Ellis, Illinois

The hamlet which has been so long known by the name of Blue Grass, or " Blue Grass City," as some ambitious ones chose to call it, received its name naturally enough from its surroundings, as has been already explained. After the county road - or state road, as it wTas called - came into general travel, and Owens had got his tavern into running order, the people began to want a post-office and store. The post-office was established in 1843, and John Carter appointed postmaster, a position which he retained until Archi McCormick commenced keeping store, about 1845, when he was appointed. Five years later he sold to John Bodly. Bodly continued in business some years and was quite prosperous, and sold to Wilson, and he to Thomas Owens, the post-office following these changes. Edmund Hartwell, who did not believe in doing anything by halves, built the mammoth store now standing there, dark, "gloomy and worthless," 30 x65, two stories high, which he occupied for store, carrying a large stock of general merchandise, the upper story being rented to the Masonic order, which had a thriving lodge there in those days. This was the only post-office in the northwestern part of the county, and it was no uncommon thing to see a hundred persons there for their mail at times. In 1859 John Carter and George Small laid out and platted a " town." It consisted of two blocks, one on either side of the county road. Hartwell, Scott & McDaniels, Groves & Brother, Henderson & Lee and Davis & Hall, successively sold goods there. During and after the close of the war these parties who were engaged in trade sold $25,01 >0 worth a year. Now the shutters are up on the big store, and no one would take it rent free. Berry Ellis started a blacksmith shop about 1845. The La Fayette Oil Mill Company built a flax warehouse there, and for some years Hartwell run that and did a thriving business. After the railroad was built it was moved to Rankin. The only business carried on there now is the two blacksmith shops by Wilson and Artrun, a little grocery and notion store, and the post-office now kept by Mr. Butler. "Killed by the railroads," is the epitaph that might be written over Blue Grass City.

Passage source: History of Vermilion County, Together with Historic Notes on the Northwest, Gleaned from Early Authors, Old Maps and Manuscripts, Private and Official Correspondence, and Other Authentic, Though, for the Most Part, Out-of-the-way Sources, published 1879.

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 Middlefork Township - it names this place 1 more 1 time.