Downey Building

The early settlers of this part of the county, well remember the days of Abraham Lincola, David Davis, and others of like prominence, when on their horseback journeys to and from the various courts in the interior part of the state. When going from Springfield to Bloomington, these ' two named almost always stopped at the house of Samuel Hoblit, one of the earliest residents in this part of the county, which at that time and until 1845 was a portion of DeWitt County. At this date, Pekin was the chief market. Springfield was the first post-office for this locality ; afterward, Bloomington or Pekin, and almost co temporary the small town of Waynesville in DeWitt County, one of the oldest in this part of the state. ^ A demand for a nearer market and better shipping facilities was being felt, * and to aid in the hope for the fulfillment of these wants,, the survey of the Chicago & Alton Railroad was mttde. This road gave activity to these desires, and no sooner was the survey fixed than the location of a town in this section of the country was agitated. The town of M t. Hope, a few miles northeast of the site of Atlanta, was staked out, but being off the railroad was abandoned. It is now the farm of Marion McCormick. New Castle, to the southeast, l^ad become quite a village, but, for the same reason, was abandoned on the survey of Atlanta, and became incorporated therein, the majority of its residents moving to the new toWn. The Baptists had built a house of worship there, and some trade was established at this, date - 1853, Early in this year, R. T. Gill, then a resident of Pekin, entered the land on which the city of Atlanta now stands, at one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre. It was then assessed at twelve hundred dollars. The assessed value now is nearly a half million. On the 23d of June, he offered the lots At public auction, and by a liberal policy secured a large sale, and before the close of the season, fifteen or twenty buildings were ready for occupancy. The first of these was built , by R. T. Gill, and occupied the present site of a meat market, near the corner of Vine and Railroad streets. The freight house was erected by the railroad company about the same time, and shortly after a passenger dep5t.

Passage source: History of Logan County, Illinois : Its Past and Present .., published 1878.

When the town was surveyed, it received the name of Xenia. This name was suggested by Mrs. James Downey, in remembrance of her former home in Xenia, Ohio, ^n application for a post-office, it was ascertained that an office by that name already existed in the state, and the founders of the town changed it to Hamilton, in honor of Col. L. D. Hamilton. Applying the second time for a post-office, they met with the same difficulty, and to avoid having a town and post-office of different names, a third name was chosen. Mr. R. T. Gill had some time previously spent a portion of a year in Atlanta, Georgia, and remembering the beauty of that city, suggested that name. As no post-oMce of that name existed in Illinois, that appellation was adopted. Several persons yet hold deeds of lots in the town of Xenia.

Passage source: History of Logan County, Illinois : Its Past and Present .., published 1878.

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 Atlanta Township - 55,399 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.