Cass County, Illinois - Chapter with an unread heading (no. 24 of those read), 1915

Virginia Precinct

VIRGINIA ONE OF THE ORIGINAL PRECINCTS - CITY OF VIRGINIA LAID OUT IN 1838G - MADE COUNTY SEAT In 1S38S - pR. HENRY H. HALL ENTERED LAND IN 1833 - a MAN OF COURAGE AND ENTERPRISE - BORN IN IRELAND - EDUCATED AT BELFAST AND GLASGOW - VISITS AMERICA - -MARRIES IN VIRGINIA - COMES TO ILLINOIS IN 18383 - ENTERS LAND - DEVELOPING ENTERPRISES FOLLOW - SETTLEMENT FIRST CALLED HALLVILLE - VIRGINIA BECOMES ACCEPTED NAME - OTHER EARLY SETTLERS - FIRST TAVERNS - DR. HALL DONATES AN ADDITION TO TOWN - PUBLIC GROUNDS ADDITION - BUILDS A COURTHOUSE - RETIRES TO FARM IN 1841 - pieEs 1N 1847 - VIRGINIA INCORPORATED AS A TOW N - FIRST BOARD OF TRUSTEES - FIRST TOWN OFFICERS - EARLY PAY PROMINENT RESIDENTS - BUSINESS MEN - INCORPORATED AS A CITY IN INS72 - AGAIN MADE COUNTY SEAT - RAILROADS BUILT - BANKS FOUNDED - SCHOOLS ORGANIZED - THE MURPHY TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT - TILE AND BRICK PLANYS - OTHER BUSINESS VENTURES - CONFLAGRATIONS - HEAVY LOSSES - PRESENT CITY NOT WELL PROTECTED - PAVED STREETS - RESULT OF VIRGINIA WOMEN'S FIRST VOTE - ADDITIONS TO VIRGINIA - GRAND VILLAS - LONGEVITY NOT UNUSUAL HERE - MANY NONAGENARIANS - WALNUT RIDGE CEMETERY - PUBLIC RECREATIONS - THE OLDTIME TRAVELING CIRCUS - ITS THRILLING INTEREST - ITS MAGICAL ATTRACTION - ITS MEMORY LINGERS.

Virginia One Of The Original Precincts

Virginia Precinct was one of the original precincts of the county. The city of Virginia has grown from the little hamlet laid out by Dr. Henry H. Hall in 1836, when the territory forming Cass County was a part of Morgan County. Dr. Hall had entered the south half of section 38, and lot 1 of the northwest quarter of section 38, with other lands in township 17 north, range 10 west. from the government, at the land office at Springfield. Ill... April 19, 1833.

A Man Of Courage And Enterprise

Causeway, in July, 1795. His parents were Protestants, whose lineage was said to have had some admixture of Scottish blood. He received his education in the elementary branches in the common schools of his native county, and then, so his biographers say, attended Glasgow University, where he was graduated in a complete literary and classical course; that he afterward attended the medical college at Belfast, where he had conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Medicine, and subsequently took a course in surgery at the Royal Hospital at Dublin. He was then given a surgeon's couimission in the British navy, and on one of the war vessels made a trip to the United States. Having an opportunity to visit some of the parts of the country in the east, he seems to have taken a liking to America and resigned his commiission in the British navy, and returned to Baltimore, Md.. and from there went into Virginia and hegan practicing medicine. There he met Miss Anna Vitt Beard. the daughter of a wealthy planter. who had fought in the American army during the War of 1812. Their acquaintance resulted in a courtship. and marriage, the latter event taking place December 1, 1818. Dr. IJall was then but twenty-three vears old, which proves that he was a man of extraordinary mental acumen. and of very studious habits. to have acquired the advanced degrees in college and university accredited to him.

After his marriage. Dr. Wall abandoned his for farming, and continued in that calling until 1832. operating in Accomac County, Va. In the spring of 1833. however. he came west and landed at Beardstown, Ill, after a long and tedious journey which led him to Baltimore, Mad.. over the ANegheny mountains by stage to the Ohio River down both rivers to St. Louis, and from there up the Mississippi River to the Illinois River. where he took passage on the first available steamboat, and thus reached Beardstown. From there he went to the home of Archihald Job at Sylvan Grove. he having had some correspondence with him before starting on his western trip. Dr. Hall had come to Illinois for the purpose of securing land if the country proyed satisfactory. He rode on horseback over the country to Springfield and to Jacksonryille, thoroughly examining the soil and watercourses. The contrast between the lands over which he rode and the barren. rocky hills of Virginia and Maryland, was so great and so fayorable to Ilinois, that Dr. Hall at once made arrangements to enter a large tract. His wife had received from her father a large amount of land certificates of military bounty script which he had received as a soldier in the War of 1812, issued by the government, and these with others that Dr. Hall had purchased in the East, he used in payment for the land he entered. He remained in Illinois until he entered his lands, or at least a great portion of them. His affidavits bear the date of April 19, 1883, and were of course sworn to in person before the receiver or some other person authorized to administer oaths. After he had made his land entries, Dr. Hall returned home, but came back in 1834. By the time he reached his land, the state had authorized the laying out of a public highway across it, and that had been accomplished by the commissioners appointed for the purpose, apparently without compass, chart. or any other proper instruments, one glance at the north star, consideration of whence the sun rose or whither it set, being deemed sufficient. Dr. Hall, accepting the situation. placed his houses, which he was haying erected, one on each side of this road which cut his land on the bias, and when he platted the town two years later, he did not see fit to correct the lines, but permitted the surveyor to lay out a square 1,840 feet each way at an angle of north, 33 degrees east.

After his buildings were erected, Dr. Hall went to Philadelphia, Pa., where he had sent his family after selling his farm and stock and farming implements. There in the winter of 1834 he purchased a large stock of merchandise which he thought suitable for sale in the new country, and shipped it by sea to New Orleans, where it was transshipped up the Mississippi and Illinois rivers to Beardstown. He then employed a clerk, Charles Oliver, whom he induced to leave Philadelphia and try his fortunes in the west. In addition to his own family, Dr. Hall brought with him a young couple who had just been married, James Thompson and wife. They all made the trip by the usual route to Beardstown, and from thence went to Dr. Hall's land by wagon. <A few other settlers had come into the neighborhood, but owing to the fact that Dr. Hall had built two houses and stocked one of them with a store of merchandise, the place began to be spoken of 4s "Hallville," and was known by that name for some time even after the doctor had made his plat and designated the town as Virginia, in honor of the native state of his wife. The houses Dr. Hall built for his residence and store were frame buildings, each a story and a half in height. The reason for making the storeroom a story and a half in height was that the upper room might be used as a sleeping apartment for the clerks and hands employed in the store and around the buildings. 'The house intended for a residence was built on the southerly side of the road, if indeed there was a road there at that time, some doubt being created with regard to this by statements of some early settlers. This house is still standing upon the spot where it was originally placed, and is yet used for residential purposes, being in fairly good condition. Robert Hall, the youngest child of Dr. Hall, was born in that house on June 19, 1835. He is living at Virginia, is hale and hearty, although he is eighty years old. Robert Hall is probably the wealthiest man in Cass County, and it is certain he is the largest landowner and the heaviest tax payer. He has been a very active man, living an outdoor life, riding horseback as his favorite mode of travel, and he is a very familiar figure about the central part of Cass County, usually riding a spirited horse. The biographical portion of this history gives much more of his life in detail.

When Dr. Hall located permanently on his new possessions, his family consisted of his wife and three children. Other children had been born to them, but had died in old Virginia where they had been born. A great many settlers were coming into that part of Morgan County, and the store business was very profitable, but Dr. Hall had been so long accustomed to an open, free, outdoor life in old Virginia, that he could not be content to remain indoors and so left the management of his store to his clerks, Mr. Bartlett and Charles Oliver, while he went about assisting his other employes in improying his farm lands. In the spring of 1836 he employed Johnston C. Shelton to survey and plat forty acres of his land, including the part where his houses stood, and joined the procession of new town builders that was marching with the new settlers from the southern to the northern part of the state. He recorded his plat on May 17, 1836, which shows the town laid out on the southwest quarter of the northeast quarter of section 3, township 17 north, range 10 west. Dr. Hall held a public sale of lots on August 6, the day of the general state election, and a large number were sold.

Early Taverns

In 1834 John Beadles came from the state of Virginia, with his two sons, James M. and Madison, and his son-in-law, Jack Powell. They entered land and settled near Dr. Hall. After the latter laid out Virginia, Dr. Hall concluded there should be a tavern building in his new town, and seeking carpenters, found that Madison Beadles and Jack Powell had followed that trade before coming to Illinois, so he immediately employed them to build a frame house on the southwest corner of the block on which his residence stood. This is the present site of the Mann Hotel, this corner having always held a hostelry from the initial one. This was not the first tavern, however, built in the new town. Zev. Reddick Horn had purchased in the summer of 1836, lot 102, on the south side of the public or Washington Fountain Square, and resold in 1837 to Dr. Pothicary who, as has been told elsewhere, immediately erected and conducted a tavern for a number of years.

Before the carpenters had completed the tayern building for Dr. Hall, he sold his residence to Rey. Reddick Horn, and moved his family into the incomplete hostelry. In 18388, becoming tired of the mercantile business, or being fearful of the approaching financial storm which broke with fury the following year, Dr. Hall sold his merchandise to Col. Amos West, who moved the goods and wares, together with the clerks, to the west side of the Washington Fountain Square and conducted the business until his bankruptcy about 1841. Dy. Hall, after the vacation of his store building, built an addition to it and used it as a dwelling, where he resided until his removal to the Linn Grove farm in 1841.

In the meanwhile other things pertaining to Virginia were rapidly happening. 'The lots of the original town had been about all sold and Dr. Hall had on July 1, 1887, laid out an addition by platting a tract of ground into three blocks on the easterly side and three blocks on the westerly side of the town. This was known as the "Addition" to the town of Virginia, and consisted of 118 lots. Dr. Hall had donated fifteen acres of ground to the county to comply with the provisions of the law concerning the location of the county seat in case it were located anywhere else than at Beardstown. The county commissioners accepted his offer, and the suhsequent history relative to this matter has been related elsewhere. However, the part of the transaction pertaining to Virginia in particular is that the county commissioners accepted an offer of Dr. Hall to build the courthouse in exchange for the fifteen acres or the proceeds thereof except the public square on which the courthouse was to stand. The ground had been platted into lots, and the tract was known and designated as the Public Grounds Addition. The easterly side of the fifteen-acre tract was, however, some little distance from the addition to the original town made by Dr. Hall, and to close up the gap and make a solid, contiguous and compact town, on the plat at least, Dr. Hall who still owned the land between the two tracts, laid that out and platted it into lots and called it the Addition to the Public Grounds of Virginia. Dr. Hall had hoped, and not without excellent reason, from the very first, that the county seat would be located at Virginia, and before he moved out of town limits, he had the pleasure of seeing the court convene in the hew courthouse he had built. In 1841 he made a public sale of a large amount of his personal property, and then moved to the new brick house he had built on the Linn Grove farm. There he remained the rest of his life. He was very active in assisting to have the Three Mile Strip added to Cass County, as is told elsewhere, but before having the pleasure of rejoicing in that good fortune to all of Cass County, he was chagrined at the loss of the county seat, which had by vote of the people been taken to Beardstown. Dr. Hall's health failed in 1846, and notwithstanding his previous rugged constitution, he rapidly passed into the state of confirmed invalidism which the skill of the best physicians of Jacksonville and those of his own county could not prevent. In the summer of 1847, on July 14, he passed away, and was buried on the Linn Grove farm, but in 1880 the remains were removed to the Walnut Ridge Cemetery of Virginia. where other members of his family, who had died previously or since, are interred.

Virginia Incorporated

Virginia progressed slowly, attempting on seyeral occasions to recapture the county seat, but Without success. It did not seek an incorporation until 1857, when by act of legislature. dated February 19, a charter was granted. There was no general law governing the incorporation of munity had its special charter, with such powers granted to its trustees or council as its advocates could induce the legislature to confer. Virginia's charter did not materially differ from many others in the state, a stereotyped form being largely followed. Its corporate limits were fixed at one mile square. When Dr. Hall made his first addition he created the new street along the west side of the original town and called it Morgan street. He also made a new street of the same width and length on the east side of the original town and called it Cass street. When the corporate limits were measured under the charter the center was fixed at a point equidistant from Springfield street and Beardstown street in the center of Morgan street. It thus included a great deal of ground that was not platted into blocks or lots, but the lines of the corporate limits ran parallel with the old city streets. The new charter provided for the annual election of five trustees and a president, and gave the board authority over and the management of the public schools in the town. The first board elected was as follows: Charles H. Oliver. president, he being the man who had come with Dr. Hall in 1885, to act as his clerk ; and John E. Haskel, Stephen P. Guin, Alexander Samples, John Bluford Thompson and 8. W. Neeley, trustees. The board held its first meeting August 19, 1857, and having power to elect certain officers for the town proceeded to do so by electing James H. Harris, town constable: IL. 8S. Allard, assessor and treasurer ; John <A. Giles, street commissioner; and John W. Naylor. town clerk.

Prominent In Early Days

Among those who held positions of trust and honor in the town in those early days will be remembered the following named persons who were so long identified with the town and its erowth and progress: Dr. G. W. Goodspeed, Alt G. Campbell, J. N. Wilson, William Shirley, I. N. White, Dr. Harvey Tate, J. E. Roach. N. B. Thompson and Jerry Cox. Garland Pollard, Abraham Bergen and Henry Phillips were early practicing lawyers. In 1860 the business interests of Virginia were as follows:

Hezekiah Naylor. proprietor Cass County Independent: J. H. Miller. president Union College: Pierce & Co.. merchants: G. W. Goodspeed, M. D.. physician: E. Loomis, family grocery; W. BE. Martin, grocer and corn merchant; William

Kendall, grocer and produce dealer; P. Phillips, M. D., proprietor flouring mill; John E. Haskel, proprietor woolen factory; N. B. Beers, house builder; C. Brooks, carpenter and joiner; William Armstrong, proprietor Glen Cottage nursery ; Jacob Dunaway, proprietor Virginia Hotel; H. E. Ward, proprietor livery stable; Robison Bros., carriage and wagon makers; J. B. Arthur, blacksmith; H. Hinchliff, blacksmith; C. I. Lawson, saddle and harness maker; J. G. Campbell, boot and shoe dealer; C. Magel & Co., boot and shoe dealer; E. B. Randall, lumber dealer; L. §. Allard, druggist ; W. Shirley, justice of the peace; Jacob Wise, butcher; L. F. Briggs, proprietor Cass County Union; and Robert H. Chittick, carriage and plow maker.

A greater portion of the mercantile business and the various trade shops were in the west part of town, that is, they were grouped about the old public square until about the close of the Civil war. After that the business center gradually worked its way to the east side, which was really the oldest and the first to have business buildings facing it. At this time the town had four churches, the Christian, Methodist, Cumberland Presbyterian and the Old School Presbyterian.

By 1870 the people of Virginia were again thinking of making another attempt to get the county seat. A constitutional convention was held that year which adopted a provision that assisted the Virginians somewhat, and after haying the town council erect a new town hall on Washington Fountain Square, which they proposed to donate to the county for a courthouse in case the county seat was removed to Virginia, a vote was had on November 12, 1872, which resulted favorably for Virginia, and after carrying the matter through the courts, the county seat was at last in Virginia in 1875, after an absence of thirty years. From that time Virginia took on new life, and a number of merchants and tradesmen, as well as professional men, moved into the city.

Incorporated As A City

Virginia was now a city, having availed itself of the provision in the new constitution under acts of the legislature persuant thereto, and became incorporated as a city August 12, 1872.

It had also additional railroad facilities, owing to the building of the line from Beardstown through Virginia to Springfield, which was opened in 1871, and the completion of the Peoria, Pekin & Jacksonville road to Jacksonville in 1869. The Farmers National Bank had been organized, and was doing business successfully. The city school district had purchased the old Union College buildings and grounds for a public school and also had the old courthouse remodeled for a primary school, and the city was generally flourishing.

A number of saloons had also made their appearance and did a large business until the great Murphy movement swept over the country, and a branch of the work under the Timiney Brothers assaulted the evil at Virginia. Continuous meetings were held and a great revival of temperance ensued. Everybody took the pledge and kept it for thirty days, more or less, after the Timiney Brothers left. There was one of the signers, however, who ever after stuck to his blue ribbon and avoided the liquor. Many will remember Michael Fahey, with his little donkey and cart driving about the streets, with a cheery word for all he met, his only fault being intemperance, but his wife induced him to sign the pledge and he kept it until his death, which did not occur until many years later.

Tile And Brick Plant

In 1888 George Henderson started a tile factory for making farm drain tile and later attached machinery for making building brick. In 1893-4 he made as high as 30,000 brick per day. His tile and brick plant was the largest manufacturing establishment in the county with the exception of the Schmolt sawmill and cooperage works at Beardstown. For several years Mr. Henderson employed fifty-three men steadily. In 1897, after the big fire in Virginia, he made over 2,000,000 building brick, but the drain tile became less in demand and after the buildings were restored following the fire, there was not so great a local demand for brick, and it was not profitable for him to manufacture them for shipping, so the output gradually diminished, until about 1910 he abandoned his plant, the machinery was sold and removed.

In 1884 a mining company was incorpvurated and a coal shaft sunk, but after a few years it was abandoned and the shaft filled up. In 1889 a charter was granted to Charles Wilson, George

Conover and L. A. Petefish, incorporators of the Virginia Canning Company. A plant was established and continued with an excellent output of eanned goods, but in 1902 the stockholders and manager became discouraged with the future outlook and moved the factory to Petersburg.

Virginia had been fortunate in escaping disastrous fires until 1889, but on October 6 of that year a fire occurred on the west side of the public square which destroyed several business buildings. On August 27, 1897, occurred the big fire, as it has ever since been called. It started about 1:30 A. M., in the rear of a drug store owned by William Barkley, and soon spread to other buildings on the south side of the courthouse square, which was occupied by the best store and business buildings of the city, including the two banks, and could not be checked until the entire block was consumed. There was no adequate fire protection and there was nothing to do but try and save the contents of the buildings. Jacksonville and Springfield sent their fire engines as soon as the word reached them, but arrival was too late to be of much assistance. The Baltimore & Ohio Southwestern Railroad Company furnished a special engine and ear to bring the fire engine from Springfield and declined any remuneration from the city. Neither Springfield nor Jacksonville would accept pay for the services of their fire departments. The loss to Virginia was very heavy, amounting to over $150,- 000, but immediately the citizens set about to rebuild and now have in place of the old buildings splendid new modern business houses of handsome exterior design. Again, on the night of December §, 1900, a fire started in a millinery store on the east side of the public square and could not be controlled until it had consumed greater portion of the buildings of that block. The burned district was soon rebuilt, and since then, except for the fires that burned the school buildings that have been mentioned in the article devoted to schools, Virginia has been free from fires of any great destructive character. The city is a little better protected now in its fire department equipment, but has no adequate water supply, and a fire engine without water cannot make much of a contest with a raging fire.

Paved Streets

Virginia's greatest improvement is its paved streets. Before paving was laid, the black soil at certain times of the year made the streets absolutely impassable for vehicles. Many times the mail was carted in a wheelbarrow to the depots, and hauling any loads or even an empty wagon through the streets was impossible. In 1910 some enterprising young men, among them being John G. Pratt, Marcellus C. Petefish, David Salzenstein and L. A. Petefish, determined to amend conditions in that line at least, and so they started the project of paving the streets, and by their efforts, seconded by the city council, presided over by Mayor Charles W. Savage, the principal streets of the city are now splendidly paved. Furthermore, the road to the C., Vv. & St. L. Railroad depot, a distance of nearly a mile from the business center of the city, is also well paved. Virginia is now one of the most beautiful little cities of Illinois, situated upon undulating prairie land which in the past thirty years has become almost a forest of beautiful shade trees of maple and elm, in pleasing eontrast to the barrenness of earlier days.

Result Of Virginia Women'S First Vote

The business interests of the city, its churches, schools and industries, have all been mentioned in the history of particular subjects. It has entirely discarded one industry, in fact has been without it for a number of years, and that is the saloon business. Tor several years before the local option law was in force, the saloons had been banished by the vote of the people in electing anti-saloon councilmen. After the local option law came into force, every vote taken proved the anti-saloon forces to be in a decided majority, but it remained for the women voters of Virginia to make a most unique record. The first opportunity the women had to vote upon any question after their right of suffrage had been extended by the legislature was at the November election in 1918. upon the question, *Shall this Virginia Vrecinct continue to be antisaloon territory?' The women cast 494 votes and each one of that entire number was against the saloon. Whatever anyone may think of the question voted upon, all will admit that it was a most remarkable record.

Additions To Virginia

Virginia has had a number of additions laid out and platted and made a part of the city, some within the original corporate limits, and some adjoining. They are as follows, after the Public Grounds and the addition thereto in 1838: Hall & Thomas addition, October 15, 1856; Robert Hall's addition, July 17, 1857; Robert Hall's second addition, August 29, 1859; Barden & Wood's addition, June 4, 1868; Stowes' addition, June 4, INGS; Stowes' second addition, March 30, 1871; S. H. & J. A. Petefish's addition, March 29, 1872; Beers' Cheston Hill dddition, March 1, 1S76; Haskel's addition, May 19, 1877; Heirs of Elizabeth Thompson addition, June 3. 1896. Grand Villas, a platted territory adjoining the city on the south, was laid out in 1876, but was not within the corporate limits, and was not made a part of the city by dedication or by ordinance. The lots were soon all sold and nearly all of them have a house occupied as a residence, and a considerable population is thus added to Virginia. These citizens enjoy the advantages of close proximity to the city without the inconvenience of holding any of the city offices.

Longevity Not Unusual Here

There are yet a number of persons living at Virginia who were born within its limits as early as 1545, or prior thereto. Robert Hall, already mentioned, was born here June 19, 1835. Mrs. Elizabeth (Murray) Jacobs, mother of County Clerk Henry Jacobs, was born April 17, 1889, and still lives in the house on I. Beardstown street where she was born. Mrs. Jane (Elliott) Crawford, born June 15, 1841; James Clifford, born November 18, 1841; Charles I. Haskell, born in September, 1845; and William Clifford, born in 1844, are others. That Virginia and the surrounding localities have been healthful is attested by the fact that a large number of people have attained to the advanced age of ninety years and over. The names and ages of those nonagenarians, so far as they can be ascertained, are as follows: Zachariah Hash lived to be ninety-five years one month and six days old, and died May 12, 1907. He was born in Green County, Ky., April 6, 1812, came to Illinois with his father, Philip Hash, in 1822, and lived in Cass County until his death. Dorcas Mathews was born February 1S, 1818S, in the state of Virginia, and came with her parents, who were named Hamilton, to

Cass County in 1838, and remained here until her death, which occurred February 2, 1911, when she was ninety-three years eleven months and twelve days old. Mark Buckley, born at Oldham, England, came to Cass County in 1837, and died at Virginia, this county, March 2, 1906, aged ninety years nine months and twenty days. William Stevenson, born in Kentucky, December 25, 1813, came to Cass County in 1829, and died here March 18, 1909, aged ninety-five years three months and sixteen days. William T. Treadway, born in 1818, died in Cass County, July 18, 1912, aged ninety-three years, ten months and twenty-six days. Elizabeth Davis, born in Tennessee in 1800, came to Illinois with her husband, James Davis, in 1821, died in March, 1897, at the age of ninety-eight years, being the oldest person in Cass County. She was the mother of Francis M. Davis of Virginia, a veteran of the Civil war. Mrs. Sarah C. Gatton was born May 18, 1822, in Madison, Ohio, and came to Illinois in 1841. She survives and lives at her home in Virginia, being ninety-three years old. William B. Payne, one of the oldest merchants of Virginia, was born at Nicholasville, Ky., August 24, 1824, and is ninety-six years old. Thomas Williamson, born at Oldham, England, November 15, 1819, is ninety-six years old. Mrs. Sarah (Hopkins) Cunningham was born in Clark County, Ind., December 19, 1824, and came to Cass County, lll., in 1825. She is ninety-one years old, and makes her home with her son, Henry Cunningham, in the neighborhood where her father, Henry Hopkins, settled ninety years ago. Mrs. Bernice Hunt, widow of Joseph Hunt, is ninety years old. She is the daughter of Littleberry Freeman, who came from Tennessee in 1829, and in 1830 entered a tract of land in section 2, township 17 north, range 10 west, about a half mile east of Virginia. Mrs. Hunt is still residing on a part of that land with her son, J. Henry Hunt. Mrs. Margarette Reid was born in Scot- Jand, in 1818, and is still living on her farm on section 21, township 18, range 10, being ninetyseven years old.

Walnut Ridge Cemetery

In 1872, in the month of June, the trustees of Virginia bought at a master-in-chancery's sale fifteen acres off the west side of the southwest quarter of the southeast quarter of section 34, township 18, range 10, a half mile north of the town, and had it laid out as a cemetery. {[t was given the name of Walnut Ridge Cemetery, and is a most beautiful location for the city of the dead. After it was surveyed and platted, it was formally dedicated by the city council of Virginia as follows:

"The Jand hereinbefore described as it is therein platted, is hereby dedicated and set apart as a public burying ground, to be subject to all reasonable rules which may be adopted by the city council of said city.

The town had been incorporated as a city between the time of the purchase of the land and the time of entering the order of dedication, which accounts for the use of the terms "city council" and "city" instead of those of trustees and town.

Public Recreations

At Virginia, as elsewhere in the county, the recreations of the people were varied and limited, in earlier days mainly furnished by quiltings. apple cuttings. house raisings and their attendant amusements of dancing or the playing of games. Later came public picnics, and after the close of the Civil war there were frequent soldiers' reunions with speaking, music and similar entertainments. As these grew fewer on account of the passing away of so many of the old soldiers, the fraternal societies in a manner took their place. the Odd Fellows and Masons having gatherings. The log rollings of the Woodmen. which formed an amusement once, has fallen into disuse almost altogether. Formerly teams were made up by the various camps and at some hour of the day a large log which had been especially brought to the grounds for the purpose, was rolled a certain distance by each team in turn, the contest lieing with regard to the rapidity with which a team could roll the log a given distance. Prizes were given the successful teams. There were other sports, and drills by the Woodmen teams. These annual gatherings are not entirely abandoned. but are held less frequently. Basket-ball and football are the sports of the schools of late years in imitation of the athletics of colleges. Baseball is of course the game which attracts the majority.

Playing marbles is still the pastime of the boys in the spring, and pitching horseshoes is still a summer sport for the men who gather at the country stores, or blacksmith shops, and even at picnics. It is a very popular game, and as the implements with which it is played are so easily obtained, they consisting of two pair of horseshoes, with two stout pegs driven into the ground at a distance of from 25 to 30 feet apart, it is not difficult to start a game. The players stand at one peg and pitch the shoes at each other, the contest being to pitch or place the shoes nearest to the peg, or even over it, each shoe landing and remaining nearest the peg, or over it, counting so much for the game as may have been agreed upon beforehand. This description is not written especially for the present generation, or for the following one, but to make a record that will be interesting a century hence. It may be interesting for the people of 2015 to know how we innocently could amuse ourselves and how simple minded we were and how little it took to furnish us recreation from the everyday toils and burdens of life.

The Old Traveling Circus

One entertainment of the earlier days that afforded great amusement was the traveling circus. not the great three ring combination of the present day, traveling on a special train with its thousand actors and employes, but the old time one ring. one tented affair, with its single ring master, one clown and trick mule. It was heralded for weeks ahead by flaming posters upon every barn and vacant space where the persuasive advance agent could induce the proprietor of the aforesaid barns and vacant spaces to permit him to place them. When the circus did come it was not crowded out to the very edge of town, or even clear beyond the corporate limits, but was given the most central location where there was room ecnough to pitch the one big canvas.

stands, the nomadic showmen were given a hearty welcome, and the occupancy of so public a place gave rise to nothing more serious than the strengthened odor of dog fennel, as its essential oil was pressed out by the many feet of the unsophisticated, who tramped around with gaping wonder to view the deep mysteries of tent raising, or to get a glimpse of the one (toothless) lion, which a daring showman was later to beard in his den. Nothing but dog fennel had the temerity to grow upon that plat of land for many years after it was surveyed and dedicated to the public, in 1836, as Washington Fountain Square. The old time circus proprietors had a full and perfect appreciation of the power of first impressions and availed themselves of it in the regal manner in which they caused the band wagon to make its appearance upon the village streets. Every boy for miles around was up long before daybreak, if indeed he spent the previous night in bed at all, and congregated with his fellow urchins at the point on the highway where his unerring instincts told him the show would approach the town. There was no great street parade of empty painted wagons with gaily caparisoned horses, riders and driyers. The band wagon was escorted by a motley troupe of some hundred barefooted boys, for the most part dressed only with a "hickory" shirt and jeans trousers, held up by one "gallus," made of that same hickory stuff, trudging joyously along. This kind of a parade once seen is not easily forgotten, at least by any of the participants. Such a parade in the older days was made up of the future merchants, mechanics, physicians. lawyers. judges, statesmen, and the soldier defenders of their country, and as they now look back through the mist of departed years and revive the scenes in memory's hall, What would they not exchange for one hour of the unsophisticated joy of their youthful day in following the band wagon? How many glittering illusory objects they have followed since then have ended less triumphantly and have eiven them less joy.