USA > Illinois > Vermilion County > History of Vermilion County, Illinois, Volume One > Part 9
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"Now as my father went into that neighborhood nearly as early as Mr. Beckwith, and they were the best of friends, living less than a mile apart, I feel confident my knowledge is correct. I would like at this time to tell of the oldest record in the county although I am sorry to say, I have no proof whatever to corroborate my statements.
"In about 1857 or 1858, I with another boy while wan- dering with guns and a dog found an old beach tree on the hillside west of the golf ground, half way up the hill, with this inscription carved on it, 'S. David, 1804.' The carving was so well done that there could be no mistake in the reading. Several years afterward in conversation with an old man that when a boy lived near Lafayette, Indiana, I mentioned seeing this carving. He said he knew in his boyhood days an old trapper by the name of Samuel David in Tippecanoe County, Indiana.
"After talking with him I went to look for the tree. I found only a little line of rotted wood. Time and the storms had blotted out the record and it only remains in the memory of the little boy who saw it seventy years ago."
Reverting to the early history of Vermilion county as a political organization, a government land office was located in Danville in 1831, after the citizens of the county
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had petitioned the governor to secure such an office for this county.
Samuel McRoberts was the first receiver and J. C. Alex- ander the first register. This land office remained here for twenty-five years and played a material part in bringing settlers to the county.
The first regularly established mail route was inaugur- ated in 1832 between Chicago and Vincennes, by way of Danville, and in 1836 a postal route was established be- tween Danville and Springfield, by way of Decatur. The same year another route was secured from Danville to Ottawa, and a fourth route from Indianapolis, by way of Danville, Indiana, Rockville, Montezuma and Newport to Danville.
A few years later another mail route was established between Springfield to Lafayette, Indiana, by way of Dan- ville. These routes gave Danville a place on the principal mail routes in the middle west.
Commercial transportation was chiefly by rivers and the whole Illinois country west to the Sangamon River was wholly dependent upon the Wabash River towns for sup- plies. These principal "ports" were Clinton, Eugene, Per- rysville, Covington, Attica and Lafayette.
It was not until the arrival of the railroads that Ver- milion County was released from the bondage of the Wabash River and the canal that ran alongside it. Early Danville residents tried to slack-water the Vermilion River and make it navigable to the mouth, but this was not suc- cessful and as early as 1831 Vermilion and other counties petitioned congress for a strip of land between Chicago and Vincennes for a railroad.
The Chicago & Vincennes Railway was granted a char- ter in 1835, and among the charter members were Gurdon
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S. Hubbard, then a resident of Chicago, John H. Murphy and Isaac R. Moores, of Danville. The same year a charter was secured for a railroad from Quincy to the Indiana state line in the direction of Lafayette, by way of Spring- field, Decatur and Danville. This railroad was chartered under the name of the Northern Cross Railroad, and is now a part of the Wabash system.
There is an interesting story told in connection with the present roadbed of the Wabash railroad through Vermilion County, which ate up a large portion of the one million eight hundred thousand dollar appropriation for the build- ing of the entire road, which had its eastern terminus at what is now State Line, once known as Illiana.
Dr. W. E. Fithian was the representative from Ver- milion County in the state legislature. He forsaw the in- evitable financial crash that was to follow the wave of general internal improvements. He argued that the new country was not yet ready for extensive construction of railroads. Railroads were to serve a useful purpose, but at that time there was not the shipping market that would create dividend-earning receipts.
He found himself in the minority and accepting the fact that the people's money was going to be wasted any- way, he shrewdly managed the legislative appropriation so that the construction work would start in Vermilion County.
The roadbed was graded from the Champaign County line to the Indiana state line, the heavy cuts and fills and the three large abutments, or piers, the heaviest and most expensive part of the road east of the Sangamon River were completed first and just as the financial crash of 1837 came, which put an end to the further construction of the system.
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In 1853 the project of a railroad from Decatur east across the state was revived, and the heavy work on the roadbed across Vermilion county was too valuable to be ignored and proved the lodestone that brought the iron rails to Danville.
At this time another company was building a railroad from Toledo, Ohio, up the Maumee and down the Wabash rivers. It was intended originally to run the line through Covington and thence south to St. Louis, by way of Paris, but its promoters met the builders of the new road in Illi- nois, which was now called the Great Western, in New York City.
The railroad from the east was changed so as to cross the Wabash River at Attica and come on to Danville. The Wabash was intended to have Danville as a terminal point and for a time did operate the section between Danville and State Line, but the two corporations disagreed about some trivial matter and the Wabash withdrew to State Line, compelling the Great Western to follow. Here they re- mained for eight years until the consolidation of the two roads in 1865, which again made Danville a terminal point.
The Pioneer was the first engine to run into Danville, crossing the bridge over the Vermilion River in the latter part of October, 1856. The connection with the Wabash construction train was made five miles northeast of Dan- ville, in Makemson's timber. The next day the Wabash engines were in Danville, the last spike on the eastern road having been driven the night before.
The story of the early railroads rightly belongs in the chapter devoted to Vermilion County, whose early history, it will be conceded is interwoven with that of Danville Township and the city of Danville.
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There was felt, following the completion of the Great Western and Wabash railroads, that Danville needed a direct outlet for travel and freight to Chicago, and in 1868, the state legislature passed an act authorizing the town- ships to vote bond issues for the construction of such a railroad.
Among those actively interested in this project were John L. Tincher, Hiram W. Beckwith and Alvan Gilbert, and it was through Mr. Tincher's influence that the charter was granted.
Danville Township voted a bond issue of seventy-two thousand dollars for the construction of the railroad and seventy-five thousand dollars for the erection of the car- shops in this city. Ross Township voted a bond issue of twenty-four thousand and Grant Township voted to spend eighteen thousand on the project.
This road, the first stretch of what is now the Chicago & Eastern Illinois Railroad, was completed between Chi- cago and Danville in 1871. The road was originally bonded for five million dollars, which represented the supposed value at that time, but the panic of 1872 shot the values of stocks downward and as a result the railroad was placed in the hands of a receiver in 1874, the receiver being Gen- eral A. Anderson, who managed it until 1877, when the road was sold to a new corporation for one million, four hundred and fifty thousand dollars.
The original company started the construction of a branch line from Danville to Brazil, Indiana, in 1872, and this branch was completed and in operation to Coal Creek, Fountain County, Indiana, before the crash.
The Indianapolis, Crawfordsville & Danville and the Danville, Urbana, Bloomington & Pekin railroads were
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being promoted at about the same time as the Chicago road, and also received considerable financial help from Danville and Danville residents.
The Indianapolis, Crawfordsville & Danville road was completed as far west as Crawfordsville in 1869, and the Danville, Urbana, Bloomington & Pekin road was com- pleted from Pekin to Danville in January, 1870. Trains ran between Danville and Pekin for nine months before the gap between Danville and Crawfordsville was closed. The rail connection was made in January, 1870, eight miles east of Danville and through trains were inaugurated.
Early in the seventies a new railroad route from Evans- ville, Indiana, to Chicago was established by the comple- tion of the Evansville, Terre Haute & Chicago and Chicago, Danville & Vincennes railroads. Within the next year the Lafayette, Bloomington & Muncie Railroad was extended across the northern part of the county, and later came the Paris & Danville road, giving the southern part of the county an outlet north and south.
The narrow gauge road in the northern part of the county built by Mr. Gifford and the Penfield brothers, of Rantoul, also offered another outlet in the northern part of the county, and became an important link in the ultimate development of transportation facilities in the county. Later came the branch line from Danville southwest through Westville to Sidell and Allerton to Villa Grove, now a part of the C. & E. I. system.
Of a necessity many names of people associated with the early history of Vermilion county have been omitted, not through any intentional neglect, but for lack of space. The older a county becomes, the less space can be de- voted to the pioneer days and it becomes necessary to build the story around the chief points of interest.
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During the research work being done by the writer, it was suggested that the descendants of the first settlers, possibly up to 1830, would form an interesting club or so- ciety and this idea should be put into action before the early records are gone. Such a society could well and easily collect data for a volume that would deal entirely with the story of Vermilion County between 1818, or earlier, and 1830, or possibly a few years later, and this could be much more complete than a chapter on Vermilion County could possibly be in this history.
SPRING IN HARRISON PARK NEAR WHERE DAN W. BECKWITH'S CABIN STOOD
BAND STAND IN HARRISON PARK NEAR WHERE THE BECKWITH LOG CABIN STOOD
CHAPTER IX
DANVILLE
EARLY TAVERNS-INDUSTRY IN ITS INFANCY-MILLS-RIVER TRAFFIC --- PIONEER BUSINESS HOUSES-STATE BANK OF ILLINOIS IN DANVILLE -PRESENT FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS- BUILDING ASSOCIATIONS - HISTORY OF THE POST OFFICE-VERMILION COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY-JOHN C. SHORT-HARRISON PARK.
Of a necessity much of the early history of Danville township and city has been treated in the history of Ver- milion County. As the seat of government for the county, that concerns Danville concerns the rest of the county or more so than other townships.
A new city, especially one that is a seat of government and also has a land office, must have hotels, and the early taverns or inns played a prominent part in the history of the city.
The Hotel Grier-Lincoln today occupies a site near the center of the city's business in the pioneer days. Back in the seventies the Arlington Hotel occupied the present site of the Grier-Lincoln, and this hotel gradually won the favor of the public, marking the passing of the historic old Mc- Cormack House, which was located just west.
The first part of the McCormack House was built in 1833 by Jesse Gilbert. It was a frame building and the
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planks were fastened with wooden pins, nails not being in general use then.
Charles S. Galusha built an addition to this building. Later Mr. Cross operated it for a time and then William McCormack took it over and enlarged it.
Guests were entertained in a princely style at the old McCormack House. It was the gathering place for judges, lawyers, landseekers, in fact every class of people who had business in Danville, its most famous guest being Abraham Lincoln, who practiced law for more than a dozen years in the Vermilion County Circuit Court.
Solomon Gilbert built the first tavern, a log structure, which stood at the west end of Main Street, in 1827. It was soon relegated to the background by the more pre- tentious hotels that went up, one of these being the Penn- sylvania House.
Bluford Runyen owned the lot and first built a log house on the rear of the property in 1828. He sold out to John Leight, who started the larger hotel building, but soon sold out to Samuel J. Russell, who built the north end of the tavern in 1832. It stood on the west side of Vermilion Street half way between the public square and what in later years was the Aetna House.
Russell was also in the mercantile business and he sold the hotel to Mr. Willison, who in turn disposed of it to Abram Mann, Sr., who had recently come from England.
Mr. Mann built the southern part of the hotel. The ballroom, a necessary part of the pioneer taverns, was on the west side over the diningroom.
The Pennsylvania House, together with the log house built by Mr. Runyen until 1875 when the growth of the business section of the city crowded it out.
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The north part of the Aetna House building was built in 1865 by M. M. Redford, and it began at once to attract the favorable attention of the traveling public. William Farmer and D. Gree built an addition in 1873, and it be- came the largest hotel in the city.
The Arlington Hotel was built in 1875 by Crane & Son and William McCormack.
The Saint James Hotel, the same size as the Arlington Hotel, was built on Main Street three blocks east of the public square in 1867 by Ed Galligan and in 1871 he built an addition to it.
The Tremont Hotel, further east on Main Street, was built about the same period by Anselm Sieferman, at a cost of more than sixteen thousand dollars. The basement and two rooms on the first floor were used as a cigar fac- tory by the owner of the building.
The Hesse House was built on Hazel Street in 1874 by Mr. Hommac. It was four stories high, the two upper stories being thrown into one for a hall. It cost twelve thousand dollars and was later sold to Mr. Hesse, who gave the hotel its name. The big hall was used as an armory for several years by the local military company.
The Sherman Hotel, a three-story structure, was another hotel east of the railroad tracks.
Danville was well supplied with hotels that were pala- tial in contrast with the times, but today probably no city in the country its size is supplied with as many first-class hotels, catering to the public.
The Hotel Wolford, beautiful nine-story structure, erected about three years ago, is the equal of any hotel its size in the state. It is operated by the Dinkler Hotel Com- pany, which has hotels in Atlanta, Georgia, Florida, Bir-
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mingham, Alabama, Nashville, Tennessee, East Saint Louis and other cities.
The Hotel Grier-Lincoln, occupying the site of the old Arlington Hotel, is another first-class hotel and is operated by the John J. Grier Company, which also runs a chain of hotels and restaurants.
The Plaza Hotel is an old landmark, as is the Aetna House, which has been mentioned before, also the Savoy Hotel. There are several smaller hotels, such as the Carl- ton, the Harwal, the Saratoga, the Grand, and a number of little hotels, which are more in the class of rooming houses.
Next to hotels, grist mills probably played the most important part in the early development of the city.
The first mill in the township was built by Robert Trickle on the North Fork, near the lower end of Main Street. Before he had it completed, Solomon Gilbert bought the property and on its completion it was known as Gilbert's Mill.
This was a long structure and the stones were cut from what could be found in the river. Grain was cheap and the commissions on grinding were low, consequently while it filled a need, it was not a money-making proposition.
This was built about 1828 and two years later a saw mill was attached. The pioneer saw mills used gate saws, in which the saw was fitted in a frame, about eight feet high and six feet wide, made so strong it would hold the saw firmly and it moved slowly in grooves cut in the upright timbers.
Men accustomed to operating them could saw two thou- sand feet of lumber a day and the expert sawyers could produce twice that amount. However, one thousand feet of lumber was considered a good production for twelve hours. The price for sawing was universally fifty cents
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a hundred feet, and the pioneer saw mill soon ran ahead of the grist mill as far as money-making is concerned.
Amos Williams built a saw mill on the Vermilion River in 1836. This required the construction of the first dam. There is some dispute over this date, some claiming that a second dam was built in 1836 and the first dam and mill at an earlier period.
This mill proved a source of expense to Mr. Williams, however, and after his death it was bought by Mr. Cotton, who added a wool carding machine. In 1867 he gave up milling but retained his water privilege, his dam having a drop of six feet.
Robert Kirkpatrick built a water-power saw mill in 1835 on Stony Creek and operated it for several years. Hale & Galusha built another saw mill in 1836, but the financial crash of 1837 resulted in a shrinkage of Mr. Hale's capital. He came here with plenty of money but invested in more land than he could carry through the financial storm.
The 1837 panic hit another mill, that built in 1836 by Thomas Willison, Thomas Mckibben, J. H. Murphy and G. W. Cassady, and which was the first steam-power saw mill. It was built on the river bottoms, just below the Wabash Railroad bridge. After the panic the building was allowed to rot away, even the logs drawn there for lumber rotted in the millyard.
The Kyger mill, perhaps, is the most historical of them all. William Sheets, of Georgetown, and Thomas Morgan built the first mill in 1833 and started operations in 1834. It was known as the Morgan & Sheets mill and the builders operated it until 1842.
In 1850, the mill was bought by Henry Kyger and in 1865 Daniel Kyger acquired an interest, the firm of Kyger
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Brothers being formed. Daniel Kyger acquired full con- trol of the mill in 1873.
Daniel Kyger was reared on a farm near Georgetown, the son of John and Mary Sheets Kyger. At the age of eighteen he learned the millwright business and in 1849, with William Sheets, Thomas Morgan and H. T. Kyger, built the first steam flour mill in Georgetown, which was the first steam flour mill in the county. Before the comple- tion of the mill in 1850 at a cost of five thousand dollars, N. Henderson & Son were added to the ownership.
Mr. Kyger remained in this mill until 1854, when he with Nathaniel Henderson and sons came to Danville and started to built what was later known as the Danville Flour Mills. This was the first steam flour mill in Danville. This mill started grinding in 1856 and Mr. Kyger remained in charge until 1865, when he changed to the other mill. The first Kyger mill later passed into the control of M. M. Wright.
Leonard's mill was built in 1834 and the Jenkins mill was built about the same time down the river near the state line. This was operated until 1863 when Jenkins was induced to go to Catlin, where the citizens presented him with the famous Heath building providing he would install the machinery and operate a steam flour mill, which he did.
It is probable that Catlin thus achieved the distinction of having paid the first bonus to secure an industry.
The Amber mill was built near the Wabash depot in 1866 at a cost of twenty-eight thousand dollars, by Shella- berger & Bowers. It was burned in 1874 and rebuilt in 1875 by Bowers & Company. It later passed into the hands of D. Gregg.
The Glove mill was built in 1870 by Knight & Fair- child. It was in the west part of the city near the North
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Fork. It was afterward operated by Joseph Smith and George C. Giddings, who bought it in 1875 and changed the name to the Lustro Mills.
The City mill was built in 1875 on South Vermilion Street, across from the present county jail, at a cost of twenty thousand dollars, by Samuel Bowers. This was a first-class merchant mill with a capacity of five barrels of flour an hour.
There were three whisky distilleries operated at one time in this vicinity, the first being started in 1830 by W. D. Palmer and Peleg Cole, on the Chicago road a mile and a half north of the city. This business was not successful and the distillery was not operated long.
The old Bushong distillery, in the east part of town, started operations in 1859. The Civil War brought on the necessity of a government tax on whisky, starting at fifty cents a gallon and finally reaching two dollars a gallon. The last tax destroyed fortunes in the distillery business and the Bushong distillery was discontinued, the machin- ery being moved to Chicago, the building being turned into a flour mill. The Bushong distillery had an output of eighty to one hundred barrels of whisky a day.
There was a corn cracker and distillery on Brady's Branch in 1833. It had an output of a barrel of whisky a day and was operated by William M. Payne, the building being owned by Mr. Froman, who had the distinction of building the first flat boat in this county in 1834 to carry his produce to New Orleans, by the way of the Vermilion, Wabash, Ohio and Mississippi Rivers.
Danville was first planned for a river town and the early settlement was near the river on West Main Street, there being dreams of a river trade and boats docking from
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points east and south. Perrysville and Covington, Indiana, held the bulk of the river trade.
There was considerable flatboat traffic down the rivers to New Orleans, where the owners would sell their produce and boats and make their way overland back to Danville. But the Vermilion River, because of its insufficient depth, failed to materialize as a river town and the coming of the railroads sounded the doom of the boats.
Dr. William Fithian built the first frame dwelling in Danville. It had a hardwood floor built of planed lumber. This was in 1830. He came to Danville June 1, 1830, from Ohio, where he had the distinction of having built the first frame houses in both the cities of Springfield and Urbana. It is likely that he was the first practicing physician in Vermilion County.
Fithian, the little village west of Oakwood, was named after Dr. Fithian, this honor being conferred because of his giving right of way to the Indianapolis, Bloomington and Western Railroad in 1871 through a large tract of land he owned in Oakwood township, in addition to five acres of land.
The first brick building in Danville was started in 1832 on Main Street by McDonald & Roliston, who conducted a harness-making business and who secured the contract for making holsters for the rangers, or militia, of the state, who were ordered out for the Blackhawk War.
Before the building was completed, the close of this war exploded the dream of the Danville firm of making a fortune out of holsters at three dollars and fifty cents a pair, and they dissolved partnership, the property falling into the hands of a man who called himself "Citizen" Smith.
Smith made a popular brand of beer and conducted a small retail establishment. This building afterward gave
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way to a new building which was occupied by the A. L. Webster hardware store.
The first wool carding machine was put in a large wooden building on the corner just north of the Aetna House by Nathaniel Beesley, a Baptist preacher. Two oxen provided the motive power. Carding at first was in greater demand than the mills which made woolen cloth, as the farmers kept a few sheep and preferred to make their own cloth.
The first woolen mill was built on the North Fork near the bridge that leads today from the city proper to Ver- milion Heights. It was first built in 1844 as a carding mill by Mr. Carter, but in 1850 Hobson & Aylsworth bought the property, enlarged the building and installed the woolen mill machinery. It later passed into the hands of S. H. Riggs and F. Menig, the firm name being Riggs & Menig. Riggs, with a brother bought the mill in 1875 and a year later he secured control and a year later took Menig in as a partner. They added the manufacture of soap, this product having a wide sale throughout the middle western states.
W. J. Reynolds who came here with a first-class musical education received in Boston, Massachusetts, organized the first brass band here in 1847. This was the first brass band in Illinois, although a reed band had been organized in 1846. He maintained this band for thirty years, except for a short time during the Civil War. He taught music and organized and directed the first choir in the city. He had the distinction of having been the leader of twenty bands that served in the Civil War.
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