Mercer County, Illinois - Chapter 16: Old Settlers Organizations, 1914

Many old settlers of the county assembled at Aledo on March 28, 1867, f°r tne purpose of taking preliminary steps for the formation of an old settlers' society. At this meeting John McKee served as chairman and Elisha Miles secretary. After appointing the necessary committees an adjournment was taken to the 6th of July, on which occasion Col. W. I. Nevius served as chairman and H. S. Senter as secretary. Addresses were delivered bv Elisha Miles, Ephraim Gilmore and Hopkins Boone. It was agreed that a residence of twenty years in the county should entitle a settler to the right of becoming a member. H. S. Senter, W. I. Nevius and Elisha Miles were appointed a committee to draft by-laws for the society. A committee of two from each township was then appointed to make out a list of all persons residing in their respective townships previous to the summer of 1847 and report at the next meeting. At the meeting of August 3d the by-laws submitted by the committee were acted on in detail and adopted. The committee to report the names of old settlers was given more time and an adjournment was taken to October. Apparently the committee did not respond, because no further account of their proceedings can be found. In March, 1869, when the railroad was completed to Aledo the old settlers made an excursion to Galva to celebrate the event.

The society seems to have died earlv in the '70s, or at least seems to have become inactive, because nothing further is heard of them until 1884 when they were called to meet at the office of J.'C. Pepper for the purposes of reorganization. L. H. Scudder served as chairman and H. G. Calhoun, secretary. It was provided that all persons who had lived in the countv twentv-five vears should be entitled to membership. A constitution and by-laws was adopted at this time and the following permanent officers were elected: President, L. H. Scudder; vice presidents, W. M. Carnahan, D. J. Noble, R. J. Cabeen, A. J. Streeter and T. B. Cabeen ; secretary, H. G. Calhoun; treasurer, D. M. Candor. At this meeting over fifty dollars was received in membership fees at $1 each. After this date the society remained in action for a few years and then again became defunct.

The society held meetings at New Boston, Joy, Aledo, Viola, New Windsor and Millersburg and they were generally largely attended. The meeting at New Boston was large and well attended and the citizens there arranged and entertained the people royally bv providing coffee and such things for them. There were two or three meetings of the society in Aledo and they were held in the grove in North Park. Among the speakers at different times were A. P. Petrie, Graham Lee, Hiram W. Thornton, Guy C. Scott, I. N. Bassett and others. At the meeting at Viola R. H. Spicer, Josiah Whitham and others were the speakers. At this meeting William Terry brought part of a suit of clothes he had worn in the very early settlement of the county. At New Windsor Joseph Mc- Coy, E. L. Larkin, John Geiger and others were the speakers. For the last two or three years of the society's existence, I. N. Bassett was president and E. L. Wolff was secretary. The interest in the meetings seemed to grow less and finally they were suspended altogether. The records of these meetings cannot be found. Mr. Wolff, who was the last secretary, being dead now, his family cannot find the records.