Toulon, Illinois

Toulon is the center of new associations. It borrows no propelling power from venerated antiquarian ism, since the spot where it stands was but yesterday wa^apt in solitary grandeur. Some western settlements are filled up with bankrupts who have fled from eastern credi tors, anxious only to ol)tain peace of mind and bread enough to eat; they are decayed and tem})est-tossed vessels, stripped of sjjars and rigging, but Toulon, however, always claimed large exemption from these. Its first settlers were iron-souled and true-hearted men. They came determined to plow their way through the wilderness and nuike unto themselves pleasant homes - and they succeeded. They had a mis- sion. and tbev iioLlv perforaied it. Thev did their work roiio-hlv. vet tliey did it for all time. There is a sort of romance in their historv that fascinates : there is a kind of rnstic simplicity connected witli them that is trnlv poetic. Behind them were the homes they had left. the waterfalls that danced to their childish mnsic. and the hills that echoed back their playfnl shonts. Before them was the wilderness, dark and oloomv, standino- in all its solemnity. Look from the little village of the past to the city of the present and see what a contrast it presents. It is set off with substantial dwellings, cultivated gardens and shaded streets. True to the progressive spirit of the age. its people have devoted themselves to the decoration of their homes. There are dry goods and millinery stores, grocery stores, clothing stores, hotels, drug stores, physicians, lawyers, hardware and tinning establishments, a woolen factory, carriage factory, printing houses, harness makers, wagon shops, lumber merchants, cabinet-makers, stonemasons and painters. There is a l)ank, school houses and five churches, a number of benevolent and literary societies, and not one saloon. Only a little over half a century ago the Indians of AValnut Grove, driven out by the patentees of their land, sought refuge in the groves round the present town and along Indian Creek in its vicinity. The name is taken from Toulon in Tennessee, which was suggested by Col. Henderson, and adopted. The population in 1880 was 967, but now estimated at about 1,100.

Passage source: Documents and Biography Pertaining to the Settlement and Progress of Stark County, Illinois : Containing an Authentic Summary of Records, Documents, Historical Works and Newspapers Relating to Indian History, Original Settlement, Organization and Politics ..., published 1887.

Prior, however, to this present name being applied, it was known to the pioneers as "Miller's Point." Harmon and Conrad Leek, who came to Indian creek in 1832 and who sold their lands south of Toulon to Col. Henderson in 1836, were undoubtedly the first white settlers in the neighborhood. Samuel Merrill came some time after Harmon Leek moved to Hennepin, and settled close by. In 1834 Minott Silliman moved to the neighborhood and resided here until 1836, when he opened the "Culbertson farm," just north. In the cabin which Miner erected there in 1833, be and Ephraim Barnett kept house in -July, 1^36. when the Henderson family moved on the Leek claim, a short distance south. In 1832. Harris TT. Miner erected a cabin not far from the Toulon depot; and it is further claimed for him and this section that here the beginnings of cultivation of lands in this township were made, although Minott Silliman. who came in 1843, does not state positively that any evidences of such improvement were observed by him. John Miller and Charlotte, his wife, of whom mention is made in the organic and other chapters, the original owners of Toulon, were the tirst permanent residents, and the onh' ones when the county was organized. In October. 1841. Benjamin Turner, his wife and her parents, the McAVilliams'. moved into the countv seat and erected the fii'st Iniilding to which the name " house " could be appropriately applied. Minott Silliman. the original owner of the land, built a cabin here as early as March 25, 1835, which, together with the land he sold to John Miller, who occupied both at the time the town was located, and deeded to the countv the orioinal site on the condition it should be made the '' shire town " or countv seat. At this time the location was caUed - Millers Point."

Passage source: Documents and Biography Pertaining to the Settlement and Progress of Stark County, Illinois : Containing an Authentic Summary of Records, Documents, Historical Works and Newspapers Relating to Indian History, Original Settlement, Organization and Politics ..., published 1887.

Toulon was surveyed by Carson Berfield in August, 1841, on a part of the southwest one-quarter of Section 19, Township 13, Range 6. The streets named thereon are Miller, Franklin, Washington and Henderson running one way, and Vine, Main and Jefferson tiie other, with twentv-feet alleys between the first named streets, titled Plum, Cherry and Grape alle\^s. The plat was acknowledged by Jonathan Hodgson and Wm. Ogle, commissioners, before John Miller, Probate Justice of the Peace, and recorded by Benjamin Turner, deputy Recorder. At til is time the evidences of the cornfields of the Indians were very ])lain, their fields ha^^ng extended along the plateau where is now the residence of Samuel Purge, south to the Rhodes farm and north to the C'ldbertson farm. Even in 1847 ou the Shallenberger homestead evidences of corn-fields and Indian burial-grounds still existed.

Passage source: Documents and Biography Pertaining to the Settlement and Progress of Stark County, Illinois : Containing an Authentic Summary of Records, Documents, Historical Works and Newspapers Relating to Indian History, Original Settlement, Organization and Politics ..., published 1887.

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 Toulon Township - it names this place 179 more 179 times.