USA > Illinois > Peoria County > Peoria > Peoria city and county, Illinois; a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Vol. I > Part 48
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The Senachwine creek is the largest stream in the northern part of the county flowing into the Illinois river. It divides the township into two nearly equal portions. It derived its name from Senachwine, the last chief of the Pottawottomies in this section whose village was located on its banks. In an early day the flow of water was much greater than at present, affording, as it did, water power for the driving of both grist and sawmills. Although it is said
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that William Moffitt had a mill in this township as early as 1834, yet it appears that March 7, 1836, William and Jeremiah Moffitt petitioned the county com- missioners' court for a writ for the assessment of such damages as might be occasioned by the erection of a mill dam on the northwest quarter of section 18. On the same day Ashbel Merrill obtained a similar writ for the erection of a mill dam on the northwest quarter of section 17. At the April term, 1836, the writ in favor of Ashbel Merrill was returned, allowing Henry Pepper $50 dam- ages caused to his land by the erection of the dam. The return to Moffitt's writ found the dam to be upon their own land and no injury would be caused to the neighborhood. The Moffitt mill was a grist mill, much resorted to by people for many miles around. It had probably no competitor nearer than Rochester on Spoon river and the mills on the Kickapoo near Peoria. Merrill's mill is said to have been a sawmill located about one-half mile lower down the stream than Moffitts'.
About this time or a little later there were three rival villages in what is now Chillicothe township-Rome, Allentown and the village of Chillicothe, the first having twenty-five houses, the second three, and the third thirty houses. There is no plat of Allentown on record but the ferry licenses granted to George Allen in the year 1832 locate it on the southeast quarter of section 29, township II north, range 9 east.
The first attempt to locate a village upon the present site of the city of Chillicothe was made by Samuel T. McKean, who on November 28, 1834, caused a plat to be surveyed by Charles Ballance, county surveyor, on the southwest quarter of section 21, and the northwest quarter of section 28. It consisted of four entire blocks and four extra lots, which were doubtless intended to be included in a subsequent plat. It was acknowledged December 18, 1834, before Andrew M. Hunt, justice of the peace.
June 6, 1838, Harrison H. Jamison and Joseph Hart platted a village on the southwest quarter of section 21, and the southeast quarter of section 20, cover- ing a much larger territory, which they named Chillicothe, apparently ignoring the former plat, and possibly including it in this. The streets were 66 feet wide, alleys 18, lots 66x166 feet.
October 21, 1836, James T. Temple and Harrison H. Jamison laid out an addition to Chillicothe which they named Temple & Jamison's addition. It was located on the northwest quarter of section 28 on the river. It was of an ir- regular shape, consisting of three fractional blocks on the river, three full blocks and two other fractions. Several other additions have since then been annexed but these were the original plats of the city.
December 24, 1832, Jefferson Taliafero placed upon the records of deeds in the recorder's office of Peoria county, a plat of the village of Rome. It con- sisted of twenty-three blocks and a public square, but not being accompanied with any survey or dedication, its location cannot be definitely fixed. But that it was the original plat of the village of Rome cannot be doubted. It is one of the very earliest village plats recorded in Peoria county, it being contempo- raneous with the first plat of what is now Mill's addition to the city of Peoria. The streets running parallel with the river were named Front, Second, Third, and Fourth, while the ones running at right angles to those mentioned bore the distinguished names of Caesar, Pompey, Anthony, Octavius, Cato, Cicero and Brutus.
October 10, 1835, Isaac Underhill laid out a village which he also named Rome, which may have covered the territory occupied by the former one, but inasmuch as the land is not specifically described this must rest upon conjecture. It consisted of forty-four blocks and a public square, ten lots of 821/2x132 feet to a block. As already seen, Rome was a dangerous rival of Chillicothe and is said to have been at one time an aspirant for the location of the county seat.
June 20, 1837, Samuel Bell laid out a village plat named LaSalle, on the northeast quarter of section 32, surveyed by John McFadden, deputy of Thomas
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Phillips, county surveyor. The tract is a fractional one containing about seventy- five acres, of which about sixty-four acres were embraced in the plat. Little is known of this village, if in fact, it ever had any existence. It was vacated March 6, 1849, by Hiram Cleveland, who was then owner of all the lots.
In 1840 Mr. Underhill began the cultivation of his farm at Rome by the breaking up of two hundred acres, to which were added five hundred acres more the following year. It subsequently grew to twenty-two hundred, which was doubtless the largest farm in the county. In the fall of 1841 he sowed three hundred acres in winter wheat, from which he had an excellent crop, harvested with the old-fashioned cradle, and sold at thirty-two cents per bushel, the highest market price of that year. The next year he put one thousand acres into winter wheat, which was so badly winter killed he did not harvest one bushel. In 1846 he set out on his land at Rome ten thousand grafted apple trees and six thousand peach trees which he cultivated for seven years. April 1, 1853, he sold his farm to Dr. Ela H. Clapp and a Mr. Butler for $40,000.
While extending his farm at Rome, Mr. Underhill had a house built to run on wheels, somewhat similar in construction to a sleeping car. It was drawn by oxen to different parts of the farm, which consisted wholly of a smooth prairie. He had about twenty yoke of oxen, used in breaking the sod. He had thirty- five families of renters, among whom was a preacher who got free of rent all the land he could till in consideration of his preaching to the tenants on Sunday. Another was a fiddler who furnished the music for the balls that were frequent occurrences at the Rome Hotel during the winter season, on which occasions Mr. Underhill would be a frequent guest.
After the completion of the Peoria and Bureau Valley railroad, of which Mr. Underhill was president, a controversy sprang up between it and the city of Peoria in regard to the use of the streets or some other terminal privileges to connect with the steamboat landing, in consequence of which Rome was for a time made the head of navigation as to all freights going by rail and river. A spur track was built to connect 'the main track with the river and a large ware- house was erected on the river bank ( there being a good landing at that point) through which all freight to and from the boats and the railroad were passed, thus avoiding the complications at Peoria. Rome has, however, not grown much in population, it being at the present day but little larger than it was sixty years ago. The Rome fraction constitutes a school district by itself, having a good schoolhouse, in which a good school is maintained.
Prior to township organization that portion of territory known as township Il north, range 9 east, constituted an election precinct by the name of Senach- wine. When the reorganization took place, the fraction known as township 10 north, range 9 east, was attached and the name of Chillicothe was given to the newly formed township.
Prior to 1830 there were a few settlers in what is now Chillicothe township. Mahlon Lupton and John Hammett with his family had settled north of the creek on section 9, as early as 1830. The first cabin erected on the site of Chilli- cothe was that of Jefferson Hickson, a blacksmith, on the bank of the river, near which he also erected his shop. The second was that of Edwin L. Jones, who was the pioneer merchant of the place. His store occupied one room of the cabin in which he lived. He was the first justice of the peace and was a man of prom- inence in the county, he having also served for some years as a member of the county commissioners' court. In 1838 a Mr. Lehart erected a small frame house of one room which his family occupied while he kept store in a cabin on Water street.
The first tavern was opened. in 1835 by James M. Brown, which was called the Dunlap House. It was a one and a half story house situated on First street, but the name was subsequently changed to the American . House. It was kept by William Dunlap for about five years, during which time it was the stopping place for stages to and from Chicago. The next is said to have been the Illinois, subsequently changed to the Buckeye.
MAIN STREET, CHILLICOTHE
PUBLIC SCHOOLS. CHILLICOTHE
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The Transit Hotel was erected about 1850. Thomas Kitts was the first pro- prietor. It is at present operated by J. H. Humes. The Union Hotel was erected about 1865 by O. G. Wood and was at first called Wood's Hotel. It was subsequently changed to the Commercial and later to Union Hotel. D. McKeel is the present proprietor.
The Chillicothe House was a frame building containing ten to fifteen rooms, erected and kept for some years by John Ilayes. It was destroyed by fire in 1873.
From its position on the river and its proximity to the fertile lands in the northern part of Peoria and the southern part of Marshall counties, Chillicothe has from an early day been a prominent market for grain, pork and other prod- ucts of the farm. This trade was also enhanced by the running of a ferry to the opposite shore, which enabled it to command the custom from a large portion of Woodford county, as well as from that portion of Marshall county lying east of the river. Of such importance was this trade considered that on March 4. 1867, a charter was obtained from the legislature for the Chillicothe Ferry Road and Bridge Company, with power to establish and run a ferry, to build a bridge, to make roads approaching the same on both sides of the river and to purchase or condemn lands for that purpose, these rights to be exclusive for a distance of three miles along the river. The company had a capital of $30,000. It es- tablished the ferry, constructed the road across the bottom lands on the easterly side of the river and has been operating the same ever since.
Jolin A. Moffitt built the first grain warehouse-on the river bank in 1847, the trade at that time being confined to the river. Henry Truitt erected a grain warehouse about the year 1853, and in company with Samuel C. Jack started the first extensive business in grain. This firm and its successors have done a very large and flourishing business for many years. Soon after the completion of the Peoria and Bureau Valley railroad, its lessee, the Chicago & Rock Island Company, erected an elevator at the depot, which was consumed by fire in 1864. It was rebuilt and an elevator has ever since been maintained at that point for the shipment of grain. It is at present operated by the Chillicothe Grain Com- pany. An extensive business in milling was formerly carried on, but unfor- tunately, one of the finest mills, that of Wood & Hosmer, was destroyed by fire in 1869. The year before that event, the Farmers' Mill, with a capacity of grind- ing fifty barrels of flour per day, had been erected by Adam Petry and A. C. Thomas. The River elevator, or Old Star elevator, which had been lying idle for many years, is now operated by the Turner, Hudnut Company, of Pekin, Illinois, who do their shipping entirely by the river, as there are no railroad tracks reaching it.
Prior to 1873 Chillicothe had been governed as a village by a board of trus- tees. In April of that year it adopted a city government and elected Henry Hosmer, mayor ; William McLean, Levi Booth, Joseph Bailey, William H. Bar- bour and Richard . Hughes, aldermen. It now has a population of about 1,850 and contains the number and variety of business houses usually found in cities of its size ; among which may be mentioned several dry-goods, grocery, drug and hardware stores, establishments for the sale of farm machinery and furniture, grain elevators, lumberyards, etc.
There are two banks. The first, that of Truitt, Matthews & Company, was organized in 1868 by Henry Truitt and Samuel C. Jack. Later the firm was com- posed of Henry Truitt, P. T. Matthews, Harvey Holman and A. D. Sawyer. The present proprietors are Henry Truitt, P. T. Matthews, - Mead and Rollin H. Truitt. It has a capital stock of $40,000, surplus, $30,000. Frank L. Wilmot is cashier.
The First National Bank was organized December 10, 1900, with a capital of $25,000. B. F. Zinzer being president, Ira D. Buck, vice president, and Eugene Moffitt, cashier. The present cashier is L. R. Phillips. Its stockholders are among the most prosperous business men of Peoria, Pekin, Washington and Chillicothe. February 10, 1902, its resources were $111,778, and its deposits, $79.557.
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There are two weekly newspapers, the Chillicothe Bulletin and the Chilli- cothe Enquirer, the first started July 4, 1883, by the present proprietor, Frank W. Bailey, the second in 1891 by Messrs. Day & Bates. The present proprietor of the latter is H. A. Bates, one of the founders of the paper.
The city is supplied with telephone service by The Peoples Telephone Com- pany, of which B. F. Zinzer is president, and E. Moffitt is secretary and treas- urer. The company was organized in 1891. It now has one hundred and fifty 'phones in operation. It furnishes country service in Peoria county and cable service across the river connecting with lines in Woodford, McLean, Marshall and Tazewell counties.
CHURCHES
The Baptists were the first to hold religious meetings in Chillicothe, probably under the direction of Elder Gersham Silliman as early as 1837. In the spring of 1838 they organized the Baptist church with the following members: Peter Temple and wife, James H. Temple and wife, James Hammett and his wife and mother. Eller Silliman ministered to the people for a short time, when Alex- ander Rider, a Scotch clergyman, became pastor and remained for two years. In the same year James H. Temple started a Sunday school which was held at the residence of the members. The church was then without a pastor for several years, there being occasional preaching from time to time. In 1850 Elder C. D. Merritt began preaching semi-monthly and a reorganization took place with fifteen members. Elder Thomas Bodley became the first pastor in 1850 and was succeeded in 1851 by Rev. C. D. Merritt. Through a revival of that year the congregation increased its membership to ninety-two, and in 1851 and 1852 it erected a comfortable brick house of worship, with a seating capacity of 400. By 1857 the congregation had increased its membership to 102. The church then suffered a great decline for some years and its church building was sold for debt, but through the exertions of its members, aided by the citizens, it was redeemed and from that time took on new life. In 1866 the building was re- paired at an expense of $900, and on the 2d of December of that year was re- dedicated. From that time until now it has been one of the permanent churches of the city. It is located on the corner of South Second and Elm streets. It maintains a Sunday school of about fifty in average attendance, George H. Sanders being superintendent.
REFORMED EPISCOPAL CHURCH
This church is in one sense the successor of St. John's parish of the Protestant Episcopal church, which was organized about 1865. The first rector was Rev. Dr. Chamberlain, under whose pastorate a church building was erected, which was used for several years. He was succeeded for a short time by Rev. Russell and he by Rev. Johnson.
October 25. 1874, Rev. J. P. Davis, as missionary of the Reformed Episcopal church commenced holding services in the church, it having been for some time vacant. September 12, 1875. by vote of the members, the parish severed its ecclesiastical connection with the Protestant Episcopal church and united with the Reformed Episcopal denomination, it still retaining the name of St. John's parish. About 1880 the church building was sold and a new one was erected at a cost of about $2,000. This was also sold to the Roman Catholics and in 1890 the present building was erected at a cost of $4,000. The first official board under the new organization was composed of Solomon Stowell, Stephen Martin and Elias Butz.
Rev. Jesse P. Davis was rector from 1874-84; Frederick Walton, 1885-88; H. L. Gregg, 1888-89; G. Stroud Vail, 1890-93; E. H. Huston, 1894-98; Frank V. C. Cloak, 1899. to the present time. There is a Sunday school with 56 mem- bers.
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PLYMOUTH CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHI
This society was organized August 12, 1891, with nineteen members. The first pastor was Rev. Elbert G. Collins, who served from 1892-1900, and in the latter year the present pastor. Rev. J. Charles Evans, assumed charge. The church building, located at the southeast corner of Fourth and Pine streets, was erected in 1892, and dedicated February 19, 1893, at a cost of $1,500.
SCIIOOLS
Chillicothe has always occupied an advanced position in regard to her public schools. The first school taught in the village was in the winter of 1838-9, in a log cabin. In 1845 a frame schoolhouse of one room was erected on the public square. This served its purpose until the adoption of the free school system in 1855. As soon as public funds could be raised by taxation, a commodious brick building, 30x56 feet, and two stories high, containing four rooms, was erected and supplied with all up-to-date furniture and equipments. It was erected in 1856.
The authorities were greatly encouraged and stimulated into activity by the holding of the Peoria County Teachers' Institute in their new school building in October, 1856. During its session night meetings with public lectures were held in one of the churches. In 1870 it became necessary to enlarge the building, which was done by adding two school rooms, two recitation rooms and a hall. The exterior of the building was also greatly improved and beautified. It was located on the corner of Elm and Fourth streets and when first erected cost $4,000. The additions and improvements cost about $6,000 additional. This building was destroyed by fire in 1890, and in the following year a new one con- taining thirteen rooms was erected on North Sixth street between Cedar and Chestnut. It accommodates about 500 pupils and has twelve teachers.
JUBILEE TOWNSHIP
In the second tier of townships is Jubilee, which has for its northern boundary the township of Princeville. On the east is Radnor, the south, Rosefield, and the west. Brimfield. The first settlers to locate and acquire permanent homes came in 1835, about fifteen years before the adoption of township organization. settling in or near what is now the west part of the township and at neighboring distance from the little hamlet of Charleston, now the village of Brimfield. A few others scattered themselves on the east side in anticipation of a college being founded by Bishop Chase. The first settlers who came from 1835 to 1840 appeared to be of three classes. First, those who possessed a little money and wished to begin life and homes where property would appreciate in value with time and improvement; others, having failed in business, or at their first start in life for themselves in the older parts of the country, came to a new one to begin life and fortune again. A few of a third class were hunters and frontiers- men, who keep in advance of civilization, when game becomes scarce and neigh- bors too near their door, sell out and move farther on.
Jubilee township has as great a variety of land and as many natural resources as any part of the county. There are a few sections of prairie land scattered in with what is rather a rough and broken township. Several tributaries of the Kickapoo creek have their source in and pass through the township; also the east branch crosses the southeast corner and joins the main stream near the south line. A few white oaks, black oaks, bur oaks and red oak trees, also several varieties of hickory, were scattered over the bluffs and points at that time called by the settlers Oak Opening, skirting the streams, and on the bottoms were a large variety of forest, the oaks, black and white, walnut, sycamore, cottonwood, maples, both hard and soft, and varieties of willow. As the timber on the up- land was scattered and in small groves, that on the bottoms and along the streams
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much below the general level, the view of the country was nearly unobstructed and presented to the observer a pleasing sight.
Shrubs and small fruits were found on the open, also some varieties of berries, surpassing in sweetness and flavor those of the cultivated kind, grew in the thickets of the timber. Many varieties of grasses covered the ground, furnishing food and sustaining numerous varieties of wild game that roved at will over the country, which in their turn furnished a large amount of the pro- vision for the settlers and their families.
The cabins or homes of the pioneers were of the most primitive and rude construction, built in the usual style of the pioneer log cabin. Some of the fron- tiersmen, however, being skilled in woodcraft, or handy with an ax, built houses of a better class. They hewed the timber to a square, dove-tailed the ends at the corners, laid a stone foundation in lime mortar, erected the timber walls above that, making them straight and true as a brick wall, carrying them to the height desired, usually one story and a fourth or a half. The rafters, hewn smooth, were set at a good slant, ribs fastened on crosswise to which shingles, split and shaved by hand, were nailed, fire place and chimney of stone or brick filled with mortar, as was also the joints in the timber walls. The floors were often laid with boards of the boxes the people brought their goods in, a wide board for a door, one window of sash and glass for each room, and what more could human nature want ?
The few vehicles, tools and agricultural implements were of the simplest de- sign and construction and were often made by those who used them. Teams of oxen were more generally used than horses or mules, being cheaper and easy to keep at that time. The first breaking of the prairie sod was done with four yoke of cattle, a large plow held in the proper position by axle lever and wheels cutting and turning over a sod twenty inches in width. This work was per- formed in the months of June and July, the tough sod rotting sooner if broken up at that time. Also a crop of sod corn and pumpkins were grown that same season. Cradles were used to harvest the small grain, the hay and wild grasses being cut with a scythe and all put into the stack by hand. Small grain was threshed and corn shelled with flails or trodden out with horses until the advent of the little thresher, a cylinder and concave set in a small frame and run by a four-horse sweep power, the straw being raked off by hand. The grain was afterwards. cleaned up with a fanning mill. Possibly the hardest and most dif- ficult labor which the early settlers had to perform was the construction and maintenance of their fences, the kind in general use being built with rails, the splitting of which would occupy the entire winter to make enough to fence a few acres for cultivation. Fenced pasture at that time was unknown, all stock running at large or in common.
The spinning wheel and hand loom were found in many of these cabin homes, where the women folk made the cloth or homespun for clothes for their families and a carpet for the floor. These primitive outfits and homes did not require much money, as that was scarce and hard to obtain. With the few things that were brought to the country and such as ingenuity could contrive, the pioneer had the necessaries and a few of the comforts of existence. Such was life in the log cabin days.
Prominent among the pioneers of the township was the Rev. Philander Chase. Bishop of Illinois, who came to the then west to found the colloge known as Jubilee. He permanently settled in 1836 on a part of section 36 in the south- east corner of the township. Erecting a log cabin for himself and family, as did the other settlers, he set about the college work. Securing some funds, partly from friends in England and some from others in the eastern states, and at times contributing from his own resources, a tract of land was secured em- bracing about three thousand acres, more than two thousand of which were in Jubilee township, and near the home chosen for himself. Procuring stone and timber near the site chosen for the buildings on section 26, the corner stone of
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