USA > Illinois > McLean County > The History of McLean County, Illinois; portraits of early settlers and prominent men > Part 35
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Mr. William Dimmitt owned a traet adjoining Mr. Evans, and was one of the pioneers of Bloomington. Though several houses were built before his improvements were made, he became one of the best known of our old residents, his career covering fifty-two years at one place. His death is very reeent, and we will quote from the Pantagraph of January 21, 1879, an article in regard to this pioneer :
" Mr. William Dimmitt, one of the pioneers of Blooming Grove, settled at the north edge of the grove in 1827, on the very land where he died, February 19, 1879, having made his home here four years before the town of Bloomington was established. He was born in Virginia, and moved, when a boy, to Alleghany Co., Maryland, in 1797. His father was English, his mother American born. In 1825, Mr. Dimmitt removed
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to Illinois; remained the first summer at Danville, and came to McLean County in 1826. He made a claim at the west end of Old Town Timber, in 1826; but when the hurricane of June 27, 1827, leveled the best part of his trees to the ground, he became discouraged, abandoned the place, and made arrangements to move to another location. Mr. William Evans had purchased (of Cheney Thomas, according to some accounts) a claim where the city of Bloomington stands, including, in part, what is now the territory running from the cemetery north as far as Dr. Wakefield's. Mr. Dimmitt bought a claim in 1828, next adjoining this on the east, being, in part, land lying between the Illinois Central Railroad and Mr. Evans'. He became a farmer, though, as he was not married until 1833, he had no house on his land for some years. Dur- ing the first few years he worked, as did the pioneers, at whatever was to be done, but could make little headway until the year 1829, when he went to the lead-mines at Elizabeth, Jo Daviess Co., Ill., where he was remarkably fortunate, and returned with $600-a large sum of money for those times. The lead-mines, then, were to an early settler what California has been in later days. It was where Isaac Funk sold the cattle of this region, and where he and others took droves of hogs for the miners. With this sum of money Mr. Dimmitt was able to pay for his farm-130 acres-and he was at once in good circumstances. His land became quite valuable, as soon as the county seat was located at Bloomington, a few months after the Deep Snow of 1831, but he never was in any hurry to accept of the offers of that early time. In 1848, he made an addition to the city, followed by others, until, in all, he has made six additions. He always kept track of the advance in the value of real estate, rarely selling before it was prudent or wise, and has been considered one of our wealthy citizens. His homestead has never been sold or transferred since it was patented to Mr. Dimmitt by the United States Gov- ernment, and it is the only tract in Bloomington of which this can be said. Mr. Dim- mitt went with the Bloomington volunteers to the Black Hawk war in 1832, and on the expiration of the thirty-days service, the last of which was performed at Ottawa, in building a log fort for the protection of the settlers, he came home to Bloomington. He enlisted in the company raised immediately after his return for frontier service in McLean County, served the sixty days of its enlistment, going to Vermilion River, in what is now Livingston County, to Rook's Creek and Indian Grove, it being then all a part of McLean, and spent a good deal of time near the east end of Mackinaw timber, where, at Mr. Henline's, there was a rough fort for the safety of the pioneers in that neighborhood.
" Bloomington's oldest pioneer has thus passed away, and his mantle has fallen upon the one that next arrived in our corporation, though we are just now unable to state who it inay be. Mr. Dimmitt has enjoyed that distinction since the death of Mr. Evans, sev- eral years ago. He was always a good citizen, quiet in his manner, never ostentatious, and has acted well his part in life.
" He married Mary Ervine forty-six years ago; and together with his wife, saw as much of real pioneer life as any of our early settlers. During the whole of this long and eventful life, death has not once entered his family, as all the children are now living still in this or neighboring States. He leaves a widow and a large circle of children, grandchildren, connections and friends to mourn his loss."
W. H. Hodge was the first school-teacher in the village, living at the time two miles south, on his farm. The schoolhouse stood near the crossing of Main and Olive
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streets. Mr. Hodge was an active citizen, having held several of the most important offices in this and Tazewell County at different times. Amasa C. Washburne arrived in 1831, and opened a school here in December of that year, in a building near the corner of Main and Olive streets. Mr. W. was one of the most consistent and active Christians of the place ; a Presbyterian ; was the first Secretary of the McLean County Bible Society, in 1834, and always an earnest worker in the cause of his Master. He was one of eight members who, in 1832, organized the first Presbyterian Church. The first Methodist sermon preached in Bloomington is often stated to have been at the house of John Canady, October 9, 1831 ; but as this house was outside of the village, it will be necessary to state it was in Blooming Grove, if we follow out the division of territory we have hitherto given. We have seen that the first Methodist sermon in Blooming Grove was delivered by Rev. James Stringfield, in 1823. Probably scores of sermons were preached in the Grove by Methodist circuit-riders, between 1823 and 1831. There may have been a church organized, though we can find no record of one till 1832. In 1838, Blooming Grove and Bloomington were united in one circuit, from which the inference is plain that a church organization existed previously at each place.
It appears that between the time of the location of the county seat, in the early part of the year 1831, and the time of the sale, July 4, there was a gradual gathering- together of people who intended to cast their lot in the new town, and after that event, before the end of the year, there were quite a number of new-comers. There was one blacksmith here the first year, David Trimmer, and one wheelwright, Henry Miller, who was a son-in-law of William Evans. Mr. Miller also made and repaired spinning-wheels ; he had the first turning-lathe, though this last was as late as 1835.
The first store has already been mentioned as having been James Allin's, in what is now Dr. Stipp's residence. Here, at the place designated in the act organizing MeLean County, in one end of the house, the first Circuit Court was held by Judge S. D. Lock- wood. Mr. Allin had, shortly after, a store on the northeast corner of Main and Front streets. Gen. Gridley's store was on the opposite corner, where is now the McLean County Bank. There was soon a business house on each of the other corners, and hence this locality became the center of trade and influence. It was many years before any other part of the city was of any importance in a commercial point of view, and this will be known as the historic center of Bloomington. It is also the geographical center, as the first charter specifies that Bloomington shall extend three-quarters of a. mile north, south, east and west of the northwest corner of Front and Main streets. The city limits have been extended several times since ; but these extensions have been made irregularly, or, rather, unequally on the different sides, so that this corner is not, strictly, the geographical center of the Bloomington of to-day. On the northcast corner of Front and Main was built the first brick store in this city. It was erected in 1839, by James Miller, and is still a very fair structure.
Dr. Baker and Dr. Wheeler are mentioned as physicians in 1831. They were assisted in this line of business, in 1832, by Dr. John Anderson, and soon after, Dr. Haines was added to the number.
Rev. James Latta, who had lived at the Grove for several years, became a resident of Bloomington during the year 1831. He commenced, in the fall of this year, to fence and improve prairie, over half a mile from the edge of the Grove, which was then thought a reck- less distance from the base of supplies. This is now known as the Durley Addition.
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HISTORY OF MCLEAN COUNTY.
October 8, 1831, Ashael Gridley, then a young man twenty-one years old, arrived in Bloomington and commenced the career of activity which has rendered his name a household word all over Central Illinois. He commenced improvements in the fall of this year, at the corner of Main and Front streets, where his fine bank building now stands. The lots at the corners of these streets were the choice ones of the new town. Mr. Gridley paid $51 for his lot, which had been bid off by some one at the July sale for $60. His home at this time (he being unmarried) was with the family of James Allin. Here, we may assume, commenced an active acquaintance and friendship between the two active men, who, for the next thirty years or more, took such a prominent part in the fortunes of this thriving young town, as well as in those of the whole county. From the very first year of its existence, he has been one of the foremost in all enterprises that promised the good of Bloomington. Being of an active, sanguine temperament, quick to per- ceive, he has generally been a leader in all undertakings-giving liberally of his means, arguing with the doubtful, pushing forward the slow and timid, carrying every one onward with his magnetic enthusiasm until success should crown the effort. Blooming- ton owes this gentleman a debt of gratitude that should be remembered to its latest generations. Our history mentions his labors in several of the city's undertakings, but there have been hundreds of instances illustrating what we have mentioned, that live only in the recollections of his associates, of which we have simply gathered a very few of the most prominent.
Gen. Gridley has been fortunate in his business ventures and now possesses a hand- some estate. Some of it is on Front street, the scene of his early labors, quite a portion in large farms in Central Illinois, and more of it is in various moneyed investments. He is now the oldest pioneer who has lived consecutively in the city of Bloomington since the year of its first settlement. He was in mercantile business here until after 1840, when he studied law and at once entered upon a large practice. In the good times following the building of the Illinois Central, he dealt largely in real estate; while at about the same time, in 1853, he started the McLean County Bank, of which he was President, and afterward sole owner for years, though he has now taken his son Edward into the firm. Banking has been his leading business for the last twenty-six years, though his activity has been so great that he has been interested in an almost infinite number of other enterprises. He is now in his seventieth year, and is in good health. He is the oldest resident of the city, having lived here continuously for forty-eight years.
There were several residents of the town, in the year 1831, who did not remain long, whose names have not been preserved. Drs. Baker and Wheeler, and Robert Guthrie, will be mentioned elsewhere, as will Merritt L. Covell, at this time a young man who soon entered upon an active career. William, Samuel and John Durley arrived during the year 1831 or 1832, and became active citizens of the town, and their family name is preserved in the fine public hall built a few years ago by Judge Davis, and also in the name of the addition known as "The Durley." The Durley farm was for years thought to be just a little too far north and east to ever become a part of the city. John Maxwell and James Tolliver lived in the southwest part of the city, where their land is in part now known as the Tolliver Addition to the city of Blooming- ton. John Greenman lived in the part of the city now covered in part by the Masons Addi- tion ; and John Kimler's farm was southeast, and was in part the present Judge McClun farm, just within the city limits.
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HISTORY OF MCLEAN COUNTY.
It seems that Bloomington was officially known by that name as carly as in May, 1831, before the sale of lots. We have already shown that the town was named in the act incorporating McLean County, about six months before the sale of lots, and a month or more before the Commissioners located the county seat " at the north edge of the Blooming Grove." Soon after the location was made, steps were taken to have the name of the post office changed from Blooming Grove to Bloomington, which occurred in May, 1831, when James Allin was appointed Postmaster, and the office was opened in his store. The existence of the town properly dates from the location of the county seat, though it was named on paper some time previously. Its first exist- ence having been on paper only, we have thought best, in this history, to assume that the town (now city) of Bloomington entered fairly upon its career July 4, 1831, at which time the publie sale of lots occurred, after which Bloomington had not only a name, but also a definite location.
James Allin made the first addition to Bloomington in August, 1831. It was by the sale of lots in this addition that Mr. Allin realized some return for the donation of twenty-two and one-half acres which he made to the county. This addition consists in part of the property lying south of Fourth street.
By the end of the year 1831, public attention had become attracted to the new town, which had no competitor nearer than the old town of Mackinaw, and it became evident that here was to grow up a village of some importance, though at this early day no one knew whether the boundaries of the new county of McLean were to remain as first established, or what was to be the future of the settlement. From the very first, however, Mr. James Allin, assisted by such men as the Orendorffs, A. Gridley, James Latta, W. H. Hodge, John Benson, and many others, kept vigilant watch over the young county, and in the end proved themselves able to preserve its boundaries in such shape that Bloomington continued its chief central town, until, in the course of a few years, it was so well established as to fear nothing.
The period from 1831 to 1836 was one of great prosperity for Central Illinois. Settlers were pouring in rapidly from the Eastern and Southern States. There was a large emigration from Kentucky and Tennessee, made up mostly of those who desired to rear their families away from the blighting and deadening influences of slavery. Illinois was learning that the result of the contest on the question of slavery a few years before was more favorable than the most enthusiastic advocates of freedom had predicted. Ohio and Indiana, however, furnished the most liberal share of the new-comers to Bloom- ington and McLean County, though there were a few genuine Yankees, and quite a num- ber of those known as " York State Yankees." The sudden influx of settlers created a home demand for the products of the country and stimulated the trade of our merchants, so that up to 1836, the time of the great financial crash, the times continued to grow bet- ter and better, until the mania for land speculation became prevalent, followed by the general smash and crash of 1837, of which the full effect for evil was not realized for several years. It would appear that the times then grew worse for five or six years, until, in 1842, there was terrible distress. We who have passed through the flush times from 1863 to 1873, and who have seen, since the latter date, five years of constantly accelerating financial stringency, can form some idea of the condition of affairs here thirty to forty years ago. We must bear in mind that we now have railroads and a home market, while in those days there were no markets nearer than Chicago and St.
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Louis ; and when we add to this the fact of our possession of a currency that is abso- lutely perfect, and compare it with no currency at all, we shall begin to realize the con- dition of our early settlers. The financial question is treated to some extent elsewhere in this book, and we shall, therefore, omit further mention of it in this connection.
From 1831 to 1836, the growth of Bloomington was rapid, yet at the latter date there were only 450 inhabitants, showing it was still quite a small village. We learn that as late as 1840 there were not over six or eight stores, though improvements were going on slowly all the time. We must remember that down to this date there were few who had attempted to settle on the prairie ; the groves were still the only desirable locations. Farming as we have since seen it was hardly thought of, and, as a matter of course, there was less business in proportion for merchants than we see at the present time. The habits of the people were simple. The increase in wealth had not yet brought about general extravagance, and the careful habits of the early settlers continued with gradual change down to the discovery of gold in California. From 1849 to 1855, there was a most wonderful development of the county, and consequent growth of the town; but all this was unfelt at the time we are studying, and we can still consider it a portion of the good old times of MeLean County.
It has been a matter of surprise that the people of the present day take so little inter- est in the improvements that have been made in farming implements and farming pro- cesses. It was not till after 1842 that plows had been made that would do good work on the black, fine, prairie soils of this country. Plows were made of cast-iron before 1835 ; but such could only be used on gravelly or sandy soils. They would not " scour " or keep free from clogging when tried here ; and, for many years, farmers and manu- facturers were studying how to make a plow that would " scour " in prairie soil. Vari- ous styles of wooden plows, also iron and wood combined, were tried and abandoned, until in the end the cast-steel plow of the present day was brought partly to perfection, and added vastly to the capabilities of our agriculturists. Wheat was laboriously reaped by hand with a sickle, or cut with a cradle; threshed by hand or horse power ; win- nowed by hand ; and, when ready for market, could not be sold except for home con- sumption. The seed-drill, the harvester, the mowing-machine, the steam-thresher, were things of the future. Corn was planted by hand and cultivated by " single shovel " horse-plows as rude as the plows that prepared the grounds for planting. Thus, plant- ing corn by hand, tilling it slowly and laboriously, our great staple was cultivated with difficulty ; and, when raised, it could only be marketed in the shape of beef or pork ; hogs and cattle were driven to Cincinnati, Chicago, Galena or St. Louis, and the long journey rendered it advisable to fatten stock with some qualifications for speed, or, rather, ability to travel with little loss of flesh. The fine breeds of hogs and cattle for which McLean County is now famed, would then have been worthless for driving. This
region was pre-eminently a stock country. The large herds of swine were nearly wild, running at large in the groves, fattening partially on nuts and acorns, finished off late in the fall with as little corn as might answer the purpose ; not made too fat, for fear of injury in driving to market. Immense herds of cattle roamed at will over the prairies, often obtaining their entire living during the winter by browsing on what they could find in the woods or " timber " as it must be called in this region. This prairie was owned by the Government until after the mania for land speculation from 1834 to 1836, when much of that near the timber was purchased ; but owners of cattle
Siles a Smith BLOOMINGTON
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HISTORY OF MCLEAN COUNTY.
seldom troubled themselves to buy more than enough for their cultivation on a small scale.
It will readily be seen that under this state of affairs, farmers realized but little for their labor, which they expended upon the cultivated portion of their lands, and that the profit was chiefly in stock-raising, which, by the way, was not very profitable, as prices of pork and beef were very low. After these articles had been sent to market under all the difficulties described, there was generally a small return for the producer. Hence it will be realized that merchants and mechanics, living in the towns and villages, could have received but a small remuneration from an agricultural people so situated, and no great growth could have been looke 1 for in a town which, like Bloomington, was not a primary market for agricultural products. Bloomington was a pleasant residence, was the capital of a fine county, and possessed a good trade with the surrounding country, and was growing with its growth, but it only contained a population of 1,611 as late as 1851, and not till the advent of railroads did the place put on the airs of an important city.
In common with other historians, we find it difficult to chronicle events in their exact order, and must follow the thread wherever it leads-leaving the reader to do a portion of the weaving. We have brought our narrative down to about the year 1837, and, perhaps, a reference to the items contained in a copy of the Bloomington Observer, dated November 17, 1838, Vol. 2, No. 35-which is before us-may be of interest, as being from the oldest copy of the journal that can be obtained.
Its editor was Jesse W. Fell, and the office was on the corner of Madison and Grove streets. Its advertisements, as a rule, were put up neatly, and denote typographical ability. Nothing larger than two-line black-faced primer is to be found.
The law firm of Davis & Colton was composed of David Davis and Wells Colton. They offered " to attend to all professional business confided to their care in the counties of Peoria. McLean, Macon, Tazewell, Putnam and Livingston." They would have their hands full to-day over so much territory, surely.
Dr. John F. Henry " has returned home " (where from is not stated), " and offers his professional services to his friends."
Covel & Weed wanted 10,000 pounds of dried hides at liberal prices.
The annual commencement of "Illinois Seminary " was held on September 19. " Illinois Seminary " still stands, but is deserted and sorry-looking, near the C. & A. shops.
The estate of John Kimler, deceased, was in the hands of Coffey & Cox, admin- istrators, for sale or settlement.
Mormons, in covered wagons, with property worth $3,000, were en route for Mis- souri.
The death of Thomas H. Haines, M. D., occurred "on the 3rd instant, in the 37th year of his age, and was extensively felt and most deeply deplored in the com- munity."
William P. Brown was Postmaster. Mail matter arrived and departed by stage every other day in the week.
W. H. McFall gave notice that the next Legislature would be petitioned to form a new county by slicing off a portion of McLean, Macon and Champaign Counties. We presume the new county thus formed was De Witt.
I
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HISTORY OF MCLEAN COUNTY.
Seth Baker, President, published a village ordinance notifying that " each able- bodied white male resident in the incorporated town of Bloomington, between the ages of twenty-one and fifty years, shall be required to do and perform four days labor in the year 1838."
The Central Railroad was building south, and had reached Peru. It was many years before it was able to cross the Illinois River.
Benjamin Walker offered $100 reward for two dark-brown horses that had been stolen from the stable of James Allin, Esq., in Bloomington.
The stage ran through from Danville to Pekin in " less than three days." The fare one way was $10. " No disappointments unless the roads be impassable." Imagine a stage on a road in Illinois in a winter like that of 1877-78 !
O. Covel was the only insurance agent.
James Allin, J. W. Fell and A. Gridley offered property in Decatur worth $600 to $1,000, to any one who would start a saw-mill there.
Edgar Conklin was a land agent at the town of Le Roy.
Armstrong & Palmer, S. Baker & Co., Covel & Weed and James Allin were the leading dry goods merchants.
The " Bloomington Hotel " was advertised for rent by A. Gridley. The building was one of the "finest." It contained thirty beds. As an inducement, the advertise- ment went on to say, " Bloomington is the flourishing county seat of one of the first counties on the line of the stage route from Danville to Pekin." This hotel was after- ward known as the American House, and was moved away a few years since to make room for the fine buildings erected by Stevenson Bros. and Gen. Gridley, on East Front street.
The county of Livingston was taken off of McLean in 1837, and entered upon its independent career ; and Woodford was organized in 1840, partly from McLean and the rest from Tazewell County. These changes took but little business from Bloom- ington, however, as the territory named was very sparsely settled at the time of their organization.
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