Griffin, Illinois

Berlin was laid out by Abner Arrasmith and Jacob Walker on September 10, 1836. It was located on the southeast quarter of the northwest quarter of section 24. In 1869 the name of the village was changed to Swedona and nearly the entire original plat has been vacated in recent years. In this village, as before stated, Asa Mc- Murtry was the first storekeeper and Willis Peckenpaw the second. It was located on the state road between Knoxville and Rock Island and became a thriving village, having at one time a population of about five hundred. The name Swedona was adopted under the following circumstances: There was another town of that name in the state, whereupon a meeting of the village trustees was held and it was decided to change the title. S. F. Fleharty suggested the name Laverne and Leander Chilberg suggested Swedonia. The latter seemed a little too long and was shortened to Swedona, which was finally adopted. Dimmick & Shaw were among the first settlers in the village. Peter Metzler also lived here. A tavern was erected on the south side of the village and had a large patronage from people passing on the road from the Wabash country to the United States land office. Mr. Dimmick owned much of the town and a large farm adjoining. N. M. Chilberg located in the village at an early date. Soon afterward many other Swedes arrived and soon the population was almost wholly Swedish. Mr. Chilberg conducted a shoe shop. The first church there was the American Methodist Episcopal and is still standing in the village. There is no doubt that had it not been for this church the Village of Berlin or Swedona would long ago have been wiped out of existence. Griffin Brothers established tile works on section 34 in the '70s. They soon had a large trade, securing their clay from banks in that vicinity. In the '50s Waugh & Ellis put up a new flour mill in this vicinity and operated it by steam. It was 40x84 feet, three stories high and had four run of stones. George Walker was the miller in charge. They were called the *Richland Grove Steam Mills. Waugh & Ellis at the same time conducted there a large general store, selling almost all articles kept usually for sale in all stores in the West. They also mined coal and sold it to those who wished to purchase. The store was kept in one part of the mill and was patronized heavily in 1858. In the early '6os Mrs. Collison was murdered in Richland Grove Township by John Volentine. The latter had been drinking heavily at a saloon and may not have known what he was doing. In any event, he was arrested, tried and acquitted.

Passage source: Past and Present of Mercer County, Illinois, published 1914.

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 Richland Grove Township.