Amboy, Illinois

This city is the oflspring of the Central railroad. In the early summer of 1851 the surveying parties under the chief engineer, Roswell B. Mason, took their several stations on the line and immediately began preliminary operations. T. B. Blackstone, whose name has been given to one of the streets in the original town, had charge of the squad emplo3'ed between Dixon and Bloomington. In December 1852 K. F. Booth, for several years afterward a resident of Amboy, came to this place at the head of a small party whose business was to direct the work on this part of the route. A company, distinct from the Illinois Central Railroad Company, but composed in part, if not wholly, of stockholders in the latter, purchased and owned the land for the village plats along the road. They bought the Lay farm for a depot and station two miles above here in the direction of Dixon, which was subsequently sold to a conductor named Cole. They gave out word that the company would erect machine shops at that point; a few loads of stone Were hauled there, and the place named Kepatau. If there was ever any real intention of making a station and building shops there it was of very brief duration. H. B. Judkins came down one day, and securing the company of a certain influential citizen, went to Farwell, and pretending to be a returned Californian, said he wanted to buy a stock-farm, and a bargain was forthwith made for the " Farwell slough farm," as old settlers had named it, for $13 per acre. John B. "Wyman, assistant superintendent of the road, hastened to buy out Cyrus Davis, and then Farwell was given to understand that if he had any wish to secure himself he should lose no time in doing it, and he accordingly purchased the farm from his son-in-law, Curtis Bridgman. The land company made a deed of trust to Messrs. Ketchum and Gray ; and Col. Mason, who was superintendent as well as chief engineer of road, acted as their attorney.

Passage source: History of Lee County, published 1881.

In June, 1853, Michael Egan was sent to this place to commence the mason work on the station buildings, and in the autumn of the same year D, S. Clark was put in charge of the carpenter work. Some time during the season Mr. Booth prepared the plans for the machine shops, and Mr. Egan laid the foundations and pushed the construction with his characteristic energy throughout the following winter. In the spring the walls of the passenger house were up and the building inclosed; in course of the summer both that and the freight house were completed, and before winter the machine shops were in a forward state of progress. Most of the other shops which the company now have were built in the following year, 1855.

Passage source: History of Lee County, published 1881.

The year 1854 was the natal year of Amboy. In January or February a Frenchman by tiie name of Meyer, under the directions of Col. Mason, came and laid out the town, completing his survey March 24. On July 26 the first bonds for deeds were executed, John L. Skinner was the first purchaser of lots. He paid $600 for the northeast corner lot on Main street and East avenue, now occupied by the Badger building. On this he began the erection of the Orient House in the fall of 1854; in September, 1855, it was completed, and opened to the public by the Lee brothers, who wei'e proprietors one year under lease. Charles W. Bell, who had been grading on the road nearly a year, in August, 1853, came here with his family and opened a boarding-house for railroad men in a mammoth, barn-like shanty belonging to the company, and which had been erected near the spot where tlie Baptist church stands. On January 21 this caught fire and burned down, but was immediately rebuilt by the company. When Mr. Bell settled in the place Cyrus Davis had moved away ; Appleton was on the homestead ; Farwell was about to move, or had just moved to his new purchase ; Alvan H. Thompson was living at his old home where Superintendent Jacobs resides; and a transient family occupied the Davis dwelling. These comprised the population of Amboy, which, by the way, was not yet surveyed and christened, except some railroad employes who could not at that time be regarded as settlers. Isaac Edwards, who graded seven miles of the railroad, settled temporarily south of the Inlet this year.

Passage source: History of Lee County, published 1881.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Amboy Township - it names this place 133 more 133 times.