Dogwood, Illinois

In the western part of Crawford County stretches a prairie, which was called Oblong by the first settlers in that region, and this name was subsequently given to the township division within whose borders it was included. This township has an area of 56 square miles, lying in the middle of the western portion of the county, extending seven miles east and west and eight miles north and south. It is bounded on the north by Licking Township, on the east by Robinson, south by Martin and west by Jasper County. Muddy Creek, Big Creek, Willow and Dogwood Creeks, and North Fork are the water courses running through the township. In its wild state nearly half of the township was wooded, heavy timber bordering the creek, and now the land, which is very productive, is divided into farms. moderate sized. Lot Watts, who came from Tennessee to Illinois early in the '20s, first buying a tract of eighty acres in the vieinity of Robinson, made the first entry of land in the township, locating on Section 6 in 1830. He was the first Justice of the Peace in the township, and subsequently served as one of the County Judges. His death took place in 1854, and that of his brother, Robert Watts, who settled in the township in 1831, occurred in 1871. James Watts, Robert's son, was a venturesome hunter and trapper, and became known a daring backwoods fighter. He married a daughter of William Wilson and lived in a small cabin, devoting the latter part of his life to trapping, whereby he profited much. Together with Robert Watts, arrived Jeremiah and Jesse York, cousins, and later, in 1831, Jesse Eaton. In the humble dwelling of Jesse York, a very worthy and influential man and a devout Methodist, were held the first religious services in the township. Jesse Eaton lived a while on North Fork, moving then to the northeastern part of the township, which was his home until 1863. He was an Old School Baptist minister, and preached throughout the township. Ezekiel and Areh York developed good farms in the southern part of the township, clearing the ground in 1834. In the same year George Miller, a successful hunter and trapper, but a bully and frontier marauder, "squatted" on North Fork, where he died in 1863.

Passage source: ILLINOIS HISTORICAL CRAWFORD COUNTY, published 1909.

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 Oblong Township.