Paris, Illinois

Next follows a certifiate of Samuel Vance, Justice of the Peace for Edgar County, showing an acknowledgment of the County Commissioners that it is the town plat of Paris, and also a certificate from Jonathan Mayo, Recorder, testifying that the plat was then admitted to record. From the report of the Commissioners appointed by the General Assembly (John Huston and John Boyd), to locate the " seat of justice of Edgar County," we make the following extract as bearing on the early history of the place : * * * * " Twenty - six acres, the property of Samuel Vance, being the north west quarter of Section 1, Town 13 north, Range 12 west. And we do further report, in the discharge of the duty aforesaid, declare and make known to all persons to whom these presents shall come, that the said county seat, or seat of justice, shall, from and after this day, be styled and known by the name of Paris. And we further certify that Samuel Vance, the proprietor of the land, whereon the said county seat is located, gave as a donation to the county aforesaid the quantity of 26 acres of land for the use of said county, for which he has executed his bond to the said county, which is herewith inclosed and made a part of our report." This report is dated April 21, 1823, and the bond of Vance follows in the records, in the sum of $10,000, with Smith Shaw and William Lowry as sureties, the object of which was that he should execute " a good and sufficient deed in fee simple (for the land donated) to the county of Edgar, on or before the 15th day of April, 1825.

Passage source: The History of Edgar County, Illinois, Containing a History of the County--its Cities, Towns, &c. : Directory of Its Tax-payers; War Records of Its Volunteers in the Late Rebellion Portraits of Early Settlers and Prominent Men; General and Local Statistics; Map of Edgar County; History of Illinois, Illustrated; History of the Northwest, Illustrated; Constitution of the United States, Miscellaneous Matters, &c., &c. Illustrated, published 1879.

When the county seat was located, this section was all a wilderness, and very far from being the beautiful town it is to-day. Until 1834, we were informed that the public square was a brush-thicket, and the town was desig¬ nated by a board nailed to a tree, upon which was painted the name Paris. A good deal of strife and hard feelings had been engendered by the different sec¬ tions of the county; for, as is the usual custom in such cases, every neighbor¬ hood wanted the county seat in its midst, and every settler wanted the Court House at his door. The North Arm settlement made vigorous fight for it, and had laid out a town, which they had given the high-sounding name of Cam¬ bridge City, in expectation of getting the seat of justice there. The act for the formation of the county provided that as much as twenty-six acres of land must be donated by the people for the purpose of defraying the expense of put¬ ting up the public buildings. Cambridge City, or the eastern part of the county, we are told, offered a hundred acres for the purpose, which prompted Mr. Vance to come to the front with his offer of the quantity required by law. This spot being nearest the center of the county of any containing timber, the Com¬ missioners at once accepted the offer of Vance's donation, and the town of Paris was located beyond peradventure.

Passage source: The History of Edgar County, Illinois, Containing a History of the County--its Cities, Towns, &c. : Directory of Its Tax-payers; War Records of Its Volunteers in the Late Rebellion Portraits of Early Settlers and Prominent Men; General and Local Statistics; Map of Edgar County; History of Illinois, Illustrated; History of the Northwest, Illustrated; Constitution of the United States, Miscellaneous Matters, &c., &c. Illustrated, published 1879.

The first addition made to the town of Paris after its first laying-out, as shown by the records, was made in April, 1829, by Mr. Vance, who gave the original site. This addition consisted of " twenty-two lots, streets and alleys on the south side." Some time after this, an addition was made by Jonathan Mayo; then another by William B. Vance. After "this, J. B. Crawford made an addition to it ; and then Leander Munsell. After these, Sheriff, McGee, Link, Alexander, Connelly and some forty others, more or less, have added to the little city, and it now covers a considerable quantity of ground. The first house built in the present limits of the city of Paris was built by Samuel Vance, some time before the laying-out of the town, and not, we believe, included in the original plat, but is at the present day. The firgt house put up after the laying-out of the place, of which we have any account, was built by M. K. Alexander for a storehouse. It stood on the lot where Dr. Tenbroeck's resi¬ dence now stands, on Central avenue, then called Main street. It was built of logs and hauled to the spot by Washington Alexander, who says that the mud along Court street was knee-deep to his oxen at the time he did the hauling. Alexander built a residence adjoining his store, immediately after completing the latter, as Paris at the time contained no rooms " to let ; " and it was a case similar to the boy and the woodchuck - " he had to." The records of the County Commissioners' Court show that the first merchant's license issued in the county was to M. K. Alexander, and would seem to imply that he was the first recognized merchant in the county. A man named John Fugate was one of the early merchants of Paris ; but we have been unable to learn anything of him beyond the mere fact that he kept a store. The next license was issued to James Jones & Co. ; and the next to Opp & Crider. These, the records state, " received license to sell goods at retail, for which they each paid the sum of $20 into the county treasury." Licenses were also granted soon after to T. Smith J. W. Riley, J. M. Archer, Sanford & King, and S. Miller, with many others. In 1832, says Eli Wiley, Esq., Leander Munsell moved to Paris and opened a store at the southeast corner of the public square. James Whit¬ ney, then quite a young man, came to Paris with Munsell. He is, doubtless, remembered by many as Sheriff of the county, and who died with cholera while holding that office.

Passage source: The History of Edgar County, Illinois, Containing a History of the County--its Cities, Towns, &c. : Directory of Its Tax-payers; War Records of Its Volunteers in the Late Rebellion Portraits of Early Settlers and Prominent Men; General and Local Statistics; Map of Edgar County; History of Illinois, Illustrated; History of the Northwest, Illustrated; Constitution of the United States, Miscellaneous Matters, &c., &c. Illustrated, 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 Paris Township - it names this place 27 more 27 times.