USA > Illinois > Peoria County > Peoria > Peoria city and county, Illinois; a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Vol. I > Part 47
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About the time of the completion of the Peoria & Oquawka railroad, now a part of the Burlington system, Joseph Bohrer and William M. Dodge, of Peoria, on April 19, 1856, laid out the village of Oak Hill on the south half of the south- west quarter of section 6. The firm of Tyng & Brotherson, of Peoria, erected a warehouse and at once commenced buying grain. However, when the Buda branch of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy railroad and the Peoria & Farm- ington, now of the Iowa Central system, were built, Oak Hill's trade was greatly diminished. The census of 1910 gives the place a population of 81.
The first church organized in the township was a Methodist. The society was formed in 1837 and a place of worship known as Combs' meeting house was erected on section 14. It has long since gone to decay and has been abandoned. For a full history of the Methodist church in this township, see article in this volume devoted to that subject.
TRIVOLI TOWNSHIP
Geographically. Trivoli township in relation to others in the county is in the southwest corner. Its boundaries are as follows: On the south and west is Ful- ton county, north is Elmwood township, and east Logan. It is well watered throughout the whole of its borders by small streams, and the quality of the soil can hardly be surpassed, making for it one of the best townships in the county. The land is highly improved, well fenced, residences and outbuildings of the very best and a general air of prosperity pervades the whole community.
Trivoli was organized in 1850, the first election being held on April 2d of that year. Hazard Larkins was the chairman and Simeon L. Hunt, clerk of the organizing meeting. On motion of David R. Gregory, Eli Wilson was chosen moderator and Thomas Johnson, clerk. The election for town officers resulted as follows: David R. Gregory, supervisor; Samuel Wilkinson, town clerk ; Thomas Ramsey, assessor ; Elias Potter, overseer of the poor ; Royce Allen, col- lector ; Joseph Stevens, Jonathan Crane and Melatiah Bourne, highway commis- sioners; David R. Gregory and Thomas Ramsey, justices; Royce Allen and James Wilson, constables.
The first settler was Isaac Harkness, who located on the edge of the grove on section 4. in 1830. He was a Pennsylvanian by nativity and trudged all the way from Bradford county, that state, on foot to his new home, where he built a cabin and fenced in a small plat of ground, in which he planted a crop of corn. The following year found him in the lead mines at Galena, to which place he had made his way on foot, and where he worked and earned sufficient money to pay his expenses back to Pennsylvania. The same winter he walked to his old home and returned to this community the next year with his family, arriving on Christ- mas day. His only means of transportation was a light wagon, drawn by one
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horse. Luckily, he found his little habitation unmolested and his corn in the same condition, notwithstanding a camp of Indians consisting of twelve families, lived only a half mile therefrom. The following year, in February, 1832, his son Henry Harkness was born, the first white child whose birth is ascribed to this township. Some time later Isaac Harkness' father, a veteran of the Revolu- tionary war, joined him and made his home here until his death in 1835. It is said that soon after his arrival here Mr. Harkness journeyed to Chicago in his one-horse wagon and brought back from that embryo city the first barrel of salt ever brought into the township. Levi Harkness, Gardner Gilbert and wife, Sam- uel Emery, Sr., Melatiah Bourne and Robert McConnell were the arrivals in 1831. Following them on up to 1835, these settlers set stakes for homes here : Samuel Clark and wife, Benjamin W. Crane and wife, Elias Wilson and wife, James Wickshire, James and Page Hyatt, David R. Gregory and wife, Thomas and Joel Lane. John Bird, Curtis Cady and wife, Samuel M. Mack, Samuel Clark, George Robinson, Saxton Kellogg, Martin Mathis, Thomas Ramsey, William Wilson, John Proctor, Quinton Wilson, the Arteus and Barnes families, and Philip and Henry Green; and then the population began to increase rapidly.
The first schoolhouse to be built in Trivoli township was of crude logs and located on the farm of Isaac Harkness. Its first teacher was Miss Sarah Waters, daughter of Isaac Waters, whose sisters, Maria, Sarah and Ruth, all subse- quently taught school in this county. In the southwest portions of the township a schoolhouse was built in 1841, which was presided over by John Carter. It was a frame building and was also used by the Methodists a number of years for their meetings. At the present time there are eleven schoolhouses, modern in their make-up, in the township. The one at the village of Trivoli has two rooms large enough to accommodate eighty pupils. Here the high-school course pre- scribed by the state is taught.
September 19, 1840, Rev. George G. Sill as a missionary, and Rev. Abraham D. Wilson, acting as a committee of the Classis of Illinois, organized a church with ten members, which for a time was known as the Protestant Dutch church of Copperas. On November 25, 1844, when a postoffice was located at that point and named Brunswick, the name of the church was changed to Brunswick. Thomas Ramsey and George Wells were the first ruling elders. The church was received into the Presbytery of Peoria, October 26, 1848, and has since been known as a Presbyterian church. Rev. D. F. McFarland was the first pastor. Located on the southeast quarter of section 25 is an Evangelical Lutheran church, which was organized May 27, 1855, with seventeen members. Rev. James Scherer was the first pastor, Henry Frank the first elder, and Patrick Gilbreath, the first deacon. The church numbers about sixty members. The Methodist churches of the township are spoken of in the chapter under that title.
VILLAGES
There have been several villages laid out in the township, only one of which has survived. March 25, 1836, Eli Wilcox, Edson Harkness and Benjamin Newell laid out a town plat on the southwest quarter of section 5 and northwest quarter of section 8, which they named Harkness. For some time it was quite an important station on the stage route from Peoria to Monmouth but it has so dwindled into insignificance as not to be especially mentioned as a separate entity in the census reports.
April 11, 1836, Henry F. Coulter laid out the village of Wheeling on the north- east quarter of section 9 on the road leading from Peoria to the Knox county line. It now has no place upon the map. On April 28, 1836, Isaac Underwood, of Peoria, laid out lots for a village on the southeast quarter of section 8 and the southwest quarter of section 9 on the road from Peoria to the Mississippi river. This embryo village was given the name of Caledonia and the ostensible reason for the money and trouble expended in creating these towns was the possible
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building of the Peoria & Warsaw railroad through their borders. The anticipa- tions of their projectors, however, were never realized.
Aurora was another village contemplated by its ambitious promoter, Robert Mckay, who laid it out on the northwest quarter of section 27, August 24, 1836. It is not at all improbable that this village was started in the expectation of the railroad being projected through that portion of the township.
The village of Cramer is a shipping point and station on the Iowa Central railroad, which sprang up after the advent of that line of transportation.
Trivoli, the only village to survive of the many others projected, has not a recorded plat but it is presumed that it was laid out some time previous to the founding of the Trivoli Social Library, which was organized in 1839. The town was first built along the Farmington road but since the location of the Iowa Central railroad the principal places of business have been located nearer the station. There are three retail stores of a general character, an agricultural implement concern, elevator and blacksmith shop. The population in 1910 was 116. The history of the churches is given in another part of this work.
KICKAPOO TOWNSHIP
This township, 9 north, 8 east, is centrally located, and although somewhat broken by the Kickapoo creek and its branches, is well adapted to agriculture. It derives its name from the creek of that name which flows through it from west to east. This creek has had a variety of names. It seems to have been known to the English, when the country belonged to them, by the name of Cartineaux, to the early French by the name of de Arescy, or Arcoury, to the later French by the name of Corteneau and Gatinan, which latter was probably a corruption ; also by the name of Maillet's river, but by the Indians it was called the Kickapoo, which is their name for the Red Bud or Judas tree, which grew in great abundance along its banks. This stream was considered of inestimable value to the early settlers on account of the water power it afforded. The water power was utilized at a very early day in the history of the township.
LALE'S MILL
In 1834 William Hale visited the Kickapoo valley, and being well pleased with the outlook. selected a site on the northeast quarter of section 35. Returning home to Oswego county, New York, he resigned the office of sheriff which he then held, and returned again to Illinois in the spring of 1835, accompanied by George Greenwood, John Easton and Waldo Ilughes. John L. Wakefield, for- merly of Radnor township, had arrived early in the year 1834, and in the autumn of the same year Francis and George O. Kingsley had arrived, also John Coyle and Israel Pinckney. The Kingsleys were from Vermont and Mr. Pinckney was from New York city. He built his cabin on the southeast quarter of section 12. Samuel Dimon came from Connecticut in 1838 and settled on section 10, where he resided until his death. Joseph Vorhees came in 1839 and Gideon Thomas came in 1844 and settled on a farm a short distance east of the Kickapoo village. Upon his arrival William Hale, who had a brother, Asahel, erected a sawmill on the mill site he had selected the year before. It appears that at some date prior to December, 1835, the Hale brothers had obtained from the county com- missioners' court a writ for the assessment of damages for the erection of a mill dam on the quarter selected, which writ was returned at the December terni of that year. The jury reported that they had been sworn by the coroner, there being no sheriff in the county; that they had been upon the land and, having viewed the site and the land above and below it, were of the opinion that Francis P. Kingsley and George O. Kingsley would sustain damages to the amount of $5,000 ; that they had located and set apart three acres of land beginning on the east side of the Kickapoo river on the line dividing sections 35 and 26, thence to
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the center of the river, taking three rods from said center east and west on both sides of the center of said river following up the stream eighty rods ; that no other persons would sustain any damage; that no dwelling house, outhouse, garden or orchard would be overflowed, and that the health of the neighborhood would not be injuriously affected by said overflowing ; said claims being made upon the pre- sumption that the said dam should not be built more than ten feet high above the bed of the stream. This return dated October 8, 1835. is signed by Horace P. Johnson, foreman, Thomas P. Phillips, Israel B. Tucker, Henry G. McComsay, S. W. Stanton, Reuben Carley, Thomas Hardesty, Chris Hamlin, Isaac Under- hill, Robert Cline, John Donnelson and Fitch Meacham, jurors. The prayer of the petitioners was granted and they were permitted to build their dam on pay- ment of the damages.
The erection of the mill was then proceeded with and in the spring of 1836 they had a "raising." Mr. Hale, during that summer brought his family by wagon from Albany, New York, and having procured the necessary machinery in the east, the mill was completed and set to running in the spring of 1837. It was finished in splendid style, the interior being finished equal to good cabinet furni- ture. It immediately gained an immense custom, being visited by settlers from a distance of thirty or more miles in every direction. It seems that both Asahel Hale and George Greenwood had joint interests in it with William Hale, and it was known as Hale & Greenwood's Mill.
On July 23, 1836, before this mill was completed and doubtless in view of the numbers of people that would be attracted there, as well as from the fact that coal mines were then beginning to be operated on the adjoining land, Norman H. Purple and Andrew ME. Hunt laid out a village of seventeen blocks, with Washington square in the center, on the east half of the northwest quarter of sec- tion 35, which they named Hudson. This proposed village was very near the mill and only a short distance from the present village of Pottstown. On the recorded plat of the road to Knoxville, another road from Jones' to Ilale & Greenwood's mill, the mill itself and the location of extensive coal mines in the immediate vicinity plainly appear.
Mr. Hale being a devoted Methodist, donated a tract of land for burial, religi- ous and school purposes and erected thereon a small house. Rev. Stephen R. Beggs was one of the first ministers to visit the place. He held services there and organized a Methodist congregation which flourished for a number of years and is said to have had at one time one hundred and fifty members, but many years ago it became extinct.
The water supply having in a measure failed, steam power was introduced about 1848. Mr. Hale continued to own and control the mill until the time of his death, which occurred in 1859. The mill was subsequently converted into a distillery, which was destroyed by fire in 1867.
POTTSTOWN
The coal mining interests in the immediate neighborhood of Hale's mill caused a large number of miners to become domiciled there. Samuel Potts was one of the principal operators and the settlement in course of time came to be known as Pottstown. September 30, 1889, Mrs. Ann Potts, widow of Samuel Potts, laid out a plat on part of the west half of the northwest quarter of section 36, which has since then become a lively village of miners. A few years ago the Presby- terians established a church there and erected a comfortable house of worship. It still maintains a feeble existence but it has recently been greatly weakened by dismissals to other churches.
KICKAPOO
This town can boast of as great an age as almost any other in the county. It was laid out by John Coyle, July 3, 1836, on the southwest quarter of section 6.
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It occupied an eight-acre tract and had a public square in the center. The first house was erected by Mr. Judkins on the site of the old Kickapoo house. It was at first used as a store but additions were made and it was converted into a hotel, in which capacity it continued to be used for many years. As the village was on the great stage route from Peoria to the west, a large amount of travel passed through it, and as this was the first stopping place west of Peoria, the hotel became well known to travelers and did a flourishing business. The village was also the place where political conventions were held until the coming in of the railroads, as it was the nearest village to the center of the county. The last convention held there was probably the democratic convention of 1856, when the Peoria delegates were taken by rail on flat cars to Edwards and thence by farm wagons to the village. The railroad was then finished only to that point and passenger coaches had not yet been introduced. Until that time and for some years later, the village enjoyed a large country trade but it has become greatly diminished. There are now two retail stores of general merchandise, an agricultural implement con- cern and two blacksmith shops.
CHURCHES
There are four churches in the village-Baptist, Methodist, German Catholic and Irish Catholic. It is doubtless true that the Irish Catholic church is one of the oldest in the county, the precise date of its organization, or of the erection of its first chapel, not having been ascertained. It is said upon good authority that in the '30s Black Partridge (now Lourdes, in Woodford county) and Kick- apoo were more important places in the Catholic church than Peoria. In those early days the priest on Christmas morning said mass at the stroke of twelve in Kickapoo, then hurrying on to Peoria offered up the Holy Sacrifice as the sun was rising, only to take the road once more and to finish his day's labor with a third mass about noon at Black Partridge. It is said the present chapel was erected in 1835, but this is not certain.
Episcopal church (now extinct ). This village being in the immediate vicinity of Jubilee, the residence of Bishop Chase and the headquarters of the Episcopal church in Illinois. many of that denomination settled in this vicinity. They erected a house of worship in 1845, which continued in their possession until 1860, when it was partially destroyed by fire and never afterwards occupied by that denomination.
The German Catholic church. In 1861 the German Catholics bought the grounds and the standing walls of the Episcopal church edifice for $324, and at once commenced to reconstruct the building. Father Fronenhofer was priest at the time and under his management the same was completed in the fall of 1862, at a cost of $842. In 1869 an addition was made to the building at a cost of $1,725. Adjoining the church is a parsonage, erected in 1876, at a cost, including the lot, of $3,000. Rev. Father Stower is pastor of both Catholic churches.
The Baptist congregation was organized March 29, 1851, by Rev. Henry G. Weston, of Peoria, who preached a sermon on that occasion. Services had been held at several places in the vicinity for some time, as there were many of that faith settled near the village. The charter members were Moses Smith, Evan Evans and wife, Thomas Fallyn and wife, Anthony Fallyn and wife, Joseph Fallyn, George H. Frye and wife, George W. Weston and wife, Elizabeth Bell and Fanny Huxtable. A church was built in 1854.
EDWARDS STATION
This village is on the extreme western boundary of the township where the state road crosses from the east side to the west side of the Kickapoo creek. It has always been considered an important point from the year 1836, when George Berry petitioned the county commissioners' court for permission to erect
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EDWARDS HOUSE AT EDWARDS STATION
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a mill dam on the northeast quarter of section 30. When the railroad was finished to that point it became and continued to be the principal shipping point until Oak Hill was reached. It has ever since been a place where considerable local trade has been carried on. Extensive coal mines are worked in the immediate vicinity, which fact has been the occasion of the growth of a miners' village at this point. The first settler at the place where the station was afterwards located was Isaac Jones, who died in 1840. The next was Conrad Beck in 1861. E. D. Edwards opened the first store in 1851 and two years later built a steam flouring mill, which was successfully operated for three or four years, when it was de- stroyed by fire. It has never been rebuilt.
COAL MINING
Coal mines had been opened near Hale's mill as early as 1838, but they do not seem to have been operated extensively until 1849 or 1850, when Jacob Darst, of Peoria, began "stripping," which he continued for about five years. He then sold some bluff land to Frederick Ruprecht and John Woolenscraft, who com- menced "drifting" into the hillside. In 1851 Ruprecht sold out to his partners who continued to operate the mines for about two years, when he sold to Ander- son Grimes and Judge Thomas Bryant, of Peoria, who in turn sold to Samuei Potts. Mr. Potts became a very large operator and continued to carry on the business during the remainder of his life. Other mines have for many years been carried on in the same vicinity and between that and Edwards Station.
In 1860 Dr. Justin H. Wilkinson commenced buying coal lands near Edwards Station and continued to make purchases in Rosefield, as well as in Kickapoo, until at one time he owned about one thousand acres. In December, 1876, he associated himself with Isaac Wantling, an experienced miner, and together they developed very extensive mines. These two points, Pottstown and Edwards, have in years become two of the most important mining points in the county.
SCHOOLS
Prior to the adoption of the free school system there were very few public schools in the township. In 1840 Samuel Dimon, who had come to the township in 1838, hauled the logs for the first schoolhouse in what is now district No. I. It was situated on the northeast quarter of section 11, where the present school- house now stands. In that house Miss Harriet Hitchcock is believed to have been the first teacher. Samuel Dimon afterwards taught there for two or three terms. Prior to 1851 there was a schoolhouse some distance west of Hale's mill known as the Kingsley schoolhouse, but it is not known when or by whom it was built. In 1851 Miss Sarah Smith taught the first school at Hale's mill, occupying a cooper shop for a schoolhouse. The school now located at Potts- town is known as No. 4.
The first schoolhouse in district No. 5 was located on the northwest quarter of section 9. It was a frame building, erected in the spring of 1851, at a cost of $260. The first school taught there was by H. Gregory, commencing in the fall of that year. This schoolhouse was replaced in 1877 by a modern frame house which cost $570.
The first schoolhouse in district No. 6 was erected on the southeast quarter of section 16, in August, 1860. It was a frame building, costing $300. School was commenced there in the fall of 1860 by a teacher named H. M. Behymer.
The first schoolhouse in district No. 7 was erected in the summer of 1867 on the northeast quarter of section 33. Miss H. Pritchard was the first teacher there. She commenced in the winter of that year.
The first schoolhouse in district No. 8 was erected in the summer of 1867 on the northwest quarter of section 13, at a cost of $528. The first school was taught there in the winter of that year by Miss Hattie C. Hennison. The town-
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ship is now well supplied with schoolhouses of modern style and the schools are in a prosperous condition.
The Patrons of Husbandry at one time had a stronghold in this township, there having been two granges, No. 446 or South Kickapoo, now extinct, and Orange, having a grange hall on the northeast quarter of section II. It is one of the seven yet surviving in the county.
CHILLICOTHE TOWNSHIP
This township is the only one that lies in range 9 east of the fourth principal meridian. It is composed of two fractional congressional townships, 10 north, 9 east, and it north, 9 east, the first named being a very small fraction. The northeast corner of this township is the northeast corner of the county, its northern boundary being the south line of Marshall county, its eastern and southeastern boundaries being the Illinois river, which separates it from Wood- ford county.
Could the early history of this township be written it would doubtless prove little less interesting than that of Peoria. It was here the eyes of Joliet and Marquette last rested upon the soil of Peoria county, and here LaSalle and his companions first entered Lake Pimiteoui. We can well imagine all the cele- brated voyageurs and missionaries to have camped here in their voyages up and down the river, and to have established mission stations or trading posts within its borders. Here also dwelt Gomo and Senachwine, two chiefs of the Potta- wottomies. It was in this township Captain William Levering visited Gomo in the year 1811 and slept in his cabin just before the great council at Peoria. It was doubtless at the Indian village between Rome and Chillicothe he halted and was obliged to engage a new crew to complete his journey. Into this township the Indians of Black Partridge's village fled when the village was attacked and destroyed by Governor Edwards in 1812. It was here that General Howard halted his army of nearly 1,000 men in his march against the Indians of Gomo's tribe in 1813, and it was from this point they returned to Peoria to assist in the building of Fort Clark. All these events, however, occurred long before the modern history of the township began.
LaSalle Prairie, a portion of which lies in this township, is about ten miles long from three to four miles wide, and is one of the most fertile spots in the country. This fact, coupled with its nearness to the river, as well as to the timber land surrounding it, early attracted an enterprising and industrious com- munity of farmers. In fact it was regarded as one of the centers of population, so that in the assessment of property those living there were designated as resi- dents of LaSalle Prairie, the same as were those of Farm Creek, Ten Mile Creek, Mackinaw and other places. In 1837 it had obtained a place and name in the Gazetteers of the day and the settlement is said to have contained one hundred families. It also gave its name to election precincts and school districts. This community furnished a goodly number of public officers and other public-spirited men who did much toward the organization and development of the county. It was here the "Farmers Exporting Company" was formed. At an early day also a state road was laid out from a point on the Galena road near Mossville, thence along the river through Rome and the village of Chillicothe to points farther north, which became part of the stage route from Peoria to Chicago. The northern part of the township which was originally timber land has been cleared and now contains many fine farms.
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