Dement-Zinser House

The first settler in Washington township was William Holland, Sen., a native of North Carolina, and who emigrated from that State, and settled in Edwardsville, Madison county. 111., in 1815. He remained there for three years, when he removed to Sangamon Co., and after two years residence there moved to Peoria, then Fort Clark, in the spring of 1820. He crossed the river to the flats, now Fond du Lac township, and occupied an old shanty. Here he raised a crop during the summer of the same year. He cut logs, which he hauled across the river and erected a double log cabin. This was the second dwelling built in Peoria. Prior to his settling in Peoria, and during his residence in Sangamon, he was employed by a man named Cramer, who had contracts with the Government to do blacksmithing for the Indians. But completing the erection of his abode, he, himself, formed negotiations with the Government, and commenced at his trade, blacksmithing. In the spring of 1825, he came to this township, and built a log house on section 23, and on the present site of A. G. Danforth's residence. Here the family were surrounded by a dense wilderness, and were the only white occupants of this township until 1826. Holland commenced improving a farm on sec. 24, town 26, range 3, just east of the town of Washington, and embracing a part of the Holland, Dorsey, Walthan and Robinson addition to the town. His nearest neighbors were located on Farm creek, three miles east of Peoria, where the first settlement was made in this section. Amono' them were Wm. Blanchard, Elza Bethard, Jack Phillips, and his son William, Austin and Horace Crocker, and Thomas Camlin, whose cabin was located nearest Holland's Gove. There are others, the exact data of whose coming seems quite impossible to determine. In 1824 Jacob Wilson, Sr., Joshua Walker, Thomas Banks, and Elisha Green, all settled on Farm creek. Cyrus J. Gibson followed in 1830, and Thomas Trimble, whose sons are now prominent among the residents of Washington City, settled there in 1834. William Thompson, a native of Indiana, came in 1826, and settled on the farm now occupied by John Johnson and made some improvements. The same year William Weeks came from Indiana, and settled on the present estate of Peter Portman, where he erected a rude habitation, which has since given place to the fine residence of its owner. In the fall of the same year, John Redman, also from Indiana, settled near the farm of 'Squire Baker.

Passage source: History of Tazewell County, Illinois ; Together with Sketches of Its Cities, Villages and Townships, Educational, Religious, Civil, Military, and Political History; Portraits of Prominent Persons and Biographies of Representative Citizens. History of Illinois ... Digest of State Laws, published 1879.

With the coming of the spring and summer months of 1833, there came a general rush of immigrants, and ere the first snows of winter fell, the whole of the timbered sections of the township were nterspersed with cal)ins and settlers. A large ])ortion of the lands bearing timber, and the smaller groves, were claimed, if not occupied, while the prairie, for most part, was left untouched and unsought. The })rairie land was regarded as Avorthless for purposes of agriculture, and considered a useless waste. There were hundreds of men w^ho believed it would never be occupied. If any of the settlers at that time had located on the prairie he would have been regarded as extremely visionary, if not absolutely crazy. Of those whose names appear among the early pilgrims, many removed from the township ere many years had flown ; others followed from year to year, in other localities; others have passed to the Shining Shore of the Beautiful River, while many others still remain in the enjoyment of the homes of their industry, endurance, and enterprise ; fashioned and founded in the beautiful lands of Washington. The surroundings of piom^er life arc well calculated to test the true inwardness of the human heart, and the trials, sufferings, and endurance, incident to the founding and building of homes, unite them in the strongest and deepest feelings of friendship, that grows and strengthens with their years. Raven locks may bk'ach and whiten ; full round cheeks wither and waste away ; the fires of intelligence vanish from the organs of vision ; the brow become wrinkled with care and age, and the erect form bowed with accumulating years, but the true friends of long ago will be remembered as long as life and reason endure.

Passage source: History of Tazewell County, Illinois ; Together with Sketches of Its Cities, Villages and Townships, Educational, Religious, Civil, Military, and Political History; Portraits of Prominent Persons and Biographies of Representative Citizens. History of Illinois ... Digest of State Laws, 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 Washington Township - 20,168 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.