McLean County, Illinois - The whole text, 1879 (part 15 of 42)

At a later date, October, 1875, a higher Order of the fraternity was established, and known as Lexington Encampment, No. 161. The membership of this branch of the Order is about thirty, and the present officers are : William Valentine, C. P. , John Henline, S. W. ; L. C. Clark, J. W., and R. Stevenson, Scribe and Treasurer. The meetings of the Encampment are held on the first and third Monday evenings of each month.

The schools of Lexington are the just pride of all its citizens. They erected, in 1869, a fine brick building, at a cost of $8,500. Besides this, two primary schoolhouses are required to accommodate the school population of the town. The schools are well graded and governed, and the people of Lexington feel that they get full value for the large amount yearly expended for the purpose of educating their children. Prof. George Blount is Principal teacher and Superintendent.

Pleasant Hill

The village of Pleasant Hill (Selma Post Office) is on the northeast quarter of Section 21, Lexington Township, and is one of the oldest villages in the county. It i& situated on a part of the Patten land, or, rather, the land of Aaron Foster, son-in-law of Mr. Patten, and actually covers a portion of Indian Town. Several of the graves of the ancient owners of this soil are within its limits.

In 1838, Isaac Smalley, then recently from Ohio, but who had lived a year in Will County, where he had taught school very acceptably, for he was a man of fair education, came to the Mackinaw to get cheaper land than he could find in Will County. In coming here he passed through Pontiac, which had then just been chosen as the county seat of the new county of Livingston. He and his party had to stay there two hours to get a chance to cross the river. They were nonplused for awhile, but finally got some logs which would float, and put some boards or rails on them and got their wagons onto it, and pulled this primitive raft across. When they arrived at Foster's, they were surprised to learn that they had made a visit to Pontiac, for they had not seen any town there.

The hill upon which he settled was such a nice natural site for building, that Mr. Smalley decided to lay out a town. For a time, he lived in a little house near by, but the next year put up the first framed house here, a neat story-and-a-half structure, which is now occupied by Mr. Rogers.

In 1840, M. R. Bullock, County Surveyor, laid out for Mr. Smalley sixteen blocks, each block divided into four lots. The conveyance of streets was acknowledged before 'Squire Spawr, then, as now, a resident of Lexington. Later, two additions were laid out, one on the west side of twelve blocks, in February, 1 852, and one on the south side in June of the same year. (These last were in contemplation of the railroad, which -they did not get.)

The name was given by Mrs. Milton Smith, a near neighbor of Mrs. Smalley's, in this way : Mrs. Smith said it seemed odd to date a letter from nowhere when she had to write one to her old friends in Kentucky ; she must have a name to date from (she lived on a hill immediately east of Smalley's), so she told Mrs. Smalley that she called her place Poverty Hill, and as this one was a fairer one to look on, she would call that, "if she were her," Pleasant Hill. The name took, but when application was made to the Department for a post office, the officials there named it Selma.

When Mr. Patten came into the Indian town, he was not well received by the dusky denizens ; but he was a man of resources, and soon got their confidence by the handiwork he did for them, and they moved their quarters instead of moving him.

Dr. Mahan built the next house - a log one - and commenced the practice of medicine here, which he continued for about ten years. The house has now been moved away.

Mr. Smalley was an energetic, prosperous man, well informed and a good business man. He built up his young town in the same spirit in which he did everything he undertook, drew business and settlers there, and for a while it outstripped its only rivals on the Mackinaw - Lexington and Clarksville, both of which had a small start in point of age.

Mr. Smalley was a true and consistent member of the Methodist Church, and was a local preacher of considerable power. He made every endeavor to secure the railroad through his town, but Gen. Gridley was interested in Lexington, and the Fells at Pontiac, and their influence was too much for whatever argument Pleasant Hill could offer.

In 1855, Smalley went to Springfield, at the earnest solicitation of some of the leading citizens of the county, to lobby against a contemplated division of the countv, which had for its object the fixing of a county seat at Saybrook. While there, he was exposed, without knowing it, to the small-pox, and died soon after his return home.

His widow married Mr. Bratton, with whom she continues to live on the old place. Mr. Bratton is also a local preacher, or has been, for now, at upward of eighty years of age, he believes his labors are about ended, though he is still hale and vigorous. Mrs. B. still retains the old plats of Pleasant Hill, and some other papers which it would be of interest to the Historical Society to secure.

Mr. Smalley, about 1842, moved a house here from Clarksville, and two or three were brought here from Lexington, one of which was made into a schoolhouse.

Jacob Brown came here soon after, and commenced blacksmithing, which business, although now nearly ninety years of age, he continues to prosecute, shoeing his horse or two a day. He is now the oldest " living blacksmith " in the county.

Absalom Enoch was the first to sell goods here. He brought a few groceries and notions here early in the forties. There being no building which he could occupy, Mrs. Smalley gave up her bedroom, which was soon shelved-off and stocked. This is given as a sample of her way of doing things. She frequently gave up a room to some new family for temporary living in, and has had three families in her house at a time.

When Enoch got a building for his store, he took in Aaron Foster as partner. Foster was an important personage here, full of business, good feeling and good judgment. He was Squire, Constable, Class-leader, and whatever else the people wanted. He went to Kansas and died. George Webster and David Curtiss bought out the store and carried on an extensive trade. W. D. Johnson finally bought the old store and moved it out to his farm for a barn.

There were three cabinet-shops here, carried on by Edwards & Jesswin, Joseph Patten, and Mr. Smith. Washington Edwards, now of Bloomington, kept tavern.

James H. Gaff, now Postmaster of Pontiac, and, recently. Sheriff of Livingston County, had a blacksmith-shop here, and, going away about 1860, sold to Pat Wilson, who still carries it on.

Another man, who has also been Postmaster of Pontiac, first made his mark here. Dr. John W. Yeomans practiced medicine here for some years at an early day.

There are now three churches, three stores, three blacksmith-shops and thirty dwellings in Pleasant Hill, and a graded school with two departments.

The first M. E. Church was built in 1845, by the Pattens, Foster and Mr. Smalley. The latter cut the logs, got the lumber sawed, seasoned it, and worked and prayed over the thing until it was done.

Mr. Cummings was among the first preachers. Stephen R. Begg, who recently celebrated his golden wedding at Plainfield, Will County, was also among the first. Rev. Henry Maynard rode this circuit when it was 400 miles around it. He came here to live, afterward, and carried on a tannery. He moved to Wisconsin, and lives there yet. Messrs. Pinkard, Gregg, Craig and Murch preached here, but the latter did not practice as well as preach, and they had to let him go. The old church was sold for barns, and a new one, 28x60, was built in 1865.

The Presbyterian Church was built in 1852. Milton Smith, John Smith and William Mahan were largely interested in securing the building of this edifice. There had been, for several years, an organization here, and regular preaching is now had. Preaching-service was, for a long time, at Milton Smith's house.

When the Chicago & Mississippi Railroad (now the Chicago & Alton), in its progress from Joliet, its starting point, southward toward the "future great" city, struck the northern boundary of McLean County, a few rods from the present city of Chenoa, there was nothing to distinguish the location from a thousand others, which the pioneer railroaders found during those years in this prairie State. It was down in the maps as Township 26, Range 4, east of the Third Principal Meridian, and that is all of its pre-railroad history. Not a house is known to have been erected within its borders, not a tree was ever known to have grown, or a human being to have lived there. The building of this road and the location of the station here brought the first " settlers," and about all the " settling " they did, was to imbed the railroad ties from Michigan and Wisconsin into the prairie soil and settle it sufficiently for rails to lie on them. The building of the eastern extension of the Peoria & Oquawka (now Toledo, Peoria & Warsaw) Railroad, crossing the Chicago & Mississippi at this point, seemed to mark this as an important " railroad center," so common " in the mind " of those who were watching the unparalleled railroad building of that fruitful decade. There were reasons which are not now so plainly visible, why this point should appear to have very superior advantages as a railroad center. It was the only crossing on the line of this, the most important railroad in the State - a road passing in almost a direct line between the two great cities of the West, through the very center of the State, having among other important places, the State capital upon it - between Joliet and Springfield ; and for many years no other east and west road cut it. The soil was known to be fertile and inexhaustibly rich ; every prospect was flattering. Farther on will appear some of the reasons that have prevented a full realization of the most sanguine hopes of the projectors and early settlers.

The township of Chenoa is a full Congressional township, being six miles square, and is all prairie, sufficiently rolling to be capable of easy drainage. The soil is rbh and deep, adapted to raising corn, grass, small grains, fruits and all crops for which the State is so generally noted.

It is situated about one hundred miles from Chicago, and about twenty miles from Bloomington, the county seat of McLean County, and about fifty miles from Peoria. Its settlement and agricultural development began in 1856, and for ten years it was very rapid. By 1870, very little of the land remained wild. At first, wheat was a very profitable crop, thirty to forty bushels to the acre being a very common yield ; this soon changed, however, and farmers readily adopted the notion that it was not exactly in the "wheat belt," and soon gave their attention largely to corn.

There is no stream of water running through the township, but the land is rolling enough to be capable of thorough draining. Early in the life of its farming enterprise, mole draining was practiced by many. This, of course, only proved a temporary relief, and it was followed by a system of open draining by the use of road graders and ditchers. This was cheap, and during times of superfluous water seemed to answer the purpose, but all these machines leave the excavated soil on the edge of the wide open ditch, and it there forms a dam against the free escape of the surface water behind. Some of the best farmers have found that ditches made with plow and scraper - the earth being deposited where " it will do the most good," that is, in low places, or so scattered that it will not form an embankment - were the only permanently useful ditches. Within the past year, tile-draining has became very popular; where so carefully done that there are no sags in the line of tiles, it is proving a success. Fencing has been generally done with the csage-orange hedge ; few of the farmers went to the expense of putting up board fences. Hedging with osage-orange had become quite general before the farms of this township came into cultivation.

Very little of the land passed from the Government direct to the real tillers. When the pioneers began turning the sod, already nearly all except what was known as "swamp-land" - a very broad term where applied to the land of this country - was owned by those who were "holding for a rise." The Scott family and their partners were owners of many thousand acres, 3,000 of which still remain in their names.

Whatever railroad facilities the township has, it had when the settlers arrived, and they never have been called on to " bond the town " in aid of railroad corporations. Thus it has been able to keep out of debt, and the only debt the tax-payers will be called on to pay, is the debt of School District No. 1, about $2,300, which compared with that of many Western towns, is light. This keeping out of debt has its counterpart in keeping out of political office. There is really no connection between the two, but it is true that while Chenoa has been in unison with the prevailing political party of the county during its existence, she has been practically left in the cold. Whether the fault of the "ring " as some would have it, or whether it is because her enterprising citizens have been too busy looking after their home interests, it is a fact that no citizen of Chenoa has ever been placed in important positions of county trusts, or in representative halls. Perhaps this is not rightly a matter of complaint, but in a county which for years has enjoyed the reputation of furnishing more officials, State, county and national, than any county of its population in the West, it seems a little strange that this and the two other townships, which with it forms the "north tier," have never been called on to furnish any.

The principal crop raised is corn, and being a prairie township without shade and running water, few men have made a business of feeding cattle. Of late years many men have been able to feed their corn to hogs, and the exportation of live hogs has very gradually increased. The majority of the farmers are men of small means, and owning or renting small farms, a few only have tried cutting " wide swaths," and the result of such cases has not been such as to awaken a desire on the part of others to imitate them. The earlier population found its way here largely from the States of Ohio, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, New York, with a few from New England. Latterly, there has been a considerable influx of those born in foreign countries, principally Ireland and Germany ; many of these own good farms, and some work places ; the usual method of renting has been for a share of the grain.

Early Incidents

The land upon which the city of Chenoa was built lay in Sections 1, 2, 11 and 12 of the township ; Section 2 belonged, as did several thousand acres in this and Livingston counties, to the family of which Matthew T. Scott, who lived in Kentucky, was a member, and some partners ; while he was not the owner of all of it, he had such legal papers as gave him power to contract, sell and do whatever he chose for the general benefit of himself and his co-owners. The junction of the railroads, which was to be the center of the town, was on Section 2, about 60 rods west of its eastern boundary ; along this boundary lay Section 1 , which, or a part of it, was in the name of W. M. Hamilton, between whom and Scott an early friendship had changed into rivalry and animosity. Scott claimed that he had furnished Hamilton the money to buy the land before he left Kentucky, and that Hamilton had taken the title in his own instead of Scott's name. The land of Section 1 lay so near the business center of the future city that the rivalry which must follow was seen at once by Scott, and he took measures to prevent it. When he laid off his plat for record, he made it lay on the west side of the railroad keeping his own plat as far away from the Hamilton land as he could. When he made a public sale of lots, he sold those on the west side of the railroad, and offered every inducement to comers on that part of his town. For a long time, he refused to plat and open the strip of land between the original town and Hamilton's land, and declared he would build a wall between them so high that the purchasers of Hamilton's lots could not get into town. The wall was, of course, only this strip, about 30 rods wide, upon which it was trespass to enter to get to Chenoa. Hamilton being thus prevented from laying out an " addition to Chenoa." called his plat " East Chenoa," and thus it appears upon record. Scott was very liberal in his promises to those desiring lots, and in a hand-bill offering a public sale of lots, he proposed to give suitable lots for churches, schoolhouse, cemetery, etc., free, as such were wanted. That he failed to make good these promises was due, perhaps in part, to subsequent events over which he had not control ; as a matter of history these promises were not fulfilled. Soon after, he entered upon the undertaking of making a town here. Humphries, the young man to whom the land, in part, belonged, died in New Mexico, and the legality of the arrangement by which Scott was operating was clouded by the refusal of his father to agree to anything. No lots could be sold ; no titles conveyed, and a general insecurity pervaded all business undertakings. Hamilton would have been more than human had he failed to take advantage of this state of things and pressed the sale of his lots until in a short time East Chenoa became the most popular for residences.

In the year 1854, J. B. Lenney, who seems to have no rivalry in the claim to being the father of the town, living in Pennsylvania, made up his mind that there was a good opening in this locality, having several friends living along the Mackinaw, who had posted him in regard to the railroad crossing. He sent his brother-in-law, John Bush, Jr., now a farmer residing in this township, forward to get up a building that could be used for a shop and store, so as to commence business in the following spring. Young Bush, on arriving in the county, was persuaded by his friends in Lexington not to build, for they thought that Lenney, on his arrival, would prefer to make his home along the Mackinaw timber, instead of on the open prairie, where no sane man at that day thought of living. This year, Michael Herr, a Pennsylvanian, who owned land just across the county line, had built some farmhouses, and Bush found shelter in one of them for the first winter on this prairie. In 1855, Lenney came, and, in company with Bush, put up the building long known as the Farmers' Store, one block west of the C. & A. B. B., and about 200 feet south of the T., P. & W. This building served as residence, cabinet-shop and store, if the little collection of candy, clothes-pins, tobacco, saleratus, sugar, etc., which was temptingly displayed in the front window, might be called such. This was the first building erected on the site of the present thriving, active, prosperous city of Chenoa, if we except the two little half-sod, half-board dugcuts which answered the purpose of depot, freight-house and home for the section hands. To say that Lenney exhibited the pride of Solomon viewing the Temple, as he stood at the railroad track, scanning this " Farmers' Store," which he had built, would be probably exaggeration. All he lacked now of being a " successful Western merchant," was the goods and the customers. The former he knew where to get, but the latter he must get " on time." This building was put up before the town was laid out, and, Scott promised to give them the lot which it should prove to be on when the survey was made.

They " paced off" the land and calculated the distance to an expected corner lot, but when the survey was made, the building was found to be in the street, and as the proprietor of the town had not proposed to give thein a whole street, they were obliged to buy a lot and move the store. The next year, Mr. Lenney bought a lot of Hamilton, in East Chenoa, and put him up a residence. At the time this store was built, the only customers to be looked to for traffic were 'Squire Payne, John St. John and Bishop Young, who were over in the edge of Livingston County, to the northeast ; Mr. Biley, who had broken the sod two miles southwest, and two or three hands who u worked on the railway.1' The road now known as the Toledo, Peoria & Warsaw, had not yet reached this point, and as Mr. Lenney drove over the country to Peoria, not a human being was seen, not a furrow had been struck, till he reached Washington* in Tazewell County. The Pennsylvanian then thought he had got as far away from civilization as it was possible to get in this State.

In 1856, Chenoa and the country around it began to fill up. Lenney took in a partner, George Bettinger, from Kentucky, who put in a stock of goods and remained in trade here nearly ten years. He was a lawyer by profession, and politically was tinctured with the prejudices common to his nativity, and returned to his native State during or soon after the war, and resumed his practice. He was a man of fine business and social qualities, and is kindly remembered by the older settlers.

The " National Hotel," the first public house in the city, was built in 1856 by John M. Bryant and his son-in-law, W. H. Levers, who came from Pennsylvania. The block upon which it was built cost $375. Even at that early day, the hotel business was quite active The only all-rail route for Peoria and points west of there to Springfield and St. Louis was by way of Chenoa, and the travel was considerable. This continued, practically, so far as Springfield was concerned, till several years after the close of the war.

Samuel Henry built a store about the same time, and R. C. Sallee, who, during nearly the whole of the life of this city, has been an active business man here, and whose fortune and life were thoroughly devoted to the best interests of the place, came here from Ohio and put up a store. All these were built west of the railroad. Mr. Sallee remained here, thoroughly identified with the growth of the town, until repeated fires swept away the accumulations of an active and successful life, when he removed to Missouri.

J. P. McKnight, from Ohio, built a store the following year, and John McMahan put up a house three blocks west of the " National," which stood until the terrible tornado of May 13, 1858, literally wiped it out of existence, scattering its material as it did that of many of the smaller houses. This storm of wind was the most severe ever known here, and is one of the " incidents " which will never fade from the memory of those who were then living here.

In 1857, Dr. Stevenson, the first practicing physician, built a drug store back of the " Bush House," fronting on the railroad. He was a good doctor, but his " eye to business " seems to have been rather askew when he selected his location. Dr. R. W. McMahan studied medicine with him and practiced here for several years.

George Lounsbery built a blacksmith-shop in 1857, and, the following year, he, in. company with Louis Ziegler, a young wagon-maker, recently from " fatherland," put up a wagon-shop, which act commenced the career of one of Chenoa's most enterprising citizens. Mr. Ziegler continued in the wagon-making business for some years, until driven out by fire. Not discouraged, he engaged in the milling business for a short time, when fire swept away his business and his property. He afterward purchased another mill, and that soon fell before the devouring element.

The first depot-building was built in 1857, on the Y, some distance north of the present one. It was a magnificent building, and, beyond comparison, larger and finer than any other such structure on the line of the railroad. It was built for hotel and depot.

having a larger hotel capacity than anything then in the county. It was occupied by Sam Emery, and finely furnished throughout. Whether it would ever have proved a paying investment to the company who built it, or to the landlord who occupied it, will never be known, as while they were preparing to partake of the first meal, a lighted fluid lamp, which was being filled by an employe, fell and the fluid ignited, and the fire, which, as a matter of course, followed, laid the fine building in ashes. Emery, soon after this, built the " Exchange Hotel," and ran it for about twelve years. He was a popular landlord and a valuable and enterprising citizen.

Squire Lenney not only built the first store but was the first Postmaster and expressman, first President of the Town Board, and was about the first man ever known to resign an office in these parts. He resigned the post office after holding it ten years, the latter part of which time Ira F. Phillips was deputy in charge. He was also the first School Director. This was previous to the era of injunctions, but, in attempting to raise the tax for school purposes, the Directors had made some trifling omission, and M. T. Scott enjoined the collection of the tax. The first man in town was equal to the emergency, and applied to the Legislature for a legalizing act, and, in the last hours of its session, it was granted, and the taxing went on.

Sickness, which is always incident to new settlements, did not spare this. In the summer of 1858, nine young children died within a few weeks, and nearly every house was in mourning. Among the first deaths in the new town was the little child of W. H. Levers, which necessitated the securing and setting apart of some suitable place for a cemetery. Mr. Scott, for the proprietors, had, on the laying out of the town, proposed to give a suitable ground for that purpose. When applied to he assented to a burial on the hill due north of the " National " hotel, and about half a mile away. For several years, burials were made there ; but new light seemed to break in, and for some reason he revoked his permission and required the removal of all remains. It is said that some were never disinterred, and that the ground was actually plowed over, leaving nothing to mark the place of burial of such as remain.

The early settlers found in the lack of fuel a trial which caused them much trouble and anxiety. Coming from a place where wood was easily procured, before railroad communication had opened a supply of coal, they had to depend on the Rook's Creek timber, five miles away, for their supply. During the great snow blockade of the first winter, the railroad hands were kept so employed trying to keep communication open, that their families were sometimes destitute of fuel, and at one time, death by freezing was imminent. Peoria was soon able to send a sufficient supply of coal, however, and latterly the mines at La Salle, Fairbury, Streator and Bloomihgton have been depended on. Two organized efforts have been made to sink a coal shaft here. A company was formed by parties residing in Indiana, who, by boring, found coal at the depth of 268 feet from the surface. They commenced operations, and reached the distance of 160 feet, when quicksand was struck, and water came in so freely that digging was abandoned. This was at a point near the railroad, nearly half a mile west of the depot. The parties returned to Indiana, re-organized their company, and soon after made another attempt. This time the work was done close by, and just northwest of the depot, but with a like result. Water came in so freely that the work, after repeated failures, had to be abandoned. The leading citizens encouraged these efforts by liberal contributions. That coal-mining will yet be successfully done here can not be doubted. John L. Marsh triumphed over similar difficulties at Fairbury, and Chenoa pluck will do it here.

For some time after the station was made here, it was known by the railroad officials and by the traveling public under the name of " Peoria Junction." When Matthew T. Scott laid out the town, he named it Chenoa, an Indian name having a more or less remote significance in the original to some " dark and bloody" ground; which he, a Kentuckian by birth, education and tradition, treasured up as suitable, though it would be difficult to imagine what there was in the treeless, sunny prairie to run parallel with, or awaken associations of his " old Kentucky home."

On the adoption of township organization by the legal voters of the county, the voters of this township met, pursuant to given notice, in town-meeting, on the 6th day of April, 1858, to organize the town and set it afloat on the political waters. R. B. Mahan was chosen Moderator, and F. B. Beach, Clerk. The election then proceeded as regularly as though Chenoa was not going through an entirely new experience. J. B. Graham was elected the first Supervisor, and R. C. Sallee, the first Town Clerk. The record of the four principal township officers from that date is as follows :

The names of persons who have served as Justices of the Peace are : J. P. McKnight, Abihail Hays, Louis Ziegler, W. A. Stark, Martin Shepherd, Joseph Evans, N. K. Haynes and J. B. Lenney. The Commissioners of Highways have been Noah Drake, Joel Hicks, Albert Riggs, J. P. McKnight, E. Mahan, George Hanks, David Sutton, J. W. Vanderbelt, Joel Hicks, W. A. Stark, N. B. McColm, Jonathan Waite, C. J. Gilispie, Samuel Murdy, James Brady, O. D. Castle, John McColm, John Morrow, Andrew Jackson, William Clauson, Joseph Evans, S. C. Hays, S. Casey, C. J. Gilispie.

From this list it will be seen who have exercised the controlling influence on the affairs of the township. For six successive years, " Pap " Sandhan has been Town Clerk, and for twelve, Collector of tribute. Squire Lenney has held almost every position as by right, he being the father of the town, while Joseph Menton, who is down in the books as one of the pioneers, does not seem to have turned his attention to political affairs ; his name does not appear in any official list. McMahan, McKnight and McColm seem to have kept up the good name of Scottish progenitors in working for the public weal.

The first movement for town organization was made July 7, 1864. Nine years had now elapsed since the "Farmers' Store" had been erected, and the people who had devoted their lives to this undertaking began to long for sidewalks, city police and other insignia of true civilization. At this date, a public meeting was called, and an election ordered for the 25th of July to vote for or against town organization. At that election, fourteen votes were cast for such organization. An election was held for five Trustees, one of which should be elected President by the five, at which 21 votes were cast. The canvass of the votes showed the following result : For D. Sharp, 9 ; R. C. Sallee, 17 ; J. B. Lenney, 19 ; F. Ohmit, 10 ; D. C. Mears, 11 ; W. M. Fales, 19 ; J. D. Moore, 15 ; I. F. Phillips, 2.

August 8, the first meeting of the Town Board was held, and elected J. B. Lenney, President ; Thomas Sandhan, Clerk ; Nathaniel Brown, Constable and Street Commissioner, and R. C. Rollins, Treasurer, and fixed the boundary of the town. The bounds included all of the original plats of Chenoa (Scott's) and of East Chenoa (Hamilton's), and all additions which had been platted and filed in the office of County Recorder, and all the "vacant land lying between the two" plats first named. This last was the " high wall" which Scott had erected between his and Hamilton's interests. The limits thus given embraced ninety-four blocks. In January, 1865, H. R. Benson was appointed Clerk and Attorney to the Board, at a salary of $100 per annum. Below is a record of town officers since elected :

In 1868, the Legislature gave to Chenoa a new charter, that known commonly as " the Princeton charter." It was done very quietly, without the fact of the change being generally known. In those days of " special legislation," such things were possible, and, in fact, grew into quite common practice. For " ways that were dark," the Illinois Legislature in the olden time, under special legislation and "omnibus" practice, could discount any heathen of Chinese extraction ever seen this side of the Sierra Nevadas, or any other man. The " Princeton charter" forbade the granting of license for the sale of liquors, not only in the town, but for a mile or two outside. This charter actually took effect on its passage, in the winter, and was not known to the voters until after the following August election. Under this charter, the town continued to act until after the passage of the general incorporation act.

August 5, 1872, an election was called to vote for or against organizing as a city. The whole number of votes cast was 169. For city organization, 150 ; against city organization, 18 ; for minority representation in the City Council, 89 ; against minority representation, 76. So both propositions were carried.

The first election under this organization was September 7, 1872. The following officers were elected: J. R.Snyder, Mayor; Aldermen. George Lounsbery, R. G. Jordon, E. D. Churchill, J. E. Wightman, W. M. Fales, A. M. Crosby ; Clerk, C. H. Holbrook; Attorney, Thomas J. Hays; Treasurer, J. H. Work. These officers served until the regular time for election, April, 1873, when the following were elected : Mayor, C. S. Elder ; Aldermen for two years, George Lounsbery, S. E. Carmichael, David Fitzgerald ; for one year, R. G. Jordon, Henry Crab, J. E. Wightman ; Clerk, Samuel Foss; Attorney, Jesse Lynch ; Treasurer, J. H. Work ; Police Magistrate, T. C. Carlisle.

In 1874, the minority representative plan was repealed, and the city was divided into three wards. The following were elected Aldermen for two years : First Ward, Horace La Rar ; Second Ward, J. R. Rradford ; Third Ward, J. E. Wightman ; for one year, Isaac Carson ; Attorney, Jesse Lynch ; Clerk, 0. D. Sanborn ; Treasurer, Joseph Hicks.

The following official salaries are fully earned and regularly paid : Mayor, $25 per annum ; Clerk, $35 ; Treasurer, $15 ; Attorney, $50 ; Aldermen, $1 per meeting, one meeting per month.

From the first, the official trust of the young city has been faithfully and economically managed. There is no city debt, no tax levied on assessment. License fee, $300. Salaries have been kept small ; no expensive public improvements have been undertaken. The total expenditures for the last official year (which is a fair average) were $2,870.55. Nearly twelve miles of plank sidewalk are laid and kept in good repair.

The original town of Chenoa embraces 21 blocks west of the railroad ; Scott's first Addition, 6, blocks, south and west of this. East Chenoa, 12 blocks in Section 1; Hamilton's 1st Addition, 9 blocks; his 2d Addition, 9 blocks, both north of this; W. H. Levers' 1st Addition, 9 blocks, and his 2d, 9 blocks, both in Section 12; Pearce's Addition, 6 blocks, and McMahan's 1st and 2d Additions, 13 blocks, both in Section 1.

The railroad officials now serving are: For the Chicago & Alton Railroad, A. H. Copeland, Ticket Agent ; C. J. Chisam, Freight Agent ; C. B. Hanna, Night Operator ; John Campbell, Baggageman ; William Cleary, Trackmaster. For the Toledo, Peoria & Warsaw Railroad, Alonzo Thomas, Ticket Agent ; D. P. Cherry, Freight Agent ; Harry Carlisle, Night Operator; John Keeley, Trackmaster; William Gayman and Lewis Arnold, Draymen.

Chenoa has several fine brick business blocks. That built by W. M. Hamilton, of Wenona, north of the railroad, and occupied by W. M. Fales, was built in 1869, is 55x85 feet, two stories and basement; Snyder's Block, built in 1873, 50x80 feet, two stories and basement ; Shipman's Block, on the M flat-iron," 24 feet on the north end and 80 on the south, is 120 feet long, two stories and basement, and the one built by Snyder, Ketcham & Seybolt, and Coonley, in 1871, also two stories and basement, having the bank at the corner, are among the finest.

Business

At first, only the part of the town west of the railroad (original town of Chenoa), was devoted to business. The portion lying between this and East Chenoa, was not platted, and hence was not in market. The objections of Scott were overcome in 1865, and at that time Louis Ziegler built a large wagon-shop east of the railroad, and about the same time several others built there. Now, at least nineteen-twentieths of the business is transacted on the ground which Scott had dedicated to a high wall between him and Hamilton.

The men who have, by their energy, capital and business rectitude, made Chenoa what it is are J. R. Snyder, Sanborn Bros., Haynes, Jordon & Co., Louis Ziegler, J. B.

At present, business of various kinds is represented by the following : Dry goods and groceries, W. M. Fales (who has been in trade here twenty years), James H. Worth (fifteen years, has been in trade fifty-two years, and has seen four general seasons of prostration in trade and industries), A. D. Keepers, S. C. Allen (ten years), Jacob Balbach, and A. W. Atwood ; groceries, Ketcham & Seybolt, Snyder Bros., G. W. Miller, and

F. N. Merton ; drugs, T. J. Banta & Co., W. Ruger, Southwick & Lenney ; hardware, Besley & Wightman, Jewell & Gibson ; tin and stoves, Alexander Holden ; boots and shoes, Andrew Work, M. M. Arnold, H. W. Plank ; grain, Churchill & Sons, Haynes Bros., Louis Ziegler; hotels, Z. Munsell, A. W. Miller; bakery, Thomas Edwards; wagon and carriage makers, Jewell & Gibson, Otto Scherberth, Fred Brumm, R. C. Rollins, H. Crab ; butcher, Garisch Bros.; printer, C. W. Stickney ; harness-makers, S. C. Atwood, Fred. Shearer, J. D. Moore ; bank, J. R. Snyder ; clothing, T. B. Pritchard; livery-stable, Robert Hanna; milk-dealer, William Maxwell ; furniture, D. Shober ; boarding-houses, Silas Baker, the Misses Ludem ; painters, Edward Hendee, William Alexander; lumber and coal, Pike Bros., La Bar & Gordon; millinery, etc., Miss Bowen, Mrs. George T. Coonley ; book and newsdealers, O. D. Sanborn, George T. Coonley; segar-makers, Lilie Bros.; watchmakers and jewelers, M. W. Jenks, William Ellis ; contractors and builders, Ohmit & Ballinger, Dunlap Bros.; doctors and dentists,

From the first, the grain trade has been an important factor in the growth and business of the city. With competing markets, and with the pluck and push of her produce-buyers, grain was brought to this market from many miles around, even from those farms which were naturally tributary to other railroad towns. The men who had this interest in hand never let the buyers in other towns overbid them, and have been singularly successful in trade.

The first grist-mill was erected in 1861, by Mr. Nordyke, now head of the Nordyke Manufacturing Company, Indianapolis, the citizens contributing the ground and building. It was sold to Pontiac parties, and, in 1864, purchased by Sanborn Bros., who tore it down in 1868, and built a large four-run mill. The mill was purchased by Dehnor & Ziegler, but was burned in 1875.

Churches, Societies, Etc

There are five churches, viz., Presbyterian, Congregationalist, Baptist, Methodist and Roman Catholic. The first church organization was the Presbyterian (N. S.), which was about 1860. It, however, soon disbanded, its members going by letter to " the Chenoa Presbyterian Church " (0. S.), which was organized in 1862 by the Presbytery of Bloomington, March 6, in the old schoolhouse, Rev. D. A. Cornelison acting as Moderator. This meeting of Presbytery was duly called for the purpose of acting on a petition of the citizens to have a church formed here, and was the first permanent organization. The Church was organized with fourteen members - Rebecca Bush, Nathaniel Brown, Mary A. Gray, Huddessa Hicks, Edward Rowland, Margaret Rouland, Sarah E. Brown, Julia G. Scott, Margaret McCune, Jane Rowland, Rosanna McCune, Martha Smith and Edwin F. Belden. Edward Rowland and Nathaniel Brown were chosen Ruling Elders and were duly installed. The present Elders are Addison Muzzy, William Maxwell, J. F. McClintock and William Crawford. For a short time, the Church was supplied by Rev. J. T. Whittemore; after that, by Rev. P. D. Young; from December, 1863, to April, 1866, by Rev. A. L. Knox; from this date to April, 1868, by Rev. W. L. Green. In May following, Rev. M. M. Travis commenced his labors here, and, during the year, was duly installed the first Pastor. His services have continued to the present time. The entire number received into the membership of the Church has been 393. The present membership is 175, not including such as have moved away without being dismissed. Soon after the organization, they commenced the erection of the first church-edifice built in the place, which they sold to the Congregational society, and, in 1873, they commenced the erection of the large and beautiful brick edifice they how occupy. It is believed to be (outside of Bloomington and Normal") the finest church-edifice in the county, and cost $15,000. A parsonage has also been erected at a cost of $2,000. A flourishing Sunday school is maintained. To the labors of the present Pastor, Rev. M. M. Travis, most of the work done in this building, as well as the spiritual growth, must be attributed. Ardent, patient, faithful, have been his labors, and it is a pleasant thought that for years to come, even after his pulse may have ceased to beat, the results of his laborious, devoted life will be felt through generations yet to come. He has long been officially connected with the school as one of the Board of Directors, with like good results.

The Roman Catholic. - As everywhere in the West where laborers are in demand, a goodly number of Roman Catholics early made their homes here. Up to 1865, the members of this Church in this vicinity were irregularly visited and ministered to in spiritual things by clergymen from Bloomington, and by Rev. Fathers Kennedy and Campbell, later, in regular monthly services. The year mentioned, Chenoa was attached to El Paso, and attended to monthly by Father Keenan, now of Amboy.

In 1868, a committee consisting of Hugh Brady, James Welch and John Hayes, with Father Keenan as President, was appointed to select grounds and erect a church. Up to this time, services had been held in private houses and schoolhouses. The committee disagreed, and so persisted in disagreeing, that, at one time, it was proposed to erect two churches in different parts of the city. The Father, President of the committee, could not sanction such a course, and withdrew from the committee, and, shortly afterward, resigned the charge, which was immediately intrusted to Rev. Father Fanning, then and now Missionary Rector of Fairbury.

Father Fanning had no difficulty with obdurate committeemen, for he cut the Gordian knot by appointing himself a committee of one, and employed William O'Brien, of East Lynn, 111., to put up a frame building 33x60, 20 feet posts.

Service was first celebrated in the new church in February, 1869, since which, several additions and improvements have been made. In size and beauty, it is only surpassed by one church in the city.

In 1871, it was visited by the much-beloved Bishop Foley, who gave confirmation to a class of 125, chiefly children, from ten years and upward. It was dedicated to the service of God November 3, 1876, in honor of SS. Malachi and Columbkill, to the latter of whom Father Fanning claims relationship. The dedicatory services were performed by the Rev. Dean Terry, of Ottawa, whose praise is in all the churches, assisted by the Rectors of Fairbury, El Paso and Batavia.

In June, 1878, the Rt. Rev. Bishop Spaulding, of the new See of Peoria, administered sacrament of confirmation to 106 persons. The congregation consists of 125 families, averaging 5 members each.

The officers of the Church consist of the Rector, Father Fanning ; Mr. David Fitzgerald, who succeeded M. W. Dillon, Collector of Rents ; and Mr. and Mrs. Dennis O'Connor, Custodians. To these assistants, the Reverend Father and the Church are under great obligations - especially so to the latter, whose services are of a nature to demand and receive exacting attention, which is rendered in love and veneration.

The difficulties which Father Fanning met at the very beginning of his faithful labors here have been overcome in such a way as to mark him a man of great tact in management, and his praise is on the lips of all.

The Baptist Church. - In January, 1866, serveral persons who were attached to the Baptist persuasion, and most of whom had been members of that denomination before coming here, met and formed a Sabbath school, having in contemplation a church organization. Such organization was effected in March of that year by Rev. Samuel Bishop, consisting of twenty-two members. Preaching by pastors of that denomination was maintained, not very regularly, for the next two years. In 1868, a frame edifice was erected, about 25x40, which cost in the neighborhood of $3,500, and Rev. James Frey was secured as Pastor. Frey's services closed in September, 1869.

for one year following, Rev. W. H. Wells, have successively served as Pastors. May 1, 1878, Rev. J. B. Brown commenced his present pastorate.

There are at present about one hundred and twenty-five active members. One of the most interesting occasions to this Church was in October, 1 874, when forty members were added to the Church, under the then charge of Elder Ames, as the results of a special protracted eflbrt.

The Trustees of the Church are W. A. Haynes, J. T. Howard and E. Dunham. The Sabbath school, under the superintendency of W. A. Haynes, has an average attendance of about eighty, and eight teachers.

Methodist Episcopal. - Probably, in nine out of ten cases, the pioneer religious ministrations in all Western localities have been by the Methodists. In Chenoa's case, if it has been so, the writer has failed to find the person who is custodian of the information. In 1866 Rev. Mr. Day and Rev. John Barlow, P. E. of Washington District, were the ministers here, and in 1867, Rev. Mr. Day.

In the fall of this year, the Church commenced the erection of the present edifice, 38x55, frame, which, through bad management and poor contracts, was made to cost $4,000. But it is out of debt, and answers the purpose as well as though it had been built more economically. The Pastors since that date have been as follows : 1868, Rev. T. S. Rhodes, who soon resigned his work and left the field without supply ; 1869, Rev. John Winsor, with Rev. Joseph Millsap, P. E.; 1870, Rev. John Taylor; 1872, Rev. John Luckcock ; 1873, Rev. W. J. Giddings, with Rev. E. G. Hall, P. E.; 1874, 1875 and 1876, Rev. B. Applebee; 1877, Rev. T. McNair ; 1878, Rev. W. P. Graves.

There are in full membership sixty-eight. The Sabbath school has an average attendance of about seventy, with eight teachers. Prof. J. A. Miller is Superintendent ; Jacob Ballinger, Assistant.

The Salem M. E. Church, located in the extreme southeastern part of the township, was organized in 1866. The membership, at its organization, consisted of C. J. Gilispie, Davis Parkhill, their wives, and one or two others. The first services were conducted by Rev. J. S. Millsap, who then resided at Lexington. Rev. A. E. Day was the first regular Pastor of the Church after its organization. Meetings have been held in the schoolhouse in that vicinity, and at the residence of G. A. Wolff, regularly, to the present time, though no definite steps have been taken to erect a house of worship until a recent date. At the present time, a church-edifice is in process of erection on Section 36, which, when completed, will be a neat and convenient building for the purpose. Its proposed cost is $1,000. The membership of the Church now numbers twenty-seven. Rev. John Rogers is present Pastor.

Congregational. - The Congregational Church ofChenoa was organized July 21, 1867, by Rev. Elisha Jenney, who was Superintendent of Home Missions, and Rev. H. G. Pendleton, who had for some weeks been visiting families and preaching in the neighborhood. Mr. Jenney preached on that occasion from the 73d Psalm, 21st verse, Mr. Pendleton giving the right hand of fellowship. The original members numbered seventeen. Mr. Pendleton continued to minister to the little Church, growing steadily in numbers, until April, 1872. The Church was received into the Central Association, at El Paso, the year it was organized. A mission Sunday school was maintained and a weekly prayer-meeting, with great regularity. Rev. W. B. Williams was Acting Pastor for the following year; Rev. 0. J. Shannon, until March, 1874; Rev. C. H. Eaton, from December, 1874, for one year. During his pastorate, the Presbyterian Church property was purchased. Rev. J. V. Nillis served as Pastor from December, 1875, Tintil January, 1878.

Up to the time of the tenth anniversary, 101 had united with the Church, which at present numbers 78. The Sabbath school, in charge of R. E. Helms, is in a flourishing condition. The congregation own a neat and comfortable house of worship, but are at present without a minister.

Lodges. - Chenoa Lodge, No. 292, F. & A. Masons was chartered in October, 1859. The charter members were William C. Carter, George Birch, James Sample, George W. Stoker, John Campbell, Daniel McLeod, Isaac Coldron, R. C. Sallee and Squire L. Payne. W. C. Carter was the first Master. The Lodge does not own a building, but the hall occupied by it is furnished very finely, 'and has few superiors in this particular in the State. The furniture and insignia cost about $2,000. R. E. Beard is Master. The Lodge numbers sixty members. Regular communications, second and fourth Wednesdays of each month.

Chapter No. 143, Royal Arch Masons, was chartered in 1870. The charter members were Louis Ziegler, R. C. Sallee, A. H. Copeland, James Sample, G. W. Stoker, W. H. Boies, H. L. Perkins, W. C. Arnold, A. Stevens. Louis Ziegler was first High Priest, as he is at present. There are thirty-five members. Regular convocations, first and third Tuesdays of each month.

Chenoa Lodge, No. 387, 1. O. 0. F., was organized in February, 1866. The membership now numbers twenty-eight. They meet each Monday. W. A. Miller, Noble Grand ; R. P. Jewett, Vice Grand ; M. W. Jenks, Secretary.

Newspapers. - The history of the first newspaper in a new town is almost, without exception, a story of unrealized hopes, misdirected efforts and unpaid bills. That this was not the case at Chenoa, was owing largely to the superior qualifications of the young man, Silas F. Dyer, who was the originator of the first enterprise. He was an excellent workman - careful and painstaking in his labors, and his memory is held in grateful recollection. His early death was a loss not to his family and home alone, but to the profession of journalism of which, had his life been spared, he would have proved a real adornment. A short sketch of his life is given : Silas F. Dyer was born in Cape Elizabeth, Me., November 7, 1844, and was the youngest of seven children. When nine years of age, his father removed to Bristol, Kendall Co., 111. His mother died in 1853, and his father in 1859. He remained in school until the latter year, when he commenced work in the office of the Kendall County Clarion, at Bristol. In the summer, though but sixteen years old, he enlisted for the war in the Thirty-sixth, serving four years and two months, participating in every battle but one in which that regiment was engaged ; was not wounded and was never in the hospital. After actual hostilities ceased, he was detailed as printer at the Texas headquarters. Discharged just before attaining his majority, he returned and worked at the case in Ottawa and Chicago. In June, 1867, in partnership with James McMurtrie, he started the Chenoa Times without "bonus" from the citizens, but with liberal promises of subscription and advertising patronage, which promises were very generally fulfilled. McMurtrie died soon after, and a premonition seemed to take possession of Dyer's mind, that he was not long to survive his partner. In June, 1868, he married Miss Deborah Dixon, of Bristol, by whom two children were born, only one of whom survived its father. He died from the effect of hemorrhage of the lungs August 8, 1871, having been confined to the bed less than a week. His body was buried at Bristol, being accompanied thither by a deputation of the Chenoa Masons, who mourned their dead brother with an affection little less than that of his own family. After her brother's death, Miss L. M. Dyer, now, as for many years, a teacher in the city schools, assumed charge of the paper, and for some months kept up the reputation which Dyer had made for the Times. It was then sold to C. H. King, who kept it going about a year; but the general unreliability of its management, the utter lack of mechanical workmanship lost the patronage the Dyers had given it, and he soon left, growling about want of support. C. R. Spore published it about a year, when C. H. John and the Bovard Brothers purchased it, and, a few months later, the latter became proprietors and changed the name to the Monitor. A few months later, C. H. John repurchased it, and, after two years, sold to the Mann Brothers, who changed the name to the Gazette, and, after two years, sold to C. H. Stickney, who still publishes it. The citizens of Chenoa have never failed to give a fair patronage when the paper has been worthy of support. The paper, under the several different managements, has always remained an independent.

Schools. - Ever since Chenoa has became a city, it has had excellent schools. District No. 1 embraces Sections 1, 2, 11 and 12 of the township, the schoolhouse standing in almost the exact geographical center of the district, and is a beautiful and sightly structure, 60 feet square, three stories and a basement, adorned with belfry and minarets, is kept thoroughly painted and scrupulously neat. The rooms are high, the floors deadened, and cost, when built (1867), $26,000, $23,000 of which still remains a debt on the district. There are two rooms on the first floor, two on the second, and one large one and two recitation-rooms on the third. The school interest of this district is in good hands. The present Directors are R. G. Jordon and J. E. Wightman - two leading business men of the city - and Rev. M. M. Travis. Prof. J. A. Miller is Principal; Mrs. Miller, Assistant; Miss Hays, teacher of first intermediate; Mrs. Lenny, second intermediate; Miss Dyer and Mrs. Duley, of the first and second primaries. The annual expense, including interest, does not vary much from $6,000. By the school census, 1878, the number of children between six and twenty-one years was 327 ; number enrolled in school, 275 ; average daily attendance, 230. Professors Glover, Lony, Morrow, Poor and Pingrey have in turn served as Principals here previous to the present one. The course of study includes all the common branches taught in district schools, including botany, philosophy, geology, chemistry, Constitution of the United States, and the following "optional:" astronomy, mental and moral philosophy, Latin, Greek and French - preparing graduates to enter college. The text-books used are " Independent " readers, "Monteith's" geography, "White's" arithmetics, "Ray's" algebra, " Greenleaf 's " geometry, "Tenney's" natural history, "Brown's" physiology, " Cooley's" philosophy, "Steele's" geology, "Gray's" botany, "Kiddle's" astronomy, "Scott's" United States history.

Fires. - Several very damaging fires have occurred in the city. The fine large depot and hotel building was burned just after it was completed, in 1856. In 1870, Ziegler's large wagon-shop was totally destroyed. In 1871, the stores of R. C. Sallee. Ketcham & Seybolt. and of Ednars were consumed, and little saved out of them. In 1873, Haynes, Jordan & Co.'s large elevator, with all the grain it contained. In 1874

Ziegler & Dehner's large four-run grist-mill. The same year, R. C. Sallee's two stores, and in 1876, Ziegler's second mill. Mr. Ziegler naturally thinks he has had enough in the conflagration line, and prefers some other kind of accidents in the future.

In the matter of patriotic reply to their country's call, the citizens of Chenoa were not behind their neighbors. The aggregate population at that time was small, and no company was formed there, lying in between the two county seats, Bloomington and Pontiac, where recruiting was almost continually going on ; those living in Chenoa went to those places to enlist, and many were likely "credited" to those places who resided in Chenoa. During the earlier years of enlistment, it mattered not where one enlisting was "credited;" but in the latter days, when drafting became first a threat,, and then a reality, those liable to draft began to hurry around, to find where the credits of their township were. In all, some fifty to sixty soldiers enlisted from this place ; many going into the Ninety-fourth, some into the Thirty-third (Normal), quite a number to the One Hundred and Twenty-ninth, and some to the First Cavalry and to many other regiments.

Meadows Station

on Section 6, lies four miles west of Chenoa, on the T., P. & W. R. R. ; was platted and recorded in 1877, by Charles Parker, who owned the land there. It is a flag station, having in its limits a post office - Charles Klein, Postmaster - a store, grainhouse, eight or ten dwelling-houses. A large quantity of grain is shipped from there, but its other business is not large.

Empire, in the southern tier of townships, is the third from the eastern boundary, and, like all in this tier, is eight miles long by six east and west, and is described as Town 22 north, Range 4 east, and the first twelve sections of Town 21, Range 4 east of the Third Principal Meridian.

For a long time it was known as Le Roy, taking its name from the village ; but when township organizations went into effect, it became necessary to change the name, and S. A. Mcore, Esq., suggested the name "Empire" which was proudly and eagerly accepted by the people, for to them it seemed really an empire. Salt Creek, which took its name from some real or supposed saline springs along its bank, runs nearly through the center of the township. The west branch rising in Downs, connects with the eastern and northern branches in Section 33, and the stream flows south through Sections 4 and 8 of the southern township, making one of the finest cattle townships in the county. The Kickapoo Indians gave the stream its name. " Buckles' Grove," or " Buckleses Grove," as the citizens persist in calling it, winds around with the stream through Empire, and Old Town Timber skirts the northern tier of sections part way across the town, making originally about ten or twelve sections timbered. The timber was of an excellent quality, and abounded with game of every description, as did the stream with fish. Wild honey was so plenty that the people who came here did not need to stretch the imagination much to call it a " land flowing with milk and honey," for with the mere trouble of milking, and chopping down the trees, all the milk and honey one needed might be obtained. The surface of land outside the timber-belts is moderately rolling, and the farms that now occupy the virgin prairie soil which old John Buckles looked on in 1827 as being of no earthly value but to hold the timber portion of the world together, are some of the finest in the county. John Buckles, a Virginian by birth, had wandered around until he struck this grove in 1827. He had lived in Edwards, Sangamon and Logan Counties, and pushed in this direction because he had been informed, or more likely his own instincts (for he was a hunter rather than a farmer) told him that there was somewhere an earthly spot which white man had not ruined by crazy civilization. In coming from Logan County, he passed by Randolph's Grove, which was in all respects as fine as this, except that it was already occupied by several families. John Buckles had a family of thirteen children - nine boys and four girls. Just why the Lord was so partial to these old pioneers, in the way of children, when they did not even possess, many of them, a foot of land, and just how the mothers managed, moving as they did every two or three years to some new spot, to get their work done Up, take care of baby, and get a stitch of sewing done, are questions which the women of the present age have never satisfactorily answered.

Buckles did not bring all his children here, for some had settled in other places. The first cabin erected by white man, in what is now Empire, was on Section 28, north of the Grove, and about one mile south of Le Roy. From here, old John and his boys sallied out to hunt and to explore the country around. The following year, Jesse Funk and his brother-in-law, James Burleson, drove a great lot of hogs to this grove, because there was so much here for them to eat. They made a camp for the protection of their men who cared for the hogs, and the same year Aquilla Conaway came from Kentucky and purchased the claim which Buckles had taken, he moving farther west onto Section 29. Here Conaway and his children remained several years. The earliest recollection of this new home which Mr. Conaway has, was a black wolf which the Buckles youngsters had fastened to a pole by a girth around its middle, and was thus exhibited to visitors as a trophy of the chase.

The old man Buckles made a tannery, perhaps several of them, here at the Grove. No ruins are now discernible, perhaps owing to his method of building. He cut down a large oak log and dug it out so that it would hold several barrels, and used it as a vat for tanning his hides, putting the bark which was on the outside on the inside to do duty. Mr. Buckles was the largest man ever known in these parts ; he weighed 380 pounds. The years 1829 and 1830 brought in at least a dozen families into the Grove, so that during the winter of the deep snow there were enough here to form quite a community.

Michael Dickerson, who had lived two years near Lytleville and two years at Long Point, in De Witt County, at the former of which places he had built the first mill erected in Randolph's Grove, came here and purchased a claim of Mr. Bennett on Section 20, near where his son Henry so long resided. Dickerson was brother-in-law to the Rutledges. His sons Frank and Henry have been long known as among the best citizens of Empire. They had been just a month in their new home when the deep snow came, finding them poorly prepared for such an emergency. There was no mill at the Grove yet, and for weeks the corn had to be prepared for cooking either by soaking in lye, or by pounding in a mortar. The boys attended the first scheols ever held in this Grove, in a schoolhouse standing on the northwest corner of Section 28, near H. C. Dickerson's. It was built of logs, and by contribution, of course, as there was yet, in 1832, no common-school system in operation.

Lame William Johnson, who, until a few years ago, lived in this township, taught the first school, and really commenced it in a log house near by before the schoolhouse was done. Mr. and Mrs. Amasa Washburn, Mr. Gaunt, Mr. Thompson and James Vandeventer taught in this first log schoolhouse. Mr. and Mrs. Washburn are said to have organized the first Sabbath school, though the date is not clearly ascertained. When R. F. Dickerson was married, he says that he had one pony, but neither cowr hog, sheep or money, and kept house three months without bedstead, chair or table. He afterward was able to own several.

Henry C. Dickerson, who lives on the old homestead, has been largely engaged incattle-raising and trading. The other sons of Michael Dickerson, Caleb and Wesley, have long owned farms in the southwestern portion of Empire.

Reuben Clearwater came here in 1828, and took up land in the south part of Section 28, near Salt Creek. In 1838, his daughter was married to James Kimler, who, since then, has been living at or near the place where Mr. Clearwater first settled, and in Le Roy.

Abram Buckles came from Indiana in 1832, and took up a claim in the north part of Section 30. This claim he entered at the land office at the sale in 1835 ; about 1855r he bought in Section 31, where he lived until his death in 1877, leaving a large family.

Father Silas Waters, a Virginian by birth, came from Bourbon County, Ky., to Buckles' Grove in November, 1830, and settled on Section 20, one and a half miles west of Le Roy, on the farm which his son Chalton now lives. When only twenty years old he married Miss Conaway, and, the year following, he united himself with the Methodist Church, and has been since that time a consistent, live, working Christian. He had hardly got settled in his new home before he went to mill, down on the Kickapoo, south of Randolph's Grove, taking a load with a yoke of oxen. Soon after he started back, the heavy snow, which is remembered so well by all those who lived here in 1830, commenced to fall, and he drove as fast as possible the ten miles which lay between Randolph's Grove and his home. He had no compass and had to depend entirely on his own judgment, or on Providence, for direction. There was no road and the air was so full of snow that there was absolutely nothing to direct him. He arrived home safely. The snow had fallen to the depth of thirty-three inches during his ten miles' trip. He was one of the first to organize the Methodist Church here, and was the first Class-leader. To him, more than to perhaps any other one man, the members of that denomination have looked for advice and for assistance in the temporalities of the church. They look upon him as a father, and apparently with good reason, for he is a man of excellent judgment and great energy and piety. Though now in his seventy-sixth year, there is to the casual visitor no appearance of physical decay or approaching weakness. But for the snowy whiteness of his head he would hardly be called an old man. For some years he has lived in Le Roy. His sons that are living are near by on farms which their and their father's industry have made comfortable and remunerative.

T. J. Barnett settled near here in 1832, west of Mr. Waters. After farming for some years, he went into trade in Le Roy and has recently retired, having acquired a competency, and takes life tolerably easy.

Alvin Barnett, an older brother, made his home here two years earlier. He acquired about seven hundred acres of land in Sections 19 and 30, near the western boundary of the township, and, about 1838, he sold to Jacob Karr, who moved in here at that time. Mr. Karr is dead, and the land was divided among his heirs.

On the south side of the Grove, Aaron Williams settled in 1835, and entered land in Section 30. When he died some years after, he left a family of twelve children, only two of whom, Mr. Karr and R. Williams, reside here. Two others live just south of the county line in DeWitt County.

John Baddeley, an Englishman, entered about one thousand acres in Sections 32 (22-4) and in 4 and 5 (21-4). He had also had a store in Le Roy. He was a man of large means for that day and of good business qualifications, but the panic of 1837, which swept away the property of so many, ruined him. His son still lives in Le Roy and is much respected.

T. 0. Rutledge was moving his family to Buckles' Grove in 1830, when he was taken sick and died. He was buried in the place which he had selected for a cemetery the spring before his death.

Amos Conaway came here in 1830, and took up land in Section 3 (21-4), and at the time of his death owned about one thousand acres in that and the adjoining sections. He left a large family, but they are scattered and gone.

James Merrifield came the same year, from Ohio, and settled east of the Grove with his family of nine children. He had lived the previous winter over on the Kickpoo. They made a cabin on Section 26, and entered land in that section, and in 34 and 35.

The Indians (Kickapoos) were often seen in those days going on their hunting excursions, but they never molested the whites at Buckles' Grove. They went along quietly and peaceably, in single file, and would return in the same way. Sometimes a hundred, or even more would pass along in this way.

Farther north of this, James Lucas, about the same time, took up the south half of Section 23. He remained there about fifteen years, and sold to Charles Cope. John Merrifield had a farm north of him.

Daniel and Henry Crumbaugh came here to live in 1830. They were originally from Maryland. In 1828, they came from Kentucky to Elkhart Grove, in Sangamon County, and remained there two years. They came here together, and took up land near each other, in Section 14, northeast of Le Roy. They had had very few early advantages, and came here at a time when it required all their energy, pluck and good management to live. Daniel had had a good deal of experience, but neither of them had acquired any property before coming here. In 1812, Daniel had enlisted in Col. Richard M. Johnson's regiment, to fight the Indians and British. He participated in the battle at River Thames, where Tecumseh was killed, and after the war closed at the North, returned home to Kentucky.

Arriving at Buckles' Grove, they had to contend with all those difficulties which settlers in a new country encounter - sickness, lack of conveniences and of markets, rainy seasons, fires, serpents and hard winters, and poverty. They proved the men for a new place. They have been remarkably prospered in their property and their families- Daniel has been the father of fourteen children, and Henry of twelve. Of these twentysix, fifteen are living, and most of them in this vicinity, with children growing up around them to extend and perpetuate the good name of Crumbaugh. Four sons of Daniel - Leonard, Thomas, Daniel and Frank - and four sons of Henrv - James, John, Andrew and Lewis - are men of good character, and most of them of considerable farms in this and adjoining townships; quiet, peaceable, industrious and thrifty men, never quarreling nor at law. It may well be said that these two men have done more to settle this part of the county than any other two men. N. T. Brittin, from Ohio, in 1830 settled near the middle of the south half of Section 2. He owned land in Section 11, and in various other places. He had a large family, and acquired a large property, but a good deal of it was lost to him and to his heirs from his peculiar unwillingness to collect what was due him. While he was exceedingly close, yet he never would try to force collections of what was due him if such collection would prove oppressive. He loaned a great deal of money, and was always hopping around to get the interest, but never seemed to let the principal worry him. He once took a note of a man, and not having sufficient paper to write a note on, actually wrote it on the back of another note which he had taken from some one else.

He was popularly supposed to be very rich, but his estate did not divide as many thousands among his heirs as it was supposed it would, partly from the fact that the wealth of pretty nearly all men is overestimated by themselves, their children and everybody else except the assessor, and partly from the fact that many of his loans had been made to those who could not repay. Like all men who loan money, he got a name for close and penurious habits, but was really a man of many kind and good qualities.

James Bishop, another of the prosperous citizens of Empire, came here, as the Irishman would say, in several years. He came first from Ohio in 1831, and was back and forth every year until 1837, when he married, and made his home here, buying land in Section 10.

He was a man of some means, and great force and activity. Among the stories told to illustrate the man, was the stolen pig and the bull exploits, which the old settlers of Empire have told with variations, until the original proprietor could himself hardly recognize them.

He was so annoyed by wolves that he found it necessary to keep his pigs close by the house. Early one fall morning, he heard the well-known juvenile porcine squeal He had heard it so often that he knew the " first gun " in a wolf-attack as well as a breakfast-bell, and rushed out, without even dressing, to rescue his property. The wolf had got a good start, and Bishop took the line of lupine retreat, without a thought of his unlawful appearance, in his lawful endeavor to rescue the perishing. Over fences, through breastworks of briers he stormed, deploying in cornfields, without the loss of a man, throwing himself into single file, to more easily dodge the cornstalks, in light marching order, he soon overtook Mr. Wolf, who was carrying three days' rations, and -captured the pig, which had only lost a part of an ear and had been frightened out of at least six months' growth. When Bishop came to make report to his wife - women are always inquiring into these matters - he found that the cuts and thrusts from cornstalks and briers would, if estimated at 10 cents a dozen, bring the price of that pig,

The story of his trying to get his hired man to come over into the pasture, which he had suddenly and unexpectedly changed into a first-class race-track - a purely agricultural one - and help him let go of the bull's tail is too well known to need repeating and too well authenticated to need the certifying.

Mr. Bishop was always considered a good farmer; his traits were energy, thrift and activity. Coming at a time when everything was greatly depressed, he did not need to learn by experience that which so many others had to. He traded in cattle a good deal, and seemed to know almost intuitively when the time came to let go, for he avoided the losses which so many others met during the last ten years of his life.

He seems to have come short of the average number of children, having only five ; but in all other things, his life appears to have been a success. He died in 1877, and left about three thousand acres of land in Sections 8, 9 and 10, and in Padua and West.

Hon. Malon Bishop came here from Ohio in 1835, and took up land in the northwest quarter of Section 15. When the school section was sold, in 1857, he and his brother James bought nearly all of it, and he now owns and resides on the north half of Section 16.

Settling here at a time when political excitement ran high, and in a community which held the political tenets which he did by a large majority, he naturally got into political and official life. Empire Township has always been, under all the changes through which we have passed, steadily Democratic. Mr. Bishop was elected a Justice of the Peace in 1837, and, in 1842, during the most depressed time in the history of the State, he was elected to the Legislature. A few now of the elder settlers are left who well recollect the discouraging prospect at the time that Legislature met.

The panic of 1837 had prostrated every industry. The State was hopelessly in debt, and only required a resolution of the Legislature to that effect to put it in the class of repudiating States. Taxes were payable only in gold and silver, of which there was, practically, none to be had. The bank currency, which went by the name of " wild-cat," " red-dog," " stump-tail," and other significant and insignificant names, had received legislative authority to circulate, and was received generally, but not by the Tax Collector or Postmaster. People were shunning the State, and Eastern merchants did not wish to "extend their credit" in this State. Everybody thought the Legislature "ought to do something," and every man who did not spend his time getting his living by hard work, spent it on dry goods boxes, explaining how this thing could be remedied. Indeed, the county of McLean has only just now gone through the experience of listening to the second batch of statesmen which sprung from the " panic of 1873," and the governmental policies of our own day.

Mr. Bishop went to Springfield as the representative of McLean, to do whatever was in his power to restore confidence and breathe new life into the lungs of trade and agricultural pursuits.

That he labored faithfully to do the best he could for his people, no one who knows him will doubt. If he did not succeed in legislating money into every man's pocket and title-deeds for farms into every family, he and the men who were with him kept the State in the line of honest ones, prevented official repudiation, raised the amount

It is a strange commentary on our ability to learn by experience that, at this present time, "currency questions" are still fruitful subjects for discussion and legislation.

Thomas D. Gilmore came from Kentucky in 1836, and took up land in Sections 3 and 4, along the Old Town timber. He was a blacksmith by trade, and soon went to work in Le Roy. Esquire Buck shows a pair of fire-dogs which Gilmore made for him more than forty years ago. The Gilmore family had a little experience with the " Sudden Change." They had come from Kentucky, and had but just got their little cabin so that it was comfortable to live in in ordinary weather, when this " Change " struck them " in the twinkling of an eye," as it were. They could hardly have been more surprised or more struck had the veritable sound of Gabriel's trump been heard in connection with this. They all thought that if this was Illinois, they wished to be carried back to the Kentucky shore as soon after the weather should permit as was agreeable.

Mr. Gilmore's father, a hale and rugged old man, accompanied the family here, and lived here until 1870, when he died, at the age of ninety-eight. He was strong and quite active to the last. Mr. Gilmore now lives on the northwest quarter of Section 3, and owns about two hundred acres.

As early as 1830, the following persons were in Buckles' Grove in addition to those whose sketches have been {iiven : Richard Edwards, William Davis, Catharine Johnson, James Lawrence, Levi Westfall, H. Huddleston and Ambrose Hall. Most of them had families, and many remained here for several years.

Yes, and there is Esquire Buck. Though not one of the earliest settlers, he has formed so important a link in the history of Empire and Le Roy that it will hardly do to leave him out. He was born in Seneca County, N. Y., and early went to North Bend, Ohio, the home of Harrison. Here he taught school and worked around ; tried flatboating for awhile, and then married in 1827. Under the law of Ohio, he had to give security for his wife's maintenance, as he had no worldly possessions. This rather stirred the Revolutionary blood with which his veins were largely supplied, a*nd he thought tea-taxing and stamp-acting were mild as compared with this. As soon as he could get enough together to start with, he came West by way of the Ohio, Mississippi and Illinois Rivers to Bardstown, thence across the country with teams to Randolph's Grove, where he remained until 1837, when he sold his claim to Gen. Gridley, and came to Le Roy to build and keep a hotel. While living in Randolph's Grove, he was Deputy County Surveyor, and laid out the new towns which were then springing up all over the country. The three years following the close of the Black Hawk war had brought a tide of immigration and speculation into this country. Gen. Gridley's active mind had been busy laying out new towns and inducing immigration. He was a thorough judge of human nature, and always knew how to enlist the right kind of men in his undertakings. He immediately saw in Mr. Buck the man for him to work up his Le Roy undertaking, and made him an offer. The opening was a flattering one, and but for the panic which immediately followed, bursting the bubble speculation on all sides, its realization would have been complete. The demand in 1836 for accommodation of strangers was beyond the capacity of entertainment all over the State.

Mr. Buck built the hotel, the rear of the present one, and kept it sixteen years, holding the office of Postmaster and Justice of the Peace each, for several years. In 1851, he had become thoroughly satisfied that he would never amount to anything if he remained in the hotel. A new son had come into his house and a desire seemed to take possession of his mind to " do something for that boy." He got hold of a piece of land in Section 6, south part of town, and has since spread over 1,100 acres of as good land as there is in McLean County. He was elected a County Commissioner in that year, and was twice re-elected. During the last term, the County Court, of which he was a member, voted to give $70,000 from the first proceeds of the Swamp-Land Fund to secure the location at Normal of the State Normal School. This action was so unpopular in the country towns as to cause a general demand for township organization. Mr. Buck admits the unpopularity of the act, but justifies his course. This retired him to private life for a few years - a penalty he did not much regret. Since then, he has been repeatedly elected Supervisor. He was appointed by the Governor a Trustee of the Industrial University at Champaign, and held the position until the law was changed reducing the number of Trustees. He was elected several years ago a Trustee of Lombard University, a college under the auspices of Universalists and liberal believers, at Galesburg, where his youngest son was educated. That a man at the age fifty, when in most men the habits of life have become fixed, and, by common acceptation, man has arrived at the time when he begins to grow old, should have left a country tavern and begun an active, successful farmer's life is remarkable, and shows the strong characteristics of Esquire Buck's nature. Careless in his personal and even iu his business habits, with a strong taste for political discussion and partisan display and action, a free reader, a generous liver, fond of investigation, and deeply interested in public affairs, the strong contrast of his later successes was hardly to be expected, and, indeed, is almost anomalous ; for a lively interest in politics and attendance on caucuses and conventions is enough to financially injure most any man. Five of his six children are living near him, all married and comfortably fixed in life, and were able to be with him at the fiftieth anniversary of that Ohio wedding when he gave his bond to the county of Hamilton that his wife should not come on the county as a pauper. Mr. Buck ought to get that bond from the authorities and present it to the Le Roy Library Association.

Though closely approaching his eightieth birthday, he shows, except in his wrinkled face, no appearance of his advanced age ; his mind is as clear and his step as firm as a man of fifty.

The hunting was so excellent at an early day, and was really so much a part of the regular business of every family, that the raising and care of dogs became so common that no family was without its complement of the different popular canine families ; every dog-family down to rat-terrier and Spitz was represented in Buckles' Grove ; and when all other sport slackened they " let slip the dogs " and cried havoc !

About the year 1830, the hydrophobia made its appearance among them, and the dogs lost their popularity at once. Two persons were known to have been bitten, and a canine slaughter right and left and a general clearing-out of all in the neighborhood was threatened. No injury came to those who were bitten except a very serious scare, which was almost as bad as death itself.

A year or two before Le Roy was laid out, J. W. Baddeley spread out a town which he named Munroe, and put up a building for a store and stocked it for trade, about ono mile south of where Le Roy is. When Gridley and Covel laid out their town, they bought out the interest of Baddeley in Munroe and squelched it.

The citizens have not, as a general thing, fed cattle as largely as in some of the surrounding towns, and before the new railroads were built, the grain had to be hauled a long distance. The earliest trips to Chicago were shortened to Pekin when the Illinois Canal was completed, and to Bloomington and Heyworth after the completion of the Illinois Central Railroad.

The building of the present Indianapolis, Bloomington & Western Railroad was deemed by the people of Empire as a matter of vital importance to them. The history of the road, as far as its connection with Empire is concerned, is about that of every similar road.

In July, 1866, a vote was taken, which resulted affirmatively, for granting $50,000, in twenty-year 10-per-cent bonds, for the Danville, Urbana, Bloomington & Pekin Railroad. Soon after this vote was taken, the officers of the road discovered that the company had not been organized in conformity to law, and the matter rested until the Legislature should meet and give the embryo road legal life. Such an act was passed February, 1867 ; for, under the old constitution, any person could get any charter he asked for, but the State authorities were so jealous of their prerogatives that, while it was admitted that the Legislature would give any railroad company all the authority or power it wanted, no such corporation could act until it had first got legal authority. This charter of 1867 gave to the township of Empire authority to subscribe not more than $250,000, in aid of the building of such road. In June, 1867, the vote was again taken, resulting a second time affirmatively, by a vote of 202 to 6. Things went on swimmingly and the road was commenced, the bonds issued and went, with the thousands of others, into the great maw of the construction companies, who hypothecated them for half their face, and then let them slide. In 1869, October 12, the road having been consolidated, had become the Indianapolis, Bloomington & Western, and work had come to a standstill. More bonds must be forthcoming. The township authorities submitted to the legal voters the question of issuing $25,000 additional. This resulted in the affirmative by a vote of 228 to 100, and three blanks. Within the past year, the legality of this last issue has been questioned, and the matter has been tried in the United States Court, resulting in sustaining the legality of the issue. The ground upon which the township sought to question their validity was that, in taking the former vote, the power to subscribe in aid of that particular corporation had been exhausted, and thus there was no authority for the second vote. The Court did not take that view of it, however.

The road proved a great convenience to the people, and everything seemed to work nicely. Pretty soon, however, they found that they were paying higher freights than they ought, and they set about finding a remedy.

After a good deal of canvassing, it was decided to ask the people along the line of the proposed route to subscribe enough to grade, bridge and tie a narrow-gauge road from Rantoul to Le Roy, and to bond it for $4,000 per mile for the iron. This was done, and the men of Empire did the heavy end of the work by subscribing liberally to this undertaking. It is now built and in running order, and fulfilling the most sanguine expectations of its projectors.

For several years, the affairs of the school treasury have been in the hands of S. A. Moore, Esq., and his successor in office, Mr. E. E. Greenman.

From the last annual report, the following figures are taken : Number of districts, 11; whole number of children under twenty-one years, 1,132; number of children between six and twenty-one years, 748 ; whole number attending school, 544 ; average number of months' school, 73 ; leachers employed, 20 ; number graded school, 1 ; number brick schoolhouses, 2 ; value school property, $11,700; township fund, $7,612; paid teachers, $4,858 ; total amount paid for schools, $7,165.

Empire has a large number of men who are recognized as good farmers. Hiram Buck, J. H. L. Crumbaugh, A. Murray, Malon Bishop, J. A. Bishop, F. M. Crumbaugh, T. Ross, Jackson Oliver, and many others, have made the raising and feeding of cattle a specialty.