Fithian, Illinois

After the first advent of Captain Blackman, and the building of a residence by Mr. Treat, in November, 1819, we find a Mr. Bailey on Stony Creek. This was probably the first man who settled on that creek. He came in 1821 or 1822, and opened a small piece of ground in the timber. This was in section 16, town 19 north, range 13 west. He sold out his interests to Mr. Harvey Ludington, late of Danville, Illinois. Mr. Ludington has been supposed by many to be the first settler on Stony Creek.

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.

Stony Creek was called for a long time Ludington's Branch. The next man in these parts was a Mr. Walker. He settled near the same place, but a little farther up the creek, near the present site of Muncie. He, too, left his name with us. That point of timber where he dwelt went by the name of Walker's Point. The exact date of his settlement we were unable to learn, but it was after the settlement by Mr. Ludington. The settlements along the Salt Fork, on the south side of the township, were early begun, and here we find the principal population for some time. The exact date of many of these settlements cannot now be ascertained, nor do we conceive it to be of very great importance. It is quite probable that the next family that came in here after those already mentioned was that of the man who built the old watermill on the Salt Fork where the present steam and water mill is located. This mill was in operation as early as 1826; how long it had been running previously we are not quite sure. At this date Mr. Nathaniel Mead traveled over the country, and the only inhabitants that he remembers were those at this mill, and John Vance, at the salt works. Mr. Mead is, perhaps, the oldest person living in Oakwood township who saw this country as early as 1826; in fact, we doubt whether another grown person was here in 1826 and is here now. At that time he was twenty-six years old, having been born in the gray dawn of the nineteenth century. He is from the land of "steady habits," having first seen the light of day seven miles from Hartford, Connecticut. He remained there till he was eighteen years old. His youthful days were spent in the dairy. On his western-bound trip he first stopped at Cincinnati. After a stay here we find him next in Union county, Indiana. Although he came here as early as 1826, "prospecting," he did not permanently locate his family in this county until 1835. At this time he bought land near the site of Conkeytown. Excepting a short stay in Covington, Indiana, he has remained in this township ever since. He has reared a family of children. His sons are well-to-do, important elements in societ}r, and he still lingers on the shores of time, two miles southwest of Oakwood station, enjoying the fruits of seventy-nine years' toil among the children of men. He remembers well the war of 1812, and the rejoicing at its close. During his recollection not only Oakwood township and Vermilion county have been developed from their native wildness to a populous, well-organized community, but industries have sprung up all over the nation. He was seven years old when Robert Fulton made that wonderful experiment on the Hudson ; when Lafayette made his wonderful passage through this country he had reached the age of full manhood; when the first car carried its load of stone from the Quincy quarries, he was verging on the period of middle-life; as Queen Victoria ascended the throne, he was growing old. If all the progress of art and science, which has been made within the memory of such men as he, was written in a book, the world could scarcely contain it. The progress in itself is not so startling as the fact that one man's experience has embraced it all.

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.

In the fall of 1828 (or '29, perhaps) John Cox came to the residence of Jesse Ventres's from Big Sandy, in Kentucky. He built a house within a short time where Swift's mill now stands. Mr. Cox lived in the neighborhood until his death in 1846 ; his sons William and Stephen reside in the vicinity of Oakwood Station, having been in the county more than fifty years. In 1829 William Craig entered the land on which he now lives, at Palestine, Illinois. At this time the land office was located there. In 1830 he came to the place to improve it ; he was a single man then, being about twenty-two years old. His brother came with him and they worked together. After one season of toil and hardship William concluded that it was too big a job for a single team, so he set out to find some susceptible damsel with whom he might link forces. According to his own account he found the search a tedious one, for it was not until 1836 that he led his blushing bride to the altar and beguiled her into a trip to the far west. The story of Mr. Craig's bridal tour has been so often told, and the particulars of his early settlement here have been so thoroughly bruited abroad, that it is not necessary to repeat them here. Suffice it to say that after a life of excessive toil and hardship, during which he has amassed a considerable quantity of property, Mr. Craig finds himself surrounded by his nine children, none of whom, in all probability, will ever realize the conditions from which their prosperity sprang, and himself still able to enjoy life and its blessings. These are the principal settlers of the township in the timber. A few of those already mentioned got out short distances from the timber. Mr. William Parris claims to be the first man that ventured out into the prairie in Oakwood township. He moved from the state road, where he had been since 1834, to the edge of the prairie northwest of Muncie, in 1842. He then went farther out and moved a house into the prairie where J. M. Havard now lives. This house was brought all the way from Salt Fork and put up where it still stands, in 1844 - thirty-five years ago. But this was only a short distance from the timber. At that time, even, large tracts of land lay unoccupied and almost unfrequented within the present limits of Oakwood township ; all the western part of the township was open and much of it afterward sold at very low figures : such as was denominated swamp land was sold as low as twelve and a half cents per acre. The first to settle in the prairie northwest of where the village of Fithian now is, was James H. Black. His residence was beyond the settlements entirely ; he was deemed crazy, almost. The first settlers had thought that if they secured the prairie adjoining the timber no one would ever go beyond them, and they would thus have perpetual range on the prairie. Mr. Black made his home where he now lives in 1856 ; here he bought two hundred and forty acres of land and improved it. At about this same time William M. Rutledge came to the prairie where he now lives, in the northwest corner of Oakwood township. He, too, has remained where his homeplace is for twenty-three years ; he owns just one half section here. He is a son of the early settler, A. W. Rutledge, who located southeast of New Town in 1832. These pioneers of the prairie have enjoyed a remarkable degree of good luck. They bought their land for a trifle ; they were not under the necessity of clearing it before they could cultivate. They were not compelled to fence for some time, and all they required to become independent was a determination to stay right there. Their land has increased in value more than tenfold in many cases, and what could have been bought for a few hundreds then is worth as many thousands now.

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 Oakwood Township - it names this place 15 more 15 times.