate for making concrete wall units made out of the regular shale by a patented process.
The capacity of the Western Brick Company's plants is one hundred twenty-five million bricks a year. This is often exceeded. Between four hundred and five hundred men are employed in the three plants. The company spe- cializes in artistic facing brick in all shades and grades.
The officers of this company are: President, W. A. Gorby, Los Angeles, California ; vice president and general manager, Frank W. Butterworth; secretary and treasurer, W. C. Rankin.
The Danville Brick Company was organized more than a quarter of a century ago. Face brick is its speciality and it was a pioneer in the production of colored brick. Paving brick was once a leading product of the Danville plants, but the inroads of cement and asphalt on highway and street construction work turned the brick plants toward the manufacture of brick for building purposes.
This plant produces around thirty-six million bricks a year. It employs one hundred and fifty men and has been in operation twenty-eight years. Brick from this plant has been used in homes and public buildings all over the United States. The Singer High School in Chicago is
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a fair example of the type of building erected with Dan- ville-made brick.
The Danville Brick Company is also a heavy shipper of brick to Toronto, Canada. Its officers are: President, Harvey C. Adams; vice president, Stephen M. Adams; secretary and treasurer, Thomas J. Hawkins.
The Acme Brick Company was established in 1906. Its plant is at Cayuga, Indiana, but it maintains its general offices in the Adams Building. This company specializes in "Persiantex" face brick and "Ryltyle" floor and roof tile. It employes seventy men and the plant has a capacity of twelve million bricks and tile a year.
The officers are: President, Charles N. Stevens, Evanston, Illinois; vice president and general manager, Douglas F. Stevens; secretary and treasurer, Miss Ethel M. King.
The General Refractories company in 1923 bought out the American Refractories Company, which began opera- tions at the plant just west of Tilton in 1913.
This is a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, concern, which operates fifteen plants in various parts of the country. It uses diastore clay exclusively and this is shipped from its properties in Missouri, about one hundred miles below Saint Louis.
This company produces four million bricks a year with a force of seventy-five men. This is the only one of the fifteen plants specializing in a super-refractory fire brick. The largest users of this brick are cement and steel mills. Between seventy-five and one hundred carloads are shipped abroad each year.
China, Japan, India, Australia and South America pro- vide markets for the greater part of the export business.
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W. J. Bates is superintendent of the Tilton plant and the Missouri clay fields.
Danville's infant clay-products concern is the Advance Industrial Supply Company, which erected the small plant just west of the Western Brick Company's plant one in Vermilion Heights.
This company, which operates a number of similar plants, became interested in Danville through the efforts of Frank W. Butterworth, president of the Western Brick Company.
It manufactures a roofing surfacing material from brick bats and tile. It started operations the last week in September and has a capacity of five or six carloads a day and employs between fifteen and twenty men. L. E. Dubois is the manager of the Danville plant.
The use of clay for the manufacture of articles of utility or ornament is one of the oldest crafts in the world. Some authorities credit it with being the oldest, for it originated in Babylonia where it was utilized for making brick for building purposes, Babylonia having neither quarries nor forests,-and possessing the distinction of being the home of the oldest civilization the world has known.
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