Osco, Illinois

The town of Osco was originally known by the governmental description of Town 16, North Range 26 East of the 4th P. M., and is situated west of the center of the county. It is almost exclusively prairie land, less than one per cent, of its surface being originally covered with timber. Its surface is beautifully undulating with just sufficient declination to make perfect drainage, and with no level, wet or marshy areas to mar its beauty or excellence. The soil is a rich, black alluvium of marvelous fertility, and varying from eighteen inches to two feet in depth. In the early days of its settlement it was noted for the luxuriance of the grass and other vegetation which grew upon its broad prairies.

Passage source: History of Henry County, Illinois : It's Taxpayers and Voters; Containing Also, a Biographical Directory, a Condensed History of the State; Map of the County; a Business Directory...etc, published 1877.

Owing to the prevailing opinion among the early settlers that the open prairies were uninhabitable on account of the severe winds which then prevailed, the excessive cold of the winters, and the distance from timber (whicJi was then the only fuel), the area which now comprises the town received but little attention. Thriving settlements had sprung-up in various parts of the county, in the vicinity of streams and timber, but Osco remained unsettled, an uninviting, treeless plain. The first settlement within the limits of the town was made by Israel Crocker, on the north half of Section 3, at a place which was known in those days as Crocker's Grove. Here, according to the traditions of the early settlers, the elder Crocker located in the year 1838, and built a house of considerable size (which is. now standing), and inclosed with a sod fence about 160 acres of land, and imported and placed on his farm a large flock of sheep, out of which he intended to amass a fortune. Ill success attended the venture, and after eight or ten years struggling with bad luck with his sheep, and poor health in his family, he finally succumbed to adverse circumstances and sold out to Ben Graham, who continued the business so inauspicously begun by Mr. Crocker, with about the same results. After the settlement of Mr. Crocker in 1838, no further attempt was made until the year 1851, a lapse of thirteen years. In May of that year, Albert Melton moved upon the Crocker Grove farm, which had been purchased by F. P. Brown ; in June, Willis Hinman settled in the south part of the township, and was soon followed by S. C. Welton and Benjamin Manning, Philip Emmert and John Weedlem. The next year came Francis Gerard and Hiram Woodward, followed soon after by A. A. and E. M. Crane, Jared H. Smith, Lester C. Welton, and others, who have, in the short space of twenty-five years, transformed the wild and uninhabitable prairie into a rich agricultural settlement, with not one acre of uninclosed land within its limits.

Passage source: History of Henry County, Illinois : It's Taxpayers and Voters; Containing Also, a Biographical Directory, a Condensed History of the State; Map of the County; a Business Directory...etc, published 1877.

This village was laid out on Nov. 30, and Dec. 1, 2, 3, 1870, by Patterson, Holmes County Surveyor, on the S. E. N. E. Sec. 29 - 40 acres, then owned by Orion E. Page, who caused the same to be done. It originally contained 11 blocks laid off into 183 lots. The streets leading east and west as named from north to south, are North Street, North R. R. Street, Market Street and South R. R. Street, and two avenues, leading north and south ; the west one is called Lincoln Avenue, and the other in the eastern part Washington Avenue. The first house was built in July, 1871, by G. P. Woodworth and Samuel Smith, the next by D. L. Purviance the same year. It now contains twelve dwellings, eight business houses and a blacksmith shop. There are about 80,000 bushels of corn and 90 to 100 cars of stock shipped annually from this place.

Passage source: History of Henry County, Illinois : It's Taxpayers and Voters; Containing Also, a Biographical Directory, a Condensed History of the State; Map of the County; a Business Directory...etc, published 1877.

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 Osco Township - it names this place 8 more 8 times.